IDEAproudly announces the establishment of the John Gray Scholarship Program. The objective
of this Scholarship is to attract and retain individuals wishing to
pursue knowledge about energy in general and about district
energy specifically.
A scholarship committee was created with former IDEA President
Stephen K. Swinson appointed the Designated Permanent Chair
of the Scholarship Committee. The Scholarship Committee will
determine the legal structure of the organization of the
Scholarship, set applicant criteria, determine the number and size
of the award and also select the annual scholarship winner(s).
Oversight for the management of the fund and scholarship
process will be performed entirely by the Scholarship Committee
to create clear separation between IDEA management and the
fund.
The Scholarship fund will be sustained by including a designated
expense charge within the cost of all meeting registrations and
possibly by alternative approaches, to be determined by the
Committee. The Committee plans to promote the funding of
the Scholarship by soliciting an initial contribution from IDEA
members. Each contributor will have the option of specifying
that its charitable contribution funding receive public recognition
within the John Gray Scholarship Program umbrella, as for example, the ABC Company Scholarship created under the John Gray
Scholarship Program.
Scholarship funds will be restricted to individuals pursuing an
enhancement of knowledge of district energy either through
the educational opportunities at IDEA meetings or through
educational programs at four-year universities in management,
engineering, finance or energy, or at two-year community
colleges that offer an Associates Degree in power engineering.
The scholarship will also be offered to all IDEA member employees and their children.
Initial Scholarship eligibility will include the following four candi-
date categories:
1. First-time IDEA meeting attendance for employees of member
organizations or as designated by the Member to attend a
conference, or new industry entrants.
2. Continuing education financial assistance for Members’ chil-
dren.
3. Education financial assistance for employees of member
organizations who are seeking to upgrade their professional
expertise and qualifications, including Bachelor or Associate
Degree programs with accredited institutions
4. Education financial assistance offered to low-income persons
as a means of attracting them to the district energy industry.
For more information, please contact Steve Swinson of
TECO at (713) 791-6765 or sswinson@teco.tmc.edu.
About John Gray
John A. Gray served as
President of IDEA in 1991 and
also served as a member of
its Board of Directors. He has
been a beloved and regular
attendee of IDEA conferences
since 1967. His career began
in January 1949 when he
joined Dearborn Chemical as
a laboratory technician; he retired as senior vice-president in
1994. He was selected in 2003 by the Chemical Institute of
Canada (CIC) as an accomplished, 50-year contributor to the
chemical profession. In 1994, he formed a corrosion consulting firm, John Gray & Associates, and served as senior water
conditioning consultant for GE Betz in Trevose, PA.
Gray prepared and presented numerous technical papers
on industrial water conditioning in Canada, the U.S., Great
Britain, and Australia. He is a member of the National
Association of Corrosion Engineers and has been awarded
patents on his boiler sludge conditioner, a closed water corrosion inhibitor and a neutral pH, non-corrosive type rust
remover. He was awarded the prestigious Norman R. Taylor
award by IDEA in 1994 for his distinguished achievements in
district energy. Gray continues to serve as director of the
Canadian District Energy Association of Toronto, ON.
At the 2004 IDEA Annual Conference, he stated, “District
energy is not just about a single power plant supplying products and services to their clients, but rather since 1909, we
have been part of a unique interdependent family of district
energy plants around the world that rely on each other
to provide the most effective, efficient, dependable and
economical energy that is available to our customers.”
In his travels, John once found an antique, time-saving
apple-corer peeler device that simultaneously peeled, cored
and sliced an apple. Ultimately, his interest and fascination
cultivated a significant world-class collection of such devices,
resulting in an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute where
John was honored as a Smithsonian Fellow. He frequently
regaled IDEA audiences with artful demonstrations of his
“simply efficient” devices, relating their elegant functional-ity to district energy systems.
Sadly, on his return journey from the 99th Annual
Conference in Orlando last June, John suffered a debilitating
head injury in a fall while retrieving his luggage from the
carousel and is now in long term care and unable to travel.
His four children, Bill, Arlene, Nancy and Rob are joining us
to commemorate the John Gray Scholarship Program.
