Four UALR students will benefit this year from scholarships established by father and son benefactors of UALR.

The late B.A. Hardy Sr., a member of the UALR faculty for 25 years, established the B.A. Hardy Scholarship Fund in 1989 in the College of Business. This year, Aaron Rothberg of Little Rock and Yan “Jessie” Zhang of China each received this $1,200 scholarship at the college’s awards ceremony May 6.

Rothberg and Zhang are juniors majoring in management information systems.

Inspired by his father’s philanthropy, Ben Hardy Jr., who graduated from UALR in 1967 with a degree in English, has established two other scholarships.

This year, the $250 Ben Hardy Jr. Kappa Sigma Excellence Award was awarded to Thomas Starnes to recognize the Theta Eta Chapter of Kappa Sigma fraternity member’s service to the fraternity and UALR.

Starnes, a political science major with a minor in criminal justice, is the grand treasurer of the chapter. He was honored at the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences awards ceremony May 10.

Senior English major Deannah Johnson received the Rosalyn L. Knutson Award of $250 at the same ceremony. Hardy established the award in 2004 to honor the longtime UALR English professor.

Hardy Jr., a former member of UALR’s William H. Bowen School of Law, currently lives in Mentone, Ala. and is on the faculty of Jacksonville State University.