Reineke Memorial Scholarship

Eligibility criteria

  • Demonstrate financial need (complete a FASFA for the current academic year)
  • Enrolled full-time as a graduate student in the occupational therapy curriculum
  • Minimum GPA of 3.3 in the profession

Deadline

  • March 1

Award

  • Amount varies
  • Award will be credited directly to the recipient's student account

Application instructions

Submit your application electronically by filling out Google Form:

Reineke Memorial Scholarship

Donor Story

Mary (Kugler) Reineke (1920-2002) graduated from WMU with a bachelors of science in 1949. Before enrolling at WMU, Ms. Reineke served as a member of the WAVES during World War II. She was the director of re-education for the blind for the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard at the US Naval Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between 1943-46. One of her greatest memories from that time was when Helen Keller came to meet with newly blinded persons Mary was working with.

After graduating, her career continued at the Southwestern Michigan TB Sanitorium and the Kalamazoo State Psychiatric hospital. She was also one of very few privately practicing occupational therapists, of which she said, “I was able to help the children so they could function much better in school. This was a very rewarding thing.”

Ms. Reineke was actively involved in many community organizations, including president of the Kalamazoo Child Guidance Board, the Madhatters (an educational theatre), and active membership in the American Occupational Therapy Association, the American Association of University Women and the Kalamazoo Guiding Principles as well as a long history of service to her church.

She lived her life with this maxim: "I’ve tried to be honest in all my relationships, maintain my integrity, be loyal to my family and friends, show respect for other persons. It has been important to me to always be fair, to be caring, to maintain a sense of humor and to persevere in all situations."

The Department of Occupational Therapy honors this outstanding alumna and is grateful for the gift bestowed by her daughters, Janalee Reineke-Lyth and Martha Reineke, to celebrate their mother’s legacy by  establishing the Mary E. Reineke Occupational Therapy Scholarship.