1956 EE grad gives to theater program

Rebecca Schultze

Rebecca Schultze

The largest endowment in the SDSU theater department has come from a 1956 engineering graduate of SDSU.

Ray Mayo, has increased the donations to the Owen Mayo Memorial Scholarship fund with partial interest from the proceeds of Mayo’s Chicago house.

This recent addition to the endowment, along withdontations of IBM stock and South Dakota farm land from the Groton High School graduate, have caused the endowment to double to $100,000.

The scholarship, named after Mayo’s deceased brother, will provide up to five Jackrabbit Guarantee scholarships to students in the theater program at State.

“It’s exciting that [the endowment] comes from a graduate in another SDSU discipline ? electrical engineering,” theater program director James Johnson said in a press release. “Here’s a man who is retired and could have spent the money on himself.”

Mayo, a member of the SDSU Foundation board, has maintained his theatrical interests, which were fostered at SDSU.

The highlight of his years at State, Mayo said in a press release, was the chance to play Petruchio in “Taming of the Shrew.”