Batschelet Endows Faculty Chair, Scholarships

January 16, 2002
University Park, Pa.—The Penn State College of Education is the beneficiary of a $1.5 million gift made by a 1953 College alumnus to endow a memorial scholarship and a faculty chair. The Jane Elizabeth Newlin and Everett Mason Batschelet Memorial Scholarship and the Harry L. Batschelet Chair of Educational Administration are the result of a commitment from the late Harry Lawrence Batschelet II, former vice president for financial development at the American National Red Cross. Harry Batschelet II died in 2001 soon after completing estate plans to create these endowments.

The Batschelet Memorial Scholarship, named in memory of Batschelet’s parents, will be awarded to a public high school graduate or prospective graduate from the active youth of the congregation of the Messiah Lutheran Church in South Williamsport, the donor’s hometown. The recipient will be selected – without regard for race or gender – based on scholastic achievement, character, academic potential and financial need.

The Batschelet Chair in Educational Administration honors Batschelet’s wife, Beverly Ann Batschelet, an education alumna of James Madison University, who was assistant to the executive director of the American Society for Association Executives (ASAE). Because of their connections with ASAE, the Batschelets developed a keen interest in educational issues.

William Lowe Boyd, distinguished professor of educational administration, has accepted the appointment as the first Batschelet Chair Professor. The endowed chair is the College of Education’s second, after the Kenneth B. Waterbury Chair in Secondary Education, established in 1988. Batschelet was a student of Waterbury’s at Susquehanna University; and it was Waterbury who influenced him to complete his studies at Penn State.

Boyd is professor-in-charge of the graduate programs in educational administration and director of the Pennsylvania Education Policy Center. A specialist in educational administration and education policy and politics, he has published more than 120 articles and has co-edited 12 books. He has been president of the Politics of Education Association and an officer of the American Educational Research Association. He also has been a Visiting Fulbright Scholar in Australia and in England, and a Visiting Scholar at Gothenburg University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Wales at Cardiff and the University of Warwick.

Boyd has studied education reform efforts in the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada and Sweden. As a researcher for the National Center on School Leadership, the National Center on Education in the Inner Cities, and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory for Student Success, he has studied: school effectiveness; coordinated school-linked services for at-risk children; and the dynamics of parental choice of schools.

“We thank Dr. Batschelet for the generosity he has shown to Penn State and the College of Education,” said David Monk, dean of the College. “There is, quite simply, no better way to attract and retain the best academic talent in the field. These endowments are crucially important for helping us maintain and improve upon our top national ranking as a college of education.”

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