Somerville Mayor Emeritus Eugene C. Brune.

By The Times Staff

After it was pointed out that there were a few inaccuracies in our story from last week concerning former Somerville Mayor Eugene C. Brune and the Somerville High School Scholarship Foundation, we got together with Brune to have him clarify the facts and set the record straight. We thank him for the opportunity to do this.

The Somerville Times: Tell us about the Somerville High School Scholarship Foundation and how it will work this year.

Eugene Brune: Beginning in the 2021-2022 school year, the SHS Scholarship Foundation would like the proceeds from our annual raffle to help ease the burden even further, by funding one (4) year, $2,000 per year renewable scholarship for a highly deserving Somerville High School/Full Circle High School student. This would be in addition to all of the other $1,000 to $2,500 non-renewable scholarships that we award each year to students for their first year of post high school graduate degrees.

TST: How did the idea of holding this drawing come into being?

EB: One of our former Directors, Robert Publicover, who is no longer with us today, came up with the idea of holding a drawing each year with the winner receiving $10,000 as well as other cash prizes, with a limit of 250 tickets to be sold.

Those who attend the drawing always walk out saying they had a good fun time. When Bob passed away, I agreed to take over and at a later date Director Joe Favaloro joined me in working as a team along with Joe’s wife Barbara. The profit generally runs about 9 to 11 thousand dollars so I guess we can say that this drawing brought in about $225,000+ over the past several years.

I need to thank the person that began the discussion of initiating the first four year, $2,000 per year renewable scholarship, and that is our past President Joe Favaloro. Naturally, I am honored that the Board of Directors voted to name it The Eugene C. Brune four-year scholarship and my sincere thanks to each of them.

Because it was decided that this 4-year scholarship, costing $8,000, will be totality supported each year by the funds from the drawing and not out of the general treasury, we will be asking the general public if they would like to donate towards the 4-year scholarship as a gift in lieu of, or in memory of, or for any reason.

TST: How can people contribute to the foundation?

EB: Checks can be sent payable to SHSSF -4 Year S, and mail to SHSSF, P.O. BOX 440275, Somerville, MA 02144.

We are also hoping that in the future we may be able to give more than one 4-year scholarship. We wish to thank all that have supported the foundation in the past and please for the future of our children continue to support our yearly $10,000 drawing.

TST: What is the origin of this foundation?

EB: The scholarship foundation was the idea of Somerville High School Former Head Master, Anthony Fedele. Tony is also no longer with us but we are sure that he is smiling down at us and saying “Job well done.” Since Tony, our first president and to the present time with David Thorpe, serving now as our President we continue getting better with age.

Our foundation committee, past and present Presidents, Officers and Directors are all volunteers that have been giving their time, effort and money, working tirelessly for the past 30 years raising money to allow many of our high school students that live in Somerville to go on to higher learning.

TST: How does the foundation feel about the work it’s done so far?

EB: I must say that each of us is pleased with what we have accomplished. I wish that I could list all of the so many former directors that joined the foundation from the very beginning that have taken the foundation to where we are today.

The foundation started out with just a few hundred dollars in contributions but due to the generosity of many former Somerville High School Alumnus donating large sums of money, along with the Alumni Associations making contributions at their reunions and the generosity of citizens writing the foundation into their will, we have received considerable sums of money.

Due to all of this along with a great economy, coupled with our foundation committee investment board working with our excellent investment officer, our investments have increased our balance line substantially.

The foundation is giving out over 50 scholarships each year, the majority being $2,000 and the rest $1,000, all totaling approximately $100,000. The number of scholarships, along with the dollar amount, is governed by the interest made on our investments.

TST: What is the process for choosing who will receive a scholarship?

EB: Choosing those to be awarded scholarships requires considerable time and effort and the members of that committee do an outstanding job. Due to the combined efforts of this scholarship foundation, more than one thousand Somerville High School students have received scholarships to help them achieve a better future. We thank all who have supported us in the past and we hope will continue to do so in the future.