Scholarship helps mom work through grief

Bereaved mother Fran Boller, whose family roots in Morris Plains extend back multiple generations, recently opened the Jordan Krakauer Memorial Scholarship Fund in memory of her late son.

The fund will award a $10,000 scholarship annually to a student of college age whose life, she said, reflects the spirit with which her son lived.

“My son was a very generous and humorous person,” Boller said. “He was one of those people who had a light about them.”

Candidates can apply if they’re attending a four-year college, a community college, or a trade school, she said.

“Usually, to qualify for a scholarship, you have to be the smartest kid, the best athlete, and you have to go to a university,” she said. “This one is for a well-rounded kid. It’s for kids who, like Jordan, love life, love sports, and have a passion for everything.

“But,” she added, “we also want it to be for kids who don’t have the opportunities that Jordan had.”

Krakauer, who was a rising senior at William Paterson University when he died of a seizure this past February, traveled extensively in the U.S. and Europe with his mother and his father, Ronald Krakauer, a lawyer in both New York and California, on their respective business trips. His father sits on the board of directors of the scholarship fund.

In some of those travels, the young Krakauer met many sports world luminaries, mainly because his mother is a longtime lifestyle, sports, and apparel marketing executive, currently a Nike/Jordan executive vice president.

“He was only 22, but he attended 10 Super Bowls, four World Series and five NBA final games,” Boller said. “To show you how much of a sports fanatic he was, I have a giant Yankee logo on his headstone. Because I’ve always been in the sports and fashion market, it all became part of his life, too.”

Krakauer, who was planning a career in sports marketing, recently had completed an internship working for Nike Kids.

$106,000 donated

Today, the athletes he met in his travels are rallying to donate to the scholarship founded in his name. According to the Jordan Krakauer Memorial Scholarship Fund, it has collected $106,000 in the past three months, thanks in part to contributions from Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, Vince Coleman, Jason Kidd, and Carl Banks.

The goal of the scholarship fund, though, is also to raise money from the public until $250,000 is collected, said Boller, who now lives in North Caldwell. Her parents, Paul and Barbara Boller, still live in Morris Plains, and other relatives live in Denville, Randolph, Wharton, and Dover.

If a quarter million dollars is raised, Boller said, “we know we will be giving out scholarships forever.”

At first, Boller was so devastated by the loss of her only child that she, essentially, stayed in her home and didn’t emerge for three months. Then, with some reluctance, she returned to work. It was her ex-husband, with whom she is very friendly, who first suggested that she should do something in their son’s memory.

“Then my company offered to support whatever I did,” she said. “So that’s when we came up with the idea of the scholarship fund and helping other kids who are like Jordan.”

For the underdog

These days, Boller copes with her grief in part by recalling her son’s finest attributes, the very ones she is trying to perpetuate with the scholarship fund. He always stood up for the underdog, for instance. Though popular and involved in sports and other activities, she said, her son always paid attention to kids who didn’t have friends or always were on the sidelines.

“Jordan wasn’t a big kid. He was 5 feet 10 inches and very thin,” Boller said. “He once stood up to a kid three times his size—a big football player who was picking on a kid with special needs. Jordan stuck up for the little kid, who idolized him ever since that day.”

She recounted that her son rescued a kitten the day Hurricane Sandy struck.

“Now I have this cat,” she said.

Sometimes, he took friends to the major sporting events he enjoyed.

“If an athlete threw a wristband, he’d catch it and give it to his friend,” she said. “Most other kids would say, ‘No, it’s mine!’ Even at Yankee Stadium, he once caught a baseball and gave it to his little cousin.”

Anyone who wishes to donate to the Jordan Krakauer Memorial Scholarship Fund can do so at www.jordanmemorialscholarship.com or http://thejordanmemorialscholarship.mydagsite.com/the_story

Lorraine Ash: 973-428-6660;lash@dailyrecord.com