Mae E. Austin

The Mae E. Austin scholarship was created in 2002 by Mae’s husband, Ronald Austin, and their 5 children – Dale Austin, Roger Austin, Carolyn Kihle, Susan Molzof and Anne Hill - following a brief battle with cancer and her ultimate passing September 1, 2001.

Daughter Anne wrote this history of her mother so that scholarship recipients would have a sense of who she was and why this scholarship would have been important to her.

Anne states “Mom and Dad were both raised on farms in the Iowa-Grant district during the times of one-room schoolhouses.  Dad’s family lived in the Arthur/Livingston area attending Greenwood School, and Mom was raised on the Biddick family farm near Rewey where she attended Carpenter Grade School.  After completing 8 years at their local one-room schoolhouses, they attended Livingston High School together in the mid 1950’s, prior to the inception of the consolidated Iowa-Grant High School and were married shortly after in 1957.  Following a few moves within the Platteville and Mifflin area, Mom and Dad decided to settle near Rewey where they continued to raise their children, all of whom attended Rewey Grade School and graduated from Iowa-Grant High School in the mid 70’s through the late 80’s.”

Mae was a bookkeeper for many years in the family business, Burnham Lumber Company.  She loved cooking and caring for her family and grandchildren and was a member of the Arthur United Methodist Church, Ladies Aid, Card Club, Rewey Homemakers and loved bowling.

Anne continues, “While students at I-G, their 5 children participated in numerous activities including Football, Volleyball, Boys and Girls Basketball, Wrestling, Baseball, Softball, Track, Cheerleading, FFA, Choir, Band, Color Guard, Yearbook, Drama, Musicals,  National Honor Society and Math Contests, to name a few.

Mom and Dad were always especially proud of the educational opportunities their children received at Iowa-Grant and therefore chose to fund this scholarship to aid graduates in their pursuit of further education.”

The Mae E. Austin scholarship has been presented since 2002.  In 2018  Anne was especially pleased to present this scholarship to her own son, Matthew Hill, and in 2019 she awarded the scholarship to her niece’s daughter, Madelyn Hunt.  She knows her mom would be very pleased and proud.