Gift will assist graduate students at Ball State

Gift will assist graduate students at Ball State (10/28/2003)

A gift from the estate of a former local resident will assist graduate students in the mathematical sciences department at Ball State University.

The L. Harper Whitcraft Fund has been created through an $800,000 gift from Barbara Whitcraft, who died in June 2003.

Barbara Whitcraft was the daughter of the late Mary and L. Harper Whitcraft, a Ball State mathematics professor from 1924 to 1951 who died in 1969. In 1964 the university honored him by naming a residence hall in the Studebaker West complex for him.

Barbara Whitcraft graduated from Burris Laboratory School in 1945. At the time of her death she was a resident of Cincinnati.

The fund stipulates the department can use the fund to address its most pressing need.

"At this point our greatest need is in the area of graduate stipends," said Dale Umbach, department chair. "We will use the fund to increase the financial assistance to graduate students in order to make our programs more competitive.

"We are extremely grateful for the gift," he said. "It is always helpful when a friend of the department steps forward to assist our students."

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information about establishing scholarships at Ball State, contact Ellen Caskey, director of scholarship development for the Ball State University Foundation, at ecaskey@bsu.edu or (765) 285-7068.)