R & J Armstrong Family Business Scholarship

The R & J Armstrong Family Business Scholarship is for junior or senior students enrolled full-time in the College of Business, with a preference for a declared Business Administration or Human Resources major.

Criteria

• Recipient must be enrolled full-time and in good standing at Winona State University.
• Recipient must be a student entering their Junior or Senior year at WSU.
• The spirit of this award is to help an average student with a minimum G.P.A of 2.5.
• Preference will be given to a student who demonstrates entrepreneurial interest and has
  held leadership roles.

Biography/Motivation

Bob was originally from the southwest Los Angeles, California area. His family relocated to the Midwest after his junior year in high school. He graduated from WSU in 1969 with a degree in Business Administration and minor degrees in Industrial Psychology and Management. After graduation, he started his career as a Human Resource representative with a computer manufacturing company. For the next six years, he was promoted to higher H.R. management positions until he became Director of H.R. for a high-technology start-up company in the Twin-Cities area. After ten years of serving as Human Resource Officer with high-tech companies, Bob purchased a specialized recruiting company called Accounting Personnel of Minnesota, a professional placement firm for all levels of accountants. During the next ten years, Bob started over four specialized recruiting firms for technical, clerical, temporary, and senior management personnel. He sold this group of recruiting firms in 1989.

At the beginning of 1990, Bob co-founded a value priced software company called WizardWorks. The company specialized in publishing software for the emerging home P.C. marketplace. The software included computer-learning applications, games and other tutorials related to the computer marketplace. The boxed software was sold in retail outlets such as Best Buy, Target, Home Depot, etc. During the next six years, the company was recognized as one of the top value-priced software companies in the United States. The company was sold to a New York City-based public company in 1996. Since 1997 Bob has been active as an angel investor in over twenty start-up companies that range from high-tech, retail, and service-based companies. He has served on the board of directors of eight of these companies and Chairman of the Board on two. Bob has been very fortunate to meet some very innovative, creative and hardworking individuals during this period. He believes these individuals represent the true backbone of successful emerging small businesses today.

Winona State University provided the learning foundation and opportunity to prepare Bob for the various challenges he would experience after graduation and during his working career. While only an average student at best when attending WSU, the support and encouragement he received from the faculty and fellow students will always be appreciated and remembered. To visit the campus today and see how WSU has expanded and has become nationally recognized for both their scholastic and athletic accomplishments further confirms the caliber of faculty, staff, and student population. The recent
accreditation by the AACSB recognizing the College of Business at WSU is but another example of the leadership and accomplishment of which he is very proud. For these reasons, he plans to support Winona State University with a Business College Scholarship as outlined below:

On behalf of the R & J Armstrong family, Bob and Joanie Armstrong would like to provide a permanently endowed scholarship that will financially support a student that is pursuing a major degree from the College of Business. The recipients should demonstrate entrepreneurial drive and spirit that it is hoped will lead them to similar opportunities Bob was fortunate enough to have experienced.