Slippery Rock University communication majors Michael Mann and Francine Sazalsky never had the chance to learn from Dr. Bob Leffingwell before he died of colon cancer two years ago.

A scholarship established in his memory, however, will help ease the financial burdens of completing their education and furthering the kind of work Leffingwell loved.

Leffingwell was an assistant professor in SRU's communications department. He was passionate about movies, and he wrote "The Reel Critic," a weekly column which ran in Allied News for more than 20 years. He also worked as a radio announcer for WPIC in Hermitage and the former WEDA in Grove City.

Criteria for the scholarship were a minimum 3.25 grade point average in the student's major and pursuit of studies related to Leffingwell's educational and professional areas of interest. Applicants were asked to write a 500-word essay about how the scholarship will contribute to their education.

Neither Mann nor Sazalsky knew Leffingwell, but they heard about him, all of it good.

Mann said he started at Slippery Rock University the semester Leffingwell died.

"I heard lots of good things about him as a person and as a teacher. He was very strong on film studies and critical analysis of media, and he was well liked by other faculty," Mann said.

Mann, 29, is a non-traditional student who worked for several years before continuing his education.

"I felt that I would be perceived as more valuable with a degree than without," he said. He holds a 4.0 grade point average and is planning a career in computer design and graphics. Mann expects to graduate in August after completing a summer internship. He lives in Grove City with his wife.

"(Leffingwell) retired the year I came in as a freshman," Ms. Sazalsky said. "It really means a lot ... getting an honor in place of his hard work and dedication." She said it's a nice reward for her own hard work and dedication. She holds a 3.86 grade point average overall and a 4.0 in her major.

Ms. Sazalsky said she hopes to work in print journalism, specifically newspaper writing, after she graduates in May 2003. She lives in Vandergrift, Pa.

Dr. Mark Chase, a professor in the communications department at SRU, knew Leffingwell from the time he arrived at the university in 1983. "He was definitely an individual. He had his own kind of routine and his own way of doing things," Chase said. "He was a very intelligent man. He loved his radio and film."

Chase, a member of the committee who selected the winners, said the scholarship, worth $500, will go to one or two students a year.

"It was his family that decided to start the scholarship," Chase said. It is funded through donations, as well as by sale on ebay, an Internet auction site, of some of Leffingwell's film-related collectibles.

"We tried to set up the scholarship to provide some vision of what Dr. Leffingwell was interested in, in terms of his film interest and radio," Chase said.