Tates/Tutwiler Fund

At the 2016 commencement ceremony, the ESA Board of Trustees presented the Trustees Award to Clint Freeland, Jody Kochansky and Will McKinnon, all from the Class of 1986, for their leadership in initiating and completing the three-year Alumni Matching Gift Challenge, which raised more than $180,000 for the Tates/Tutwiler Fund for scholarships. The fund now totals more than $1 million, and provides assistance to a growing number of ESA students each year. 

Clint Freeland accepted the award, and shared these words from Will McKinnon:

If we are lucky in life, we will find a handful of institutions with which we fall in love, and which shape us into smarter, kinder, wiser, more caring, more thoughtful people. ESA is just such an institution, and we are all lucky to have spent a portion of our lives here... A place that provided us with wonderful nourishment when we needed it. And for that reason, ESA will remain one of the institutions I get the most joy out of supporting.

Mr. Tutwiler traced his routes around the United States visiting ESA alumni on behalf of the Tates/Tutwiler Endowment Fund. Though he originally planned to make the trips on his bicycle, Tut instead relied on a combination of car, plane, Outing Club Bus, train, subway, canoe and his own two feet. He continues to visit alumni and to raise money for the Tates/Tutwiler Endowment Fund. The Tates and Dr. Baker have joined him on several trips, including visits to Austin, Dallas, Houston, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.