Gaelen Scholarship Encourages Entrepreneurs

9-18-97
University Park, Pa. -- A gift of $50,000 from alumnus Norbert Gaelen (IE '47) will endow a new scholarship for industrial engineering students with an entrepreneurial flair.

The Norbert P. Gaelen Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Scholarship is a need-based award to be given to engineering juniors who are interested in developing entrepreneurial skills such as those provided by courses in the Engineering Leadership Development minor.

"I wanted to help others obtain the kind of engineering education I enjoyed," said Gaelen. "I particularly want to help students who need financial help to gain the education that would have benefited me greatly, had the entrepreneurship and engineering leadership courses been available when I was a student at Penn State."

Gaelen is the chairman and owner of the O. Berk Company in Union, New Jersey, a distributorship for glass, plastic, and aluminum containers. After his graduation in 1947, he joined the company which had been in his family since 1925. O. Berk now employs 75 people and does approximately $50 million in sales.

He is a member of the Penn State President's Club and has generously supported the College for many years.

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Contact: Lani Bloomer (814) 863-2132 (office) kcbdo@engr.psu.edu