A Gift to Honor a Beloved Professor

Their lunch started much like previous visits. Lawrence Bliquez, UW professor emeritus of Classics, provided sandwiches; Laura Matz, his former student, brought homemade chocolate chip cookies. As they dined in Bliquez’s campus office, they shared updates about their lives and discussed topics related to the ancient world, as they’d done every few months for years.

But on this day, Matz (BA, History, 1994; BA, Classical Studies, 1998) had special news to share: She was creating an endowment in the UW Department of Classics in Bliquez’s honor, to be named the Lawrence Bliquez Endowed Student Support Fund for Classics.

“When I told him what I wanted to do, he was so touched,” Matz recalls. “To this day, he says, ‘I don’t deserve this.’ But he does deserve it. I’d been wanting to do something to honor Larry forever.”

Matz first met Bliquez in 1995, when she enrolled in his introductory course in classical Greek, a notoriously difficult language. She’d already earned a BA in history from the UW and was considering graduate studies in ancient history, which would require knowledge of Latin or classical Greek.

Bliquez warned students on the first day that the class would require dedication and persistence. He still remembers his own professor of classical Greek years earlier proclaiming, “Greek, gentlemen, is a jealous mistress.” (“It was a men’s college,” Bliquez says. “I couldn’t use that line here at the UW.”)

For Matz, Bliquez’s teaching was what made the challenging course memorable. “Every day he showed up and was so enthusiastic,” she says. “And he had a delightful sense of humor. He still does.”

Some students in the course were brilliant, Matz recalls. “And then there were people like me,” she says. “But Larry understood that. He understood that it didn’t come that easily for some students, and he appreciated those who tried hard.”

Matz completed two years of classical Greek, though she ultimately decided not to pursue graduate studies in ancient history. After moving on from Bliquez’s courses, the two maintained contact at local Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) events — Matz is treasurer of the AIA Puget Sound Society — which led to an enduring friendship. Decades later, Bliquez remains a constant in Matz’s life.

Matz had been wanting to honor Bliquez and support the UW Department of Classics for quite a while. This year the timing felt right. 

“My husband Trevor and I are pretty middle-class people, but when my parents died, they left me some money,” Matz says. “We’re fine. The house is paid for. And as I’m getting older — I’m about to turn 66 — I’ve been reflecting on my legacy. What have I done while I’m here on this planet? It seemed like the time to do this.”

Matz also felt strongly that she wanted to honor Bliquez while both of them are alive, to show him what he has meant to her and many other students. It was a sentiment that stunned Bliquez when he learned about the gift over lunch.

“It came totally out of the blue,” Bliquez recalls. “I told her I didn’t deserve that kind of recognition. She said that she knew I would say that but was determined to go through with it. Well, I’m as vain as the next guy, so I’d be a liar if I said I put up strong resistance. But seriously, if teaching and research in the humanities is your professional life, knowing that a former student feels you gave it your best shot is beyond gratifying. And to set up a fund in your name to boot? That comes close to experiencing the Beatific Vision.”

Once the naming of the gift was decided, Matz still had to determine the parameters of the fund. She asked Bliquez if he had a preference for what it should support. Remembering his time as department chair, Bliquez thought that a discretionary fund with the flexibility to support undergraduate student needs as they arise would be most useful. Classics department chair Deborah Kamen agreed, so Matz made that the focus of the endowed fund. Since the establishment of the fund, two other significant contributions have been made.

College of Arts & Sciences development staff provided guidance throughout the giving process. “This whole experience has been such fun,” Matz says. “I’ve read that the person making a gift gets more out of it than the recipient, and I admit that I get great joy from it. I just wish I had more money so I could do more.”

Matz hopes that others will be similarly inspired to support the liberal arts, particularly in this STEM-focused moment.

“I feel the liberal arts are in danger, with everything emphasizing STEM right now,” she says. “My liberal arts professors opened up my horizons in so many ways, so this is just one very small way of hopefully giving other students a nudge toward the liberal arts. I know that I am grateful for the fantastic liberal arts education I got at the UW.”

Give to the Lawrence Bliquez Endowed Student Support Fund for Classics. If you’re considering making an impactful gift in honor of someone else, contact [Kate Cescon at kamort@uw.edu or 206-616-5943] to learn more about philanthropy in the College of Arts & Sciences.