In honor of former Clarion adviser and journalism professor Bruce Dawson, Sinclair Community College has awarded its first ever Bruce Dawson scholarship.
The scholarship is worth $300 and its first recipient was Clarion editor Georgia Howard.
Bruce passed away in 2005 of cancer. After his passing the family requested donations at his funeral, but not for any expenses.
“We asked donations to come right back to the college because we knew how much Bruce cared about the college and the Clarion,” Terri Dawson, Bruce’s wife, said.
Eventually, the idea of a scholarship formed and through donations and other means, the family accrued the required $10,000 to launch the Bruce Dawson scholarship.
Harold Dawson, Bruce’s father, passed away earlier this year and left $90,000 to the scholarship.
“He was so very proud of Bruce,” Terri said.
As of right now, the scholarship can go to any Communication major.
“I would like to see a Clarion employee be the first choice. That would not only include writers, but photographers, graphic design, web page construction, advertising, the whole gamut. This was Bruce’s passion and it only seems fitting to award some one working on the paper,” Terri said.
Terri’s second choice would be a Journalism major, something she says the whole family recently agreed on.
According to Terri, his true passion was teaching and working with students, plus being outdoors and taking photographs.
Bruce was adviser of the Clarion from 1995-2005 a longtime journalism professor and helped shift Sinclair’s journalism department out of the English department.
“He really related to students well,” Tim Sweet, general manager of Aramark and friend of Bruce’s, said.
“He worked up until a week or two weeks prior [to his passing],” Terri said. “He drug himself in here to teach and be with his students.”
“He made an impact here,” Sweet said. “He was that guy that never grew up, still had that passion, ‘let’s go try it’.”
Sweet said that at times during Bruce’s tenure at Sinclair, the friends would hide in each other’s offices.
“After a while I’d go sit in his office when things got too hectic and he’d come sit in mine and we’d just talk about whatever,” Sweet said.
“He was just a good guy.”