Dr. George H. Hitchings Memorial Scholarship

Born in Hoquiam in 1905, George H. Hitchings grew up in a family of shipbuilders. Hitchings’ father, George, Sr., worked at and eventually managed the Hoquiam shipyard that his father-in-law, Peter Matthews, established in 1897. A master shipbuilder like his father before him, George, Sr., eventually became a noted marine architect. The family left Hoquiam when George was five years old, but those early connections were still traceable in 1990 when, as an esteemed scientist, he returned to Hoquiam for the Centennial celebration.

In 1988 Dr. Hitchings shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries that led to the development of a series of new drugs, including drugs for leukemia, malaria, and gout. A graduate of Seattle’s Franklin High School, Hitchings studied chemistry at the University of Washington and earned his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1933. In the same year he married Beverly Reimer, a highly artistic and intelligent painter, writer, and teacher from Boston. Dr. Hitchings’ research and teaching career carried them from Harvard’s Huntington Laboratories and School of Public Health to the Wellcome Research Laboratories in New York. The initial research that led to his receiving the Nobel Prize was conducted at Burroughs Wellcome Co. in the mid- to late-1940s.

From the late 1960s until his death in 1998, Dr. Hitchings became increasingly involved with philanthropy. He served as President of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a nonprofit foundation which supports biomedical research, and he led several charities in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, where Burroughs Wellcome had relocated in 1968. In 1983, Dr. Hitchings founded the Greater Triangle Community Foundation, which serves the Triangle area.

While preference will be given to applicants interested in studying science or medicine, the George H. Hitchings Memorial Scholarship is open to all applicants who satisfy the general eligibility requirements of the Scholarship Program.