{"id":1133,"date":"2017-12-01T09:25:18","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T14:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/?p=1133"},"modified":"2018-01-24T14:51:49","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T19:51:49","slug":"a-lifetime-of-giving-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/2017\/12\/01\/a-lifetime-of-giving-together\/","title":{"rendered":"A lifetime of giving, together"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Phyllis
Phyllis Peters Look and Cal Look.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a high school student in a small Iowa town, Phyllis Peters Look \u201951 did not think she would ever attend college.<\/p>\n

It was only after an aunt living in Detroit called and said she would pay for Peters\u2019 college education if she came out to Detroit and lived with her that it became an option.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not said outright,\u201d Peters remembered, \u201cbut it was understood that I would attend either University of Detroit or Mercy College of Detroit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters, who enjoyed a bookkeeping class she took in high school, liked the idea of becoming an accountant and the curriculum for it offered by University of Detroit, so she made her choice.<\/p>\n

Almost seven decades later, Peters is, like her aunt, a benefactor for those who want an excellent education. She has spent years supporting the University with her time, talents and treasure. She and her late husband, Cal Look, have been very generous to the University. The two have set up a scholarship bearing her name; a second scholarship in Look\u2019s name came from his estate. Peters has also included a significant gift for the University in her estate planning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is important,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is nothing better than a good education to help you succeed in any way, whether it\u2019s financial or spiritual. Education always makes the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

So at 17, Peters moved from Iowa to Detroit and threw herself into studying. She knew from the first semester that she wanted to major in accounting, even if was something few women did at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember going to my auditing professor in my senior year and saying, \u2018I\u2019m going to graduate in June, what am I going to do then?\u2019\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n

The professor told her she was going to work for one of the Big Eight international CPA firms. \u201cBut they don\u2019t hire girls,\u201d Peters lamented, to which the advisor replied, \u201cThey\u2019ll hire you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was right. Early in her last semester,  Peters made appointments to interview with four public accounting firms operating in Detroit. She received offers from the first three firms, so she cancelled the fourth. She chose a company that today is Deloitte and had a groundbreaking career with the company for 42 years, beginning on the audit staff in Detroit and culminating as Director of Professional Standards.<\/p>\n

Throughout her career, she maintained a relationship with the University, speaking to students about careers in accounting and serving as the first woman President of University of Detroit\u2019s Alumni Board.  <\/p>\n

In retirement, Peters has continued to be involved with the University.  She has mentored Business students, served on the College of Business Administration\u2019s Board of Advisors and helped students hone their job interview skills with the University\u2019s Career Education Center.<\/p>\n

Peters was focused on her career and it wasn\u2019t until she was in her 30s that she met the man who would be her husband. She was at a client\u2019s office for a meeting, but the client\u2019s previous meeting was running late and she was told she would have to wait. A salesman who had an appointment with the same person after her, was told he would have to wait, too. He introduced himself to her; his name was Cal Look.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he turned to me and said, \u2018Shall we go get a cup of coffee while we wait?\u2019 \u201d Peters said sure.<\/p>\n

The two discovered that though they had never seen each other before, they worked two floors apart in the same building. The coffee went well, and Look asked if they could do it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was busy with some client deadlines that had to be met,\u201d Peters said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have time for coffee with someone I hardly knew.\u201d But Look was persistent and the two started dating. It turns out Look, who was from a longtime Detroit family \u2014 his father was a close friend of Bob Calihan, whose name graces Detroit Mercy\u2019s Calihan Hall \u2014 and wanted to attend University of Detroit, too, but his father insisted he attend Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

Peters introduced her husband to the special world of University of Detroit Mercy and the two were fixtures at basketball games and other University events for years. He grew to love the University as much as she did, and in his will he left $300,000 to Detroit Mercy for expendable scholarships. All funds in expendable scholarships are awarded to students. This gift provides four $10,000 scholarships each year until the funds are fully expended, which Peters said will be the year her husband would have turned 100.<\/p>\n

Some were surprised that such a large gift would go to Detroit Mercy, seeing that Look  had not attended the University. But a friend explained it this way: \u201cCal was very proud of you and what you have accomplished,\u201d the friend said. \u201cAnd in a large part it\u2019s a result of your University of Detroit education.\u201d <\/p>\n

Peters agrees with her late husband\u2019s assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great education,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I probably didn\u2019t fully understand at the time the Jesuit spirit that pervaded the school and everything I did there. As I matured, I began to understand the importance of service and giving back that both the Jesuits and the sisters of Mercy bring to all the University does. I give because I think it\u2019s very important to keep that spirit alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Campaign for University of Detroit Mercy is raising funds to make a Detroit Mercy degree more affordable to students. Please consider making a gift toward the $100-million goal online<\/a> or by calling 313-993-1250. Gifts of any size can make a major difference.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a high school student in a small Iowa town, Phyllis Peters Look \u201951 did not think she would ever attend college. It was only after an aunt living in Detroit called and said she would pay for Peters\u2019 college education if she came out to Detroit and lived with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":1134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[13,10],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2017\/11\/looks.jpg?fit=600%2C315&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Kcng-ih","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1135,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133\/revisions\/1135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}