The AYF Alumni Association, the American chapter of the Alumni Club, is pleased to announce the creation of the Francis G. and Edda Gentry Scholarship Fund (known as the “Gentry Fund”).  The Gentry Fund award scholarships for students participating in the Academic Year in Freiburg program, to be funded from investment earnings every year into perpetuity.

The Gentry Fund has been created by AYF students from the year 1984-1985, in honor of their Resident Director and his wife, Professors Francis G. and Edda Gentry.  So far, 16 donors have created a generous fund, and more donations are arriving all the time.   A group of a dozen students from the 84-85 year recently visited the Gentrys at their home near Penn State to celebrate the scholarship, and to share the laughs that began in Freiburg and haven’t stopped.

Professor Francis Gentry served as Resident Director of the AYF program for the 1984-1985 academic year, assisted by his wife Edda.

Professor Francis Gentry earned his undergraduate degree from Boston College cum laude in German and English, and his Master’s degree and Ph.D. from Indiana University.  He then held positions at SUNY-Albany, University of Wisconsin-Madison, a guest professorship at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg in 1984-1985, and finally at Penn State University.  He now holds the positions of Emeritus Professor of German at UW-Madison and at Penn State University and was honored with Penn State’s Distinguished Emeritus Award in 2007.

In 2008, Professor Gentry was awarded one of Germany’s highest civilian awards, the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Band, or Knight of the Cross of the Order of Merit, for his significant contributions to the academic cooperation between Germany and the United States.

Professor Edda Gentry earned her Dr. phil. at Marburg University in Germany, with emphasis on dialectology and Germanic Linguistics.  She held teaching positions at the University of Texas, Austin, SUNY Albany, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Penn State University.

By Tom Brustar, 1984-85

For more information about the Gentry Fund, contact Tom at treasurer@ayf-alumni.com