A former nun and her husband give $5 million to Neumann University for its nursing program

When Jackie Fegley, a former nun, got married 51 years ago, money was tight. So she borrowed a dress from a friend.

And when her husband looked at her nurse’s salary the first year he did her taxes, he said: “Do you know you’re borderline poverty?”

But all that changed over the ensuing decades, and on Friday, Jackie and her husband Bill Fegley Jr., who made his career in accounting, gave a $5 million gift to Neumann University. Jackie is a 1971 graduate of Neumann — then called Our Lady of Angels College.

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She also spent 10 years as a nun with the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, which founded Neumann in 1965.

It’s the largest single gift Neumann — a Catholic university in Aston, Delaware County — has received from an individual, and the university in recognition named its nursing college The Jacquelyn Wilson Fegley ’71 College of Nursing.

“Bill and I were both lucky to receive a good education,” said Jackie, 81, who lives in Blue Bell with her husband, a Drexel University graduate. “So we decided that’s where we’d really like to give our money.”

Neumann President Chris Domes said $4.5 million will be used for undergraduate nursing scholarships for students with the most need and highest achievement, and the other $500,000 for lab equipment. The scholarships will begin to be awarded in the fall, with 22 to 25 students benefiting each year and continuing to get the funds over four years.

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Nursing is the largest major at Neumann, with 368 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled. That’s about 17% of the 2,174-student body.

“If the scholarships give somebody an opportunity to change their life, it’s amazing,” said Bill, 78, who started his public accounting career with Arthur Young and then founded his own firm, Fegley & Associates, in 1975.

Domes said he hopes the gift encourages others to invest in higher education.

“It sends a signal that Neumann is a place that is financially strong and getting stronger,” he said. “It’s a real sign from Bill and Jackie that they believe in what we are doing here.”

Born in Chester, Jackie said she grew to admire the Franciscan sisters at her local parish and stayed in touch with them through high school. When she graduated from Notre Dame High School in Moylan in 1962, she joined the order.

During her decade there, she taught grade school, including one year at an orphanage where the children ranged in age from 3 to 9. She said that’s when she started to think she wanted a family.

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She got her bachelor’s degree while in the order, first taking classes at St. Joseph’s University and then moving over to Our Lady of Angels when it opened. She was part of the college’s second nursing graduating class.

“I think there were 10 of us in the class,” she said, including other nuns and lay people. “It was a wonderful experience integrating everyone together.”

After leaving the convent, she worked as a nurse at Holy Redeemer Hospital in Meadowbrook and Nazareth Hospital in Northeast Philadelphia. In January 1974, she met Bill, who grew up in Tamaqua, at a dance at a local pub. In September of that year, they married.

They have five children, now ages 40 to 50, who work as accountants, a personal trainer, a doctor, and a minimart operator.

Jackie has remained in contact with the sisters through the years.

“I love the sisters,” she said. “I still consider myself a Franciscan, just not a Franciscan sister.”

Bill — whose accounting firm has since merged with Morison Cogen LLP, where he continues to serve as a partner — has served on the foundation board for the Sisters of Saint Francis and has chaired it for about four-and-a-half years. And nine months ago, he joined Neumann’s board of trustees. He also has served as a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and an adjunct professor at Drexel and Pennsylvania State University.

The couple has visited Neumann to see how the educational program has grown and were pleased to see its Franciscan spirit thriving.

“I was really thrilled to see that this was how it was progressing,” Jackie said.

The couple attended the naming celebration and gift announcement at Neumann on Friday.

“We’re just pleased that God put us in a position that we’re able to do this,” Bill said.