Administration

Endowed scholarship established to honor longtime faculty member Leo Takahashi

Penn State Beaver alumni and friends have established the Leo Takahashi Honorary Scholarship to recognize a longtime professor at the campus. The announcement of the endowed scholarship, with initial gifts totaling $50,000, was made recently by Chancellor Gary B. Keefer.Takahashi is an assistant professor of physics who began teaching at the Beaver campus in 1967. He and his wife, Marylou, learned of the scholarship when they were invited to a private luncheon hosted by Keefer and Diana Patterson, director of development. Takahashi is the longest-serving faculty member in Beaver campus history."I am deeply honored,” Takahashi said, “but this scholarship is really about the quality of the students who take my classes and the success that follows their graduation." Consideration for the Leo Takahashi Honorary Scholarship will be given to all full-time undergraduate students enrolled or planning to enroll at Beaver who have shown academic success and plan to major in engineering, science or physics.“Even though he’s taught for more than 40 years, Leo continues to strive for excellence in everything he does,” said Donna J. Kuga, Penn State Beaver’s director of academic affairs. “He continues to evolve his teaching methods in the lab and in the classroom. He has a love for all of the sciences and has been a role model for many incoming faculty members in a variety of science disciplines.”Kuga also noted Takahashi’s love of advising. “He’s advised countless students over the years,” she said, “and he finds great joy in that. He really enjoys helping students explore science, and he’s one of the professors that students never forget.”Takahashi holds a master’s degree in physics from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and a bachelor’s degree in physics from William Jewell College. He also attended the University of Missouri, Rolla. Prior to coming to Beaver campus, Takahashi spent a year as an instructor of physics at Illinois State University, followed by a year as a visiting instructor of physics at Kenyon College.The public is invited to contribute to the Leo Takahashi Honorary Scholarship by contacting the Beaver campus Office of Development at 724-773-3558 or dlp25@psu.edu. All gifts to the Leo Takahashi Honorary Scholarship will help Penn State Beaver reach its goals in For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students. This effort is directed toward a shared vision of Penn State as the most comprehensive, student-centered research university in America. The University is engaging Penn State’s alumni and friends as partners in achieving six key objectives: ensuring student access and opportunity, enhancing honors education, enriching the student experience, building faculty strength and capacity, fostering discovery and creativity, and sustaining the University’s tradition of quality. The campaign’s top priority is keeping a Penn State degree affordable for students and families. The For the Future campaign is the most ambitious effort of its kind in Penn State’s history, with the goal of securing $2 billion by 2014.

Last Updated December 2, 2013