Through the generosity of Alan G. Thorpe, K1TMW (SK), and the Stratford [CT] Amateur Radio Club (SARC), the ARRL Foundation has established the Alan G. Thorpe, K1TMW, Memorial Scholarship Fund. The fund will award $1000 each year to an Amateur Radio licensee enrolled in a 4 year undergraduate program. Thorpe, who died in 2011 at the age of 65, was a member and long-time president of the SARC.

“It was my pleasure and honor to know Alan G. Thorpe, K1TMW, for 20 years,” said fellow club member Bob Betts, N1KPR. “When he became a Silent Key, we learned that Al had left a significant trust fund designated ‘for the benefit of Amateur Radio.’” Betts said Thorpe also made a separate bequest to the ARRL in his will.

“Al believed in the basic tenets of our hobby: Education, promotion, and community service, and he directed all his available efforts toward those goals,” Betts said. He noted that Thorpe had been involved in the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and served as an Emergency Coordinator in the 1990s. Thorpe “strongly believed in the many and varied activities of the ARRL,” Betts added.

The ARRL Foundation will administer the Thorpe Memorial Scholarship Fund. Applicants must be US citizens. There are no requirements as to the field of undergraduate study. The first scholarship from the fund will be awarded in 2016.

“We, the trustees of the Alan G. Thorpe, K1TMW, Memorial Scholarship Fund, are very grateful to the ARRL for its help and guidance in achieving Alan’s wishes,” Betts said.