A recent gift from the John and Melissa Besse Foundation has established a new scholarship at Michigan Technological University. The John and Melissa Besse Foundation Endowed Scholarship will provide financial awards to transfer students from Bay College beginning in the fall 2025 semester.
The scholarship, which provides new opportunities for students who want to stay in the Upper Peninsula and pursue four-year degrees close to home, is part of the John and Melissa Besse Foundation's ongoing mission to uplift local communities and expand access to education. Leading that work today is Greg Besse ‘83, son of its founders, and a Michigan Tech graduate himself.
“Our foundation has a longstanding relationship with supporting Bay College,” said Besse ‘83, president of the foundation. “We thought it was a natural progression of support to establish a scholarship for Bay College students that transfer to MTU.”
Besse, who earned his bachelor’s degree in wood and fiber utilization from Michigan Tech in 1983, built a successful career in the forest products industry and stayed connected to his alma mater in meaningful ways. In 1997, he received Michigan Tech’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award, and in 1998, was inducted into the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science (CFRES) Honor Academy. He also served on the construction advisory board for Tech’s CFRES building expansion in 2000.
“Michigan Tech has a rigorous curriculum that encourages students to be critical thinkers and educates them on the importance of being a leader,” Besse said. “Nearly every business day I applied the skills I learned at Tech to the businesses I owned and operated.
“When the foundation was talking to Michigan Tech about creating the scholarship, about how we’ve worked with Bay College over the years and worked with Michigan Tech over the years, it made a lot of sense. Here’s an opportunity for students from the UP to stay and continue their education in the UP.”
Though Melissa passed away in 2011 and John in 2013, the couple’s belief in giving back lives on through the foundation they created. Today, their son Greg and other members of the Besse family—including children and grandchildren—continue to honor that legacy through charitable investments across the region.
“The foundation’s board of directors is always trying to carry out the spirit of what my parents would want to do if they were still alive,” Besse said. “We have been focusing on helping many different organizations located in rural areas of the UP and northern Wisconsin enhance their communities to make it a better place for families to live now and in the future.”
In addition to its long-standing support of Bay College—helping to fund everything from fine arts centers to a state-of-the-art nursing facility—the foundation has made a lasting impact across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin. Its past gifts have helped expand hospital services, equip local fire departments, support summer camps for children with disabilities, and fund educational programs such as Trees for Tomorrow that introduces K-12 students to the forest products industry.
Now, with its latest gift to Michigan Tech, the foundation’s reach extends to students continuing their educational journeys at Tech from either Bay College campus. Across 17 different degree programs, more than 30 transfer students from Bay College are currently enrolled at Michigan Tech. This fall, seven students have already been awarded the new scholarship, helping make their transition to Michigan Tech more accessible and affordable.
“It’s the foundation’s hope that Bay students will continue to build upon their educational background while attending Michigan Tech. Ultimately, it would be great when they graduate from Tech that they choose to build a professional career in the Upper Peninsula or northern Wisconsin.”
The foundation remains committed to making a lasting difference, with a focus on ensuring its work continues well into the future.
Michigan Technological University is an R1 public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan's flagship technological university offers more than 185 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
