Murdock Construction and Engineering  Scholarship

The Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island awards the Murdock Construction and Engineering scholarship to eligible applicants who demonstrate a commitment to pursuing a career related to the building trades, architecture, and engineering.

Eligible applicants are high school seniors graduating in the spring who maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher, and who attend high school on Bainbridge Island.*

The application deadline is usually in March. (The 2025 application deadline will be updated soon.) For more information, and to access the application, please follow the link below:

2024 Murdock Construction and Engineering Scholarship Application

(The application pdf may be filled out digitally, or printed and handwritten, then scanned to submit via email.)

For questions, email Tom McCloskey at tomgmcc@icloud.com.

* Seniors who have a Rotarian parent are not eligible for RCBI Scholarships. For these students, other ways to honor “Service Above Self” may be available such as the Paul Harris pin awarded as part of Scholarship Night. Informal nominations can be submitted directly to the club’s Foundation Committee and can come from a variety of sources.

Background:

Roy Murdock was a beloved member of the Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island (RCBI). Throughout most of his adult life, he was a devoted Rotarian known for his philanthropic spirit.

Roy had a special interest in supporting Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs. It was this interest that led him to donate $100,000 to the Bainbridge Island School District to buy all of the major equipment needed to establish a Composite Engineering Program for Bainbridge and Eagle Harbor High School students. Roy’s money was supplemented by a $56,000 Huney Grant from RCBI.

Roy’s vision was for the program to dovetail with Composite Engineering programs at trade school, two-year college (e.g., Olympic College), four-year college/university level, or apprentice or internship programs offered by employers that use composites in their manufacturing processes. Prominent among such employers is Boeing which currently pays entry level composite engineers over $80,000.

After the purchase of the equipment, approximately 30 percent of Roy’s donation remained unspent and was placed in the restricted category under the RCBI Trust Budget allocations to the Career Exploration Committee (CEC). Before his death, Roy turned responsibility for future expenditures over to the CEC with the stipulation that the money be spent on CTE-related programs.

As of October 2023, $23,403 of Roy’s money remains unspent, and it is this money that will be used to fund Murdock Construction and Engineering Scholarships. The CEC will administer the scholarship award process in conjunction with RCBI’s Scholarship Committee and Scholarship Foundation.

Consistent with Roy’s vision, the CEC is particularly interested in receiving scholarship applications from students that intend to pursue a career in Composite Engineering.

Scholarship:

The CEC intends to award one scholarship per year until Roy’s money is exhausted. At that point, it is the Committee’s hope that RCBI will continue awarding the Murdoch Construction and Engineering Scholarship using funds from future Auction & Rummage Sales.

Scholarship applicants will be interviewed by members of the CEC. The CEC will select scholarship recipients. Scholarship money will be sent to the trade school, community college, or 4-year college/university that the recipient has enrolled in to help offset tuition costs, and the distribution procedure will be administered by The RCBI Scholarship Foundation. Murdock CTE Scholarships will be awarded in May during RCBI’s Scholarship Night.