Pharmacy Scholarship established at ETSU in honor of the late Don Kilday
JOHNSON CITY – The memory of an area man who passed away in 2014 will live on through a new scholarship at East Tennessee State University established in his honor by Crown Laboratories Inc.
Dr. Don Kilday died two years ago at the age of 68 after a long battle with cancer. A pharmacist and entrepreneur born in Greeneville, Kilday co-founded Johnson City-based Crown Laboratories with Jeff Bedard in 2000. Crown Laboratories is a fully integrated specialty pharmaceutical company that develops and provides a diverse portfolio of pharmaceutical and consumer products, including Blue Lizard Australian Sunscreen.
Bedard recently reached out to the Gatton College of Pharmacy, hoping to honor his former partner by assisting a student seeking a pharmacy degree.
“It was really easy to want to honor Don in some way. He was such a good person,” Bedard said. “We wanted to start something that would change somebody’s life in a positive way and we thought, ‘What’s better than trying to create another Don Kilday?’”
Bedard, along with several members of Kilday’s family, recently visited the pharmacy school to pledge $35,000 per year for three years, in effect providing a full scholarship for one student who comes to the school seeking a degree in pharmaceuticals.
“My dad worked so hard to pursue his dreams and ideas. He was a visionary and always had some sort of new idea,” said Stacie Torbett, one of Kilday’s two daughters. “It is important to me that his legacy lives on. He tried very hard to be a positive influence in people’s lives. He was proud of being from East Tennessee and very encouraging of people from East Tennessee pursuing careers in pharmaceuticals.”
Dr. Larry Calhoun, dean of the pharmacy school, thanked Bedard and the Kildays for the gift.
“This is not a little thing. You are changing somebody’s life forever,” he said. “Typically, a student graduating from pharmacy school crosses the stage at graduation with somewhere around $175,000 in debt. You are eliminating much of that burden for this individual, whomever it may be.”
To be eligible for the scholarship, a student must be a resident of the First Congressional District in Northeast Tennessee and have a 3.3 GPA or higher. Preference will be given to candidates with participation in community service activities and/or collegiate athletics.
“Don was all about people, all about community,” Bedard said. “He would be thrilled to know somebody who has taken the same career path is benefiting from his legacy, to know that part of what he created here at Crown will allow someone to take the same path he did.”
For more information about the scholarship, call the pharmacy school’s Student Affairs office at 423-439-6338.