Lesley Van Ness Memorial Endowment Funds
lesley van ness endowment for broadcast journalism
Two memorial funds have been established to honor the life and legacy of Lesley Swick Van Ness by her husband Tom, after her untimely death on April 10, 2023. These two funds will be directed for use by students in the journalism field and the other for kids in education and sports. The two funds will henceforth be called The Lesley Van Ness Endowment for Broadcast Journalism Scholarships and The Lesley Van Ness YES Endowment (Youth in Education and Sports).
lesley van ness y.e.s. endowment (youth in education and sports)
A MESSAGE FROM TOM VAN NESS (Lesley’s husband):
Thank you for visiting, we appreciate your time spent with us and Lesley’s legacy.
The Lesley Van Ness Broadcast Journalist Scholarship and the Lesley Van Ness Y.E.S. Endowment (Youth in Education and Sports) fund was established in April of 2023 to honor the life and legacy of Lesley Swick Van Ness following her untimely death, while on vacation in Florida with her family.
As I contemplated how I could possibly honor my wife and the mother of our children, I focused on her two passions … her family and her career in broadcast journalism. These endowment funds are designed to create a meaningful remembrance of her and her love of life and career.
She was raised in a small town outside of Carthage, Illinois, and was the first of her family to attend college. While studying journalism at Illinois State University, she landed a broadcasting internship at WGEM-TV, serving the Quincy/Hannibal/Keokuk markets. She excelled there and built her award-winning career from intern to reporter, anchor, evening anchor and producer in a traditionally male-dominated industry.
After she was married and began her family, she was asked by the corporate office of Quincy Media to develop a recruitment program to help the company attract young broadcast journalists to join its fast-growing media company. Her role included travelling to college and university journalism programs all over the country touting opportunities through one of the first paid broadcast internship programs in the industry. In addition, she worked extensively with news directors and other broadcast executives to educate them on the importance of retention and culture when recruiting the next generation of journalists. Her success and reputation in this area was well received by Gray Media when they bought QMI in 2021. Under Gray, she helped develop paid internships, fellowships, standard pay across the board in every market where Gray operated and held special relationships with students, faculty, and alumni from America’s top journalism schools. She was a force to be reckoned with at any career fair or industry event regarding recruiting and retention.
On the home front, she was a mom and wife, who compared to no one. After our jobs transferred us from Quincy to Morton Illinois in 2017, we found ourselves alone in a new town with no family and no friends. Before, living in our hometown area, we had grandparents helping with our two boys, life-long friends, and were rooted in community in every way possible. Lesley was determined to create the same experience for our family in Morton and set out to involve our children and us in the school district, sports programs, and neighborhoods. Morton is blessed with community strength and support in its programs as we are seeing it firsthand.
We love Morton and Lesley’s foresight for our family has introduced and created a supportive community for her children as they adjust to life without her.
My boys and I will work with the Morton Community Foundation to award select in-state students pursuing a career in broadcasting through the Lesley Van Ness Broadcast Journalist Scholarship. These scholarships are not limited to Illinois schools but to any higher education program in the United States.
The Lesley Van Ness ‘YES’ Endowment will award grants to groups, schools or organizations wishing to improve or grow programs designed to support the youth of their community. This program is also not limited to Morton but where my boys and I see great opportunities for the youth of a community.
Whether you knew her as a broadcast professional, a neighbor, a mother, or friend, we hope you will consider giving annually or one-time to one of two funds described above.
Please click on either endowment to read her obituary, understand Lesley’s story and we would love for you to help us with her legacy by making a donation.
Ideas for annual giving could include a donation of $10 for every run/goal/point your child scores in their sports season or book they read or A on a report card. To remember a birthday or anniversary or a one-time donation to assist in creating additional funds for this year, next year and generations to come. We look forward to sharing the progress of this fund and thank you for helping us remember our Lesley Swick Van Ness.
Tom Van Ness
