Natural Resources

Nearness to the huge Mesabi iron-ore range and Midwestern grain fields has made Duluth, the western terminus of the St. Lawrence Seaway, one of the busiest ports in the U.S. But Duluth (pop. 106,-800) has another asset, which is making its own unique contribution to the growth of the thriving city: four big scholarship funds, including two in operation for the first time this year. They have raised the educational level of its high school system, and will support 286 Minnesota students on college scholarships this year, of whom all but 72 are graduates of Duluth high schools. Says Principal George Del Daedo of Denfeld High: "Students have a greater incentive, and there is a new re-pect for those doing well academically."

The four funds are valued together at $3,000,000. They are: P:James Wright Hunt's $1,000,000 trust, set up in 1949 at the death of the shy Quaker attorney and amateur bird watcher whose fortune began when land he accepted as a legal fee later turned out to hold rich iron-ore deposits. P:Businessman (real estate, mining, investments) Marshall W. Alworth's $1,000,000 memorial to his parents, limited to students majoring in mathematics, engineering, the physical sciences, and medicine, which has aided a total of 270 students in twelve years, including some whose grants saw them through eight years of schooling. P:The John C. Dwan Educational Foundation, founded this year by the widow of a local attorney and director of the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. who left an estate of $22,579,000. P:The Soneson scholarships, established last year in the will of Mrs. Anna Soneson Rahn to honor her first husband, who ran a chain of auto-parts stores. The grants, limited to Protestant graduates of Du-luth's public high schools, will pay half the expenses for pupils of outstanding character and leadership whose grades alone do not stamp them as brilliant.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.