Lawrence receives $1.6 million gift

A gift of more than $1.6 million from the trust of a family with deep roots to Lawrence University will help future generations of students interested in the theatre obtain a Lawrence education college officials announced today.

The gift from the estate of F. Stansbury “Stans” Young will be directed to the F. Theodore Cloak Scholarship. It was the second gift of more than $1 million for scholarship support Lawrence has received in the past month.

The Cloak Scholarship, established in 1969, honors former professor Ted Cloak, the founder of Lawrence’s theatre department and supports theatre arts majors with financial need on the basis of talent and promise. Beginning in 2009, approximately 10 to 15 students a year will be awarded Cloak scholarships.

Cloak, who taught at Lawrence from 1929 until his retirement in 1969, was a close friend and mentor to Young, who enjoyed a long career with Thilmany Pulp & Paper Co. in Kaukauna. Young died in 2003.

“The Young family’s ties to Lawrence span nearly the entire history of the college,” said Calvin Husmann, vice president for development and alumni relations. “Stans’ years working at Thilmany and staying in touch with his alma mater and his home town prompted his desire to carry forward his family’s impressive tradition of giving to the college. We are deeply grateful for Stans’ years of generosity and this ultimate gift to benefit students studying theatre at Lawrence.”

Young, who earned a degree in chemistry from Lawrence in 1936, has extensive family connections to Appleton and the college dating to his grandparents. Emory and Mary Anne Phinney Humphrey Stansbury were both trustees of Lawrence in the late 1800s. In 1859, Mary Anne Stansbury became the 24th graduate in Lawrence history — and at age 16, also its youngest.

In 1996, Young established the Carmen N. and F. Stansbury Young Scholarship in honor of his wife, a 1931 Lawrence graduate. Young went on to name a space in Lawrence’s new Science Hall in the late 1990s. Young’s uncle, Karl Stansbury, established several funds at the college, as well as named the Stansbury Theatre in Lawrence’s Music–Drama Center.