Graduate honours learning roots in will with £120,000 donation to Teesside University (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Graduate honours learning roots in will with £120,000 donation to Teesside University

4:47pm Wednesday 6th March 2013 in News

A GENEROUS graduate has left a £120,000 legacy to help new students.

James Douglas Hearnshaw studied Naval Architecture at the former Constantine Technical College in 1942, which has grown more than twenty-fold to become Teesside University in Middlesbrough.

He and his future wife, Marjorie Lewis, emigrated to Canada in 1951 where he pursued a successful career in shipbuilding in Montreal.

When she died in 2010 Mr Hearnshaw left provision in his will for scholarships to local Teesside University students in memory of his wife. The bursaries will be known as the Marjorie Hearnshaw scholarships programme which is now part of a £15m package of support for new starters at Teesside in 2013.

The life member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects died in hospital in Ottawa age 88.

Professor Eileen Martin, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Student Experience, said: “It is fantastic that we can also use the generous legacy from Douglas Hearnshaw to specifically benefit local students and offer extra support to those who receive funding from this source.

“It demonstrates that those who benefit from higher education rarely forget the difference it makes to their life and career.”