Luis Ruzo: guiding others on his journey

Call it a chain reaction

Luis Ruzo supports the school that supported him

If a teenage Luis Ruzo (CAS’70) and his father hadn’t argued bitterly, Ruzo might never have forged a connection with BU that has remained strong for more than five decades.

Raised in an affluent family in Lima, Peru, Ruzo was accepted at MIT, but when he learned he would not be admitted until the next year, he enrolled at BU until he could transfer. Then he had a falling-out with his father, who refused to pay the tuition.

Ruzo was in a bind, but BU smoothed his way. Administrators helped him secure a Social Security card so he could get part-time work on campus. He knew he could not afford to transfer— and he soon realized he didn’t want to leave BU, with its small classes and enthusiastic mentors.

When Ruzo told his advisor, Richard A. Laursen, that he was eager to do research, Laursen made it happen. Ruzo eventually chaired a successful campaign to endow the Laursen Fund for students doing summer research. He mended fences with his father many years ago, but his memories of struggling to pay for college inspired him to fund scholarships for students in Peru.

He was recently inspired to extend his generosity to BU scholars as well, with a blended gift: a $100,000 Century Challenge gift now, to endow the Dr. Luis O. Ruzo Endowed Scholarship, and a bequest intention that is projected to grow that fund by about $1 million.

The fund will carry a preference for talented chemistry undergraduates. “I thought this would be the right place to give support,” Ruzo says. “I’m 75. At this point, there’s no rea- son to buy things. I have everything I need.”