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Kathleen S. Crebo, '11, was inspired to create an endowed award based on an unexpected windfall she received in law school.

Crebo was in her second year of law school when she received the Larry W. Suciu Windfall Award, created by Suciu, ’69, and awarded to students who are working either part- or full-time and "giving their all" to complete law school. The award is one of many donor-funded scholarships, fellowships, and awards available to IU McKinney Law students, but it also stands out for its stipulation that the recipient spend their windfall on something “fun and frivolous.”

That was a requirement that Crebo, who served as editor-in-chief of the Indiana International and Comparative Law Review and earned admission to the Order of the Barristers in the Honorable Robert H. Staton Moot Court Competition, was happy to meet. In the midst of her 2L year, she used the windfall award to take friends out to dinner and enjoy a night away from her studies.

That’s just what Suciu had in mind. As a law student in the late 1960s, he worked during the day and attended law school classes at night in the Maennerchor Building, an architectural landmark in Indianapolis that housed the school until 1970.

One evening when Suciu arrived at the law school, the late G. Kent Fransden, then Dean of the Office of Student Affairs, told Suciu he had won the Carroll Writing Award—an award for which he didn’t even know he had been nominated—and handed him the $25 cash prize. While Suciu’s first instinct was to use the money for something practical, he changed his mind. “I thought, ‘I’m going to blow this money,’ and I went out for dinner and probably had too many drinks instead,” he recalls.

Now an attorney in Yuma, Arizona, where he keeps a photo of the Maennerchor Building on the wall, Suciu says that he wanted to provide hardworking students a similar opportunity to “squander” money.

That brings the story back to Crebo, who now practices real estate and business law with Hocker Law. In 2019, she established the Kathleen S. Crebo '11 Windfall Award for J.D. students who are working hard and giving their all academically. Crebo envisions that the award will encourage and lift the spirit of students.

“The intent was always to provide encouragement to current hardworking students,” she said. “I wanted to say, ‘Someone notices you,’ and to give them a smile. That’s what Mr. Suciu did for me.”

Recently, the school’s Development Office arranged a call in which the two “windfall award” donors met for the first time on Zoom and discussed how their stories were an example of how the virtuous circle of giving stretches across time. As law school students, Suciu and Crebo were both invigorated by unexpected awards that recognized the hard work and sacrifices necessary to earn their law degrees and each was inspired to create similar uplifting windfall moments for future generations of IU McKinney Law students.

“It was really a full-circle moment for me,” Crebo said.

“Pretty neat,” Suciu agreed.

Awards like these make such a positive impact on students now and in the future. Interested in learning how you could establish your own award? Contact Nan Edgerton, Assistant Dean for Development, at nanedge@iu.edu.