Meets 2019's April Donor of the Month
Basketball has always been Roger’s first passion, so when Villanova won the championship back in 1985, he knew that was the school for him. Upon graduating in 1990 from Villanova, Roger spent four years working for JP Morgan. Roger enjoyed working in the financial industry but realized his true calling was to work directly with clients so he decided to make a career change.
Roger became a Certified Financial Planner for Merrill Lynch in Wayne, PA and just celebrated his 25th anniversary with the firm. He was recently named to Forbes “Best-in-State Wealth Advisors” list for 2019.
Roger tries to give back to Villanova by hiring students as his interns. About a year ago, while out to dinner with a client, Roger was waited on by one of our Blue/White Scholarship Fund recipients - Liz Ovsyannikova. Upon hearing Liz tell her story, Roger offered her an internship and she continues to work with him now. Roger was able to learn more about the Blue White Scholarship Foundation from Liz and loved the fact that the organization asks all of the scholarship recipients to pay it forward by helping a future student.
The concept of Pay It Forward has been near and dear to Roger’s heart ever since he read the book by the same title back in 2001. When Roger and his fiancé Melissa expressed their desire to get married in the Villanova Chapel and to have their reception at Overbrook Golf Club, Roger’s parents were gracious enough to pay for the reception. On the night before the wedding, Roger gave a copy of the Pay It Forward book to his parents, writing a note inside thanking them and admitting to his parents that he wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to pay them back for their generosity, but promised to pay it forward someday.
Since that time, Roger and Melissa have been directing a portion of their income to a separate account that they titled Pay It Forward. They try to use this account for charitable contributions and random acts of kindness. So when Liz recently let Roger know that we were raising scholarship monies at our Casino Night fundraiser, Roger and Melissa agreed to step up and sponsor a table for the event.
Roger and Melissa currently reside in Chester Springs, PA and have three children ages 17, 15 and 13. They both enjoy running marathons and ultra-marathons. They also enjoy spending quality family time in Ocean City, NJ.
Roger still has a passion for basketball and enjoys playing in adult leagues as well as coaching his children.
Besides our Blue White Scholarship Foundation, Roger and Melissa volunteer their time with Natural Lands and support Save Unborn Life.
We are so excited to have Roger & Melissa on board and acknowledge their faith and dedication to “Paying It Forward”