John C. Gillette Endowed Scholarship

The John C. Gillette Endowed Scholarship Fund was established through a generous bequest by John C. Gillette to support students enrolled in The University of Akron College of Business.

Mr. Gillette was born in 1939 and raised in the historic German village of Ghent, Ohio. He attended local schools and graduated from Revere High School in 1958, before beginning his collegiate career at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio. He later transferred to The University of Akron, where he was a member and president of Lone Star fraternity as well as Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), the national leadership honor society. Mr. Gillette studied accounting and was greatly influenced by the late Dr. Frank L. Simonetti, who led the management department. With only one course remaining to graduation, Dr. Simonetti declared, “Gillette you are going to Indiana University to get an MBA degree and complete your undergrad class there.” Dr. Simonetti arranged the transfer and, with a new wife, Barbara, by his side, Mr. Gillette enrolled in IU in the fall of 1962.

John Gillette was a teaching associate and his accounting work provided a means of income and became the central concentration of his formal education. During his three-semester program, he taught beginning and cost accounting, as well as one advanced accounting class. During summer school, he graded correspondence school accounting papers and wondered why so many had the same return address, which turned out to be the address for the Indiana State Penitentiary.

After graduation, Mr. Gillette joined PMM & Co., now KPMG. As a junior accountant, he assisted audits of manufacturing and finance companies in Cincinnati. He later worked for Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, as the Management lnformation Officer and budget director before moving back to the Akron area to purchase a family business. That business grew to provide precision die cut products to OEM manufacturers worldwide. Mr. Gillette’s accounting background provided the structure needed to manage his corporation’s growth.

John and his wife, Barbara, support The John and Barbara Gillette Study of the Arts Abroad and Academic Scholarship Fund at the Mary Shiller Myers School of Art at The University of Akron, as well as the Artist Archives of the Western Reserve and the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

This contribution to the College of Business affirms his belief that giving back to the community is both a responsibility and privilege. Mr. Gillette hopes these contributions facilitate the growth and education of those who benefit from this scholarship.

The John C. Gillette Endowed Scholarship was established to support full or part-time undergraduate students admitted to the accounting major in the College of Business. To be eligible for consideration, students must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher. This scholarship will be applied to the recipients’ student accounts for tuition and fees. Recipients will be selected by The George W. Daverio School of Accountancy Scholarship Committee in the College of Business.