Scholarship Rewards Grades That Can Get You Grounded

Wilbur Hollingsworth doesn’t want to help the best students in the class. The 91-year-old retired lawyer says they already have all sorts of help--from colleges and high schools. It’s the mediocre students who need assistance.

Ten years ago, Hollingsworth began to help them by giving $500 checks to a select group of students--the ones with average grades.

Since then, Hollingsworth has given 140 Maine students $70,000 in scholarships. “Those in the top third have all sorts of things the kids down below don’t have,” he said recently. “They get all sorts of grants and awards. The colleges are coaching these kids in. They damn sure aren’t coaching the kids I’m aiming for. And they are the ones I think need the most help.”

Hollingsworth established the Luella Poland Hollingsworth scholarship in 1988 in memory of his wife. Since 1994, the scholarships have gone to students at Messalonskee High School in Oakland. The money is a one-time grant, available in the second semester of college.

Hollingsworth said he hopes to offer 20 $500 scholarships this coming year, double the number offered when the fund was started.

Hollingsworth was recently recognized by the Finance Authority of Maine, which gave him its Distinguished Service Award. Charles Mercer, director of the education assistance division at FAME, said Hollingsworth’s fund helps fill a void.

“It’s incredibly unusual in that Mr. Hollingsworth was looking toward average students,” Mercer said. “There’s a lot of money out there for students who are high academic achievers.”

Hollingsworth said his own college experiences shaped his views.

“I know what it is to not have money, and how even a little bit of money helps.”

He went from high school, he said, “to probably the poorest law school in the United States.” Living in Massachusetts at the time, he said he worked full-time and attended Suffolk Law School in Boston at night.

Lack of money kept him from attending a better law school, he said. “Northeastern had [a law school], but it would have meant more carfare to me. It was only a matter of maybe a dollar a week. And I wanted to go to Northeastern. But I gave it up because of just that extra money.”

Hollingsworth spent most of his life in Massachusetts and practiced law in Boston. His wife was from Caribou, and the couple often visited Maine.

His wife died in 1984, and Hollingsworth moved to Maine permanently in 1986. He sold some family property to create the scholarship fund in 1988.

Hollingsworth said he’s not a rich man. “I live on my Social Security check and that’s all. I have no need. My house is paid for, my car is paid for. I don’t have any money to spend on myself. My Social Security check is fine.”