Dr. Ruth Seeler and Dean Frederick Morin.

Dr. Ruth Seeler earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont in 1958 and her M.D. from UVM's College of Medicine in 1962 and is currently emerita professor of pediatric hematology-oncology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago.

In 2000, Seeler endowed a scholarship at UVM to help students meet the cost of their medical education. The scholarship is awarded annually to a third- or fourth-year student specializing in primary care. To date, 18 students have been awarded some $145,000 from the fund.

To ensure that the fund meets that need into the future, Seeler has committed $2 million in her estate plan to be added to the Ruth Andrea Seeler M.D.'62 Scholarship in the UVM College of Medicine. The college estimates the bequest will enable it to increase scholarship awards to primary care students by approximately $90,000 annually.

"There is a dearth of primary care physicians. We have a desperate need for them, but students are drawn to traditionally higher paying specialties, particularly in view of the need to pay off their student loans," Seeler says. "I want to help reduce the debt burden for students who want to specialize in primary care so they can afford to do so."

Frederick Morin, dean of the College of Medicine, said, "This very generous bequest from Dr. Seeler can make a career in primary care a real option for students who might otherwise be focused on paying off student loans. This is very focused and meaningful philanthropy."

Seeler was the only woman in the graduating class at UVM's 1962 College of Medicine commencement. A very engaged alumna, she was president of the UVM Medical Alumni Association Executive Committee from 2008 to 2010, was presented the Service to Medicine and Community Award in 1998 and the A. Bradley Soule Award, the highest UVM medical alumni honor, in 2007. She is currently a member of the UVM Foundation’s Leadership Council, providing leadership to grow philanthropy for UVM and the College of Medicine

Seeler's gift is included in Move Mountains: The Campaign for The University of Vermont, which seeks to raise $500 million by June 2019 to support students, faculty, programs and facilities and assert UVM's position as one of the nation's best public research universities.