The Dr. Marv and Jan Faust Scholarship and Excellence in Education Funds of the North Crawford Community Education Foundation will have a significant impact on local education for generations to come.

Dr. Marv Faust, who passed away on July 4, 2020, was an accomplished doctor known for his community enthusiasm, sharp sense of humor and quick wit. Marv had a deep and appreciation for the Soldiers Grove, WI community he called home, and was always humbled by the reciprocated love, support, opportunity, encouragement and recognition of his extraordinary abilities both intellectual and interpersonal he felt he received in return. Now, even in his passing, Marv will continue that dedication and gratitude to his community through two funds established in his and his wife’s names that will not only honor his lifelong loyalty to education and the community of Soldier’s Grove, but will go on to help local students and teachers for years to come.

Starting this spring, the Dr. Marv and Jan Faust Scholarship Fund will award annual scholarships to qualifying high school seniors in the region, while the Dr. Marv and Jan Faust Excellence in Education Fund will offer grants to North Crawford School District staff and students that encourage creative and innovative educational programs, recognize and reward outstanding achievement, and encourage local business, civic and community involvement in schools. Both funds operate within the North Crawford Community Education Foundation, a component of Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin.

“Establishing these funds is a result of Marv’s life-long initiative and devotion to the community he loved,” Jan Faust, Marv’s wife, said. “He worked so hard to achieve his dreams and wanted to give back to the community that brought him so much. Education was something he truly valued. It’s beautiful to know he continues to make a difference.”

Marv grew up in the Soldiers Grove, WI area and was a graduate of the North Crawford School District. He was passionate about continuing education and worked his way through medical school, taking classes whenever he had earned money from odd jobs to pay for them. According to Jan, Marv never gave up on his dream no matter how many obstacles he encountered.
While in medical school, Faust graduated in the top 10% of his class with a medical degree from Pahlavi University in Shiraz, Iran, an English speaking school sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency with the U.S. Army at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center on Fort Bliss during the Vietnam war. Marv used his medical degree and Family Practice Board Certification to help anyone who needed his expertise; no one was turned away. He worked for the State of Wisconsin at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, for Winnebago County at Park View Health Center, for various physicians in their practice’s prn, for Father Carr’s free clinic, and as a deliverer of occupational medicine for Kimberly-Clark and American Can Corporation. He was especially known for his ability to diagnose and his caring, compassionate bed-side manner.

But even with a career that served in other communities, Marv never lost sight of the community that wasn’t just a place on a map, but one that had a big piece of his heart. As endowments, the funds are designed so that the earnings are given out as grants and the principal remains, meaning they will also serve as an indefinite, beautiful reminder of Marv’s life, and continue to fulfill philanthropic goals in the North Crawford region forever.

“This gift is a lasting dedication to the love, friendship, and community passion that Dr. Faust shared with the greater North Crawford area,” says Wyatt Jackson, President of the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin. “It will allow students to pursue post-secondary education by helping them financially, and it will enhance local schools’ abilities to create programs otherwise unfunded by any other source. We are honored to continue his revered legacy.”

Stories of Dr. Marv Faust are plentiful, and Jan recalls many of them fondly. Establishing the two funds is a testament to Marv’s ability to immortalize his stories of growing up, hard work, family and a life well lived and loved – a gift to all the people who knew him, and even those who didn’t.

FOR MORE ON THE NORTH CRAWFORD EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION FUND, CLICK HERE.