AAUW Dialog

Marie Tillman

Later this week, nearly 500 college women student leaders will descend on the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park, to attend the 25th annual National Conference for College Women Student Leaders. The highlight of the conference is the Women of Distinction Awards, where five outstanding women will be honored for their work. Today, to commemorate Memorial Day, I want to highlight one of the women because of her work relating to military service.

A native of San Jose, California, 2010 Woman of Distinction Marie Tillman graduated with honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and launched a career in marketing and special event production. Marie married her high school sweetheart and childhood friend Pat Tillman, former NFL linebacker for the Arizona Cardinals, in 2002. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, Pat left his lucrative job and joined the elite Army Rangers to serve his country. Devastatingly, he was killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire in 2004.

Marie was a graphic artist living in Seattle at the time of Pat’s death. With a small group of friends and family, she decided to establish the Pat Tillman Foundation. Their goal was to honor Pat’s military service and his life by investing in veterans and military families through educational resources, by building a new community of veteran scholars, and by advocating on behalf of military families.

Notably, the Foundation now gives hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships each year. In 2009, through their new Tillman Military Scholars program, the Tillman Foundation disbursed more than $600,000 to 52 service members, veterans, and the dependents of service members to help continue their education and encourage their lifelong commitment to service. These scholarship recipients now attend 21 universities in 16 states.

Next week, here in Washington, D.C., there will be the first Pat Tillman Legacy Summit to honor Pat’s legacy and to facilitate the sharing of experiences among military families. The summit will include a day of service, in which Tillman military scholars and members of the NFL will partner to benefit the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Tillman military scholars will also attend congressional meetings.

Today, as we honor all fallen service members, I am grateful to Marie for channeling her devastating personal tragedy into such positive, meaningful, and necessary work. I also want to express gratitude to everyone else who works to help military service members. Most of all, I am grateful to the members of our military for giving their time, and sometimes their lives, to help keep Americans safe.