By Tim Schrag ’12 / Courtesy photos
Note: This article originally appeared in the winter 2018 issue of K-Stater magazine.
Mary Jo Rupp Myers ’64 finds contentment in helping others.
One of her favorite quotes comes from Martin Luther King Jr., who in 1957 said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?’”
King’s message resonates with Myers.
“I’ve just learned that true fulfillment comes from reaching out to help others,” she said. “And if you see a need, just get involved.”
Her more than 40-year career has been one of public service and volunteerism relating to helping military families and others in need.
In November 2018, the K-State Alumni Association honored her with the Alumni Excellence Award, which recognizes an alumna or alumnus of Kansas State University whose career, service and achievements exemplify the spirit, values and excellence of the university.
She was born in Abilene, Kansas, and grew up in Manhattan; her parents, Clarence and Marie Rupp, instilled in her a drive for service.
“Growing up in Kansas, we just had a culture of reaching out to help others,” she said. “I mean you can go back to the barn-raising days — the volunteerism that started there.”
She went on to attend K-State, where she met her husband Richard Myers ’65, a now-retired Air Force general, at a fraternity football game. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1964 and married Richard in the summer of 1965 in All Faith’s Chapel. Through his career in the Air Force they would move 26 times. Regardless of where they were stationed, Mary Jo would get involved with the community. Their three children, Nicole, Erin and Rich, and six grandchildren now all live in the Washington, D.C., area.
“She has taught adults to read, children piano, mentored military spouses, helped to get Afghan street children an education, helped give scholarships to deserving military children, pioneered an airline mileage program to get wounded soldiers’ families to them in their time of need, been a cheerleader for others, given my dad the ability to focus on his career and causes, and made my siblings, me and our children feel the warmth of her love and belief in us,” said Erin Voto, Mary Jo’s daughter. “She is a force, and each life she touches becomes a ripple, changing its trajectory and flowing onward.”
Myers is a founding member and president emeritus of the Aschiana Foundation, which supports literacy and vocational training for street children in Afghanistan. Aschiana has trained, nourished and mentored more than 80,000 children and young adults. She first visited Afghanistan in 2002. During one of the visits, she had a transformational experience.
“I met a little boy when we took some school supplies and he came over to thank me and he looked at me with his big poignant eyes and said, ‘Please don’t forget us,’” Myers said. “And I’m not, I’m not forgetting them.”
Aschiana’s board of directors president, Sanya Younossi, described Mary Jo as a compassionate, wise and caring person.
“She has kept her promise and has continued supporting those children through the foundation,” Younossi said. “In addition to being compassionate, Mary Jo has been indispensable in providing guidance on any operation-related issues here in the U.S. and in Afghanistan.”
Myers serves on the Women’s Initiative Policy Advisory Council formed by Laura Bush as part of the Bush Foundation. Previously, Myers was appointed to the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation in 2006 and served through 2009.
Additionally, she serves the board of trustees for the Fisher House Foundation, an organization that provides homes near military and veterans’ medical centers where military family members stay free of charge while loved ones are being treated.
“We look to Mary Jo to help guide the Foundation’s mission with class, integrity and a deep love of our nation’s heroes,” said Mary Considine, Fisher House Foundation’s chief of staff.
Through her work with Fisher House, Myers was instrumental in establishing the “Hero Miles” program that uses donated frequent flyer miles to purchase tickets for families of hospitalized military members to visit their loved ones.
Myers also is the sponsor of the U.S.S. Somerset. This ship was named specifically for Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in honor of the passengers who died on United Airlines Flight 93, hijacked during the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. She has gifted the ship a quilt with squares to commemorate each of those lost lives.
She also serves on the National Military Family Association Advisory Council; is a founding member of ThanksUSA’s Advisory Council, which provides educational scholarships to children and spouses for those in the military; and is an advisory board member of MediSend, an organization that offers education, as well as medical equipment and supplies to charitable hospitals and clinics around the world.
She received MediSend’s first Humanitarian Award in 2004 and has been recognized with The Spirit of the USO Award and National Defense University’s American Spirit Award in 2005.
“I think it’s innate in all of us to want to make things better for those around us,” Myers said of her drive toward service.
After her husband retired from the military, they began to return to campus to help in various roles. Both have served as members of the K-State Alumni Association’s board of directors and chaired the Innovation and Inspiration fundraising campaign. In 2016, they ventured into new territory as Richard became K-State’s 14th president and she became K-State’s newest first lady.
Mary Jo also serves as a member of the Kansas State University Foundation board of trustees.
“I’m really proud of the great work Mary Jo has done on behalf of organizations, boards and the many places we have lived,” President Myers said at his inauguration. “And we’re lucky because we’re both working for our mutual love of Kansas State University.”