Menu
Meyer children unveil scholarship honoring parents
Friday would have been the 55th wedding anniversary for longtime Greencastle residents MaryAnn and Edward Meyer.
Their grown children couldn’t celebrate with their parents who passed away six months apart in 2015, so they did the next-best thing. They created a celebration of them.
Friday afternoon at Greencastle High School the Meyer family, long synonymous with education and athletics in Greencastle, announced the creation of the Edward and MaryAnn Meyer Scholarship Fund.
Presenting two $1,000 checks to Greencastle Principal Russ Hesler for presentation to one male and one female senior student athlete at the GHS spring awards ceremony were sons Mike, Patrick and Pete Meyer, along with Mike’s wife Brenda and Pete’s wife Julie. Son Tony Meyer of Greencastle and daughter Anne Stewart of Florida were unable to attend the announcement.
“It’s all about their legacy of education and athletics in this community,” Pete Meyer said, summarizing the impact his parents had on scores of students through athletics, English, speech and drama.
Ed Meyer, of course, was DePauw University’s longtime baseball coach for 40 years as well as serving as an assistant football coach and assistant professor of physical education.
MaryAnn Meyer taught at Broad Ripple and Greencastle high schools, worked for Putnam County Children and Family Services and returned to teaching at Cloverdale High School in English, speech and drama for nearly 30 years.
But the Meyer roots of education, athletics and the Greencastle community run even deeper than that. Consider these facts:
* Both Edward and MaryAnn come from a long line of coaching/teaching families past and present, both high school and higher ed.
* Edward was a member of the Greencastle School Board for multiple terms and served as president of the board.
* MaryAnn taught at Greencastle in between the birth of the two youngest boys.
* All five Meyer children were student athletes at GHS (football, baseball, wrestling, cross country, girls’ tennis and swimming).
* Eight of their grandchildren are either currently attending Greencastle schools or have graduated from Greencastle High School, and all have been involved in athletics. One is currently competing at the NCAA Division II level.
* Two of the Meyer sons have coached at the collegiate level for 20 years. After 20 years Mike moved to the high school ranks at GHS, Pete has moved from coaching to being a college athletic director.
“It is our hope,” Pete Meyer noted, “that we can help to make a difference in the lives of needy and deserving students from the Greencastle community as they pursue their dreams of a college education, while preserving the memory of two very special individuals.”
The scholarships, he said, will be an opportunity for his parents to be remembered for what they did and will continue to do for children from Greencastle and Putnam County.
Initially a $1,000 non-renewable scholarship to offset first-year expenses at college will be presented to each GHS chosen student athlete. As endowed funds grow, a third scholarship will be added to include a deserving Greencastle student planning to study English, speech or drama in college.
By contacting Ed’s former baseball players and MaryAnn’s old sorority sisters and others, the fund has already grown to more than $20,000.
The Edward and MaryAnn Meyer Scholarship Fund has been established within the GiveWell Community Foundation, based in Lakeland, Fla., where Pete and Julie Meyer reside.
The link www.GiveCF.org will take donors to the GiveWell Community Foundation where they need to click on “donate now” and then in the drop-down link, type in Meyer Fund or Edward and MaryAnn Meyer Scholarship Fund.
Persons who would like mail in a donation can make checks payable to the GiveWell Community Foundation and add the Edward and MaryAnn Meyer Scholarship Fund on the notation line. The address is: GiveWell Community Foundation, 1501 S. Florida Ave., Lakeland, FL 33803.
Edward and MaryAnn Meyer met as students at DePauw in 1960. MaryAnn graduated in 1961 and Edward graduated in 1962 as captain of the football and baseball teams.
The Meyers, who married during Ed’s senior year, settled into life in Greencastle in 1964, raised their children and never left. They lived in the same house on Taylor Place for 48 years.
They loved Greencastle and they loved DePauw. Both were active members of St. Paul’s Catholic Church. Both were active in the community throughout their careers in education.
MaryAnn was involved in the local PEO, Putnam County Playhouse and all things Cloverdale High School. Edward was instrumental in the Little League baseball and actually started an American Legion travel team. With education central to both, their children recall, it was not uncommon to have any number of high school or college students at the house any day of the week.
The Meyer children also will tell one and all that education was stressed to them and their children as well as all those who came into contact with Edward and MaryAnn, who influenced myriad children to achieve on the field and in the classroom.
“They loved kids and they loved education,” the Meyer children said. “Most importantly, they loved each other.”