LYLE LANCASTER MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIPS

Lyle Lancaster, a life-long Grays Harbor resident and businessman, directed in his will that his entire estate should be used to establish a permanent scholarship endowment fund for gifted students from Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties.  This fund, established in 1999 upon Lyle’s death, is now the core of the Grays Harbor Community Foundation’s scholarship program.

Born in 1903 to Elma pioneers Roy and Nora Randall Lancaster, Lyle began his working career in Grays Harbor’s thriving logging industry.  Lyle’s next step was to purchase a print shop in Aberdeen, which he later sold to start up Lancaster’s, a gift and hobby shop at the corner of Market and Broadway in downtown Aberdeen.

He married Gertrude Morrison in 1928 and kept their marriage strong until her death in 1987. In retirement, he maintained a large garden and raised rhododendrons and orchids around his Central Park home.  All who knew Lyle knew him as a fiercely independent, honest, and hard-working individual.

Well read and keenly interested in the world around him, Lyle became in his later years deeply concerned with how to better young people’s lives through education.  This concern ultimately led him to establish what would become the Grays Harbor Community Foundation Scholarship Program.  While Lyle and Gertrude had no children of their own, their legacy will continue to benefit the children of countless generations to come.

The Lyle Lancaster Memorial Scholarships are open to all applicants who satisfy the general eligibility requirements of the Scholarship Program.

Dr. John D. Ehrhart was a standout athlete in tennis, football, and basketball who graduated from Hoquiam High School in 1935 and went on to study at Stanford University and earn his M.D. degree from Stanford Medical School.  In high school, Jack won the Pacific Northwest Junior Tennis Championship, and in later years he was instrumental in helping young people learn tennis.  He remained an avid sports fan all his life.

Dr. Ehrhart practiced medicine in Aberdeen for nearly 30 years before his life was cut tragically short in 1974 when the plane he was piloting through dense fog crashed in the hills of East Aberdeen.

The Dr. John D. “Jack” Ehrhart Memorial Scholarship is open to all applicants who satisfy the general eligibility requirements of the Scholarship Program.

Gladys Phillips, the second of four daughters of former Aberdeen Mayor and Superior Court Judge J. M. Phillips, began practicing law in Aberdeen in 1937, the same year she joined three other women in graduating from the University of Washington Law School.

Gladys quickly earned a reputation – a reputation she maintained for over 60 years – as one of Grays Harbor’s most intelligent and formidable lawyers.  With both an “encyclopedic knowledge of the law” and a love of roses, ballet and beautiful words, she was to her clients not only a trusted advisor but also a cherished friend.

As a community activist, she helped establish and lead the Bishop Foundation, served as a state representative, worked to erect the Aberdeen YMCA, and guided the creation of the Grays Harbor Community Foundation.

The Gladys Phillips Memorial Scholarship is open to all applicants who satisfy the general eligibility requirements of the Scholarship Program.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and raised in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, Liz Preble worked as a travel agent for Durney Travel and was herself a world traveler.  With husband Bob she saw all of Europe and most of Latin America.  She toured China, the Soviet Union, Japan, Thailand, and Indonesia.

In Aberdeen, her home for 54 years, she was active in over a dozen community organizations, including St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, the Friends of the Aberdeen Timberland Library, Chapter AK of the PEO Sisterhood, and the Pacific Peaks Girl Scouts Council.

As patrons of the arts, Liz and Bob helped lead community efforts to install a George Tsutakawa fountain in front of Aberdeen’s City Hall and the bronze owl by Benny Bufano at the entrance to the Aberdeen Timberland Library.

The Liz Preble Memorial Scholarship is open to all applicants who satisfy the general eligibility requirements of the Scholarship Program.

A resident of Hoquiam for over 50 years, Dorothea Parker dedicated much of her life to voluntary service.

She graduated in 1937 from Leavenworth High School and earned her Bachelor’s degree in education from Central Washington College.  She taught school in Renton before marrying Omar Parker in 1945. 

When Dorothea and Omar moved to Hoquiam in 1949, Dorothea taught for one year at Hoquiam’s Central Elementary School.  A member of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Aberdeen, she taught Sunday school from 1949 until 1979, when she joined Saron Lutheran Church in Hoquiam. 

In 1976 Dorothea was appointed by the Mayor of Hoquiam to help organize the Polson Museum, and for over twenty years she served on its Board of Directors and volunteered countless hours to help organize and display the museum’s collection.  In 2000, the Polson Museum honored her with a Lifetime Service Recognition Award. 

At home, she enjoyed cultivating roses and collecting antiques.

The Dorothea Parker Memorial Scholarship is open to all applicants who satisfy the general eligibility requirements of the Scholarship Program.

Born in Sussex, England in 1870, William H. Abel was raised and educated in Salina, Kansas.  In 1892, he moved to Montesano in what was then called Chehalis County, marrying Ella Rosmond in the same year.

A school teacher and newspaper editor before being admitted to practice law in 1894, W. H. Abel went on to become one of the state’s leading attorneys.  He worked on many of the most important trials of his time, including the prosecution of the IWW after the 1919 Armistice Day killings in Centralia.

