Henson School Receives Endowment Trust Disbursement

SALISBURY, MD -- Some 15 years after he first endowed the Richard A. Henson School of Science and Technology at Salisbury University and five years after a second major gift for science equipment, the late Richard A. Henson is making one more bequest:  the final $1.4 million fund disbursement of a charitable trust that he established for the school in 1988.
 

This gift, from the estate of Richard A. Henson, will enable SU’s Henson School to continue a successful scholarship program first established by the founding endowment.  “We are most grateful to the late Mr. Henson and the Henson Foundation which has been supportive of this and other Henson School programs,” said Albert C. Mollica, executive director of the Salisbury University Foundation and vice president of advancement. “These scholarships are particularly critical in these times.” 

More than 125 students have been Henson Scholars since 1988.  They have matriculated to some of the best medical, graduate and research programs in the country and Henson School alumni have gone on to universities such as Duke, Johns Hopkins, and William and Mary, among others.  Their work has spanned the planet as they have participated in research projects as far north as Alaska and as far south as Antarctica.

At a gala ceremony in Annapolis in 1988 that included then Governor William Donald Schaefer and the late Thomas E. Bellavance, former president of Salisbury University, Henson said, “I think we have a right to demand a tangible commitment of quality on our campuses….  Less than best is not enough.”

Bellavance hoped the new Henson School would prepare students “for careers that will take them into the scientifically advanced world of the 21st century.”  Both their dreams came true, in part, because of the endowment.

Currently 1,300 students are majoring in the Henson School’s 11 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. This past year Henson officials participated in the opening of the state-of-the-art  $37 million Henson Science Hall, one of the largest science facilities in the state.  Two Henson professors this spring were honored with the coveted University System of Maryland Regents’ Faculty Award, the highest honor given to faculty in the USM.  The Henson School has been a leader in the national undergraduate research movement, which has become a hallmark of an SU education.

“Mr. Henson and the Henson Foundation continue to make it possible for students to launch exciting and rewarding careers in science and technology through this endowment,” said Dr. Tom Jones, Henson School dean.  “The endowment is the cornerstone of our efforts to recruit and retain the best and brightest science students and faculty."

For more information on the Henson School, call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.