photograph courtesy dreamstime / calvin l. leake
When University of Memphis president Bill Hardgrave says that Burton Weil is a trailblazer, he’s not exaggerating.
Weil, an 82-year-old Memphis native, has made plenty of money in his life. As he contemplated retirement, he wondered what he could do with his wealth beyond his own security and that of his family. It’s easy enough to give away riches, but he wanted his choices to have meaning.
Earlier this year, he announced his decision, and it was unusual and spectacular — especially if you’re an accomplished student.
photograph by greg campbell
The Burton Weil Family Foundation will provide full scholarships to high-achieving students at the University of Memphis and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Weil hopes the institutions and city will also reap the good from putting these students through school.
The particulars: In the first year (the 2024-2025 academic year, beginning this month), 24 incoming first-year undergraduates, another 20 graduate students, four law students, and four medical students will receive the full scholarships. The funding covers tuition and fees through the courses of study. The plan is for a new cohort of students each year, building up a formidable group who will go out and change Memphis, if not the world.
Not bad for a businessman who had a bit of trouble getting his own career started. Ask Weil about his past, and he acknowledges that he was only a “little better than average” at Christian Brothers High School. He went to Vanderbilt, then transferred to the University of Tennessee and earned a business degree, but didn’t quite know what to do next. Someone suggested he try accounting, so he enrolled in then-Memphis State University’s MBA program.
Weil figured he’d take the CPA exam but didn’t expect to pass. To his surprise, pass he did, but he then decided to go to law school at Vanderbilt. After graduation, armed with an MBA, JD, and CPA, he took a couple of jobs that, as he says, didn’t work out. But the family business called, a janitorial-supplies firm, so he came in to save it and … Weil Chemical ended up in Chapter 11.
Weil kept some irons in the fire, picking up clients here and there and earning a living, but hardly amassing a fortune. He worked with a partner to buy some troubled companies, but that initiative didn’t quite work out, either. And yet the idea remained intriguing, so he tried again, solo this time, to acquire companies in need of reinvention.
“I had some money,” he says, “so I started Venture Associates Partners.” It wasn’t entirely smooth — “I had to jump through hoops,” he says, but his background in law, business, and finance helped him get a foothold in the turnaround business.
And how long will this scholarship initiative continue? “It is my intention for it to last,” Weil says. “Who knows? There’s no reason why it shouldn’t go on for 50 or 100 or 200 years.”
Finally, he struck gold. Weil found another partner and they acquired a company from British Petroleum that was, as he says, under-managed. The multi-billion-dollar conglomerate had little use for a firm that was losing a million dollars or so and BP sold it to Weil. And that was the key.
“We turned that around and it made $1.8 million profit the first year,” he says. “And then I went on to buy several companies — I bought 10 distressed companies.”
And that’s what brought him success at last. Weil worked hard and made plenty of money over his career, but as happens with some folks as they approach retirement, his interests turned to philanthropy. His adult children, Shirley and Steven, were already set. “The kids have so much money,” he says, “and I can’t give them any more. It’s obscene. I went from nothing, zero. Twice in my life I’ve been broke, and I realized how much money I was going to have even after giving my kids all this money.”
But what would he do with it?
Laura Linder
That’s where Laura Linder comes in. She is president and CEO of Jewish Community Partners (JCP), a nonprofit that manages philanthropic endeavors. Working together, she and Weil formed the Burton Weil Family Foundation in 2022. She realized that he wanted a legacy that would last decades, if not centuries.
“Laura and her group have been helping me,” he says, “and we finally hit on the [foundation]. What turned me on was the scholarship program at the University of Virginia — the Jefferson Scholars.”
The prestigious program funds the full cost of attending UVA for four years and has a host of other benefits. Weil was determined to make a difference and was convinced by the positive direction of a scholarship endeavor.
He was impressed that a high number of undergraduate and graduate students stay in Memphis after they get their degrees. He wanted to foster an even greater sense among the best and brightest U of M or UTHSC grads that this city would be the best place to practice their skills — and to advance Memphis in the process.
“I tried to pick the kinds of programs that lead to success and growth, economically — engineering, science, technology, medicine,” he says. That’s reflected in the standards for top-performing masters and doctoral students who will be selected from applicants in the areas of biomedical engineering, business administration, computer science, data science, engineering, or public health.
The prospect of a full-tuition scholarship would interest any and all eligible students, but there may have been no one more thrilled at the news than U of M president Bill Hardgrave.
photograph courtesy university of memphis
Dr. Bill Hardgrave
“Burton Weil came to the University of Memphis with a lofty idea and trusted our team to help carry out his vision for a new scholarship program that would be uniquely Memphis,” he says. “I am deeply grateful for his gift, one that will change the lives of hundreds of students as they set out to change the world. Burton’s commitment to the University of Memphis, his alma mater, will be his lasting legacy, and it is my hope that he realizes what a trailblazer he has become by establishing this program.”
The U of M will administer the scholarships. Hannah Waldman, senior director of principal gifts at the university, has been closely involved with the program and, having worked with Weil, has gotten a good sense of what he wants.
“He’s a very practical lawyer plus accountant,” she says. “So, he knew what he wanted and he knew what he didn’t want.”
Waldman notes the numbers showing that U of M graduates stay in town and make their careers here at a high rate — estimated at about 90 percent. “Weil thought that we need to be a destination,” she says, “a place where people come and study the things that this region needs — biomedical engineering, things like that. Then there’s all of these career opportunities right here.”
And more than simply paying bills, the program is intended to build a strong community of scholars who will have a lifelong connection with the university and each other. “We know what helps these students is being part of a cohort-based experience,” Waldman says. “How do we get more of those kids to come here, choose this, stay here, and then when they’re out in the world in 40 or 50 years, they’re hiring Weil Scholars and Fellows.”
Weil has been closely involved with the creation and direction of the program. Waldman says, “The president has met with him a bunch of times, the provost, six different deans, the VP of enrollment. It felt like he was an investor investing in us, and we’re building him a program. He’s not micromanaging it, but he really wants to see that we are going to take the little startup and turn it into a fully functioning program.”
And how long will this scholarship initiative continue? “It is my intention for it to last,” Weil says. “Who knows? There’s no reason why it shouldn’t go on for 50 or 100 or 200 years.”
