Scholarships

The Marie Palm Stewart Endowed Scholarship

In honor of his mother's life-long dedication to teaching, Dr. Malcolm Stewart, a Dallas neurologist, has established an endowment fund at New Mexico State University that will help aspiring teachers pay for their education. The Marie Palm Stewart Endowed Scholarship Fund, established with a $10,000 gift, will support a yearly scholarship in the College of Education at New Mexico State University.

Marie Palm Stewart attended high school in Deming, New Mexico, and then the College of Industrial Arts in Denton, Texas, where she received a teacher's certificate in elementary education. Later, she attended night school and summer school in El Paso and at New Mexico State University; then known as New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. In 1950 she received a bachelor's degree and in 1961 a mater's degree, both at New Mexico State.

"Besides her family, teaching was her whole life," said Dr. Malcom Stewart.

"She was a movie star of a teacher -- she captured her students' attention and entertained them with learning."

She started as a teacher at Lewis Flats of Deming in a two-room schoolhouse where she taught first through fourth grade. According to family legend, she later taught at Akela, New Mexico, in a renovated train boxcar and then at Gage, NM , west of Deming, after cowboys threw the previous teacher in a trash can. She finished her career in Las Cruces, NM at McArthur and Conlee elementary schools. In her final year, before retiring in 1976, she worked in curriculum development. Marie Palm Stewart now lives in Dallas, Texas.

"She always wanted to bring out the best in people. Her students were always the best students because she made them that way," said Dr. Malcom Stewart.

Dr. Stewart has created the fund to give back to the community and call attention to his mother's work. Twenty-two members of their family have graduated from New Mexico State University! Dr. Stewart graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology and was the Outstanding Senior for the College of Arts and Sciences in 1963.

"New Mexico State provided me and my mother with an opportunity and set high standards for us," said Dr. Stewart, who serves on the College of Education's Board of Advocates.

Gifts can be made to the fund through the following address by direct mailing:

The New Mexico State University Foundation
P.O. Box 3590
Las Cruces, NM   88003

Please note that the gift is for the Marie Palm Stewart Endowed Scholarship Fund. For more information about the endowment call, (575) 646-2130.

You may also contribute directly to the fund through the secure online system of giving.
The procedure is simple and secure.
Again, please note that your gift is for
The Marie Palm Stewart Endowed Scholarship Fund.