Howard D. Colman Scholarship
Criteria:
An individual who is a graduating high school senior, residing in Boone or Winnebago County, who will major in Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Science, or a comparable technology field. Applicant must have a 3.5/4.0 GPA and personify the innovative spirit of Howard Colman as described in his biography below.
This scholarship is renewable for up to 4 years and could be worth as much as $32,500. Recipients must be willing to accept internship offers through the program and return to the Rockford area upon graduation for at least three years.
Deadline: March 1
Howard D. Colman Bio
1873 – 1942
Howard D. Colman’s career as an inventor and entrepreneur spanned more than half a century of American life. He grew up, in the 1880s, when there was still a strong handicraft tradition in this country and artisans did mechanical job-work as a way of making ends meet; and he died, during the Second World War, when the United States had become the largest urban industrial nation on earth, with an armaments program incorporating the advance technologies of mass production and a highly-organized research community involved in the exploration of the new sciences of digital computing, jet propulsion, and applied atomic physics.
Colman was one of the most gifted American inventors of the 20th Century, though little recognized in his lifetime and all but forgotten since his death. A scientific prodigy who made his own earliest hand tools and taught himself the fundamentals of mechanics and physics, he solved the last great puzzle of textile automation as a young man and eventually launched a machine-building business that dominated the international market. He was a person of amazing conceptual abilities and uncanny insights into the dynamics of force and motion. His experiments in the fields of small motors, temperature controls, textiles, machine tools, and telecommunications earned him 149 U.S. patents and a substantial personal fortune, but practically no other type of popular recognition because of his aversion to publicity.
Unlike Edison who actively promoted himself and his inventions, Colman went to great lengths to avoid attention, refusing to allow his photograph to appear in newspapers, arranging his workday so that it limited the possibilities of outside interruption, and even building a one-room “penthouse” on the roof of his factory to allow him to be close to his work.
This scholarship, honoring Howard D. Colman, was established by Ruth Colman Tower, Howard Colman’s oldest daughter. In 1987, Mrs. Tower named the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois the beneficiary of a charitable remainder trust. It was her desire that, upon her death, this trust would endow the Howard D. Colman Memorial Scholarship.
Biographic information about Howard Colman available in Master Inventor – How Howard Colman Created a Multi-National Corporation, written by Jon Lundin, copyright 2006. Master Inventor is available for purchase at the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois. $10 from each copy sold benefits the Howard D. Colman Memorial Fund of the Community Foundation’s Community Needs Fund.
Application Instructions:
To apply for this scholarship, you must complete an Online Application and submit a Hard Copy Packet of additional materials (see below.) Both of these components MUST be RECEIVED by the March 1st deadline.
The scholarship packet requires your school counselor, registrar or principal to verify your academic information so be sure to allow sufficient time to submit the application. Incomplete and late applications will not be accepted.
Links to Online Applications:
To begin a new online application, click on the link below and follow the instructions listed on the form.
To finish a saved application, click the link below.
Application Downloads for Hard Copy Packet:
The hard copy packet consists of an Application Checklist, Academic Verification Form and Recommendation Form. To download these documents, click on the link below.
If you have any questions, contact James Patterson at 962-2110 ext. 11 or e-mail.