Walter Y. Murphy Scholarship Program

The Walter Y. Murphy Scholarship Fund is a continuously run program that began in 1997 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the LaGrange Rotary Club. The program is a joint project of LaGrange College and our club. Having been both the LaGrange College President (1980-1996) and the Rotary 6900 District Governor (1991-1992), Dr. Murphy was the ideal person to be honored.

In 2016, the LaGrange Rotary Club kicked-off this 20th anniversary of this program by announcing a 20-month blitz campaign to add $250,000 to the endowment fund. Since then, the Callaway Foundation has agreed to extend this incentive until the club reaches its goal of $300,000,
$150,000 raised and $150,000 matched. Major donors were recognized while others were encouraged to also give. Nine Rotarians were recognized for their generous contributions since last year's celebration. All total, 175 Rotarians have donated to the Walter Y. Murphy Scholarship.

Our November 6th meeting was our annual pre-Thanksgiving salute to the Rotary Club of LaGrange / Walter Y. Murphy Scholarship Fund at LaGrange College and was brought to us by College President and Rotarian Susanna Baxter and LaGrange College Director of Development Andy Geeter. Special guests included this year's scholarship winners plus Rotaract students were also present at this special event.

The scholarship fund has grown from an initial $134,761 to a current total value of $547,364.13. An average of $6,180 was awarded per student. To date, 122 students have been assisted through the scholarship program.