A gift from theestate of former Elon history professor Robert W. Delp hasprovided a $200,000 endowment for scholarships at theuniversity.
Delp came to Elon in 1968 and was a favorite teacher formany students. He served as chair of the social sciences andhistory departments and was a respected senior member of thefaculty. He retired from full-time teaching in 1986 andcontinued to teach part time until 1994. Delp receiving theDaniels-Danieley Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1984 andthe Elon Medallion for meritorious service in 1994. He diedin 2004.
Delp’s bequest has established the Myrtle Patterson Delpand Robert Worley Delp Scholarship Fund. Myrtle Delp wasRobert Delp’s mother.
One $3,000 scholarship will be awarded annually to anoutstanding student who has been selected as an Elon CollegeFellow, with top priority given to students majoring inhistory. The scholarships are renewable each year.
“It is appropriate that Professor Delp’sscholarship will support the Elon College FellowsProgram,” says Steven House, associate vice presidentfor academic affairs and dean of Elon College, the College ofArts and Sciences. “The program’s mission is totransform the curiosity of high-potential students intodeliberate focus, their passion into thoughtful investmentand their sense of responsibility into educated wisdom. Thoseare the very goals that he so intensely pursued during hisdistinguished career at Elon.”
Delp was an outstanding teacher and noted scholar. Hisliterary works were published in the Journal of AmericanHistory, The New England Quarterly, The New York HistoricalSociety Quarterly, The Dictionary of North Carolina Biographyand The Journal of American Culture. Delp was also anordained minister and had degrees from Davidson College,Lancaster Theological Seminary and George WashingtonUniversity.