Nellie Mae Van Schaick

Nellie Mae Kellogg lived a most adventurous life. While her father was stationed in the Philippines as a medical doctor, she lived with her uncle, Will Keith Kellogg, during the time he was setting up what became the Kellogg Cereal Company. A 1905 University of Michigan graduate, she joined her parents in Manilla as a school teacher. She met and married a dashing, heroic, young, US Army Lieutenant, Louis Joseph Van Schaick, in 1906. He served as an appointed governor of Cavite and later Mindoro. After later serving along the US/Mexico border, in Europe following WW1, and several US Army posts, they retired to a home in Baguio, the Philippines. WW2 intervened and they were made prisoners of war by the invading Japanese. After 3 1/2 years, Col. Van Schaick died just after liberation but during the Battle of Manilla and was later buried in the military cemetery there. Nellie Mae came back to the states and eventually decided to live in Tucson where she settled in 1952 . She had a lifelong passion for children, people, animals, and flowers as well as learning, teaching, and health care. On her death in 1974, the Nellie Kellogg Van Schaick Trust was established to provide scholarships to poor and mediocre children of the Philippines who wanted to study health, sanitation, and medicine especially in rural areas there.