University of Virginia Library

Isabella Merrick Sampson Scholarship.

Another noteworthy gift to the Department of Engineering
recently received is a scholarship fund of $2,000. The donor
was the late Mr. W. Gordon Merrick and the scholarship is
named in honor of his sister. Mr. Merrick was born in Philadelphia,
Oct. 28th, 1842. In 1867 he came to Virginia, bought
a farm called Glendower, in the southern portion of Albemarle
County, married a wife and settled down to the life of a country
gentleman.

Mr. Merrick at once took an active interest in county affairs,
served as road commissioner and as justice of the peace for a
number of years, and in the latter part of his life as county
chairman of the Republican committee. In the fall of 1910 he
gave up his country home because of ill-health, removed with
his family to Charlottesville and died there January 3rd, 1911.

In 1874 Mr. Merrick's sister left a fund, of which he was one
of the trustees, to be used for education in the South. For
several years the fund was used for the salaries of public school
teachers in Albemarle County, and general public school purposes.
In the last years of his life he became the sole trustee.
He then determined to employ the residue of the fund for the

endowment of a scholarship in the Department of Engineering
of the University of Virginia.

Under the terms of the deed of gift the fund is placed in the
hands of three trustees, two of whom are members of the University,
while the third is a citizen of the county. These trustees
constitute a self-perpetuating board. The management and investment
of the fund and the appointment of the scholar is
in their hands. The scholar must be a student in the Department
of Engineering, and in the selection preference is to be given to
a student from the county of Albemarle, if there be such a deserving
student; and next to a student from the state of Virginia.
If there be no deserving student either from Albemarle or from
Virginia, then the trustees may award the scholarship to any
other deserving student in the Department of Engineering. The
annual income from the endowment is paid to this scholar, and
he is eligible for annual reappointment as long as he remains a
student of engineering in the University and justifies by his
conduct and scholarship the expectations of the trustees.

Persons desirous of fuller information as to the courses in
engineering in the University of Virginia are invited to apply
for catalogues to

Howard Winston, Registrar;

and for explanations and advice to address