Zicklin Alum Inspired by Memories of MLK Creates Accounting Scholarship

Last semester, while alumnus Ed Mendlowitz (BBA, ’63) was teaching a graduate seminar at the Zicklin School of Business, he remembered that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been the commencement speaker at Mendlowitz’s graduation ceremony exactly six decades ago.   

Ed Mendlowitz (BBA, ’63)

“King was a rising star, but he hadn’t become the national leader of the civil rights movement yet,” Mendlowitz recalls. (That didn’t happen until some two months later, with the iconic “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C.)  More importantly, as Mendlowitz shared his memories of the speech with his students, he decided it was finally time to do what he’d been considering for years: Give back to the institution that had helped him launch a successful career as an accountant and founding partner of his own CPA firm.  

“I decided to pledge $60,000 in honor of graduating 60 years ago,” Mendlowitz says. But after contacting the Baruch College advancement team, he ended up pledging even more—$100,000, after learning that if he committed to that amount, CUNY would match 25 percent of it.    

Mendlowitz’s experience as a Zicklin adjunct instructor played a big role in this decision. He’s taught two courses here since August 2021 on Zoom.  He was then asked to create and teach a course in managing an accounting practice—one of the many topics he’s an expert in, having published 30 books on accounting practice management, taxes, estate planning, and related subjects. “[Teaching that course] was probably the most exciting thing someone could have asked me to do,” he says. “I’d been on [COVID-19] lockdown for three years! That would also be my first time back in Manhattan.”  

Another important influence was Mendlowitz’s own father, who spent several years studying accounting at Baruch College to qualify for the CPA exam, but never graduated. Mendlowitz named his gift the Mendlowitz Family Scholarship, to honor his father as well as himself.   

Back when Mendlowitz applied to college, his choices were either City College, which charged no tuition at the time, “or NYU, which cost fifteen hundred dollars a year back then.” His family couldn’t afford NYU, so City College it was. He started at the Harlem campus and switched to Baruch (then known as “City College Downtown”) the following year. “My kids went to sleepaway colleges,” he observes, “but when I was growing up, nobody went away to school.”  

Mendlowitz is “amazed” by the quality of the Zicklin students he teaches, especially “how well they write,” he says. “It blows my mind. They’re so articulate, responsive, and hardworking.” He feeds off their energy, he adds: “What could be better than spending three hours a week with young, excited, smart people?”  

It’s a rhetorical question, of course, but perhaps the truer answer is “helping them pay for college”—which is what the Mendlowitz Family Scholarship is all about. Other than dedicating it to accounting students, Mendlowitz imposed no criteria on his gift. “It’s to be awarded as the scholarship committee sees fit,” he explains. “It’s not a lot of money—three thousand a year, eventually going to six thousand—but it helps take some pressure off.”  

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