IRVING, Texas -- Exxon Mobil Corp. is establishing a $2.5 million endowment in the Teagle Foundation to fund scholarship awards in honor of Lee. R. Raymond, recently retired chairman of the board and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp. The scholarships, to be named the L. R. Raymond Awards in the Teagle Scholarship Program, are to be awarded on an academically competitive basis to children of ExxonMobil employees.
The gift permanently endows a major part of the Teagle Scholarship Program, one of several higher education initiatives within the Teagle Foundation.[image-nocss]
"We are very grateful for this gift from ExxonMobil which will help the Teagle Foundation carry on its long-standing commitment to high academic achievement and access to quality education," said Robert Connor, president of the Teagle Foundation.
The naming of the awards is recognition of Raymond's contributions to ExxonMobil as chairman and his lifelong interest in education. As with prior chairmen, Raymond continued the tradition of support for educational opportunity and philanthropy. He has been very involved in minority education, and served on the board of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering for 10 years. He also served on the board of the United Negro College Fund and the College Board's National Task Force on Minority High Achievement. His other efforts include board membership of the University of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the National Advisory Council for the American Society for Engineering Education and prior service as a Southern Methodist University Trustee.
In 2004, ExxonMobil Foundation, ExxonMobil and its divisions and affiliates provided $106.5 million in contributions worldwide, with $40 million dedicated to education. Education initiatives include grants to improve the teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics; support for organizations that seek to improve career opportunities for minorities and women; and a matching gift program to higher education for employees and retirees.
Each year the Teagle Foundation, an independent philanthropy based in New York City, makes awards to college-bound students who are children of ExxonMobil employees and have distinguished themselves in a competitive selection process run by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). More than 100 awards are made in a typical year, with a total budget for the program over $500,000.
The foundation was established in 1944 by Walter C. Teagle, who had served as president of Standard Oil and later as its chairman. Teagle gave the foundation great latitude and independence in pursuing its mandate of advancing "the well-being and general good of mankind." Over the years, it has supported many causes, but always maintained Mr. Teagle's interests in higher education, and in providing financial assistance to family members of employees of his corporation who were "desirous of obtaining some form of educational advantage."
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