Gayl Werme remembered for contributions to WMU
Oct. 12, 2003
KALAMAZOO -- The late Gayl F. Werme, a former development officer and trustee of Western Michigan University, was remembered with the Bill Brown Award for Exemplary Service and Leadership at the recent annual meeting of the WMU Foundation. Accepting the award on behalf of the family was her husband, Donald Werme of Portage, Mich.
Gayl Werme served as a member of the WMU Board of Trustees from 1982 to 1985. Beginning in 1995, she worked as a special projects assistant in the University's Development Office. She was a principal liaison with several of the University's major corporate and foundation partners and is credited with leadership in raising the needed funds for the Kathy Beauregard Athletic Administration Internship.
Werme was active in local and state politics and served on numerous boards of directors in the Kalamazoo area, including those of the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, Bronson Methodist Hospital, the Kalamazoo Regional Education Service Agency, the Forum for Kalamazoo County and the Kalamazoo Symphony Society.
In 2000, Werme was named the Kalamazoo Area Women's Festival Woman of the Year. She also earned the YWCA Woman of Achievement award in 1990.
Werme is the ninth recipient of the WMU Foundation's Bill Brown Award, which is named in honor of the award's first honoree, Willard A. "Bill" Brown, a Chicago-area WMU alumnus who has served in the foundation's leadership for 20 years. The award honors those who have provided exemplary leadership and service to the fund-raising efforts of the University.
Werme died Dec. 3, 2002, following a 20-year battle with cancer.
Media contact: Thom Myers, 269 387-8400, thom.myers@wmich.edu