Edward D. Neumann/Shell Oil Company Scholarship

When I retired from Shell Oil, we moved to Chehalis. Neither my wife Evie, nor I had any previous association with Chehalis, but we wanted to watch our only grandson grow up.

A year after we settled here, our daughter told me that the Chehalis School District had run out of money for tutors and was looking for volunteers. She knows her father very well, and thought I would be interested. Tutoring once a week soon became two full days a week, and then an invitation to come back the following year. At one point, I was asked to set up a “math enhancement” program for the best math students in fourth grade. I did it and it was like a teacher’s dream come true working with the bright, inquisitive students. I enjoyed working with them and wished that there was some way I could thank them for enriching my life.

When Shell announced it was expanding their matching funds scholarship program to include high school seniors, it seemed to be a perfect way for me to say thank you. The “math enhancement” program went away, but I continued to tutor until my hearing became so bad I had to give it up — after a total of 21 years. The scholarship lives on as my thank you for the wonderful times I had with young Chehalis students.