FF pushes scholarship fund growth

The Fieldbus Foundation (FF) launched its first annual fund-raising drive in support of the James O. Gray—Fieldbus Foundation Scholarship.

THE FIELDBUS FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP program hopes to establish a perpetual $250,000 educational scholarship endowment fund for students seeking a career in the field of instrumentation, automation and systems technology.

The scholarship fund honors the memory of James (Jim) O. Gray, a long-time Fieldbus Foundation supporter who passed away in 2002. Gray worked for Invensys/Foxboro for 25 years as sales and marketing manager, and was very active in the foundation since its inception, holding positions with its board of directors, executive committee and U.S. marketing committee.

Five educational institutions—Lee College, Baytown, Texas; Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, Calgary, Alberta; Shipping and Transport College, Brielle, The Netherlands; Singapore Polytechnic, and Waseda University in Tokyo—currently participate in the program and choose the qualified recipients.

“Industrial manufacturers around the world face a very significant challenge: keeping pace with the accelerating retirement rate for today’s experienced technicians and operators,” said FF president and CEO Timoney. “A recent analysis done by BP Corp. concluded that within fives years there would be a 40% shortage of qualified personnel necessary to engineer and maintain process plant operations. The scholarship will help us to replace these highly skilled professionals.”

The program provided three scholarships during the 2003-2004 school year, and more scholarships will be awarded for assistance during the 2004-2005 year. The number of scholarship awards will increase as the endowment fund grows. For more information about scholarship contributions, visit www.fieldbus.org/scholarship.