UConn holds a special place in the hearts of Tom and Eileen Marston. Tom, an alumnus and dedicated fan, has been a volunteer and a longtime season ticket holder for the men’s basketball team. Together, the couple has already established a scholarship to support deserving students at the Avery Point campus. Recently, the Marstons further solidified their commitment to UConn with a significant gift through Tom’s life insurance policy, naming the UConn Foundation as a beneficiary for half of the policy.
“UConn’s been an important part of our lives for a long time,” stated Tom Marston, a 1974 graduate of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Marstons’ planned gift will provide a substantial boost to their existing scholarship fund, the Tom and Eileen Marston Scholarship. The intent, Tom explained, was to “set a substantial amount aside to continue the scholarship in perpetuity.”
Since its inception in 2010, the scholarship has provided financial assistance to 11 undergraduate students at the Avery Point campus. This new planned giving arrangement promises to extend the scholarship’s impact, supporting countless students for years to come, and creating a lasting legacy. “Creating a scholarship has been very rewarding,” Tom shared. “We’ve even met some of the recipients over the years.”
One of the current recipients, Benjamin LeBlanc, a coastal studies major in the class of 2025, expressed the positive impact of the scholarship. “The scholarship has allowed me to focus more on my school assignments without worrying about whether I’ll be able to pay tuition,” LeBlanc said. “I’ve been able to do more on campus and focus on studying because I’ve been able to cut back on the number of hours I need to spend working.”
While Tom Marston did not attend the Avery Point campus, the location holds special meaning due to his father, Thomas R. Marston, who graduated from Avery Point in 1971. His father’s graduating class was the first to do so after the campus opened in 1967. The Marstons chose to direct their scholarship to support Avery Point students as a tribute and to address a specific need. “When we first started looking at possible scholarships we could do, we found that while there were hundreds of these level scholarships at Storrs, there were only two at Avery Point,” Tom noted.
Tom, who grew up in Clinton, Connecticut, earned a biology degree from UConn and later a master’s in environmental science from the University of New Haven. He spent most of his career at the Connecticut Water Company, ultimately becoming vice president of business development. He even lent his expertise to the University’s Institute of Water Resources as an advisory board member. Following the incident in 2005 when the University’s water withdrawals caused the Fenton River to run dry, Tom was part of a team of water company employees that assisted UConn in the operation of their water supply system. They collaborated with University officials to develop strategies and assess capital and maintenance needs to build a world-class system.
Eileen Marston, though not a UConn graduate, is a major supporter of the university through their shared philanthropic efforts. She holds a history and English degree from Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. After college, she worked in administrative roles before dedicating herself to volunteer work, primarily raising service dogs for the Guiding Eyes for the Blind program. “Puppies are a lot of work, but it was really rewarding,” Eileen said. “It was something we did together.” Now retired, the Marstons reside in Leland, North Carolina, and are the proud parents of two adult children and grandparents of two. Despite their move, they still make time to attend one or two UConn basketball games in the region annually.
