Achieve and serve

Recognizing student financial challenges, impacting Native American students and supporting Bobcat athletes are the goals of a transformative estate gift

By MSU Alumni Foundation

August 25^th, 2025

Dr. Robert Marley and Margaret Maben ’94 came to Bozeman, Montana, in 1990, when Robert accepted an assistant professor position in engineering at Montana State University. The winter of 1990-91 was one of the worst on record, and Margaret remembers thinking, “What have we done?!” Margaret and Robert grew up in Kansas. As well as Montana State’s reputation, the couple was also drawn to Bozeman because Robert had fond memories of the state from his childhood when his father worked for a time in Eastern Montana.

It didn’t take long — despite the feet of snow in October that first year — for both Robert and Margaret to fall in love with Bozeman, MSU and Montana in general. Bozeman is home; Montana State is home. And Margaret and Robert are giving back, leaving their own indelible mark on the place that holds such a special space in their hearts.

Robert and Margaret are creating a permanent legacy at Montana State through giving, including a gift in their will. “It was important to give from our estate so that each of our areas of giving could be made into endowments,” Robert said. “Buildings come and go, but we want to offer students something that is always going to be there for them, a permanent part of what MSU has to offer both now and in the future.”

For 25 years, Robert taught at MSU and also served for 12 years as the dean of what is now the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering. Margaret earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology at MSU and had a subsequent career as a microbiologist.

Margaret was very impressed with the microbiology department and its professors at MSU. “It was so fascinating,” she reminisced. “I remember Dr. Norman Reed teaching his class out of journals. Things were changing so quickly in the field that textbooks were obsolete as soon as they came out.” Margaret had previously earned a graphic design degree from Wichita State University, where her art illustrations and attention to detail had caused her to be recommended to pursue a medical art degree. But she fell in love with growing bacteria and worked for SGM Biotech in Bozeman.

Robert had come to Bozeman when he decided to pursue an academic career in industrial engineering instead of one in the corporate world. During college, where he started in general studies and contemplated many careers, including law, Robert worked part-time as a rehabilitation engineering technician at the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation, where he helped design adaptive technologies for severely disabled adults. “I fell in love with the industrial engineering side of how people use technology in their lives and work,” Robert said. He completed both his master’s and doctorate degrees in industrial engineering at Wichita State.

After 25 years, they left Bozeman temporarily as Robert pursued his administrative career, including serving as provost at Missouri University of Science and Technology and helping to set up a new engineering school in Kuwait. The couple looks forward to returning to Bozeman permanently in the next year or two, after retirement. They also look forward to furthering their impact at Montana State.

The estate gift will also establish the Marley-Maben Native American STEM Scholarship, the Marley-Maben Native American EHHD Scholarship, the Marley-Maben Native American STEM Fellowship, the Marley-Maben Native American EHHD Fellowship, and the Marley-Maben Microbiology Scholarship.

“The undergraduate scholarships and graduate school fellowships in STEM that will be established are in memory of our parents who were educators. The breadth of the programs, especially in STEM, serves students and MSU continues to rise nationally and internationally. Having been dean at MSU for many years, I want to continue making a difference for students and the university,” Robert said.

Montana State University’s 1893 Society honors and recognizes Robert and Margaret’s transformative gifts, and all those who have made a planned gift commitment to Montana State University with a gift in their will or other estate planning mechanism, such as annuities, trusts, retirement plans, real estate or life insurance policies.

2025 award winner: Verna Billedeaux

The recipient of the 2025 Marley-Maben Native and Indigenous Peoples Leadership Award is Verna Billedeaux, MSU Extension agent on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

Billedeaux helped to develop the Blackfeet Natural Resources Conservation District, which supports tribal agriculture and conservation from water rights and weed management to grazing. She also worked to establish a USDA Farm Service Agency and Natural Resource Conservation Service satellite office in Cut Bank.

Billedeaux also helped to found the Blackfeet 4-H program in Browning and, according to nominators, works to ensure that MSU Extension resources and information are available across the large areas of Glacier County and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.