The late Samuel Brandt ’50 has bequeathed $1.5 million to the School of Business creating an endowed scholarship in his name.

“Mr. Brandt clearly valued his UConn education and so generously offered a similar experience to those who also hailed from humble beginnings with unlimited aspirations,” said Dean John A. Elliott. “We are most grateful for his gift.”

According to his obituary in the New York Times, Brandt was in the first wave of troops that stormed Normandy beaches in World War II, and fought all the way to Germany. He frequently returned to France for D-Day celebrations. He was remembered as a brilliant and caring man.

Brandt rose from humble beginnings on a farm outside of New Haven, where his family would take ice from a lake and sell it to merchants in the days before refrigeration. He and his sister were raised by immigrant parents (his mother from Russia; his father from Lithuania).

Brandt graduated from UConn in 1950 with a degree in finance. He later earned an MBA from Columbia University. He spent most of his adult life in New York as a successful securities analyst and financial adviser. He handled all of his own financial investments as well. Brandt passed away at age 91 on Dec. 27, 2016.

As an endowment, the Samuel Brandt Scholarship Fund will provide financial awards to outstanding undergraduate and graduate students in perpetuity.