New endowment created to benefit students and the community 

Steve Wirt, of Bay City, and Dena Jaffe (Wirt), of the Detroit area, met at Eastern Michigan University. The entire Wirt family has had a strong connection to Delta College over the decades so it wasn’t a surprise when Dena Wirt created this fund to assist Delta College students and programming in perpetuity.

The endowment was created with an initial large gift to the Delta College Foundation, which was named as the beneficiary on a life insurance policy. Steve passed away in July 2017 and at the time, Dena said of her husband, “He never accepted the status quo. He always tried to move forward and improve whatever situation he was in.”

Distribution of interest from the endowment will be split to fund travel scholarships, offering students the opportunity for a rewarding, life-changing experience, and Planetarium programming, to offer a wide variety of programming of interest to young and adult attendees.

Dedicated to Delta and the community

The Wirts created several funds over the years to benefit students pursuing higher education, as well as scholarships at many Michigan public universities. 

In 2009, they established the Steve and Dena Wirt Student Impact Fund at Delta College. It helped students who had immediate needs for either scholarship or special needs assistance. Those funds assisted students facing circumstances that would have otherwise hampered their academic success.

They also have been committed to making the community they live in better, something they both learned from their parents. They have also generously supported local organizations working to do that. 

Interested in creating an endowed scholarship? Contact the Delta College Foundation at 989-686-9224  or foundation@delta.edu.