Liberal Arts' Oldest Alumnus Endows Scholarship
October 6, 2000
University Park, Pa–Charles Dewey Prutzman, of Forest Hills, N.Y., has pledged $100,000 to endow an undergraduate scholarship in the College of the Liberal Arts.

At 102 years of age, Prutzman is thought to be the College’s oldest living alumnus. Known as a philanthropist in his home town of Palmerton, near Reading, Prutzman has long lent a hand to charities and organizations in the Lehigh Valley, as well as to his fraternity, Delta Upsilon, in which he has held numerous positions. The scholarship, set up so that students from the Palmerton area have first consideration, is intended to help deserving students studying in any area of liberal arts.

"I thought a general scholarship made a lot of sense," Prutzman said. "because I do not think a scholarship should limit a good student’s educational choices."

Susan Welch, Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts, said, "Mr. Prutzman’s scholarship will allow us to potentially help a great variety of students, some of whom we may not learn about through more specific means of aid."

After graduation in 1918, Prutzman enlisted in the U.S. Army and soon had duties in officer training, where he remained until the Armistice. He attended Yale Law School, and on graduating joined the New York law firm of Chadbourne, Hunt, Jaeckel, and Brown, where he worked until 1939. That year, he became vice president and general counsel, assistant chairman of the board of directors, and executive committee member, all at Universal Pictures in California.

His position led him to count among his close friends such stars as W. C. Fields, Abbott and Costello, Alfred Hitchcock, Jeannette McDonald, Don Ameche, Ginger Rogers, Rudy Vallee, Desi Arnaz and Robert Montgomery. After his retirement in 1950, Prutzman traveled the world and served in the Delta Upsilon’s national organization, at one time holding the office of national president. In 1980 he was named a Distinguished Alumnus by Penn State.

Prutzman’s interest in the University is not surprising; he is one of five brothers to graduate from Penn State, and his son and daughter both earned Penn State degrees, as have several of his grandchildren.