A Perfect Combination of Law and Education
With support from loved ones and colleagues, Janet Myers-Siegfried established a memorial scholarship to commemorate the character and values of her attorney husband Doug. Photo credit: Tony Kirves, Southern Exposure
Serving her community, including as a proponent for education, has been a lifelong priority for UofL Alumni Association Board Member Janet Myers-Siegfried (’73 B.S., UofL; ’80 M.A. Murray State). “My mother-in-law was a first-grade teacher, and my father taught high school,” she recalls. “Education was very important to our families.” When Jan knew her husband Doug Myers (’75 Law) was dying following what was expected to be a routine follow-up procedure, she began to consider how best to honor Doug’s memory in a manner reflective of his life.
Both born in Paducah, Kentucky, Jan and Doug dated in high school before breaking up during college. When they reconnected during Jan’s junior year of college, they were married six months later. Working tirelessly for his clients and to protect the right to trial by jury, Doug loved being a lawyer and was widely known and respected, both professionally and personally. At the time, he was only the second lawyer to be elected both as president of the Kentucky Bar Association (2013) and of the Kentucky Academy of Trial Attorneys, now the Kentucky Justice Association (1998). Despite his stature in the legal field, Doug chose to remain a small-town lawyer, and he never stopped acknowledging that the University of Louisville had afforded him his career.
To commemorate the character and values Doug embodied in his legal career and to provide other aspiring small-town lawyers the opportunity to attend Brandeis School of Law, Jan established the W. Douglas Myers Memorial Scholarship with many of Doug’s professional colleagues, family and friends contributing.
W. Douglas Myers Memorial Scholarship recipient Dayton Blair
Among the three 2021–2022 recipients of the scholarship is first-year law student Dayton Blair from Grayson County. The first in his family to achieve an undergraduate degree (criminal justice) and to pursue a law degree, Dayton interned with a Grayson County attorney during college and observed several days in court before deciding to go to law school. He says, “This scholarship has allowed me to focus more on my law school goals of becoming a civil litigator and family attorney and less on the impact of rising tuition costs.”
To ensure the scholarship’s continuation, Jan is in the process of endowing the scholarship. In addition, she intends to make an outright distribution through her will to benefit the fund.
Jan is among a growing number of donors who choose to support UofL both during and beyond their lives. To learn more about the many ways you can support UofL, please contact Kathryn J. Sides, M.A., CFRE, CAP® at plannedgifts@louisville.edu or (502) 852-5051.
If you have already included the University of Louisville in your giving plans, please let us know so we may ensure your intentions are followed and to thank you for your generosity.