Johns Hopkins Gazette | December 8, 2008
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The newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University December 8, 2008 | Vol. 38 No. 14
 
Hodson Trust Awards $12 Million to Four Maryland Colleges

Support to JHU and others over eight decades now tops $210 million

The Johns Hopkins University is one of four Maryland colleges that last week was awarded a grant of $3 million from the Hodson Trust. The $12 million support brings the total awarded over the life of the trust to more than $210 million. Grants also went to Hood, St. John's and Washington colleges. In cooperation with the colleges, the trust also continues to support the Hodson Trust Star Scholarship program, established last year, for men and women who have served in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Hodson Trust was settled in 1920 by the family of Col. Clarence Hodson, who grew up in Maryland. The initial investment was just $100, according to Finn M.W. Caspersen, chairman of the Hodson Trust for more than three decades. "Reaching the $210 million mark in total giving is a tremendous milestone, and a remarkable tribute to Col. Hodson's vision," he said.

Hodson believed that credit should be available to the average American, a revolutionary idea in 1914 when he founded the Beneficial Loan Society. Beneficial became one of the nation's most successful corporations. Caspersen headed the company from 1976 to 1998, a period of dramatic growth for the company.

"The Hodson Trust has built strong partnerships over many decades with the four outstanding educational institutions we support," he said. "It is deeply gratifying to see the impressive return on the Hodson Trust's investments at each of these schools — reflected in the accomplishments of their faculty and students and in the excellence of their academic and extracurricular programs," Caspersen said.

President William R. Brody of Johns Hopkins said, "The Hodson Trust's extraordinary investments in Johns Hopkins are making a profound difference in the life of this institution and the lives of those we serve."

This year's Hodson grant to Johns Hopkins will fund independent research by undergraduates, cancer research, fellowships in nephrology, publication of T.S. Eliot's prose and a curatorship for the university archives.

"We are grateful to the Hodson Trust for their enduring partnership and their support of some of the university's most important initiatives," Brody said.

Three schools this year awarded Hodson Trust Star Scholarships to a total of eight students who have served in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. The awards fully fund tuition, room and board, books and other mandatory fees that are not otherwise met by federal, state and other private sources. One Hodson Star Scholar enrolled at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies, four at Washington College and three at Hood College.

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