Recipients from Fall 23 QNL
Recipients from Fall 22 QNL
Recipients from Fall 21 QNL

Past Recipients:

 

 

Thomas Blampied

Thomas Blampied

Katherine Teipel

Katherine Teipel

Michael Begany

Michael Begany

Lee Evans

Lee Evans

2020 Recipients:

The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society is pleased to announce the inaugural recipients of its scholarship awards, named in honor of the R&LHS members who generously made these scholarships possible. Scholarship awardees are both graduate and undergraduate university students studying aspects of railroad history and operations.

R&LHS awards a George W. Hilton Scholarship to Thomas Blampied, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in history at the University of Toronto. His doctoral research is focused on the impact of the Ontario Northland Railway on Indigenous communities.

A second Hilton scholarship goes to Lee Evans, who is pursuing a Master of Science in civil engineering (transportation) at the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois. Evans has extensive experience in railroad museum operations and now aspires to a career working for a railroad.

The R&LHS awards the Bruce R. Ward Scholarship to Katherine Teipel. She holds a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Alabama and is returning there to start work on a Master of Science degree in the same field. She completed an internship with WSP USA as a rail design intern. WSP USA is a professional engineering and consultancy services company with 9,500 employees in the United States. It acquired the major engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff in 2014.Teipel seeks to become a professional engineer, and among her interests is the development of high speed rail.

The Edward Myers Scholarship goes to Michael Begany. He is pursuing an undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in rail transportation engineering at Penn State Altoona Campus and seeks to become a railroad operations manager.

These four awardees were selected from a field of 10 applicants. Each scholarship is worth $3,000. The panel selecting them comprises three members, two of whom represent academia and two of whom are members of the R&LHS board.

George W. Hilton was an economics professor at UCLA, and also an accomplished historian, writing a number of books on railroads and ships, including the Ma & Pa (Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad), Great Lakes Car Ferries, and The Night Boat. Readers of Trains magazine in the 1960s frequently came across his articles, as he was a favorite of then-editor David P. Morgan. A longtime member of the R&LHS, Hilton died in 2014 at age 89.

Bruce R. Ward (1934-2010) was a California engineer who worked for Lockheed Corp., and was a live-steam model railroad enthusiast, steam historian, and photographer. A member of R&LHS, he was also a 46-year member of the Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum. He traveled the world in search of steam locomotives to photograph, visiting Canada, Mexico, England, Denmark, Germany, France, and South Africa.

Edward T. Myers of Matteson, Ill., a member of R&LHS for more than 35 years, had been editor of the trade journal Modern Railroads magazine for 25 years, retiring in 1980. He died in 2003 at age 89.

The R&LHS board of directors and members congratulate these outstanding 2020 scholarship awardees. Information on the 2021 scholarship awards cycle can be found on the organization’s website, rlhs.org.