The Seiver Endowment is a charitable effort comprised of four academic scholarship endowments and one Arbor Day endowment set up by David Sean & Helena Marie Seiver at both their alma maters: University of Houston and Michigan Technological University, and the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana, as well as with the Arbor Day Foundation with the primary goal to support college students and support good forest stewardship.
U of H Campus
Philosopher Tamler Sommers, Helena Seiver, and David Seiver in late-2018 on the University of Houston main campus discussing the mission of the Very Bad Wizards Philosophy Scholarship Endowment, the latest addition to the Seiver Endowment
Both David and Helena are professional engineers and thus two of the scholarship endowments are set up specifically for aspiring engineering students. The University of Houston scholarship endowment, the first of the Seiver scholarship endowments, was set up in honor of David's mother, Margie Nell Eaves Seiver in 2008. The Michigan Technological University scholarship endowment was set up in both David and Helena Seiver's name in 2012. The third scholarship endowment, set up in 2016, at the University of Montana (in Dave's father's name, John Richard Seiver, who passed away April 10, 2018) is in forest stewardship, something that Dave, Helena, and John Richard, have a deep appreciation for. The fourth, and latest scholarship endowment, was set up in 2019 for the University of Houston’s Philosophy Department, inspired by an excellent philosophy podcast, Very Bad Wizards, co-hosted by local U of H philosopher, Tamler Sommers. Both Very Bad Wizards, Tamler and David Pizarro, visited the Seiver Ranch in Montana in July 2021 and recorded several podcasts from the Seiver Ranch Guest House.
In late-2021 David & Helena Seiver formed a new endowment with the Arbor Day Foundation in order to foster reforestation efforts in both Texas and Montana. This is a new type of endowment and a first for Arbor Day in order to establish a funding mechanism to financially support their efforts to plant trees in areas that need it throughout the states of Texas and Montana, and to provide matching funds to encourage other supporters to donate to these same causes.
We are happy to announce that all four of the University Scholarship Endowments and the Arbor Day Tree Stewardship endowment are now FULLY FUNDED!
This website was created as a mechanism for updating the financial status of the scholarship endowments to the public, proudly displaying scholarship winners, and providing contact information for new prospective donors, both individual and corporate.
As of December 2023, the combined Seiver Endowments exceed $237,000, and has awarded a combined total of 35 academic scholarships to deserving students across 3 Universities!