The Foreign Service Journal, March 2012

34 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 1 2 n 1926, Mrs. Elizabeth T. Harriman expressed her desire to establish a memorial in honor of her son, Oliver Bishop Harriman, who had died suddenly while serving as chargé d’affaires in Copenhagen. Working with Under Secretary of State Joseph C. Grew, AFSA formed a committee, and Mrs. Har- riman made a gift of $25,000 to provide for yearly scholarships for a son or daughter of a Foreign Service offi- cer. The Oliver Bishop Harriman Scholarship has been awarded every year since 1927. Today, the Harriman Scholarship is one of more than 70 perpetual named scholarships in the AFSA Scholarship Pro- gram, which confers both Merit Awards and Financial Need Scholarships. During the 2011-2012 academic year, the as- sociation provided aid to 96 students totaling $223,400. The program also assists the DACOR Education Committee and a few other institutions in administering their scholarship programs. This excellent progress has been steered by AFSA’s Scholarship Committee. For the past 15 years — since 1997, when Ambassador Willard DePree resigned as chair of the Scholarship Com- mittee and asked if I would like to replace him— I have had the honor of continuing the committee’s work. For me, the most satisfying aspect of that task has been meeting and com- municating with the outstanding high school students and college undergraduates whom our program helps. The pic- tures of the AFSAMerit Award winners and AFSA Financial Aid Scholarship recipients in the January and July-August is- sues of the Foreign Service Journal, respectively, speak for themselves. As I leave the position, I would like to share some of the history of this exemplary program and give some insight into the recent work of the committee that manages it. It’s Official! In 1932, the AFSA Board of Directors voted to grant $150,000 to officially establish the American Foreign Serv- ice Association Scholarship Program. The Foreign Service Journal followed with a similar donation in 1936, and for al- most 10 years the Harriman Scholarship and these new funds were granted annually to six or seven Foreign Service students. In 1945, Assistant Secretary of State William B. Benton donated a check he had received for writing an arti- cle to the scholarship program. He followed this with addi- tional donations, and other members of the Foreign Service joined in with contributions. The program received a special boost in 1961, when the Association of American Foreign Service Women (now the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide) pro- vided new scholarships from a portion of the proceeds of AFSA’ S S CHOLARSHIP P ROGRAM : A P ROUD H ISTORY S INCE ITS BEGINNINGS IN 1926, AFSA’ S SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM HAS GROWN TO PROVIDE BOTH MERIT AWARDS AND FINANCIAL - NEED SCHOLARSHIPS TO ABOUT 100 SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF F OREIGN S ERVICE MEMBERS ANNUALLY . B Y A MBASSADOR C. E DWARD D ILLERY I C. Edward Dillery served as ambassador to Fiji from 1984 to 1987. During a distinguished 38-year Foreign Service career, he also served in Japan, Belgium, Vietnam, England, Cyprus and Washington, D.C. He served as AFSA retiree vice pres- ident from 1991 to 1993 and as chairman of the Scholarship Committee from 1997 to 2012. For more detailed information on the AFSA Scholarship Program, including its management, rules for participating and the management of the fund, go to www.afsa.org/schol- arship or contact AFSA Scholarship Director Lori Dec at dec@afsa.org or (202) 944-5504.