The ARRL Foundation has announced the establishment of two new scholarships — The James Cothran, KD3NI, Scholarship Fund and The Dan Huettl, WZ7U, Memorial Scholarship Fund. The Cothran scholarship, endowed by his daughter, ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN, and her husband Carter, N3AO, will award $2000 annually to a young radio amateur pursuing higher education. President Craigie said her father, a life-long experimenter, had tried unsuccessfully to get her interested in electronics when she was a child, she recounted.

“He came to Amateur Radio late in life but was active in several clubs in the Atlanta area, where he signed N4IQR, before moving to Pennsylvania for the last decade of his life,” President Craigie said. “He packed a lot of fun and many friendships into his few years in Amateur Radio.” Cothran died in 1997 a few days shy of turning 84.

During World War II, Cothran served in the US Army Signal Corps, assembling military radio stations from boxes of components. “That was good preparation for being a radio amateur, President Craigie allowed. “Although he did not graduate from college, he encouraged my doing so, and he paid the bill for it,” she continued. “In the last years of his life, Amateur Radio was a great shared interest in our family. Put it all together, and it just made sense to name our ARRL Foundation scholarship in his memory.”

Preference will be given to Cothran scholarship applicants who live in the ARRL Atlantic, Roanoke, or Southeastern divisions.

The Huettl Scholarship, which will award $1000 annually to a radio amateur pursuing higher education, was established by the radio amateurs in his family. Huettl died earlier this year. His niece, Connie Mah, NR4CB, said Huettl got interested in ham radio as a teenager, when another ham relative — as an impromptu demonstration — brought a radio to Huettl’s house, threw a wire out over a fence, and began making contacts.

“Fascinated by what his Elmer helped him experience, he learned Morse code and passed his license exams,” Mah said. Huettl attended Arizona State University, earning an electrical engineering degree and going on to work in the semiconductor industry for 33 years until his death at age 55. While working in Czech Republic, he held call sign OK8DX.

“Dan was a member of ARRL for 37 years, making contacts with hams locally and internationally as a way to relax. Amateur Radio was one way Dan pursued what he was passionate about — electronics, technology, and, most of all, connecting with people around the world,” Mah said.

The Huettl scholarship will give preference to applicants attending Arizona State who are pursuing a degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

The ARRL Foundation will administer both scholarships. Descriptions of all scholarships The ARRL Foundation administers are available on the Foundation’s web pages.