KNOXVILLE — Board members of the Fred M. Roddy Foundation will visit the University of Tennessee this weekend.
The foundation and an estate gift from the Blount County native and 1927 engineering graduate have provided more than $3.7 million for 4500 UT scholarships.
“Recruiting and retraining the best and brightest students is a top priority of UT,” said UT President J. Wade Gilley. “We are indebted to the Roddy Foundation for this level of continuing support.”
Foundation members here for a dinner meeting with scholarship recipients and Saturday-s UT-Alabama football game will be: Lee A. Kintzel and her husband, Roger, of Atlanta; David McIntyre, Attleboro, Mass.; Shawn Buckless, Smithfield, RI; Augusta Haydock, Arlington, Mass; and Peter Arnold and his wife, Sandy, and William Jennings and his wife, Audie, all of Providence, RI.
Roddy, a mechanical engineer who invented a machine for handling plastics, founded Cumberland Engineering Co. in Kingsport in 1939 and later moved it to New England.
When Roddy died in 1969, he left UT a $500,000 bequest to create a scholarship endowment. It now has a market value of $4.4 million. Since 1972, foundation directors have provided additional grants to build the original endowment.
Their gifts fund three scholarship programs: four-year Roddy Merit Scholarships for superior academic achievement and leadership; one-year scholarships; and Roddy Upper-class Scholarships. The latter are one-year awards that can be renewed.
This year, 165 students received Roddy scholarships. Recipients- combined grade point average is 3.76 on a scale of four.