1991
Bio:
More than fifty years after graduating from Roosevelt Elementary School in Detroit, Warren J. Coville is doing something he believes will have a significant, positive impact upon the Roosevelt youth. As co-founder, with his wife Margot, of the Trico Foundation, the Covilles have pledged to finance the college or vocational education of every qualifying fifth grade student in the 1987 graduating class at Roosevelt Elementary.
After serving as an aerial photographer in World War II, Warren Coville returned to the Detroit area where he became a portrait photographer and eventually opened his own studio, Coville Portraits. In 1955, Coville joined with Bill Davidson to form ABC Photo, Inc., a photo finishing company, for which he served as president. In 1967, ABC merged with Guardian Industries and was renamed Guardian Photo, a division of Guardian Industries. Coville retired in 1985, but remains as Chairman of the Board of Guardian Photo, now a nationwide photo finishing company.
Margot Coville was born in Munich, Germany. A survivor of the Holocaust, she came to the United States from Europe in 1946 and two years later married Warren. She was an active volunteer at Children’s Hospital working with the children of Detroit for the past 27 years and serves on the Board of Trustees.
The Covilles were inspired to become involved with the students at Roosevelt Elementary School after viewing a segment on “60 Minutes” featuring Eugene Lang, founder of the “I Have a Dream” Foundation – New York. They began corresponding with Lang, feeling a need for a similar program in the Detroit area. In September, 1986, the ”I Have a Dream” Foundation-Detroit was born.
Margot and Warren Coville reside in Bloomfield Hills. They have three children: Lynn, Betsy, and Claudia.
Award was presented at the Works of Mercy Dinner April 25, 1991 by Maureen A. Fay, O.P., President, University of Detroit Mercy and Richard B. Kughn, Chairman of the UDM Board of Trustees and President of Kughn Enterprises.