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.