Dave Roberts and Patricia Dionne
By Laura Byrne Paquet, BJ/87
Between them, husband and wife Dave Roberts and Patricia Dionne run three Ottawa businessess: an esthetics studio, a hot-air balloon company and a sports bar. So perhaps it’s not surprising that when they decided to create a bursary at Carleton University in their wills, they focused on supporting future entrepreneurs.
The funding will go to a second-year student in the Sprott School of Business from the National Capital region. The couple pinpointed secondyear students because they felt that, by second year, students would be more certain of their educational path.
“It’s not about us and our legacy. It’s about others and having a continuing impact on somebody that may need financial assistance: somebody that can demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit, somebody that maybe comes from a lower income household… somebody that may continue to employ people in our community,” says Roberts.
Perhaps more surprising than the focus of their gift is the fact that the couple chose Carleton, as they are not alumni. “We have no connection with Carleton at all,” says Roberts.
So what attracted them? The Sprott School of Business and its solid reputation. “We’re really proud to have that school in our own city,” says Dionne.
Their accountant had set up a planned gift with Carleton, and a friend had also mentioned the idea to them. The couple have no children together and were thinking about ways to ensure that whatever is eventually left in their estate will go to a cause that reflects their interests and values.
Both Dionne and Roberts say it has been easy to work with the university to hone their ideas for the gift. “They’ve been really accommodating,” Roberts says.
The pair are eager to give Carleton students opportunities they themselves didn’t have. “We’ve both worked really hard our whole lives,” says Roberts, who was an OC Transpo bus driver and a City of Ottawa firefighter before becoming an entrepreneur. “I never finished high school, so maybe one of the biggest mistakes that I personally made was not completing post-secondary education.”
One unexpected side benefit to working with Carleton has been having a reason to visit the campus. “Sometimes when you look at youth, you say, ‘Oh my God, where is this world going to?’” says Dionne. “And we go to Carleton, and there’s so many great, intelligent, hard-working young people that we say, ‘Oh,there’s a chance!’”