Awards: Scholarships

The purpose of the Ben S. Meeker Scholarship, originally established in 1986 without a name, is the promotion of professional and educational development through financial support to students with intellectual ability and professional maturity who manifest a commitment to the field of probation, parole and/or criminal justice. Eligibility requirements include that the recipient be at least a college junior who has a parent or grandparent who is an active or honorary member of the FPOA. The applicant must be currently enrolled in a college or university and have a personal commitment to criminal justice. The amount of the award is determined by the FPPOA Board.

Ben S. Meeker Scholarship Recipients

(So Named 1995)

Ben S. Meeker received his A.B. Degree from the College of Emporia, Kansas in 1933. Thereafter, he attended the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago from which he received his MA in 1940. Ben began his professional career with the Public Welfare Service of Oklahoma between 1933 and 1939. On November 28, 1939 he was appointed as a United States Probation Officer in the Northern District of Illinois serving until September 1941. During World War II Ben served with the Navy. After discharge, he was an assistant professor in the Division of Social Service of Indiana University from 1946 to 1950. On February 6 in the latter year Ben re-entered the federal probation service in Chicago. He was the director of the Federal Probation Training Center in Chicago from 1950 to 1970. He retired as Chief Probation Officer in 1970. In the FPOA, which he was instrumental in founding, he served as the Interim President before the initial constitution, later as a regional president, national vice-president and national president. He was the first recipient of the Richard F. Doyle Award in 1964. In 1967 he received the Irwin W. Halperin Award for Excellence in Probation Practice. He has been a consultant on probation to the German Federal Republic (1954); Fulbright Lecturer, National Family Court, Probation Training Institute, Tokyo, Japan (1966-1967); past president of the Illinois Academy of Criminology; and a former member of the Board of Trustees of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

Recipients

1986        P. Douglas Mathis
                (Ref. CUSPO Perry Mathis, WD/MO)
1987        Timothy J. Boyle
                 (Ref. USPO Thomas C. Boyle, WD/WA)
1988        No Award
1989        John Baskfield
                (Ref. CUSPO Glenn Baskfield, D/MN)
1990        David L. Hargrove
                (Ref. USPO Ben Hargrove, SD/TX)
1991        Darcie Banta
                (Ref. CUSPO Robert Banta, ED/WA)
1992        Kenneth Benton
                 (Ref. USPO Gary Benton, ND/TX)
1993        No Award
1994        Amy V. Andrews
                (Ref. SUSPO William D. Andrews, WD/VA)
 1995        
 1996        Carrie Anne O’Callahan
                 (Ref. USPO John B. O’Callaghan, USPO, ND/AL)
 1997
 1998        Richard Todd Russell
                 (Ref. SUSPO Richard V. Russell, WD/TX)
 1999        Evan J. Montoya
                 (Ref. CUSPO Gilbert Montoya, NM)
 2004        Stephanie Capodanno
                 (Ref. USPO Daniel Capodanno, CA/N)
                 Lindsay Jessup
                 (Ref. SUSPO William Walter Jessup, Jr., NC/E)
                 Jeffrey Kain
                 (Ref. CUSPSO Eugene Kain, MO/E)
                                                               

Scholarship Award for Officers
(Established 2000)
       

2001        Michael J. Elbert, Sr. USPO, IO/S
                Beverly L. Morgan, Guideline Specialist, NC/M
                Kimberly Rieger, DATS, KS
2003        Janice Lawton, USPO/USPTSO, IN/N

2006        Brian Quarnstrom, PTSO, MO/E