Honoring Susan Behlke Foley's retirement

Susan is retiring! While we will miss her optimism, humor, hard work and unwavering support of her team, we are so excited for her and wish her all the best in her new adventure!

To celebrate her and her service to the UA Foundation, we are forgoing the normal gift of a plaque or other physical thank-you gift in favor of encouraging contributions to the engineering scholarship at the Foundation in honor of Susan’s late father Charles Behlke. Susan is very proud of her father and his contributions to the University and the State, and a gift in her honor to the fund will be a lasting testimony to our appreciation for all she has accomplished while serving as President.

The Charles E. Behlke Engineering Scholarship was established as a perpetual endowment at the UA Foundation in December, 2000 by the late Mrs. Jane Behlke, in memory of her husband Charles E. Behlke, Susan Behlke Foley’s father and a retired Dean of the School of Engineering at UAF who passed away earlier that year. The fund received many memorial contributions from donors all over the state of Alaska. The scholarship is open to students studying engineering at any of the University of Alaska’s campuses.  The fund is currently $99,958 in size and has awarded just under $50,000 in scholarships to UAA and UAF Engineering students in the twenty years since its inception.

Dr. Behlke was the Dean of the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Engineering from 1967 until 1980. Upon his retirement in 1981, he was recognized as a Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus.  Dr. Behlke continued to serve his state as a member of the Alaska Capital Site Planning Commission from 1976 to 1980 and as the Alaska State Pipeline Coordinator from 1980 to 1982.  His passion for service and education led him to serve on the Fairbanks School Board and as Superintendent of the Catholic Schools in Fairbanks.

Join us in honoring Susan and her service by making a gift to the Charles E. Behlke Engineering Scholarship today.