Four Roane County High School graduating seniors are the first recipients of the Arnold and Shirley Keen Scholarship to attend West Virginia University.
The first class of Keen Scholars named Tuesday, May 21 includes Stevie Biedenbach, Anastasia Carpenter, Charity Savard and Destinee Starcher. Each will receive a $5,000 scholarship award.
The fund was established under a provision in a trust created by the Keens in 1993 to provide scholarships to worthy students from Roane, Calhoun and Clay Counties, with first preference to those from Roane County. Students planning to major in engineering, chemistry, physics, mathematics, health care or education are given first consideration.
A native of Newton, WV, Arnold Keen earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from WVU in 1941. He spent 36 years as an engineer for DuPont while at the same time earning a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Delaware. After being diagnosed with cancer in 1969, he soon devoted himself to cancer research. In 1983, he established Hydronic Research Foundation, a nonprofit cancer research facility in Landenberg, Pa. Arnold Keen died in 1994. His wife, Shirley Harless Keen, died in 2009.
The goal of the scholarship fund is to have four students per academic rank receiving the award per academic year. By the 2016-17 academic year, 16 students will be benefiting from the fund.
The gift establishing the scholarship fund was made in conjunction with A State of Minds: The Campaign for West Virginia’s University. The $750 million private fundraising campaign runs through December 2015.
