LAURA W. BUSH SCHOLARSHIP
Created by two large endowments, Dolphin Scholarship Foundation (DSF) is honored to be administering the La11ra W. Bush Scholarship established in honor of First Lady Laura W. Bush for children of USS TEXAS (SSN 775). The scholarship, created by an endowment by the 55th Presidential Inaugural Committee, was announced at the commissioning of USS TEXAS (SSN 775) on September 9, 2006. Committee members included Ambassador Jeanne L. Phillips, Chairman, Eric Bing, Bill DeWitt, Brad Freeman, Mercer Phillips and Tom Jose flak.
A second, larger, endowment for the Laura W. B11sli Scholarship was made by the USS TEXAS (SSN 775) Committee, Inc., of the Texas Navy League. Funds left over from the commissioning were donated to DSF and enables the Foundation to award three scholar-ships each year to children and stepchildren of plank owners of USS TEXAS. Retired RADM Al Kelln, USN (Ret.), former DSF Board Chairman, and CAPT Zeb Alford, USN (Ret.) played vital roles in getting this endowment for DSF and the Laura W. B11sli Scholarship. Mr. Marshal P. Cloyd is Chairman, lnter Marine and serves as President of the USS TEXAS (SSN 775) Committee, Inc. Other members of the TEXAS Commissioning Committee include C.W. ‘Swede’ Andersen, Harry Wayne Brown, Joe T. Coleman, Clinton Grosse and Arthur R. Gralta.
KENNEDY BEQUEST
The Foundation is the beneficiary of another major endowment, from the estate of Edith Emily Kennedy, who passed away in May 2006. Captain Skip Hanzel, USN (Ret.) is the executor of the estate, which will be used to establish the Lisle a11d Emily Ke11nedy Scholarship. Lisle Kennedy rose through the ranks from seaman recruit to Chief Electrician’s Mate to CW03, retiring after 22 years of naval service. His duty stations included Groton, Hawaii and Boston. He then worked as a supervisor at Electric Boat, Groton, CT, for 12 years. Lisle and Emily Kennedy were married for 27 years before his death in 1975. Mrs. Kennedy, who remained a resident of Gales Ferry, CT, bequeathed her estate to DSF in 1996. Interestingly, Randi Klein, now DSF Executive Director, was then the DSF Liaison for the Submarine Officers’ Wives’ Club in Groton and assisted Mrs. Kennedy in making the bequest.
MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIPS
The submarine community lost several family members this past year. One, Katy Chiles, was a former President of the Foundation. Generous family and friends paid tribute to her by donating to DSF in her memory. A scholarship named in her honor will be awarded for the next three years.
The tragic deaths of ETSC(SS) Thomas K. Higgins and STS2(SS) Michael J. Holtz from USS MINNEAPOLIS-ST PAUL (SSN 708) in December 2006 reverberated throughout the submarine community. DSF has named scholarships in memory of these two sailors.
SCHOLARS
DSF will select its 1,OOOth Scholar in 2008. Nine hundred and fifty six Dolphin Scholars have received assistance since the first Dolphin Scholarship was awarded in 1961 for $350. A black and white photograph of a young man made Randi Klein, newly hired at DSF, curious about who he was and why his picture hung on the DSF office wall. Our first scholar, was the only answer; no one knew anything more about him. A determined search led her to John L. Haines, Jr., the First Dolphin Scholar. The $350 scholarship was a good investment for both the Foundation and the young man in the photograph.
John L. Haines, Jr., was the First Honor Graduate (Valedictorian) in the Class of 1963 at The Citadel in Charleston, SC. He graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1966 and passed the Virginia bar exam later that year. He entered the U.S. Army as a First Lieutenant in January 1967, and, after training at infantry and intelligence schools, was assigned to Panama. After promotion to Captain, he served as Adjutant of the 470th Military Intelligence Group, USARSO, and was honorably discharged in January 1969. He remained in Panama, where his civil service career spanned 31 years.
