{"id":13024,"date":"2021-05-05T15:11:59","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T19:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=13024"},"modified":"2022-07-29T13:08:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T17:08:53","slug":"above-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/above-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Above and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Growing up in Long Branch, New Jersey, Robert B. Sculthorpe ’63, ’15HN had his sights set on Wall Street but little interest in attending college. Yet thanks to the gentle prodding of his mother, an Italian immigrant whose own formal education ended at the eighth grade but who understood the importance of attaining a college degree, he enrolled at Monmouth in the fall of 1956. After earning his B.S. in business administration, Sculthorpe, never short on gumption, bootstrapped his way to Wall Street, where he enjoyed a storied 35-year career at one of the world\u2019s largest investment banks and financial services companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his initial misgivings about college, Sculthorpe said he never forgot how fundamental his Monmouth education was to his professional success. So as his career drew to a close, he sought to give back to the University that had given him his start. He served on Monmouth\u2019s Board of Trustees in various capacities for more than a decade, including four as chair. And through the years, he has funded a host of initiatives that have benefited students and enhanced the cultural and intellectual life on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recognition of Sculthorpe\u2019s outstanding service and philanthropy to Monmouth University, President Patrick F. Leahy will present him with the first President\u2019s Medal at this fall\u2019s Founders Day Gala. The newly established event is Monmouth\u2019s premier fundraising event of the year, and the President\u2019s Medal represents the highest honor the University can bestow on an individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can think of no one more deserving of receiving the inaugural President\u2019s Medal than Bob,\u201d Leahy said. \u201cHis extraordinary leadership and support have provided countless opportunities for Monmouth students through the years, and I look forward to celebrating him this fall as part of our Founders Day Gala.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

A First-Generation Success Story<\/h3>\n\n\n

Sculthorpe said his youthful disinterest in college stemmed in part from not being \u201csmart enough to see what lay ahead.\u201d He assumed his ticket into the business world would come by way of working in his uncle\u2019s clothing store. But his mother, Geraldine, who had come to America from Naples, Italy, as a child, had other ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was a seamstress, but she was much more than that,\u201d Sculthorpe explained. \u201cShe was almost a designer, really, and was quite successful in her own right, but she didn\u2019t have the education to compete in that world. So she was always <\/em>encouraging my brother, sister, and me to finish high school and go to college.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sculthorpe paid his own way through Monmouth by working multiple jobs, and when he graduated in 1963, he was the first in his family to earn a college degree. \u201cIt was a breakthrough for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He still had that glint in his eye toward Wall Street. \u201cIt always held a romantic place in my mind,\u201d he said. \u201cI had subscribed to The Wall Street Journal <\/em>when I was in high school and loved reading about the markets.\u201d But his first job out of college was selling insurance. He didn\u2019t like the work or the product, and quickly moved into a corporate sales position with the H.J. Heinz Company. That was a better fit, \u201cbut I always kept an eye out to see if any of the Wall Street firms were looking for training program recruits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a few years, his persistence paid off when Dean Witter & Co., the former stock brokerage and securities firm, hired him. In those days, Wall Street was in many ways reserved for \u201celite\u201d school graduates. \u201cI certainly didn\u2019t have the money or the \u2018family legacy\u2019 those guys had,\u201d Sculthorpe said. But what he lacked in pedigree and connections he made up for with initiative and affability\u2014 qualities he inherited from his mother. \u201cI\u2019ve always been able to \u2018meet people\u2019 very easily and, no matter how tough it might be, make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sculthorpe built a substantial business as a broker handling individual and institutional clients, and through the years worked his way up to become one of the most influential employees at the company. By the time Morgan Stanley acquired Dean Witter in 1997, Sculthorpe was director of its Institutional Equity Division. The merger created the world\u2019s largest securities company at the time, and Sculthorpe\u2019s role in it was chronicled in the Harvard Business Review<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Morgan Stanley, Sculthorpe took responsibility for numerous business units, including Regional Management, Head of Global Private Wealth Management, Economic and Stock Market Research, and Institutional Equity Sales and Trading. When he retired in 2003, he was vice chairman and managing director of Morgan Stanley\u2019s Private Client Group in London, responsible for all European, Middle East, and Asian private client businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n

Reconnecting with Monmouth<\/h3>\n\n\n

Sculthorpe said he never forgot how \u201cabsolutely key\u201d his Monmouth experience was to his success. Now free from the 50- to 60-hour workweeks that Wall Street demanded, he wanted to play a more active role at his alma mater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was elected to the University\u2019s Board of Trustees the same year of his retirement and served as treasurer and vice chair before being elected chair in 2010, a position he held for four years. In 2016 he received trustee emeritus status. His long service with the board has given him the opportunity to work with several Monmouth presidents. \u201cAll organizations are measured by their leaders,\u201d said Sculthorpe, who during his Wall Street days met with chief executives from around the world. \u201cGood leadership is contagious. It\u2019s what makes organizations great. And Monmouth has had some exceptional leaders in my view.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sculthorpe has particularly enjoyed the opportunity to interact with Monmouth students through the years, and it is they who have benefited most from his generosity. His support of Monmouth\u2019s academic programs includes the establishment of the annual Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe Memorial Scholarship, which is named in honor of his late daughter and funds dozens of student research projects each year that make a positive impact in coastal communities. Many of those research experiences take place aboard Monmouth\u2019s largest research vessel, also named in Heidi Lynn\u2019s memory in recognition of another Sculthorpe gift that ensures the vessel\u2019s seaworthiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A staunch supporter of the arts, Sculthorpe made a substantial donation to bring Metropolitan Opera programming to campus. He was also an early benefactor of the OceanFirst Bank Center, helping to launch construction of the facility that today serves as the area\u2019s premier venue for large-scale concerts and shows and is home to several Monmouth athletics programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The list goes on and on. When asked what has inspired him to this level of service and support for Monmouth University, Sculthorpe unassumingly said, \u201cI was raised a Catholic, so giving back has always been a part of who I am. And I always thought that to the degree I could help, I would.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He will forever have a \u201csoft spot\u201d in his heart for his alma mater, he continued: \u201cI was fortunate to find a career I really loved and was good at; that it paid well was a byproduct. But none of it would have been possible without my Monmouth degree.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert B. Sculthorpe to receive inaugural President’s Medal in recognition of his extraordinary service, philanthropy, and leadership of Monmouth University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":13027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":49,\"y\":37}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-back"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"The Back","issue":"Spring 2021","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13024"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16039,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13024\/revisions\/16039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}