When Jeff Greenblum, B.A. ’74, left his hometown of Laredo to study accounting at The University of Texas at Austin, he sought more than just an education. He wanted to create a path that others could follow.
To this end, he established the Jeffrey L. Greenblum Foundation, which has made its first major gift in his memory. The Jeffrey L. Greenblum Endowed Scholarship is a Texas Challenge scholarship. The Texas Challenge provides 1:1 matches for gifts of $125,000 or more designated to create an endowed scholarship. The Jeffrey L. Greenblum Endowed Scholarship, which provides multi-year support for UT undergraduates from the Laredo region, was doubled thanks to the Texas Challenge.
From Laredo to Austin
Jeff was always a hard worker. As a student, he washed dishes at the Castilian dormitory and worked at the Texas Capitol to help pay for living expenses and to buy gifts for his younger siblings back home.
“I remember when Jeff came home for Christmas break, he would bring gifts. One year, when I was about 8 years old, I got a UT football jersey,” says his younger brother, Robbie Greenblum, B.A. ’85, “which made a big impression back then. Jeff was deeply connected to both UT and Laredo — he returned to Laredo regularly to be with family, friends and work summer jobs.”
In Laredo, Jeff worked in his family’s furniture business, which operated across the border in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. “We grew up constantly thinking and speaking in two languages and converting pesos to dollars in our heads,” Robbie says. “We had to understand two cultures and two systems of government.”
The experience helped Jeff learn the practical ins and outs of international business and shaped his later professional interests. Highlights of Jeff’s distinguished career include his service as a presidential appointee under President George H.W. Bush, as director of the Office of Africa at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and as a senior executive in the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management at the Department of Energy.
Backing Bright Futures
Throughout Jeff’s life, UT and Laredo remained important to him. Robbie, a co-trustee of Jeff’s foundation, says the Jeffrey L.Greenblum Endowed Scholarship reflects his brother’s deep sense of responsibility to Laredo.
“I’m grateful that my brother had the depth of feeling for others and to set aside part of the money he earned during his lifetime to be dedicated to helping people,” he says. “We grew up with people who were incredibly smart and highly qualified to go to UT but just couldn’t afford it. The scholarship is about helping students who are ready to succeed but just need a little more financial support.”
The foundation’s leaders hope the Jeffrey L. Greenblum Endowed Scholarship will encourage students from the Laredo area to see UT as a place where they belong and can thrive, just as the Greenblums did, and to recognize the strengths and skills they’ve developed growing up in a border town. Robbie encourages Laredo students to embrace the opportunity.
“Take the skills you’ve developed in Laredo and apply them wherever and however you want,” he says. “Let your intellectual curiosities and professional dreams be realized at UT.”
