Goal for McReynolds scholarship fund is $25,000

Bill McReynolds

The scholarship in honor of the late Professor Bill McReynolds has received about $8,000 toward its goal of $25,000 needed to endow the scholarship. McReynolds died of a heart attack Aug. 29, 2002, at the age of 72.

Beginning in 1968, McReynolds oversaw virtually every student to come through the School during his tenure because he taught the required history of journalism course. He also taught reporting and other courses until his retirement in 1992.

In May, a Christmas card brochure was mailed to approximately 2,600 alumni of the journalism school in hopes of raising the money needed to endow a scholarship for nontraditional graduate and/or undergraduate students in the School. Nontraditional students are those who enter or return to college to complete a degree program after years away from schools, as opposed to the traditional student, who comes to college directly after graduating from high school.

McReynolds had a special bond with nontraditional students because, he said, he knew how difficult it was to combine studying with the other responsibilities and obligations of the student's life. While working on his Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota, McReynolds balanced work, school and family.

McReynolds and his wife, Janet, moved to Massachusetts in 1998, where he worked as an assistant to the outreach coordinator at the Mashpee Senior Center on Cape Cod.

The CU Foundation allows five years to raise the necessary funds to endow the McReynolds Scholarship. If the goal isn't reached in that amount of time, the funds that have been raised will be used to award scholarships until the resources are exhausted.

Pledges of $2,500 or more can be paid over the five-year period. Please note that the contribution is for The Bill McReynolds Memorial Scholarship Fund, or write "#01-23914-McReynolds" on the check. Donations may be sent to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Colorado-Boulder, P. O. Box 1140, Boulder, CO 80306.

Friends of Bill McReynolds making a donation to the scholarship fund of $100 or more will receive a tape recording of him reading a Christmas story he wrote called "Santa's Simplest Gifts."