A former Ball State University student has endowed a scholarship to assist students majoring in music at her alma mater.

A $25,000 gift from Joyce J. (Unger) Kellam has established the Honorable Raymond O. and Joyce J. (Unger) Kellam Scholarship Fund. Preference for consideration will be given to students from communities with populations less than 25,000 people. If no music education majors are qualified, then telecommunications or business majors will become eligible.

The couple met during their freshman year in the early 1940s at Ball State when she was majoring in business and music and he was studying pre-law, majoring in history and French. They were married in 1944 with Raymond joining the U.S. Navy, serving in the Pacific theater. During World War II, she taught music and business in Winamac, Ind.

After the war, she taught high school and he attended Columbia University, where he received his bachelor's degree. He then attended law school at Indiana University, graduating in 1948 and then starting a law career in New Castle, where two of their three children were born. After a 30-year career of accomplishments, including receiving his master's degree and doctorate from Southern Methodist University and retiring from the U.S. Navy, he entered private practice in Virginia and served as judge for the state of Virginia for 15 years. He died in 1990.

Joyce Kellam, who now resides in Florida and Virginia, has two grandchildren attending Ball State.

The first recipient of the scholarship is Nathan Miller, a freshman from LaPorte.

(Note to Editors: For more information, contact Ellen Caskey, director of scholarship and endowment services for the Ball State University Foundation, at ecaskey@bsu.edu or (765) 285-7068.)