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Solid Foundation

Gift establishes nursing, engineering scholarships

A pioneer in construction concrete is helping support the next generation of innovators at UT Arlington.

When David E. Bloxom was developing a lightweight concrete in the 1950s, he asked researchers at UT Arlington (then Arlington State College) to help him test the material and get his idea patented. With assistance from faculty members in the , Bloxom provided studies proving that this new concrete would greatly benefit the construction industry.

He went on to become one of the first men in America to use precast concrete in building construction and later started his own company, Speed Fab-Crete, which constructs buildings using prefabricated lightweight concrete panels. But he never forgot the people who helped him along the听way.

Bloxom helped establish the College of Engineering鈥檚 Construction Research Center, served on the College of Engineering Advisory Committee, and was a member of the Nursing Advisory Council. (He was friends with the husband of the college鈥檚 founding dean, Myrna Pickard, and once told Dr. Pickard, 鈥淣urses are the greatest thing in the听world.鈥�)

When he died in 2000 at age 77, Bloxom in his will created a charitable foundation to benefit UT Arlington and other nonprofit organizations. The Bloxom Foundation has established the David E. Bloxom Sr. Engineering Scholarship and Research Endowment and the David E. Bloxom Sr. Nursing Scholarship and Award听Fund.

Bonnie Dowdy, one of the foundation directors, says the endowments will help students who are dedicated to a goal and are seeking a UT Arlington education to achieve it.

鈥�David had seen so many people with good ideas who wanted to succeed but didn鈥檛 have the money to make it happen,鈥� Dowdy says. 鈥淪cholarships made sense because he always said that without the backing of his friends, he would never have made it. He met most of those friends in college.鈥�

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