Valerie Klipsch recently endowed two new scholarships, including one honoring Joe Creed.

His Klipschhorn speakers, first patented in 1943, are world renowned. Paul never forgot the value of his education at New Mexico State and he began making contributions to establish scholarship endowments in the 1970s. In 1995 the college honored him by adding the Klipsch name to the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Paul died in 2002 at the age of 98 but his wife, Valerie, carries on his legacy and accepts the honors that continue to come his way. Last January she was in Las Vegas, Nev., to accept an award from the Consumer Electronics Association and in March, at the 100th anniversary of his birth, a conference room and garden were dedicated at the newly renovated Cairo and Fulton Depot in his long-time home of Hope, Ark. Later this year, Valerie will be in San Francisco for ceremonies inducting Paul into the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame.

Valerie also returns to NMSU regularly, particularly at Homecoming, which had been her husband’s tradition. Recent gifts that she brought show a particular interest in ensuring the quality of the faculty in the Paul W. Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the growth of the Paul W. Klipsch Engineering Museum in the college. In 2003, she surprised the college with new scholarship endowments honoring former Dean Jay Jordan and his wife, Lya, and Assistant Dean Joe Creed and his wife, Priscilla. The endowment honoring the Creeds provides scholarships for freshmen studying chemical engineering, which was Joe’s major when he was a student at NMSU.

“We appreciate all of the support Paul and Valerie have provided to the institution and engineering through the years. Valerie’s continued support of and devotion to NMSU is making it possible to achieve excellence in our academic programs,” says newly appointed Engineering Dean Steve Castillo.