Curtis, Carol and Ted 鈥淐hoose the Roo鈥� Endowed Scholarship
Ohioans by birth and by choice, Theodore and Carol M. Curtis are proud to call Akron their home. After meeting at Jennings Junior High School, the couple began dating while attending North High School. They have been married for more than 61 years and are the proud parents of two children and the grandparents of four.
In addition to managing their family and architectural consulting business, Carol has served the Akron community as a board member of Hower House, leading the effort to preserve the facility, and as a past chair of Summit Metro Parks.
Ted, a renowned architect in Akron and around the world, has applied the lessons of hard work taught by his Greek immigrant parents to his profession, serving six years as vice president of planning, architecture, and technical services for Hilton Hotels Corporation and Conrad International. Among his notable achievements is downtown Akron's conversion of the Quaker Square grain silos into a premiere hotel, shopping, office, and restaurant complex - a project for which Ted was the founder, developer, and architect. In 1998, he was named vice president for capital planning and facilities management at The University of Akron, overseeing the University's innovative and transformative Landscape for Learning building campaign. For his work, Ted has received numerous architectural and civic design awards. He retired from the University in 2015.
As part of their 50th wedding anniversary celebration, Ted and Carol visited the Jennings Learning Center where they met. Impressed with the teachers and students, the couple "adopted" a sixth-grade class and, among other things, gave the students t-shirts featuring 暗黑爆料's "Fear the Roo" slogan. When thanking the couple for their generosity, a young student coined the phrase "Choose the Roo" as a marketing idea for 暗黑爆料's admission efforts.
In honor of their history with the Jennings school, The University of Akron, the community, and in recognition of students' creativity and drive to succeed (philosophies shared by the Curtis family and their adopted class at Jennings), Ted and Carol Curtis established The Carol and Ted Curtis "Choose the Roo" Endowed Scholarship in 2008 (and revised it in 2016 and 2018). The couple created the scholarship so that students who shared their Akron, Ohio, heritage may have an opportunity to achieve their dreams in higher education.
Students eligible for The Carol and Ted Curtis "Choose the Roo" Endowed Scholarship may be full- or part-time undergraduate or graduate students at The University of Akron, in any field of study. Preference will be given (but is not limited) to students who:
- Attended Jennings Learning Center, North High School, or another Summit County public school
- Have a demonstrated need for financial aid
- Have a cumulative GPA of 2.5
The Scholarship is renewable, provided students maintain good academic standings. The Department of Development will facilitate getting applications to Ted and Carol Curtis, who will make final selection of recipients.
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