UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — If you walk by the Electrical Engineering Building on Penn State’s University Park campus, you’ll see a sign honoring the late Dr. Arthur Henry Waynick and his 1949 founding of the Ionosphere Research Laboratory (now known as the Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory). Waynick, who served as head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and director of the Ionosphere Research Laboratory until his retirement in 1971, profoundly influenced the course of radio science and atmospheric research both in the United States and abroad.
Today, his legacy lives on not only through the groundbreaking research that continues to take place within the Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory, but also in the memories of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And a recent major gift from one of Waynick’s three granddaughters, Gillian Carey, and her family, will enable the next generation of Penn State scientists and innovators to follow in his footsteps.
Carey remembers Waynick as both the quintessential professor and a loving grandfather.
“Pop-Pops commanded respect and admiration, but he was also deeply loving and generous. We especially appreciated when he helped us with our science homework,” she said, laughing. “He was a great grandfather and a great man.”
Penn State connections run deep among members of the Carey family, who live in Annapolis, Maryland, but make frequent trips to Happy Valley. Carey and her husband, Kevin, who met as Penn State students and married on campus in 1994, have two sons at Penn State, Brett and Ryan, and serve as members of the University’s Parent Philanthropy Committee. Their two daughters, Lauren and Bridget, are not yet college aged, but will, according to Carey, no doubt look to Happy Valley as a top choice when the time comes. The family can frequently be found at Penn State football games and in the Bryce Jordan Center during THON weekend.
Recently, the family has deepened their ties to Penn State and honored Waynick’s memory through a major gift to Art’s academic home. Gillian and Kevin Carey, and Art Waynick’s son, Jon Waynick, have created the Arthur H. Waynick Graduate Scholarship to support outstanding graduate students in the Department of Electrical Engineering. The fund was created with a gift of $125,000, which the University matched 1:1 through its recently concluded Graduate Scholarships Matching Program.
The Careys and their extended family look forward to meeting future recipients of the scholarship at the annual Arthur H. Waynick Memorial Lecture, a tradition which was begun by Waynick’s friends and colleagues following his death in 1982, and which continues today.
“We can’t wait to watch these students go forth and build on the tradition of groundbreaking research that my grandfather played such a prominent role in creating here at Penn State,” Gillian Carey said. “The Waynick and Carey families will be cheering them on every step of the way.”
This gift to endow the Arthur H. Waynick Graduate Scholarship will advance "A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence," a focused campaign that seeks to elevate Penn State’s position as a leading public university in a world defined by rapid change and global connections. With the support of alumni, parents, and friends, “A Greater Penn State” seeks to fulfill the three key imperatives of a 21st-century public university: keeping the doors to higher education open to hard-working students regardless of financial well-being; creating transformative experiences that go beyond the classroom; and impacting the world by fueling discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. To learn more about “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” visit greaterpennstate.psu.edu.