Edith Rosskam displays some of her pottery at her studio in Arizona.

Scholarships and foundations are usually the province of the wealthy, but philanthropy isn’t limited to the rich. Sometimes, it just takes imagination and a desire to help others.

Edith Rosskam dedicated the William B. Rosskam II Memorial Scholarship in Food Science in 1989 to the memory of her husband, a 1942 alumnus. Even though she wasn’t rich, she still wanted to memorialize a college romance that had lasted several decades.

“We met at Penn State and graduated from there,” she says. “Bill’s interest in food science truly is a family tradition; his father was in the industry and our sons have continued with the family business, David Michael & Company, a flavor and ingredients manufacturer.

“I wanted to have my husband memorialized and felt I’d rather have it be a living memorial. I also decided that I wanted it to be for graduate students, because by that time in their lives, they know where they want to go. Scholarships are needed more in these areas because these students already have settled on the field as a goal, so my contribution can be more helpful than with a first-year undergraduate student.”

Rosskam says when she decided on founding the scholarship, she had no idea how to fund it. The principal accumulated slowly from her contributions, as well as donations from family members and other people.

“But years before, Bill had started me working with clay as a hobby,” she remembers. “It happened, after taking lots of classes, that I discovered a flair for ceramics that I didn’t know about. I started with pots, and it grew into many other things. I had work accepted at galleries, then a jeweler heard about my pieces and asked if he could use them in his store windows to drape diamonds. I decided if people wanted to buy my work, it must be okay. It grew and grew, so this is how I fund the scholarship.”

Rosskam donates all pottery sales proceeds to the scholarship. For her 80th birthday, she asked friends and family to donate to the scholarship instead of buying her gifts. Her “hobby” is now displayed regularly at the Mind’s Eye Gallery of Scottsdale, Arizona, which generates regular donations to her husband’s memorial.

“If I sell a piece, I have the check made out to the Rosskam Fund at Penn State,” she says. “We get money for the scholarship and they get a tax deduction. Basically that’s how we get most of our funds. If I want to honor or memorialize someone, I’ll send a donation to the scholarship in their name.”

Involvement in Penn State also spans generations in the Rosskam family. Both sons are involved with the scholarship, and one son, Skip Rosskam, is active in fund-raising for the new Food Science Building and serves as an instructor for the annual Penn State Ice Cream Short Course. Clearly, they agree with mother Edith’s credo: “It’s a good feeling to help someone else.”

“I think the greatest results that I get are the letters from recipients,” she says. “They write letters thanking me for the scholarship and telling me their career plans. For one student, it was terribly important for him to have a new computer for his thesis. The scholarship gave him a chance to buy one. Some are able to go into research. There have been so many over the years. That’s what I want: someone to gain benefit from what I provide.

“I’ve reached my 80th birthday and I’m still doing pottery and lots of other things. My hope is that, when I’m gone, it will become the Edith and William Rosskam Memorial Scholarship, so that we’re doing it together, in a sense. But I hope that’s not too soon—I have too much more to do with my life.”

—Gary Abdullah