A Love of Music Becomes a Legacy – Thomas Vennum

Recently, at the age of 82, Thomas Vennum passed away from congestive heart failure.

Prior to his death, Tom had taken time to contact the American Indian College Fund to create an endowed scholarship. The Thomas Vennum Memorial Endowment Fund will provide scholarships for Native students, with preference given to students of Ojibwa affiliation, students studying music, or demonstrating an extracurricular passion for playing, performing, sharing, or expressing music of Native American origin.

Growing up on Madeline Island in Wisconsin, studying music at Yale then Harvard University, and going on to work for two decades as the senior ethnomusicologist at the Smithsonian Institute's Center for Folklife, Tom was deeply in love with ethnomusicology and Ojibwa music.

Because of his passion for education, generosity and foresight, hundreds of Native American students will receive a college degree, and many of those students will share his legacy and love of music and Ojibwa culture.

To learn about creating your own legacy, contact us at [email protected] or call 303-430-5326.