Friday, August 24, 2001
It's the second scholarship established at the campus by William Franklin Shannon.
SHARON, Pa. -- A Hermitage man has given Penn State University's Shenango Campus $100,000 to create the William Shannon Scholarship Endowment.
The scholarship will be used to support students studying human development and family studies at the campus.
William Franklin Shannon, a 1958 graduate of Pennsylvania State University's liberal arts program, made the gift to honor the memory of his father, who was a professional baseball player and steel mill worker.
Earlier gifts: It's not Shannon's first contribution to the campus. He has made gifts to endow an earlier nursing scholarship in honor of his mother, Anna Stewart Shannon.
"My dad was a very supportive, loving man. I am excited by the work being done at Penn State Shenango and I'm confident that my support will be used to benefit humanity that we cannot even envision now," Shannon said.
He is a human-services consultant at Physicians Dialysis Center in Hermitage.
His father was born in Fredonia in 1896 and was a baseball player for the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.
Carnegie Illinois Steel (later U.S. Steel) offered him a job if he would play for its industrial baseball team. Those industrial teams of the early 1900s can be compared to the AAA minor league teams of today.
The new scholarship will be open to all full-time undergraduate students seeking a baccalaureate or associate degree in human development and family studies.
Applicants must have a positive academic record and demonstrate financial need.
The first award will be in fall 2002.