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A new scholarship at Northwest Missouri State University honoring a couple’s deep roots in Maryville and association with the University will help students pursuing degrees in the Melvin D. and Valorie G. Booth School of Business.
Rebecca Summa Sullivan, a member of the Northwest Foundation Board of Directors, recently created the John and Virginia Summa Scholarship to honor her parents, who attended and met at Northwest.
Sullivan has pledged a gift totaling $25,000 during the next five years, and the scholarship fund remains open and capable of receiving additional contributions. A scholarship of no less than $1,000 will be awarded annually to a full-time Northwest student studying a major within the Melvin D. and Valorie G. Booth School of Business.
“I wanted to dedicate this scholarship to my parents – not only for their love and devotion to Northwest and their belief in the importance of a good education, but also to honor the sacrifices they made to make a good education a reality for their children and grandchildren,” Sullivan said. “They sacrificed a lot for me and my siblings, and it is humbling for me to be able to set up a scholarship in their name. Having parents that make the education of their children a priority is golden.”
John and Virginia Summa
While the Summa family members who have attended Northwest now span six generations, their affinity for the institution began with Sullivan’s parents. John Summa was born in Gentry, Missouri, and graduated from Albany High School, while his wife, Virginia Wilmes, was born in Maryville and graduated from Maryville High School.
They met at Northwest in 1946. John was a member of the Phi Sigma Epsilon fraternity and worked at The Palms. Virginia was a member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority and worked at Della’s Dress Shop. They were married at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in July 1948.
After graduating from Northwest in 1950 with a Bachelor of Science in Education degree in business economics and Officer Candidate School in San Antonio, Texas, John joined the U.S. Air Force’s Office of Special Investigation. His career took him to all parts of the world on classified assignments that also included serving at least a couple of times on security teams protecting President Lyndon Johnson.
John and Virginia raised six children, with Rebecca being the oldest. Although they lived throughout the United States, the family frequently returned to Maryville when John had an overseas assignment.
“Every time he got an overseas assignment, it would be in some place that was very dangerous, and we would always move back to Maryville because that was home,” Sullivan said.
In the fall of 1966, the Summas bought a home on West Third Street, about a block from the Northwest campus, and made it the family’s permanent home. Sullivan remains grateful for the many experiences she had while growing up in Maryville – and how Northwest and the value of getting an education impacted her as a young girl.
When Ida Summa, John’s mother, pursued her bachelor’s degree at a later age, she often brought Sullivan – then around 5 years old – to class sessions.
“She drove from Gentry to get her degree,” Sullivan remembered. “She would tell me how important it was, and she picked up these ladies all along the way to Maryville so they could go to school and work on their degrees in the summer. They were teachers during the winter, and that made such an amazing impression on me as a little kid.”
After retiring as a major in the Air Force, John became a loan officer at Nodaway Valley Bank, where Virginia was already an officer in charge of certificates of deposit. The Summas also were active in the Maryville community as members of St. Gregory’s Catholic Church and the Maryville Country Club.
Although John died in 2000, Virginia continued to live in the family home on West Third Street until her death in 2019.
“They loved Maryville,” Sullivan said. “It was always home, despite the fact that we lived everywhere else. It was always the place we were going to come back to, and that was so true of Northwest, too.”
For her part, Sullivan attended Northwest from 1969 to 1973 and was a member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority before completing her bachelor’s degree coursework at Avila College in Kansas City, Missouri.
Now retired, she went on to a successful career in the insurance industry that spanned 45 years. She spent the last 30 years of her career as the senior vice president and healthcare practice leader at Lockton Companies, the world’s largest privately held insurance brokerage firm.
She has remained closely connected to Northwest and joined the Northwest Foundation Board of Directors in 2023.
“I credit Northwest, my upbringing in a small town, my parents’ work ethic – all of that – for taking me from a job where I didn’t make very much money to a job where I really had a lot of responsibility,” Sullivan said. “I learned from growing up in a small town about the importance of working with people and getting along with people.”
To support the John and Virginia Summa Scholarship, visit www.nwmissouri.edu/GiveOnline or make a gift to another Northwest fund by contacting the Office of University Advancement at 660.562.1248 or advance@nwmissouri.edu.
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