Mr. Haines served a long and very distinguished career with both the Panama Canal Company and then the Panama Canal Commission from February 1969 through December 1999. He began his career as a General Attorney, was promoted to Deputy General Counsel in 1976 and, in 1983, was appointed General Counsel. Mr. Haines was instrumental in drafting U.S. statutes implementing the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977; subsequently, he assisted Panama in developing its own legislation to govern that country’s operation of the waterway, which began on December 31, 1999.
Mr. Haines is an accomplished, self-taught artist. His paintings have been sold and exhibited throughout Panama and the United States. His work may be viewed on the web at www.panamaoeste.com/websites/haines/haines03.htm.
DSF Board of Directors and staff had the privilege of meeting Mr. Haines in October 2006 during a visit by John and his wife Esther to Virginia Beach. Also part of that reunion was Martha Grenfell, the Foundation’s very first President (1961), and the woman with the vision for the scholarship program.
DSF has created The Haines Society as a legacy group for all Dolphin Scholars, and Mr. Haines became the first member with his donation. He is already practicing his golf swing for the upcoming DSF Golf Tournament.
GOLF TOURNAMENT
DSF hosted its Inaugural Golf Tournament in October 2006, netting over $10,000. Lieutenant Roger Taylor, an avid golfer on the SUB LANT staff, presented the idea of a golf tournament hosted by DSF to Randi Klein, new Executive Director, just three weeks after she started her job. In only three months, LT Taylor and the DSF organization hosted a first class tournament. Ironically, LT Taylor deployed just days before the tournament and was unable to play. Major corporate sponsors included:
Northrop Grumman Newport News
L-3 Communications
The Private Bank, Bank of America
Lockheed Martin
General Dynamics Electric Boat
Dresser-Rand
Oceaneering Engineering
BAE Systems
East Beach Company, LLC
Linda Daniels, Nancy Chandler Associates
Other sponsors and Scholarship Partners included Vic Hulina, who donated a set of handcrafted irons; VADM and Mrs. John Grossenbacher, USN (Ret.); RDML Mike Klein, USN; RDML John Messerschmidt, USNR; TPC, International Golf, Golf Galaxy, Ray Johnson’s Fireplace and Patio and Navy Federal Credit Union.
Thanks to LT Taylor’s initiative, enthusiasm and support in organizing the tournament, the Board of Directors approved the LT Roger Taylor Scholarship to be awarded to a Dolphin Scholar for 2007-2008.
The next Annual DSF Golf Tournament will be held Friday, October 5, 2007, at Kiln Creek Golf Club and Resort, Newport News, Virginia. Corporate sponsorships are available, and players may register online at www.dolphinscholarship.org.
STAFF CHANGES
The Foundation has seen changes in both staff personnel and infrastructure to take the Foundation to the next level of professionalism and operations. ln June 2006, Mrs. Randi Klein was hired as the first Executive Director for DSF, replacing Cindy Johannes who had been the Office Manager and Financial Administrator for three years. Tomi Roeske continues as the Scholarship Administrator ( 14 years and still counting!) with Tracey Majewski, Financial Administrator and Lisa Haggerty, Administrative Assistant, completing the paid staff.
Mimi Donnelly, wife of VADM Jay Donnelly, eagerly assumed her position as DSF President on February 3, 2007, relieving Kristin Munns, wife of VADM Chuck Munns, who had served since October 2004. Mimi has been involved with fundraising for Dolphin Scholarship since she was a JO spouse, and Mimi and Randi worked together in the Norfolk Dolphin Store in the early 1990’s.
WEBSITE
The Foundation is very pleased and fortunate to have website development and maintenance donated by Cesar Gonzales of Synapse Technologies, Virginia Beach, VA. Mr. Gonzales has redesigned and is further developing the website. Please visit the site at www.dolphinscholarship.org to see the new and improved changes.
