Robert Weihmayer Bursary
Established by Sandra Horowitz in 2022
In 2022, Sandra Horowitz (BSc’72, MDCM’76) established a generous bursary in memory of her late husband, Robert Weihmayer (BEng’78, BA’79) in recognition of his passion for learning.
Robert was the son of German immigrants from Saar Louis, a small French-speaking town in Germany near Alsace. Robert learned English watching episodes of Mission Impossible and attending classes at McGill. While there, he set himself the challenge of combining Electrical Engineering and Asian Studies, demonstrating a true thirst for learning.
Sandra met Robert while playing tennis. He had just graduated and was working at Bell Northern Research, while she was in her final year of residency at The Neuro. “It was good luck that we met at all,” Sandra remembers. “My workload at school was pretty heavy until that point but it had started to ease up. Which was probably the reason I was out playing tennis.”
Robert and Sandra married the following year. They decided to take on new challenges in their careers and moved to Boston, where their daughters, Melissa and Erika were born. Robert pursued his Master of Computer Science at Boston University and took a position at Verizon. He spent 30 years there, becoming Director, Information Technology, Strategy & Planning.
Robert saw that computers would lead the way into the future, and he made sure that their daughters would be prepared. He taught them computer literacy and sent them to a computer camp before they were teenagers.
The family spoke French at home. When they were university age, Melissa attended the University of Chicago, and Erika followed her parents’ footsteps to McGill, majoring in Political Science and Anthropology.
In 2009, Robert was diagnosed with melanoma and was initially given four months to live. In fact, he lived another two and a half years, determined to see Erika graduate, which he did. He passed away in 2011.
Sandra knew she wanted to honour Robert’s legacy and decided to endow a bursary in his honour. “For us, it was really the perfect solution,” said Sandra. “I wanted to leave a legacy that would acknowledge Robert’s passion for learning new things while helping a student who is in a difficult financial position the way he was.”
Once the bursary was established, Sandra wanted to celebrate the milestone with friends and family. With the Development Office, she organized a combined online and in person commemoration in the Faculty. Dean Jim Nicell attended, and participants from Montreal, London, Massachusetts, California and Ontario joined in.
Among the guests at the event was the first recipient of the Robert Weihmayer Bursary. Taha Ghaoui is a student whose first language happens to be French. He is currently studying mining engineering.
“They were so great arranging the event,” said Sandra. “It added a touch that made the bursary and the memory of Robert feel very special.”
Sandra’s daughter Melissa participated from her home in London, where she is pursuing a Ph.D. at the London School of Economics, studying the role of cities in the assimilation of immigrant populations.
She spoke of how she and her sister Erika share their father’s passion for work and how the celebration of his bursary with so many people from around the world was a reflection of McGill’s international flavour.
Erika said her father was proud to have paid his own tuition and to graduate from an institution like McGill. (His sister also graduated from McGill.) Some years after graduating, Erika took a job to get business experience and now she leads an IT team developing dynamic 365 software. She regrets that her father never got to see just how far she followed in his footsteps.
Sandra knows how proud Robert would be of both his girls.
If you would like to remember someone special by setting up a scholarship, bursary or chair in their name, please contact us.