Colvin Rich/English Club Scholarship

In 1989, Dr. Calvin Rich and the English Club at SUNY Brockport established a scholarship to encourage Brockport students to write and enjoy poetry. Named the Calvin Rich/English Club Scholarship, the award recognizes one student annually for the best poem structured as a sonnet, villanelle, Spenserian stanza, blank verse or alliterative verse, and a second student who writes in free-form verse.

Dr. Rich joined the Brockport faculty in 1969 as an assistant professor of English, during the time when Brockport was transitioning from a teachers college to a college of arts and sciences. In 1984, he organized the initial fundraiser—a book sale—for the student emergency loan fund. He remained involved with raising funds for emergency loans, expanding the book sale to include records, tapes and CDs, until the mid-1990s.

When he retired in 1995, he was named an assistant professor emeritus. His wife, Marghi Rich, was chief librarian for the College. She became librarian emerita when she also retired in 1995. Dr. Rich passed away in 2014. His wife predeceased him in 2012.

Students who are graduate or undergraduate, full- or part-time students at Brockport, and who have completed at least 12 credits at Brockport are eligible to apply. Undergraduate students must have at least a 2.0 GPA and graduate students must have at least a 3.0 GPA. Applicants must submit at least 50 and no more than 100 lines of poetry with their entries.