Margaret “Meg” C. Osswald died early this year in an accident in the American Southwest. Meg is the daughter of Ellen Maycock and Ken Osswald.
Meg Osswald was an attorney who dedicated her professional life to serving the public in the areas of environmental and natural resource law. A 2016 graduate of the S.J. Quinney College of Law, Meg started her career as an O’Hara Fellow in the Natural Resources Section of the Utah Attorney General’s Office. Following her fellowship, she moved to the Environment Section of the Utah Attorney General’s Office, where she represented various divisions within the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. Shortly before her passing, Meg was appointed Associate Director of the Division of Water Quality. In addition to her work with the Utah Attorney General’s Office, Meg served her community by volunteering with environmental organizations, and she loved exploring the mountains and canyons of the West.
To honor Meg’s legacy of commitment to serving the State of Utah through environmental law, a group of her family, friends, and colleagues have initiated a planning and fundraising effort to establish the Margaret C. Osswald Fellowship program in partnership with the S.J. Quinney College of Law and the Environment Section of the Utah Attorney General’s Office.
The proposed Osswald Fellowship is intended to honor Meg’s contributions to the legal practice and community by recognizing and supporting new law graduates with an interest in practicing environmental law. Eligible Osswald Fellows are those who exemplify the traits embodied by Meg, are committed to public service as a professional endeavor, are interested in practicing environmental law in the State of Utah, and have demonstrated the ability to build community in whatever position they hold.
The organizing group of the proposed Osswald Fellowship hopes to establish a program that mirrors the O’Hara Honors Program, which jump-started Meg’s career in public service. The proposed fellowship would annually award a promising environmental law student at the S.J. Quinney College of Law a summer clerkship with the Environment Section of the Utah Attorney General’s Office, a merit-based scholarship for their third year of law school, and a possible two-year position practicing environmental law in the Environment Section.
In order to establish an endowment sufficient to perpetuate such a fellowship, the S.J. Quinney College of Law requires tax-deductible cash donations and pledges eventually totaling at least $100,000. Given the impact that Meg had on so many people professionally and personally, the organizing group believes this amount of fundraising is more than possible. If you were one of the people lucky enough to have been impacted by Meg’s life, please consider donating to the Margaret C. Osswald Fellowship Endowment Fund to help Meg’s legacy live on and spark the careers of generations of environmental lawyers in Utah. You can contribute to this fellowship by clicking here. If you have additional questions, please contact Lexie Kite at Lexie.Kite@law.utah.edu.