A Shelby Township, Michigan couple who has spent so much of their lives serving and giving to others has cemented their legacy through a new endowment at OUWB.

The Thomas and Christine Dearlove Endowment Scholarship has been established by the couple behind OUWB’s largest donor gift since its founding in 2011.

The endowment is set to provide three full-ride scholarships to OUWB medical students every four years, in perpetuity.

The Dearloves say they view it as both an extension of their commitment to philanthropy and a way to support medical students who train at what they call a “wonderful place.” They hope it inspires others to give similarly.

“My greatest hope with this is that people who have been able to benefit from it will lead a life where they will do the same kind of thing, and it just keeps growing,” says Christine. “That is what’s most important.”

Claus Weimann, senior director, Philanthropy, OUWB, calls the generous donation a symbol of the respect and love that the couple has for each other and towards the communities they touch.

“In its very young philanthropic history, this is OUWB’s most impactful donor-funded scholarship donation,” he says. “My great hope is that the students who are benefiting from this will find value not only in the monetary benefits, but also in understanding what the Dearloves stand for and their intentions to give back.”

“The Dearloves make you believe in goodness,” he adds.

‘The way we were brought up’

Thomas Dearlove, Ph.D., grew up in the Syracuse, New York area. Christine Dearlove also grew up in the Syracuse area before her family relocated to Pulaski, New York, which is where she met Thomas one summer.

Following high school, Thomas went to Norwich University in Vermont, the oldest private and senior military school in the U.S. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.

Afterwards, he deferred his two-year U.S. Army appointment to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry.

With this background, the Army assigned Thomas to a laboratory in Washington, D.C., where he worked with adhesives and coatings, epoxy resin materials, and polymers.

With Thomas focused on academia and his military duties, Christine centered her attention on others: She worked with children who were blind and autistic and later, teens who were considered delinquent.

In 1969, with Thomas’s commitment to the Army concluded, the couple moved to Michigan. Thomas had landed a job at General Motors. He worked with materials designed to replace steel in vehicles. He retired in the early 2000s.

“We originally were going to stay for a couple of years because I didn’t know how well I would do in an automotive environment as a chemist,” says Thomas. “But I liked it, they liked what I did…it ended up stretching out to 35 years.”

Meanwhile, Christine worked at a dentist office but quickly found her true calling was giving back to the community.

“We had been in Michigan a month or two when I wrote my grandmother a letter,” says Christine. “She loved my letter but wanted to know what I was doing for the community.”

She says her family strongly believed in “get out there and do for those that give back to people.”

“That’s the way we were brought up,” she adds.

The Dearloves instilled themselves as pillars of the community: garden club; volunteering at schools; helping other children in need whenever possible. When Christine volunteered at Beaumont Hospital, Troy, it would turn out to be for more than 30 years. Thomas often could be found helping with the hospital gardens.

Christine also was one of the founders of the Troy Newcomers, which continues to this day and provided her introduction to Oakland University. One project the group embraced was going to different buildings around campus and ensuring the flowers were nice and fresh.

“That was my introduction to the campus,” she says.

Oakland University would increasingly become part of the Dearlove’s world as they heard positive things from close friends and acquaintances about the school.

“I never hesitate to recommend OU to anyone,” says Christine. “I’ve seen the success of my friends, the attitude of everyone from OU you encounter…it’s just encouraging.”

The Dearloves were among the first to support student scholarships at OUWB.

‘A good place to put our money’

As a volunteer, Christine had many opportunities to sit in on lectures and seminars. One that she happened to take her husband to featured Robert Folberg, M.D., founding dean, OUWB.

It was spring of 2011, just months before the school would welcome its first class. Thomas says Folberg indicated the school sought to create scholarships for its students. The Dearloves made the first of what turned out to be several gifts to the school.

“We both agreed right from the start that OUWB is a good place to put our money,” says Christine. “We’ve been blessed with enough good fortune, and didn’t want to waste it. Let’s help people who have worked hard enough to be accepted into the school, but maybe need financial help for various reasons.”

Subsequent encounters they’ve had with others from OUWB further strengthened their resolve to support the school.

For example, the Dearloves say they were impressed after meeting Duane Mezwa, M.D., retired Stephan Sharf Dean, OUWB, and witnessing several students greeting and interacting with him. They say they liked how there weren’t any “formal barriers” between the school’s top administrator and the students.

Separately, the Dearloves were able to meet the first OUWB student to receive a full-ride scholarship that they funded and called him a “delight.” The experience also provided them with valuable insight into how OUWB awards such scholarships.

The Dearloves also say they’ve been impressed by OUWB students they’ve engaged with in clinical settings.

“A good many of the years I volunteered at Beaumont (now Corewell) I was on the cancer floor, and I would run into people who impressed me,” says Christine. “You ask them where they were from, where they had been trained, and I kept hearing OUWB. You can’t help but be impressed.”

The biggest impression, however, happened a few years ago. That’s when Thomas needed intensive treatment for cancer over several months. OUWB medical students helped the Dearloves through it.

“I had 35 radiation treatments in seven weeks and throughout it all I would see OUWB medical students, and they were always so positive,” says Thomas.

The couple says they wanted to “pay back” those who helped them through the process.

“That included the future doctors, the medical students,” he says. “We want to try and help them get in a position to help other people like me who they will be taking care of in the future.”

They decided on a new endowment, and both say it came down to one relatively simple idea: Doing what they think is right and hopefully inspiring others to do the same.

“I can’t come up with an adjective to describe that when you are long gone, something has been invested in people you will never know,” says Christine. “Hopefully, they will remember (an endowment) helped them out, and they, too, will pay it forward.”

Thomas agrees and says the notion of inspiring others is why they want to share the story of the legacy they’ve established at OUWB.

“If people get into a position where they’re maybe thinking about donating for a scholarship or starting an endowment, maybe a story like ours will be a tipping point,” he says.  OUWB

If you are interested in creating a scholarship, please contact Claus Weimann, senior director, Philanthropy, OUWB at [email protected].

For more information, contact Andrew Dietderich, senior marketing specialist, OUWB, at [email protected].

To request an interview, visit the OUWB Communications & Marketing webpage.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.