Alumni Spotlight: Donald Kukla, ‘79
Don and Maria Kukla
Don and his mother, Pat
“About 20 years ago, my wife, Maria, and I wanted to do something to honor our parents. Something that they held near and dear to their hearts. As a financial advisor, I talked with a particular client of mine who is charitably inclined and he said, “what are you waiting for?,” which I took as a call to action. At that point, only my mom was still living and could appreciate what we were about to do. Maria’s dad was a theology professor at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California. So, in honor of her parents, we donated $100,000 to a classroom at the seminary.
For my parents, who put Catholic education as a foundation of their value system, we established a scholarship to Alleman and seeded it with $100,000 via a donor-advised fund, naming it the Al & Pat Kukla scholarship. The scholarship was established to help support children who attended Jordan Catholic School (where I was a member of the first graduating class in 1975). We tossed around various ideas on how to spread the wealth and ended up with a scholarship that covered 20% of one boy and one girl each year for all four years of attending Alleman.
Established in 2010, the scholarship has supported more than 30 students to date and is expected to continue through 2030. Each year, my mom took great joy in attending the Jordan graduation ceremony to personally present the award.
My parents had nine children (two died at young ages) and I am number eight. We all attended Catholic grade schools and high schools and some to Catholic colleges and universities. Most folks in Rock Island did not know about our large family because when we moved to the Quad Cities, there were only two of us left at home. My sister Marilyn and I finished our grade school years at Jordan and attended Alleman. The student population back then was about 250 per grade and we both had a fabulous experience in high school.
I stay in close touch with a few classmates and enjoy the class reunions to see old friends. If we can help students have a similar experience as Marilyn and I did — good things will happen. We are just paying it forward.”
- DON KUKLA ‘79
If you are interested in creating a scholarship to support the growth of our school, please reach out to Alison Beardsley, Director of Advancement, at abeardsley@allemanhighschool.org or at (309) 786-7793 ext 407.