Mary Lou Fulton, ASU education alumna and wife of fellow philanthropist Ira A. Fulton, died Thursday morning. She was 82 years old.
According to BusinessWeek, Fulton and her husband have donated 60 percent of their net worth — approximately $265 million — to major recipients such as ASU, Brigham Young University, and Utah Valley University.
In 2006, ASU’s teachers college was renamed after Mary Lou for her contributions to the school and education.
"Mary Lou’s great passion was teaching children to read, lifting their self esteem and giving them lifelong learning skills,” President Michael Crow said in a statement to ASU News. "Her lessons of kindness, selflessness and enduring commitment are embedded in this university, this city and this state, and in the thousands of teachers who will graduate from her college and go on to transform teaching and learning across this nation.”
Among all U.S. public and private university education schools, the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College ranks no. 17, according to the most recent U.S. News & World Report.
Fulton, who was born Mary Lou Henson on Aug. 10, 1933, grew up in Phoenix and attended Whittier Elementary and Phoenix Union High School.
In 1975, she graduated from ASU, where she had met Ira Fulton. The couple got married in 1954 and had three children.
Fulton worked as an educator throughout her life.
“I loved working with my students in remedial reading,” Fulton said in 2003 to ASU News. “Those children were precious, and I learned more from them than they did from me.”
Mari Koerner, the dean of the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, said the school follows Fulton’s vision for education.
“So much of what we are doing at the college is an expression of her commitment to education and to providing the best possible opportunities for the greatest number of people,” Koerner said in a statement to ASU News. “We will miss her exemplary virtues of quiet persistence and enduring commitment, along with her contagious laugh and ever-present smile.”
Reach the assistant news editor at aplante@asu.edu or follow @aimeenplante on Twitter
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