Edward and Lucille Kemp

Edward and Lucille Kemp Family Endowed Scholarship

The Kemp family and DePaul University have been intertwined since the 1930’s. It began when Lucille Osko attended DePaul as a part-time student taking accounting courses from September 1937 to June 1939. It is notable that Lucille went into a field that, at the time, was predominately male. This was at the height of the Great Depression, and circumstances required her to stop her coursework to better help with family finances. Our family knew she always regretted she was never able to continue her education.

In the 1940s, Lucille married Edward Kemp and began raising their family. As their three sons grew, the importance of a college degree was deeply ingrained in them. The two eldest went to DePaul in large part due to Lucille’s high respect for the institution. They both earned their undergraduate and graduate degrees in business from the Driehaus College of Business and Kellstadt Graduate School. Following her sons, four of their grandchildren attended and graduated from DePaul. As of today, the Kemp family has earned 11 degrees from DePaul, three from the Driehaus College of Business and three from the Kellstadt Graduate School.

Lucille’s experience left her with a life-long question of what could have been. She understood the difficulty of pursuing an education as a part-time student and facing financial demands. Lucille passed away in 2000, and Edward shortly thereafter in 2003. As a result, the Edward and Lucille Kemp Endowed Scholarship was established to assist part-time undergraduate students in the Driehaus College of Business.

It is the hope of the Kemp family that this scholarship fund continues to grow and assist more and more students. This scholarship may be the only one directed exclusively to benefit part-time students in the Driehaus College of Business.