Scientist, wife give UH-Hilo $2.4 million for scholarships

Advertiser Staff

HILO, Hawai'i — A research scientist and his wife have donated $2.4 million to establish a scholarship fund at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo for graduates of Hawai'i and Pacific island high schools.

The gift by Alec D. Keith and his wife, Kay, is the largest private donation by individuals ever made to any institution in the UH system, university officials said yesterday.

UH-Hilo Chancellor Rose Y. Tseng called the Keiths' donation "philanthropy at its best."

"A college education can make all the difference in the world in the life of an individual. We will now have resources to offer scholarships to many more students than ever before," Tseng said.

The DxRx VIVA Inc. Endowed Scholarship Fund, named after a nonprofit company recently founded by Keith and a partner, is designed to provide educational opportunities for Hawai'i and Pacific Island students who show academic promise but have difficulty paying for college.

Keith, 71, is a research scientist with more than 100 patents who served as chairman of Watson Pharmaceuticals. He has been a professor at several prominent universities, including the University of California at Berkeley and Pennsylvania State University.

In the early 1980s, Keith oversaw a successful project to develop a commercial nitroglycerin patch to treat heart disease patients. His most notable patents involve alternative methods of administering drugs to reduce the side effects.

He serves on the UH-Hilo Advisory Board and is an affiliate faculty member of the university's Chemistry Department.

The scholarships will be administered by the UH-Hilo Financial Aid Office as part of the financial aid application process.