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In 1922 or 1923, the Marshall Rotary C1ub established a student loan fund wher eby students could submit letters of application for loans from the Marshall Rotary Club.  The applications were reviewed, and on a selective basis, money was loaned to students to further their education. The students, naturally had to repay these loans.

 

Mr. Ike Hockwald was, more or less, administrator of this loan fund and he was the one individual who kept it going. Mr. Allen Wesson Weaver was the first recipient of a Rotary Loan from the Marshall Rotary Club.. He attended the University of Texas.. He was a Chemical Engineer and he became owner of a chemical plant in Florida.

 

This Rotary fund began with approximately $500 and during the period of the Student Loan Fund, this loan fund grew to approximately $6,000 with the help of various people. After the loan program was in operation for a number of years, the student's response to the loan fund began to dwindle. Student applications for the loans were not as many as they had been in the past. The reason being that the students' loan needs were being met in other ways -- through the banks, and through funds available at the colleges. On September 23, 1948, at which time Mr. Charles A. Fry was President of the Marshall Rotary Club, this loan scholarship fund was converted to a grant scholarship which the money was given to the students for them to further their education.

 

One of the primary donors to this fund was Mrs. Frank Davis. She was primarily interested in this Student Scholar­ship Fund because her husband, Mr. Frank Davis, was a big supporter of the student loan program and he had an extra­ordinary interest in keeping this student loan program alive. Mrs. Davis' family was the primary donor to this fund, and it was and has been a success because of the Davis Family.

 

As stated earlier this fund reached an amount of about $6,000 but the fund having been been invested wisely and coupled with contributions over the years from Rotarians, has grown to a point now where the income from the principal covers the scholarships that the Marshall Rotary Club gives away each year.

 

A select committee chooses the recipients of the Rotary Scholarships each year. The applications are carefully reviewed, and recipients are chosen by the committee. It is not any easy job to select so few from so many excellent applicants.

 

As with the Student Loan Fund, the grants have had some notable successes as well; one of the most famous being Bill Moyer.