The Sasakura Standard

Russell J. Sasakura never went to UW.

Neither did his wife, Gretchen. They never lived in Wyoming. Their children didn’t attend UW, nor did any other relative of theirs. In fact, at the end of Russ’s life in 2023, nothing connected the Sasakura name to the university or the state.

When Russ’s family began looking for a way to honor the accomplished engineer, it wasn’t as simple as giving back to his alma mater. Russ had attended the General Motors Institute, a prestigious program that has since disbanded. His academic career instilled in him some core values he carried throughout his life. Everything he did, he did with excellence, mentorship, character, and impact.

He surrounded himself with a network of other highly accomplished professionals and eventually started his own engineering firm. Russ set high standards, not only as an engineer but also as a person. He believed in hard work and doing things well. He believed in bringing others along with him.

After Russ’s passing, his legacy needed a home. Gretchen looked toward Russ’s network to help her find the right school. Together they reached out to top firms across the Rocky Mountain West and simply asked, “Where are your best engineers graduating from?”

That’s how Gretchen found UW. The answer was Wyoming, more than any other school.

Gretchen wanted to build a scholarship program based on Russ’s values. It was important to her that recipients understood what it means to be a Sasakura Engineer.

The Russell Jay Sasakura Memorial Scholarship is awarded to two students per academic year. The selection process is intentionally rigorous as students not only must distinguish themselves academically but they also must demonstrate their integrity, ambition, and potential. By design, it’s more selective, more competitive, and more exacting in what it asks of its recipients.

Today, the name Sasakura is becoming synonymous with excellence at the University of Wyoming.

The high expectations of being named one of UW’s first Sasakura Engineers are not lost on Zane Rothfuss.

“When I found out I got it, I was really just over the moon,” Zane says. “I immediately called my dad and told him. He was really happy too. I remember being specifically excited about the mentorship opportunities. I can’t wait to work with everyone involved.”

Zane feels that caring about something comes with a responsibility to protect it. He’s been putting this sentiment into practice years before he arrived at UW. As a high school sophomore, he found himself before the Wyoming Senate Education Committee speaking in opposition to legislation he believed could limit educational opportunities. It wasn’t comfortable.

“I believed the bill would make some of my favorite teachers quit and limit the ones who stayed,” Zane says. “Because of this, I went to Cheyenne and gave testimony before the Wyoming Senate Education Committee and told them about my worries.”

The bill eventually died.

“I’m not solely responsible for the bill’s death, but I know I made an impact,” he says. “In this case, I had to step outside of academia to defend it. I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone to protect the integrity of something dear to me.”

That same willingness to push beyond what is expected of him has carried over into his academic career.

He’s a curious student making the most of his time at UW. In addition to being a chemical engineering major, he’s pursuing a certificate in nuclear engineering. On his first day at UW, he was accepted into Dr. John Oakey’s lab and has since conducted undergraduate research with support from the Honors College, the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium, and the Wyoming Research Scholars Program. His work focuses on microfluidics, with downstream applications in tissue engineering.

In April of 2026, Zane had the opportunity to meet Russ’s family for the first time at the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences annual awards banquet. The evening offered Zane a new perspective on Russ’s life. He got to know Russ through the people who loved him.

“All of Russ’s family were very kind, and that was the number one thing that stuck out to me—how welcomed I felt with them,” Zane says. “I never got to meet him, but I get this sense of who he was through the people he surrounded himself with, the family he had.”

For Zane, being a Sasakura Engineer means embodying the values the name represents.

He adds, “I’m going to give this scholarship a good name. They’ve invested a lot in me, and I want his family to know I’m going to deliver on that. I’m going to do everything I can to live up to Russ’s memory.”

No, Russ never went to UW. But his values sure did.