Yusuf Galip Üçok Endowed Orphan Fund
Yusuf Galip Üçok, an educator, was born in 1916 in Bunyan, Kayseri. He became an elementary school teacher and taught in one-room village schools in Pinarbasi, Burunguz, and Bunyan. In 1955, he moved his family to Istanbul along with his in-laws. The move to Istanbul from Bunyan was initiated by one of his brothers-in-law’s entrance to the Technical University of Istanbul. Thinking about the future and desiring to educate his children, this move made sense to him, although it came with hardship. He first started teaching in elementary schools in distant small villages from the Istanbul region, away from his family. In 1957, he was assigned to Mevlana Kapi Orphanage (Mevlana Kapi Yetistirme Yurdu) as a teacher and mentor for orphan children ages 13 to 18 years. This assignment was one of the important highlights of his long teaching career. Since he grew up as an orphan himself, this assignment was very personal. He was loved by his students, who visited him frequently at his house on weekends and stayed for dinners with the family. Yusuf Galip Üçok, a dedicated teacher, wanted to make sure these kids were educated and/or learned skills before leaving the orphanage and becoming productive members of society. He later happily realized that his longtime dream of educating his children came true. His two sons became engineers and his daughters became a homemaker, lawyer, and architect.
The endowed fund grants to orphanages in Turkiye was established by his son, Hikmet Üçok, and daughter in-law Marilyn Üçok of California to honor his father’s legacy at the Mevlana Kapi Orphanage. The memorial fund’s intent is to motivate orphans to pursue their education– academic and/or vocational, and also provide support for aged-out orphans in their transition out of the orphanage. The grants will be issued once a year.