Powell High School art students continuing their educations at Northwest College will soon have a new scholarship to pursue, thanks to the efforts of the PHS Class of 1969.

Over the summer and into this fall, class members helped raise just over $10,000 to establish a new scholarship in honor of longtime PHS art instructor Bill McRann.

The group — which needed to hit five figures to start up an endowment — learned this month that a recent donation had pushed the fundraising total to $10,040.

“It was great to do as good as we did,” said Dennis Friedly of Cody, a member of the class of ‘69 and a former student of McRann’s.

Friedly crafts custom knives and he donated a special Powell Panther-themed knife that brought in thousands of dollars through a raffle. Other contributions included a painting from McRann’s son, Mike, and a painting of Heart Mountain from Bill Bunch, another McRann pupil, with a custom frame by Steve Urbanski.

“A lot of people stepped up and made it happen,” Friedly said.

Bunch is donating another painting that will be sold to fund an initial Bill McRann memorial scholarship this coming spring. Future scholarships will be funded by proceeds from the new endowment, which is being set up by the Northwest College Foundation.

Friedly expressed thanks on behalf of the Class of ‘69 to everyone who participated in making the scholarship a reality.

He’s hoping that the endowment — and the scholarships — will just keep growing.

“Our vision for the whole project is hoping that some other classes will pick up where we left off and continue it,” Friedly said.

— CJ Baker