Pictured Above: Scholarship Creator Len Deadman poses for a photo. Deadman established a $26,000 scholarship for investigative journalism students at USF St. Petersburg.
Courtesy of Len Deadman
By Edyn Gottlieb
Studying investigative journalism just got a little easier for USF St. Petersburg students thanks to the Deadman family.
Len Deadman — a USF alum and journalism advocate — and his late wife, Nancy, have established a $26,000 scholarship for USF St. Petersburg students studying investigative journalism.
Deadman earned his master’s degree at USF. Additionally, he taught marketing classes at both USF and USF St. Petersburg for more than 20 years while pursuing a career in advertising.
“I believe the Fourth Estate [press] is extremely important to this country,” Deadman said in an interview for the Giving Spotlights page.
“The press is needed to look into the mental health system, the prison system, the school system, and the political system. Anyone or any entity that is dishonest and in a leadership role needs to be called out front and center. And I wanted to help in any way I could.”
The Len and Nancy Deadman Journalism Scholarship is open to full-time junior, senior and graduate students at USF St. Petersburg who have a focus in investigative reporting.
Deadman expressed his excitement about the scholarship in an email to The Crow’s Nest.
“Now that I’ve been able to endow the scholarship, the money is funding scholarship awards once a year instead of an occasional donation happening or waiting 30-40 years for the legacy to kick in,” Deadman said. “I am overjoyed about that.”
In an email to faculty, Associate professor Casey Frechette, the chair of the Department of Journalism and Digital Communications, announced that $1,000 will be awarded in the upcoming fall semester with future scholarships being based on the earnings from the remainder of the gift.
While Len Deadman is the reason behind the scholarship’s existence, he doesn’t want the spotlight.
“In my view, I am not the important focus for this scholarship.” he wrote in an email to The Crow’s Nest. “The deserving students who are awarded this scholarship and grow to be outstanding investigative journalists, that’s what this is all about.”
