OMAHA – Creighton University has announced a $10 million scholarship gift that will be used to financially support a wide range of students, regardless of study discipline or program area.
Creighton officials described the gift as one of the largest ever made to support “unrestricted” scholarships, which are not limited to a specific field or income level.
The funds are from the estates of alumnus Dr. Elno Zikmund and his wife, Tillie. He died in 2022, and she passed away the following year.
They expand the Elno T. and Mathilda M. Zikmund Endowed Scholarship, which was established in 2010. Its 80 recipients so far represent a wide range of professions, from aspiring physicians to accountants and ministers.
“With the wide-ranging support of the Zikmund Scholarship, students from many different fields are taking Creighton’s values into their communities, just as Dr. Zikmund did,” said Creighton President Rev. Daniel Hendrickson.
The family’s gift builds on a university legacy that began nearly 90 years ago when Elno Zikmund’s mother, Omaha nurse Hattie Zikmund, paid for her son’s Creighton education, according to the statement. Though Zikmund went on to earn his medical degree elsewhere, he credits his time at Creighton with his personal development and professional success.
After serving in the United States Navy during WWII, Zikmund practiced medicine in Central City. He retired at age 65 and relocated to Omaha. Zikmund and his first wife, Janaan Zikmund (who died in 1962), had four sons.
Admirers noticed a framed copy of Max Ehrmann’s poem “Desiderata” hanging in Zikmund’s medical office. They said he lived by the following words:
“Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.”