`Macko takes Gibson Award`

By Hal Johnson
Herald Writer

Michael S. Macko walked out of William A. Passavant Memorial Center Saturday along with 120 other Greenville Area High School graduates bearing diplomas in their hands.

But Macko held something his fellow graduates don’t have — a check for $4,583. It was the T.C. Gibson cash award, which is made annually to the top Greenville Area High School graduate.

It’s not a scholarship, but money that the winner can use for whatever they want. In 1955, Greenville businessman Frank Gibson died without heirs. In his will, he left $51,256 to a trust fund with what now is First National Bank of Pennsylvania.

The annual interest from the trust fund was to be awarded to the Greenville Area High School graduate with the highest grade point average. The award was named for Frank Gibson’s father. Macko said he will use the money toward his tuition at Cornell University. The son of George and Betty Macko, Greenville, said he plans to study either government or economics.

A generation ago, the T.C. Gibson Award could take care of a bigger chunk of college education that it can today. But Macko’s father was grateful for it.

“Every little bit helps,” George Macko said.

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Updated June 5, 1999
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