A powerful figure in county politics, Abel also served on several important statewide boards, including the Washington State Joint Board for Higher Curricula and the Canal Commission. 

He was an insatiable reader and dedicated supporter of libraries, donating hundreds of volumes to libraries at Washington State and Gonzaga Universities, as well as to the Montesano Public Library, which today bears his name.

The W. H. Abel Memorial Scholarship is open to all applicants who satisfy the general eligibility requirements of the Scholarship Program.

Anthony M. Abel, brother of W. H. Abel of Montesano, was born in Sussex, England and raised in Salina, Kansas. 

He earned his law degree from the University of Kansas, and established a successful law practice in Aberdeen in 1903.  There he married May Rosmond. 

Abel went on to become one of western Washington’s most highly regarded lawyers.

The A. M. Abel Memorial Scholarship is open to all applicants who satisfy the general eligibility requirements of the Scholarship Program.

A graduate of Lawrence College and Wisconsin University, Miss Lydian Bush taught Latin at Aberdeen’s Weatherwax High School from 1916 until her retirement in 1947. 

She was respected by faculty and students alike for her quality teaching, high standards, and friendly manner. The 1947 Quinault yearbook predicted that her life – described as an “example of gracious living” – would be remembered “long after ‘Veni, Vidi, Vici’ sinks into the bottomless pit of once-remembered but now-forgotten knowledge.”

The Lydian Bush Memorial Scholarship was established in 2001 by one of Miss Bush’s students from the 1920s who, nearly 80 years later, still vividly remembers her as both an excellent teacher and a good friend.

The scholarship is open to all applicants who satisfy the general eligibility requirements of the Scholarship Program.

Aberdeen resident Lyle Laughead, a 1949 graduate of Wishkah Valley High School, created the Lyle and Elizabeth Laughead Scholarships in memory of his wife, Elizabeth. 

The scholarships are awarded to students who will attend a four-year college or university.  Preference for one of the Laughead Scholarships will be given to graduates of Wishkah Valley High School, if possible, depending on the number of eligible applicants.

Donald Martin Burke was hired by the Hoquiam Police Department on November 18^th, 1977.

Else ("Elsa") Veile Korvell was born in Worland, Wyoming of Danish immigrants. She was one of two identical twins. Both sisters were interested in nursing and started their studies at the University of Denver. Else transferred to the University of Washington, completing her nursing degree with a specialty in public health. While her fiancé, Jack, completed his UW degree, Else returned to Wyoming working as a public health nurse in rural areas.

While raising her family of three in Hoquiam, Else became involved in civic duty, serving on the planning commission, was appointed to various state‑wide commissions by Governor Dan Evans and later, elected as Hoquiam's first female city council member. She also had a keen interest in the arts and music. Else was active with the "Community Theatre" organization and the Grays Harbor Opera Guild.

Jack Korvell was born in 1915 in Chicago, III of Polish immigrants. His family moved to Port Townsend WA where he spent the bulk of his youth. Daily, before school, Jack worked stacking wood for the local hospital's boiler. It was at that time he was taken "under wing" by a couple local doctors who fueled his interest in science and medicine. Upon graduation, he attended the University of Washington and then earned his medical doctorate at the University of Louisville. It was at UW he met his future bride, Else Veile.

Shortly after his medical degree, he served in WW2 as a Navy surgeon in the Pacific theatre. Upon his return to Seattle, the family moved to Hoquiam, about 1949, to start a medical practice. The pictures on the office wall were barely hung when he was recalled to serve in Korea. This time, he was assigned to the Marine Corps. After the war, he finally was able to start that medical practice which lasted until he was nearly 80 years old. That practice was a true small town family practice including everything from obstetrics, a geriatric specialty, surgery, and as he used to say ‑ even a little veterinary work!

Both Else and Jack were dedicated to the idea that a struggling student, with a little help, could realize their dreams. For example, they were prime sponsors of Grays Harbor's "Dollars for Scholars" fund at Grays Harbor College.

It is with that idea that this scholarship was created in their name.

On October 16, 1903, a day now known as “Black Friday,” a spectacular fire leveled ten city blocks in downtown Aberdeen, destroying 140 buildings and killing three people.

As the young city began to rebuild, it was driven by what became known as the Rainbow Spirit — an infectious optimism that revealed a strength the community barely knew it had.  That optimism survived another disastrous fire, sparked just eleven days later, which leveled again some of the same businesses displaced by the first fire. 

Almost 100 years later, on January 5, 2002, the Rainbow Spirit came alive again after a midnight fire gutted Aberdeen’s Weatherwax High School, leaving only the skeleton of its landmark main building.  Built just six years after the 1903 fires, the high school had been named to honor Aberdeen pioneer J. M. Weatherwax.

The Grays Harbor Community Foundation first offered these Weatherwax Scholarships in 2002.  They are named in honor of J. M. and other members of a family whose history is inseparable from the history of Grays Harbor. 

The scholarships are open to all applicants who satisfy the general eligibility requirements of the Scholarship Program.

Several scholarships funded by anonymous donors are called simply the “Grays Harbor Community Foundation Scholarships” and are open to all applicants who satisfy the general eligibility requirements of the Scholarship Program.