“You’re a Capitol student. You can do anything.”
That’s the response William Hider got from Brigadier General Harold R. “Johnny” Johnson, who had just offered him a job in marketing. When Hider, an engineer, pointed out that he had no training in the marketing field, Johnson urged him not to be daunted.
After all, he had gone to Capitol. And Johnson -- who served as Capitol’s fifth president, from 1976 to 1977 -- knew how resourceful the college’s students were.
Hider later built a successful career in telecommunications and became a trustee of the college. In 2013, he established The Brigadier General Harold R. “Johnny” Johnson and Maria Baciu Johnson Scholarship, together with the Johnson family. It is one of two new endowed scholarships available to Capitol students.
On Wednesday (April 9th), scholarship recipients mingled with donor representatives, administration, faculty and staff at the annual Scholarship Appreciation Breakfast, held in the McGowan Building.
Hider was one of the keynote speakers. He joined Tamara Capshaw Salmon, whose family endowed the Thomas Capshaw Memorial Scholarship last year, in stressing the critical role of education in shaping young lives.
Thomas Capshaw graduated from CREI (the predecessor to Capitol) in 1954 with a degree in electrical engineering technology. He and his wife Barbara had four daughters, two of whom – Tamara and Teri – were at the Wednesday event.
“Our father was living proof of what education makes possible, and the doors of opportunity it opens,” Tamara Capshaw told attendees. “He grew up poor, one of five children raised by a proud, widowed mother. As a result of his service in the Navy during the Korean war, he was able to attend CREI under the GI bill. The education that he received at CREI opened up a variety of career opportunities for him.”
Indeed, Capshaw’s career was both varied and rewarding. He developed flight simulators for the Navy and Air Force, worked on infrared detection systems and anti-submarine warfare simulators, and later became an aerospace engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, where he oversaw digital processing of the first-ever photographs taken of the moon.
Moving to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, he helped design and develop the original “static Tomcat” superfighter aircraft. He and his family then packed their bags for Florida, where Capshaw worked for the space shuttle program until his retirement in 1998.
“When he passed away, our family could think of no better way to honor his memory and his legacy than by establishing a scholarship in his name that hopefully will contribute, in some small way, to a student at Capitol College being able to do tomorrow what others only dream of. Through our endowment, we hope to honor our father, the value he found in education, the important role this institution played in his career, and all that he achieved during his life,” Capshaw said.
Capitol now has a total of 37 endowed scholarships, which not only help pave the way for student achievement but free up college operational revenues for use on labs, infrastructure, and the hiring of expert faculty.
Among the 2013 recipients was Preven Harris, awarded the Avrum Gudelsky Memorial Scholarship.
The award made it possible for Harris to complete his senior year at a time when his family faced tough financial choices, he told the event attendees. In addition to having the financial burden lightened, Harris said he felt “a sense of pride and honor” as he thought about the scholarship’s significance.
Hider, meanwhile, said he views endowments and scholarships not simply as a way of commemorating the legacy of the past, but also of building the future.
“I see it as a long-term investment in people. It’s about paying it forward, not back,” Hider said. “And I’d like to talk directly to the scholars here. Each one of you – and I’m going to paraphrase General Johnson – you are, or soon will be, a Capitol College graduate. And you can do anything.”
Photos: Tamara Capshaw Salmon, Dr. Michael Wood, Teri Capshaw (top right); William Hider (bottom left).