FOUNDATION GOALS
Board Members of the Foundation continue to serve and lead DSF in new directions: Chairman RADM Charles J . Beers, Jr., USN (Ret.), Vice Chairman RADM Arlington Campbell, USN (Ret.), Secretary-Treasurer CAPT Merrill Donnan, USN (Ret.), CAPT Charles Spence, USNR (Ret.), CAPT James Hay, USN (Ret.), ETCM(SS) John Pierson, USN (Ret.), Maryellen Baldwin, Dr. Roseann Runte and Mr. Vincent Thomas.
Prominent American citizens and retired submarine leaders serve on the Distinguished Advisory Board for Dolphin Scholarship Foundation: Robert Ballard, Ph.D., Rebecca Burkalter, John P. Casey, ADM Henry G. Chiles, Jr., USN (Ret.), ADM William J . Crowe, Jr., USN (Ret.), ADM Bruce DeMars, USN (Ret.), Martha Grenfell, ADM Frank B. Kelso II, USN (Ret.), John W. O’Neill, Michael Petters, V ADM J. Guy Reynolds, USN (Ret.), Eleonore Rickover, Thomas C. Schievelbein, Michael W. Toner, ADM Carl Trost, USN (Ret.), ADM James D. Watkins, USN (Ret.) and John K. Welch.
The Board of Directors has set a goal of incrementally increasing both the number of annual scholarships awarded, from 134 to 140, and the amount of the annual award, from $3,000 to $4,000. Thanks to the USS TEXAS and Edith Kennedy endowments, the Board recently approved the first incremental increase to 13 7 scholarships of $3,250 each, beginning with the academic year 2007-2008. Students selected this spring will be the first recipients of the larger scholarship .
One of the means by which the Foundation hopes to achieve this goal is to increase the awareness of planned giving and encourage submariners to consider Dolphin Scholarship Foundation in their wills.
THE FUTURE
Joe and Sheila Buff have set the standard high for planned giving to DSF. They recently bequeathed their house in mid-New York State to the Foundation. NSL Review readers may recognize the work of Mr. Buff, who won the NSL First Prize Literary Award in 2006 for Will China Rule the Waves? He has also published several novels of submarine warfare. Mrs. Buff writes on health, nutrition and medical issues, including the Atkins and South Beach diets. The bequest demonstrates their strong support of the Navy and the Submarine Force. Mr. Buff commented:
“Submariners and their silent ships, as a primary weapon in the arsenal of democracy, have remained focused and strong for over one hundred years. While they remain hidden under the sea, protecting our interests abroad, they and their families have made many sacrifices. Separated from their families by long deployments, wars, world crises and the cold dark sea, Submariners have missed births, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and holidays unmeasured.
“Personally returning something to this wonderful Foundation only seems fair, I believe, in appreciation of having enjoyed all the wonderful day-to-day benefits flowing from our nation’s hard-won freedoms-freedoms which Submariners went a long way toward making possible. No human life lasts forever. Planned giving to the Dolphin Scholarship Foundation is thus an outstanding way to create a permanent legacy.
“Having arranged a bequest to DSF gives Sheila and me a feeling of satisfaction that we’ve done the most we can to assist the families of Submariners who have sacrificed so much to keep us safe in an unstable world.”
To help educate and inform potential donors, a planned giving seminar is being organized in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area, in collaboration with Wings Over America Scholarship Foundation, Anchor Scholarship Foundation and Bank of America.
To celebrate its 50 Years of Scholarships in 2010, the Foundation is planning several special events. The kick off event next year will honor the 501h Anniversary of the voyage of USS NAUTILUS under the Arctic ice. Called “The Race to the North Pole,” this novel fundraising event will allow all submariners, past and present, to honor the NAUTILUS and their own favorite U.S. submarine, including diesel boats. The first submarine to reach the North Pole will win this virtual race. Watch the NSL Review and the DSF website for more information and to donate for your favorite submarine to win.
The future is bright for children of our submarine community, thanks to generous donors and Dolphin Scholarship Foundation.
