A Tradition of Honor
Honor the legacy of Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner by providing scholarships to the children of Navy Sailors.
Honor the legacy of Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner by providing scholarships to the children of Navy Sailors.
After Jesse Brown fell during the Korean War, Tom Hudner and his shipmates took up a collection for Jesse’s daughter’s college fund. Pamela, Jesse’s daughter, was not yet two years old — her father’s fellow sailors raised today’s equivalent of $24,000 for Pamela’s education. The tradition of honoring these great heroes continues to this day. Established in 2022, the Brown Hudner Navy Scholarship Foundation (BHNSF) provides scholarships to the qualified students of Navy Sailors. The organization was launched with a foundational gift by Frederick W. Smith and will award its first scholarships in 2023. Because the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation (MCSF) has a 60-year reputation of charitable excellence, Fred selected the MCSF to organize and manage BHNSF. If you’d like to express gratitude to those who have served and sacrificed for our nation, we invite you to support the Brown Hudner Navy Scholarship Foundation.
Frederick W. Smith, Brown Hudner Naval Scholarship Foundation’s first benefactor, spent most of his lifetime in leadership, first in the Marine Corps during Vietnam and then later as an entrepreneur in the founding and operating of Federal Express. After graduating from Yale in 1966, he served four years in the Corps, which included two tours of duty in Vietnam. Fred then launched the original air-ground Federal Express network, which has since grown into an $84 billion global empire. Fred helped underwrite the production of “Devotion,” a feature film by Black Label Media and Columbia Pictures. The film tells the harrowing true story of Brown and Hudner whose
sacrifices ultimately made them the Navy’s most celebrated wingmen.
of MCSF scholarship recipients are 1st gen college students compared to 33% nationally
average GPA for MCSF scholars, compared to 3.15 nationally
of MCSF scholarship recipients graduate with little to no debt compared to 30% nationally
of MCSF scholarship recipients graduate or are on track to graduate within six years, compared to 56% nationally.
the value of MCSF scholarships over the past 60 years
28,000 years of combined military service have been honored by MCSF this year