Penny, '72 '80 and John North

Penny is a retired school librarian. She returned to college as an adult to earn her bachelor's and master's degrees at Kean, so she was well aware of the difficulties often faced by adult students. She and her husband, John, had been regularly transferring money directly from their IRAs to charities without having to pay federal income tax on the distributions. The payments qualified toward the required minimum distribution they had to withdraw from their IRA's each year, since they had reached the age of 70.5. Finding that they could make a sizable charitable contribution from their IRA's, they established the Penny and John North Endowed Scholarship to aid a student in either the STEM program or a major in the College of Natural, Applied or Health Sciences. "It is gratifying to help other Kean students attain their goals," Penny said.