Paying It Forward

Mary Roggeman was a self-made woman in a man’s world. With grit, savvy and determination, she succeeded in banking from her first days at the First National Bank of Marshall until her death in 1981.

She never got the opportunity to go to college, but she and her husband Gus wanted to help make sure future women would. “Woman wasn’t created inferior to man,” explained Gus in 1982. “I don’t see why one isn’t entitled to everything the other is.” Mary left $200,000 from her estate to CSB – at the time, our largest unrestricted gift ever. That created the endowed Mary M. Roggeman Scholarship that Ellen Bartyzal ’18 receives right now. Ellen is a communication major who, with grit, savvy and determination, is about to graduate a semester early, in December. She’s packed a lot of experience into a short time at CSB. She sang in the choir, wrote and edited The Record, interned at Minnesota Public Radio and spent a semester in Galway, Ireland. Next up? A year off to work before enrolling in graduate school for a master’s degree in counseling psychology. “It means so much to me to know that there is a woman out there – even though she’s gone, who believes in my potential as a Bennie, but also as an educated woman,” says Ellen. “I hope I can pay it forward one day.”