$4.3 Million Bequest from Mary Andrews Haag Establishes New Scholarship at UC San Diego

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Mary Andrews Haag

The late Mary Andrews Haag left more than $4.3 million from her estate to establish The Frederick and Mary Haag Scholarship Fund at the University of California San Diego. The scholarship bequest was directed from the Mary Andrews Haag Trusts to provide scholarships for outstanding UC San Diego undergraduates. Haag was a longtime San Diego resident and philanthropist. She died in November 2014, at the age of 92.

“We are so grateful to Mary Andrews Haag for her visionary support of scholarships at UC San Diego,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “The gift of education is an investment in our future. Scholarships provide access for outstanding UC San Diego students who will go on to become the leaders and innovators of tomorrow.”

Per the donor’s wishes, The Frederick and Mary Haag Scholarship Fund will provide merit-based scholarships to UC San Diego undergraduates. Haag wanted her gift to help attract students “of outstanding academic ability” to UC San Diego.

Katie Hutchins

The new scholarship will support students like Katie Hutchins, who recently graduated in June. While at UC San Diego, Hutchins discovered that she could pair her love for sports and activity with a career that helps people. The physiology/neuroscience graduate now plans to attend physical therapy school. Yet, without scholarship support, UC San Diego might not have been a reality for Hutchins. She recalls that when she was applying to college, her family was dealing with a difficult financial time.

“I was keeping it in the back of my mind that my parents weren’t really going to be able to contribute to college,” she recalls. “I’ve been working since I was 13 or 14 and saving up. But the scholarship I received really made it possible.”

Haag had a longtime affinity for UC San Diego, which is consistently ranked by Washington Monthly as the top university in the nation based on the positive impact the university has had on the country. Haag was born in Troy, Kansas in 1922. She attended business school in Wichita and went on to work for Boeing. She met J. Floyd “Andy” Andrews and they married in 1944. After World War II, the couple moved to San Diego. Mary worked as an executive secretary at Convair (bought out by General Dynamics). In 1949, Andy co-founded Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), which was later purchased by US Air. After 44 years of marriage, Andy died in 1989.

In 1992, Mary met widower, Frederick “Fred” Haag. They married a year later. Fred Haag was born in Germany, but his family was forced to flee their home during World War II. Fred became an American citizen, formed the Haag Linen Company and invested in commercial real estate. He died in 2007.

In an obituary dated November 16, 2014 in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Mary Andrews Haag was described as “loving and gracious,” “always smiling, friendly and happy.” The obituary also read that “she always took a caring interest in all those around her and was a generous contributor to charitable causes.”

To learn more about the impact of scholarships at UC San Diego, please visit scholarships.ucsd.edu.