David A. Bush family establishes memorial fund for study abroad

Former Grand Island attorney and Hall County Judge David A. Bush will be memorialized through the David A. Bush Family Award for Study Abroad. The fund will support education abroad experiences for students at his alma mater, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

His family made a $25,000 gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation to establish the permanently endowed fund. Annual income from it will be awarded by the College of Arts and Sciences as travel stipends to help students who wish to study abroad in Latin American countries.

"Our students here at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are frequently paying their own way through college, working jobs alongside their studies," said Priscilla Hayden-Roy, professor of German and interim chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at UNL. "For many of them, taking time away from their jobs and shouldering the additional cost of education abroad is simply impossible. The David A. Bush Family Award for Study Abroad will make a difference for these students."

The Bush family has a deep connection to UNL. David, his wife, Dori, and their two sons, Matthew and Tyler, all have undergraduate degrees from UNL. Dori also worked with UNL's Office of University Housing for many years, including five years as a residence hall director, and David continued his education at UNL, receiving a juris doctor degree in 1974.

The Bushes understand firsthand the benefits students gain when studying abroad because their son, Matthew, who graduated in 2000 with a Spanish major, studied in Mexico. He is an associate professor of Spanish at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tyler is a pathologist assistant at Pathology Medical Services in Lincoln.

About establishing the memorial fund, Dori said: "It was an emotional experience to know that we will have an impact on many students down the road. I happen to think it's a whole lot better to give than to take for yourself."

Originally from New Jersey, David was the first person in his family to attend college. He received a bachelor of arts degree in psychology with a minor in Latin American history in 1971 and married Dori the same year. The two lived in Lincoln while he attended the NU College of Law.

After graduating, he was admitted to the Nebraska Bar Association in 1974 and worked for Central Telephone and Utility Corporation, the city attorney's office in Lincoln and then the law firm of Kay and Satterfield in North Platte before becoming an associate in the Grand Island law firm of Cronin, Shamberg and Wolf in 1980. He was a partner in the firm before being appointed as judge in Hall County in 1987, a position he held until retiring in 2011 due to illness.

David loved history, going on motorcycle excursions with his nephew and friends and sampling fine whiskeys with his sons and friends. He was an avid skeet shooter, motorcyclist and member of the United Congregational Church in Grand Island. He died in 2014 at the age of 65.