On Feb 5, as part of the Charter Day celebration, Southwestern University announced a $5.1 million gift to its endowment from Margaret S. Odiorne to fulfill the desire of her late husband, Truman J Odiorne, to establish a permanent scholarship fund for students from the Texas Hill Country in need of financial assistance. This gift represents one of Southwestern’s largest outright gifts.

Truman Odiorne, a 1966 graduate of Southwestern, grew up in Johnson City, Texas. He was able to attend Southwestern due to an academic scholarship. According to his widow, he greatly valued his education and credited Southwestern’s small size and personal learning environment with his academic success as a chemistry major. A campus leader, Truman attributed many of his learned leadership skills to the variety of governance roles he served through his fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha. 

After graduating from Southwestern, Truman attended graduate school at Rice University, where he later worked as a physical chemist, conducting early laser research and participating in a groundbreaking experiment cited in many chemistry journals, including Nobel Prize literature. After nine years, he left Rice University and accepted a job with DuPont, where he helped to develop and improve blood analysis technology. “Truman had the ability to identify his colleagues’ strengths and lead them in the direction where they could be most effective,” said Margaret, attributing this skill to Truman’s liberal arts and sciences experience at Southwestern. 

Southwestern President Edward Burger responded to receipt of the gift, saying, “I’m touched by Truman’s gratitude for his Southwestern scholarship and his strong desire to pay it forward. The income from this generous endowment gift will engage the minds and transform the lives of generations of Southwestern students to come, and will hopefully be a shining example to others of the life-changing power of giving. I thank Margaret and Truman for their enormous generosity of spirit.” 

Scholarships will be available beginning in 2016. To be eligible for the Odiorne Scholarship, students must meet Southwestern’s financial need and academic eligibility standards. Further eligibility requires students to have resided in the Texas Hill Country for at least one year prior to admission to Southwestern. “Texas Hill Country” is defined by the geographic area comprised of the following Texas counties: Bandera, Medina, Bexar, Kerr, Gillespie, Kendall, Blanco, Burnet, Travis and Williamson.