A $1.5 million gift will fund seven scholarships and contribute to the Marilyn Ann White Endowed Discretionary Fund, or “the tutoring fund,” for students in all three branches of the UT Austin Reserve Officers Training Program.
The gift provides additional funding for the Lt. Col. Herbert C. White Jr. Leadership and Scholarship Fund, awarded to two junior or senior Air Force cadets; the Lois Clement White AFROTC Scholarship for Leadership in Health Science, awarded to one junior or senior Air Force cadet; the Senator Martin Dies, Jr. Naval ROTC Leadership and Scholarship, awarded to two Navy midshipmen or Marine cadets; and the United States Marshal Rand Rock Army ROTC Endowed Scholarship for Leadership and Scholarship Award, granted to two Army cadets.
“This is where our future leaders are coming from, and they need a good education,” says donor and School of Nursing alumna Marilyn Ann White. “These young men and women are willing to put it all on the line for us, and currently their needs are being underserved by a lack of private support.”
Scholarships were initially created through funding by White and her cousin, government alumnus Martin Dies III, who combined their philanthropic efforts to honor White’s father, Lt. Col. Herbert C. White Jr., an Air Force officer who received both a Distinguished Flying Cross and a second oak leaf cluster for his service in the Army Air Corps during World War II. The family was honored with the naming of three UT ROTC suites: an Air Force suite, named to honor Lt. Col. White; a Navy suite, named to honor Dies’ father, Sen. Martin Dies; and an Army suite, named to honor Dies’ brother-in-law, U.S. Marshal Rand Rock.