Marshall Access and Education Fund | A Brief History | Articles

Marshall High alumni start fund for students with disabilities

Lucy Her, Star Tribune

Published December 22, 2003

Harvey Johnson, 83, understands what students with disabilities go through. He has had grand mal seizures since infancy.

Every time he has a seizure it takes him several days to recover, he said. It used to mean time away from school, which caused him to fall behind.

Now he is helping raise money for an endowment fund at the University of Minnesota - the first aimed at providing scholarships for U of M students with disabilities.

Johnson and his classmates in Marshall High School's class of 1939 started the fund in 1993 with money left over from a class reunion. The school, which is now closed, was located in Minneapolis' Dinkytown and served a great number of students with disabilities. Since the 1993 reunion, the fund has been collecting interest and additional donations.

Last year, the group transferred the money to the University's foundation for Disability Services to start the Marshall Access Education Fund.

So far, $9,000 has been raised, said fund committee member Evonne Bilotta. Scholarships won't be distributed until $25,000 has been raised. The money also will be used to create a writing lab for the university's 1,200 students with disabilities, she said.

Johnson was a U of M student but withdrew after a year, because his seizures became too severe. One day, he had six seizures, he said.

He worked as a stock clerk for Northwest Airlines for about 20 years. He retired in 1983 as a maintenance worker.

For more information, or to make a donation, call (612) 624-2016 or visit http://ds.umn.edu/scholarships/MAEF/

Lucy Y. Her is at lher@startribune.com.