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The Harry C. “Heinie” Aderholt Memorial Scholarship supports student pursuing an education degree, with a preference for students from Pike County.

Belief in the power of education and a desire to support future educators are the inspirations behind the Harry C. “Heinie” Aderholt Memorial Endowed Scholarship benefiting Troy University students.

Anne Aderholt established the scholarship in honor of her late husband, Harry C. “Heinie” Aderholt, and sister, Rebecca Langford. Aderholt said she was motivated to create the scholarship because of her parents’ determination that she and her siblings get a college education.

“The goal is that every student who has a strong desire to get an education has the opportunity, without it being a financial strain on their parents,” Aderholt said.

Aderholt, born Anne Scarbrough, grew up in Troy, Ala., with her sisters Rebecca and Peggy, and brother Robert. All three sisters attended TROY, with Rebecca and Peggy pursuing education degrees and going on to teaching careers, while Robert went to Auburn University on a football scholarship.

Aderholt says she hopes the new scholarship will help future teachers earn their degrees with less financial strain.

“I want to help students and take some of the burdens off of them and their parents,” Aderholt said.

Aderholt’s first established a scholarship with Troy University in 2012. She created the Harry C. “Heinie” Aderholt Memorial Scholarship in memory of her husband, an Air Force general and a prominent figure in the development of Air Force special operations. That scholarship benefited the dependents of service members who had been killed in the line of duty.

Aderholt said her sister Rebecca contributed to the original scholarship fund and left a generous donation from her estate after she passed. That gift provided the opportunity to revise and expand the scholarship to help even more students, Aderholt said.

The new scholarship supports any student pursuing a degree in education, with a preference for students from Pike County. It’s a move that Aderholt believes her late husband would have supported because he also believed in the power of education. “He knew how important education was, mainly because he did not have one,” Aderholt said. “He dropped out of high school to support his family and was not able to attend college. Later in life, he helped to educate some of his nieces and nephews. It meant a lot to him that people have the opportunities that he did not have to get a college education.”