Ralph and Maggie Newell Scholarship Endowment

Maggie Newell was born and raised on a ranch in Wyola, MT. She attended college at Eastern Montana College in Billings where she met and married Ralph Newell. They were married before she could finish her degree, and so it wasn’t until their 3 children were in school that she was able to go back to college and obtain her teaching certificate. In those days, before online classes, this meant Maggie had to leave her family in the summer for intense course work at the University of Wyoming. Only because education was so important to both Ralph and Maggie was Maggie able to persevere and complete her coursework. Maggie got her first teaching job at Livingston Elementary in Cody, WY where she taught until she retired. Ralph was already teaching 8th grade Earth Science courses at Cody Junior High school.
The Newell’s daughter, Nancy Gilmore, doesn’t remember a time when the Newell family members weren’t involved with NWC. Ralph completed an associate’s degree and played football at Northwest College, and all 3 children attended as well. Ralph was also a member of the Cody High School Class of ‘49—the class which endowed an NWC scholarship for graduates of Cody High. Ralph served on the NWC Board of Trustees and the NWC Foundation Board. The college and activities at the college, especially rodeo, were a big part of Ralph and Maggie’s lives. Honoring Maggie with a scholarship in her name just seemed like the natural thing to do.
Now, Nancy (who works in NWC’s Academic Affairs office) is the one who mostly attends the scholarship luncheon and keeps up with the scholarship and its recipients. “I’m still in touch with a lot of the students who have received our scholarship. We’re Facebook friends. It’s so much fun to be a part of their lives,” she says. And there are many of them! The lasting legacy resulting from Maggie Newell’s love of the College and appreciation of higher education, the Maggie Newell Memorial Scholarship Endowment, has provided scholarships to NWC students since 2001. Thanks to ongoing donations from friends and family members, the memorial continues to grow and make a difference in the lives of students at Northwest College.