Scholarship helps abuse victims
By Reem Al-Omari and
Claudia Hibbert-BeDan
The Metropolitan
Michaela Marcum was 10 years old when her father killed her mother, a Metro professor, in an Auraria Campus parking lot.
Pamela McIntyre-Marcum, who taught advertising and marketing at Metro during the 1970s and 1980s was verbally and physically abused throughout her 15-year marriage to James Marcum, said Michaela, a 21-year-old Metro junior majoring in speech communications.
ãAs far back as I can remember, they fought,ä Michaela Marcum said. ãThat was always there.ä
James Marcum also sexually assaulted Michaela when she was 7 and lost a custody battle for her and her brother, Brendan, when she was 8.
McIntyre-Marcum divorced James Marcum in 1985. Two years after the divorce on the morning of Jan. 30, 1987, James Marcum killed Pamela McIntyre-Marcum on campus. Pamela was 43.
He shot her numerous times then turned the gun and shot himself in the head. Michaela said her father told her mother that he wanted to meet her on campus that day to give her a check.
ãBut he gave her a bunch of bullets instead,ä Michaela said.
According to information from Metroâs Institute for Womenâs Studies and Services, 42 percent of women who are killed every year are murdered by their intimate partners. Now the institute offers a scholarship, the Pamela McIntyre-Marcum Memorial Scholarship, which was established in 1991, to help survivors of domestic abuse pursue their education at Metro.
Michaela, who started attending Metro in 1995, helps choose award recipients and hands out the awards at a reception.
This yearâs reception will be May 6 at the Governorâs Mansion. An award of $250 is given to part-time students and $500 is awarded to full-time students at Metro.
Scholarship funds come from tickets to the reception, which are $7 for students and $14 for Metro faculty.
Twelve recipients will be awarded with the scholarship this year.
ãI feel good about people getting a lot of education from the scholarship,ä she said. ãI did choose to come to Metro because Mom had been here.ä
An assistant pastor at Michaelaâs church told her about her motherâs murder a few hours after the incident.
ãI almost broke a car window,ä Michaela said. ãI was very upset.ä
Michaela spent eight years in therapy for help dealing with the incident.
She stopped therapy during her junior year in high school, but three years later she was suffering from mood swings and went back.
On the anniversary of her motherâs death each year, she takes someone special with her to place a bouquet on her motherâs grave.
ãI didnât eat, and I didnât want to talk to anyone,ä Michaela said. ãI kept to myself a lot.ä
Bruce and Shelly Wilhelm, McIntyre-Marcumâs friends, took care of Michaela and her brother, Brendan after the incident.
McIntyre-Marcum had befriended Bruce Wilhelm when he was her student at Metro.
Michaela said she and her brother would have been put in an orphanage if it werenât for the Wilhelms.
Pamela McIntyre-Marcum was involved in numerous activities as a faculty member at Metro.
She was the faculty advisor for Phi Chi Theta, a business marketing honor society, and she was also a member of Metroâs Board of Publications.
Metroâs student government named her Educator of the Year in 1980.
