Shaker benefactor benefited from Syracuse football scholarship

A Canterbury man who once benefited from a such a grant himself has left $273,600 to the Shaker Regional School District for the establishment of a scholarship for graduating seniors who will be attending college.

Quentin Hutchins, who passed away in July 2004, left the same amount of money to the Canterbury Library, the National Rifle Association (NRA), and to Syracuse University students from New Hampshire.

Hutchins was enrolled for one year at Syracuse before joining the Marines at the outset of World War II, according to longtime friend David Case of Boscawen.

When Case presented the gift check to the Shaker Regional School Board at last week’s meeting, the members were understandably surprised. “It was overwhelming — and all sorts of adjectives I can’t think of right now,” quipped Superintendent Michael Cozort. “It really was something that came out of the blue. I knew somebody was coming to make a presentation for a scholarship fund but I had no idea it was going to be anything in that amount.”

Case laughed when he recalled the reaction of the school officials. “I didn’t realize the response it would get,” he said. “But I guess it was the size of the check.”

Cozort said the board and the administration are grateful and honored by the gift.

The Canterbury Library check will be presented to the board of trustees at its meeting on September 6, Case said.

Several years ago, Quentin Hutchins and his wife Mary, who died in 1993, left more than 100 acres of forestland in Canterbury to the Society of Protection of New Hampshire Forests, Case said.

“They were very generous people,” he said. “Quentin was an avid hunter ever since he was a boy, and a fisherman, too. They both loved the woods. Mary was an avid hunter too.”

Donations half the amount of the Shaker donation — $136,800 — will soon be presented to the Salvation Army in Concord and the New Hampshire Association of the Blind later this month, Case added.

Hutchins, who was born in Holderness, was raised in Bow and attended Concord High School. That’s where he came to know the benefits of receiving the aid of a scholarship, his old friend said.

“He came from a moderate, average family background,” Case explained. “Quentin was an all-star football player, he was all-state two years. And in doing that, he was drafted by the assistant coach of Syracuse University on a scholarship for playing football. So having been helped along the way, he saw the importance of that. That’s why he did what he did.”

Ironically, Hutchins academic career was cut short after only one year when he joined the Marines Corp. During the war, he served with the Fourth Marine Division’s Grasshopper Squadron, which operated observation planes. Hutchins, who was a Technical Sergeant airplane mechanic, served on the island of Siapan and was also on Iwo Jima. He was awarded the Bronze Star.

“He never talked about it much,” Case said.

When Hutchins returned to New Hampshire, he studied for a trade at a New Hampshire technical school in Portsmouth. He worked in plumbing and refrigeration, and then got involved with the Shawmut Fuse Company.

When Shawmut company folded, Hutchins went to work as a salesman for the GTE Company as a salesman.

He retired to Canterbury several years ago and died last year of complications related to diabetes, Case said. “He was quite a gentleman,” he added.

The Shaker college scholarship — which will be known as the Quentin and Mary Hutchins Scholarship — will be given to two students of high academic standing who are attending college after graduation. Currently the scholarship is set up to be $1,000 for each student, but Case said that figure could be raised based on how well the scholarship trust fund does.

“They wanted the money to be put in trust and have it make money, so the principle will always be left there to make money but the interest that will be spent (on the students),” he explained. “I suppose the amount could be increased to two or three thousand dollars, depending on how much money it earns.”