The George M. Pullman Educational Foundation helped Tom Meagher attend college. Now he’s giving back.

Meagher volunteering at the 2015 Symposium

At age 70, Tom Meagher has the luxury of reviewing a life well lived—a loving family, a fulfilling career, a retirement characterized by good health and financial comfort. You get the feeling he wouldn’t change much if he had to do it over again.

It might have turned out differently. His father, a diabetic, died at 34, leaving Meagher’s mother to take care of 6-year-old Tom, his 8-year-old brother, and 2-year-old sister. The kids toughed it out in public schools near their home at 75th and Damen on Chicago’s South Side. The path of least resistance, when he graduated from Calumet High School in the early 1960s, would have been to get a blue-collar job, punch a clock, and contribute to the family budget. This could have been a fine life.

But Meagher, who liked math and science, had other ideas. He wanted a college degree. His mother encouraged him. His grandmother helped him complete applications. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign welcomed him aboard. (more…)

Bonnie Miller, the Foundation’s board president, was featured as March 2015’s Remarkable Woman in the Chicago Tribune. Read the full article here.

“Before Bonnie became president, we were doing good work,” said Robin Redmond, the foundation’s executive director. “But she had the foresight to see a greater potential. Now, we can help more students.” Bonnie Miller is a hands-on president, she added, known in the boardroom as “a sharp cookie with a wicked sense of humor.”