Seven-figure estate commitment to create scholarship for military service

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Bob Houston, a graduate of Penn State University and a longtime volunteer, has established a scholarship with a seven-figure estate pledge to assist college students serving within the US military. The Robert J. Houston Military Excellence Scholarship at Eberly College of Science is awarded yearly from a range pool that features undergraduate and graduate college students enrolled at ROTC whose mother and father are military veterans or who’re veterans of military service themselves.

“Bob has been a trusted advisor to the college and an active recruiter of our graduate students, and that mutual trust continues because he knows the rigor of our curriculum and the excellence of our faculty and programs,” mentioned Tracy Langkilde, Verne M. Willaman Dean of Eberly College of Science. “Now, this extraordinary gift deepens his legacy at the college by creating an enduring resource reserve for military families. Bob’s generosity will provide important support to our students for generations to come.”

Houston’s scholarship was designed to ease the monetary burden on college students with a military connection to allow them to purchase the talents and {qualifications} that may allow them to reach careers of their alternative.

“My years abroad opened my eyes to the conditions that limit opportunities,” mentioned Houston, a Vietnam veteran. “As Americans, we share a way of freedom and management over our personal destinies, and my purpose has been to push monetary boundaries apart so Penn State college students can pursue their desires and fulfill their potential. I do know Eberly College of Science provides a top-notch schooling, so now we simply have to be sure that military households have entry to it.”

Houston’s early activation of its scholarship fund this 12 months with extra donations has unlocked assist for an preliminary award of six separate $10,000 scholarships in 2022. Awards of this magnitude are made in perpetuity every subsequent 12 months.

Kailey Bray, a biology pupil who will graduate in spring 2023, was among the many early recipients. Her mom served within the US Air Force as a safety officer, together with a deployment to Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. On her return to Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, whereas six months pregnant, she sustained accidents in an on-duty assault by a neighborhood civilian. Kailey’s father can also be a military veteran. While serving at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, he sustained a number of spinal fractures and knee accidents, leading to a medical discharge.

“My parents met adversity with courage and resilience, and I try to live up to their example every day,” Bray mentioned. “As I work towards my goal of becoming a physician assistant, this scholarship is a strong recognition of her service while also taking a significant toll on my family. I am so grateful for this act of generosity.”

A legacy of military service

Military service flows in Houston’s veins. His paternal grandfather, John Houston, served in World War I, and his father, Robert Houston Sr., distinguished himself as a naval officer, first in World War II and later within the Korean War.

The itinerant lifetime of wartime military service contrasted sharply with the maternal facet of Bob’s household, whose life was rooted within the floor. Houston’s maternal grandparents owned a 120-acre farming estate in West Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, which his grandfather Angus oversaw and managed whereas he was director of the close by 996-acre West Virginia University Reymann Memorial Research Farm. Growing up, Houston and his cousins ​​would spend hours eradicating stones from fields to put together the farmland for plowing.

Houston’s determination to attend Penn State would in the end lead to his household’s military and environmental traditions turning into intertwined. He secured a aggressive ROTC scholarship and have become an officer whereas learning zoology on the University Park campus. During his undergraduate years, he turned a member of the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity and Beta Beta Beta, the college’s chapter of the National Biological Honor Society. His commencement in 1969 coincided with the peak of the Vietnam War.

“I was born in 1947, which made me part of the largest cohort in the baby boom explosion,” Houston recalled. “I made some wonderful friends and developed my leadership skills at Penn State, but I had decided I wasn’t going to apply for a deferment for grad school, so I signed up with the ROTC to give me some control over which branch.” of the armed forces I’d be planted in.”

Houston entered officer coaching at Fort Lee, Virginia and completed high of his class. He selected to be part of the US Army Quartermaster Corps — “I thought I’d run an officers’ club or canteen,” Houston mentioned — however due to his zoological background, he was assigned to the Memorial department to be skilled in funeral providers . After 4 months within the 2nd Infantry Brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia, he was posted to Da Nang, Vietnam.

“I was responsible for overseeing the identification and embalming of fallen soldiers from all branches of the service,” Houston mentioned. “It was difficult at first, but I realized that the grieving families back home depended on us to do a good job. It had a dramatic impact on me to witness the fragility of life and the burden of service and sacrifice.”

Civil life and giving again

After leaving the service, Houston spent a number of years on the college on the University of Pittsburgh whereas working in direction of his doctorate in ecology till he was lured away in 1974 to work as a full-time govt for the civil engineering planning and consulting agency GAI Consultants . He rose to vp of environmental and power providers and a member of the board of administrators. He has spent many years touring the United States and the world evaluating the organizational effectiveness, technical feasibility, regulatory compliance and environmental influence of varied tasks. In 2010 he shines with the completion of the Harvard Leadership Development Program and the Harvard Executive Leadership Development Program.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to see numerous countries around the world and witness history first-hand,” Houston mentioned. “In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, I advised American utilities as ex-communist regimes attempted to integrate private companies into their energy systems, and I also worked with the World Bank conducting assessments in India and China and then engineering projects in Iran and Nigeria.”

Houston’s current reward provides to his historical past of service and philanthropy. He spent six years as an lively volunteer with the Eberly College of Science Alumni Society. In 2018, he made a $100,000 endowment to set up the Robert J. Houston Transformative Experience Endowment and established a will to improve the fund to $250,000 at his loss of life, main him to entitled to develop into a everlasting member of the Atherton Society. The fund helps financially needy college students at Eberly College of Science who’re participating in a examine overseas expertise. In addition to his service to Penn State, Houston additionally served on the board of administrators of the Carnegie Institute and as a board member and president of the Pittsburgh Post of the Society of American Military Engineers, the place he acquired National Fellowship honors.

With the record-breaking success of A Greater Penn State for twenty first Century Excellence, which raised $2.2 billion from 2016-2022, the philanthropy helps proceed the college’s custom of schooling, analysis and service to communities all through Commonwealth and around the globe. Scholarships enable our establishment to open doorways and welcome college students from various backgrounds. supporting transformative experiences permits our college students and college to fulfill their great management potential; and items of discovery and excellence assist us serve and influence the world we share. To be taught extra concerning the influence of the donation and the continued want for assist, please go to elevate.psu.edu.