Class of '91 Friends Pay It Forward

They met during their first weeks at Dartmouth, stayed in close touch for three decades, and now they’ve endowed a scholarship

Class of 91 friends

A group of Class of 1991 alumni who’ve remained close friends for more than 30 years have established a scholarship that will benefit Dartmouth students in perpetuity.

The scholarship is called the Grox Scholarship Fund—“Grox” being the name these alumni have called their group since meeting during the fall of 1987, when most of them were living in the Choates.

“Four of the best years of my life were at Dartmouth,” said Andy Edison ’91, who suggested the idea of endowing a scholarship to his nine friends. “I received a great education and met my best friends. I wanted to give back and help students who couldn’t afford Dartmouth without assistance.”

The Grox Scholarship Fund puts Dartmouth one step closer toward the goal of establishing the first 250 endowed scholarship funds of The Call to Lead campaign by December 31 of this year, Dartmouth’s 250th anniversary.

Edison, a federal magistrate judge in the Southern District of Texas, said he and his fellow Grox members have stayed in touch through the decades, meeting most recently in New York for the Dartmouth-Princeton football game in Yankee Stadium. He said he looks forward to learning about the fund’s scholarship recipients for many years to come.

“The permanence of an endowed scholarship fund is absolutely important to me. This is an exciting opportunity to create a scholarship that will help students have the experience that I did—for as long as there’s a Dartmouth,” said Edison. “If they have half as good a time as I did, then they’re going to be very lucky.”

Access to the Full Dartmouth Experience

The 250 for Dartmouth’s 250th initiative is part of the broader campaign priority to expand affordability and accessibility. More than half of all Dartmouth undergraduates rely on scholarship support, and the average individual award is currently more than $53,000.

Through The Call to Lead, Dartmouth seeks to:

  • Eliminate the need for loans from College financial aid packages and reduce the burden on low- and middle-income families
  • Expand need-blind admissions to foreign citizens
  • Provide financial aid for foreign study and other off-campus programs, so all students can participate in the full Dartmouth experience
  • Recruit talented graduate and professional school candidates through competitive fellowships

“Four of the best years of my life were at Dartmouth,” said Andy Edison ’91, who suggested the idea of endowing a scholarship to his nine friends. “I received a great education and met my best friends. I wanted to give back and help students who couldn’t afford Dartmouth without assistance.”

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