UTM communications professor Dorotha Norton was recently presented with a scholarship endowment established in her name. Gifts and pledges of more than $26,000 have been made to date. Norton was presented with a charter list of scholarship donors at the annual Communications Career Day Awards Ceremony.

“Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought of such a thing as the scholarship endowment,” said Norton.

Alumni leaders who challenged others to give comprised the Dorotha Norton Scholarship Committee, which included Paul Alexander, Kent Landers, David Parker, R. Lemoyne Robinson and Scottie Semler, all UTM alumni and former communications students.

The committee composed a letter encouraging alumni to make a pledge toward its goal of $25,000. Alumni of the UTM Department of Communications made gifts and pledges to establish the scholarship endowment. Only the interest income will be spent. The scholarship will be awarded to an outstanding communications major who is an excellent public speaker.

“I am most grateful to the donors and am humbled by their generosity to future students of the department and the university which I love so much,” said Norton.

Norton joined UTM in 1966 and has taught various communications courses, including Voice and Diction, a requirement for all communications majors, since the inception of the communications department. Norton resides in Kenton with her husband, Robert.