A Pulitzer-Prize caliber journalist with local ties is having a scholarship created in his mother’s name. Ray Long, a renowned Chicago Tribune investigative reporter, announced on Friday’s What’s On Your Mind Program that his father Scott has set up a scholarship in his mother’s name at MacMurray College for students going into education or nursing.
Long explains. “My dad has donated for an endowed scholarship in my mother’s name, Elizabeth “Betty” Ingram-Long. It will be for nursing and educational aspects for kids in perpetuity every year to help defray some of their college costs.”
Long’s mother taught physical education at the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired as well as at Jacksonville High School, Lafayette Grade School, Barry & Rushville High Schools, and the Jacksonville YMCA. She was a 1947 graduate of MacMurray College when Eleanor Roosevelt visited the school and gave the commencement speech for graduation. Long’s parents met while they were college students in Jacksonville – Elizabeth at MacMurray and Scott at Illinois College.
The education portion of the scholarship accounts for his mom. Long details why nursing was also added to the scholarship’s endowment: “The other aspect is nursing which goes along with my niece, Amy Tapscott, another graduate of MacMurray College. My dad felt that it was good to give back and so he’s decided to do this in my mom’s name.”
Long says that giving back and a good education has always been a part of his family’s philosophy. “It’s good for kids. It reinforces the idea that my parents had a big belief in a good education. When my mom when to MacMurray in the 40’s, she had to work her way through school. I’m sure my mom is glad that we are giving a helping hand to many students of the future.”
The scholarship’s details will be released at a later time, but he said that he’s excited to give back to a community like Jacksonville that has given his family so much in the past. Mrs. Long passed away in Jacksonville at the age of 90 in 2016.