A recent gift for graduate student support at the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center came from an unlikely source: a graduate student at the center.

   When his father died in 2003, Matthew Isham made a decision to earmark some of his inheritance to the Richards Center, the focus of his area of study. Isham explains he was motivated by a desire to honor his father, who had a great enthusiasm for learning.

   “My father was an amateur history buff,” he explains. “He especially loved ancient civilizations such as the Mayans and the ancient Egyptians. I wanted to express his enthusiasm in a concrete way.”

   Growing up in New Hampshire, Isham attended Colby College in Maine as an undergraduate. After working in the admissions office at his alma mater for three years, he embarked on a master's degree from the University of Maine. Settling in Portland, Maine after completing his M.A., Isham returned to admissions work, this time for the university, for three more years before preparing to pursue his Ph.D. and decided upon Penn State, where he could study with McCabe Greer Professor Mark Neely. His research focuses on the American antebellum time period and the northern anti-slavery movement.

   Although his father was enthusiastic about his son’s academic future, there was a long period of time when the two of them barely saw each other. Isham’s parents divorced when he was six months old and he was essentially raised by his mother and stepfather, who also played a role in his decision to give back.

   “They were both teachers at a local technical college,” he says. “And they both felt deeply about the worth of creating academic work that will be valuable to other people’s education.”

   And even though Isham honors his family through his donation, he isn’t entirely altruistic, he points out.

   “I thought about giving to my father’s alma mater, but then I decided to be a little selfish,” he remarks. “What would make a real impact for me, I realized, was to give to a program that has done a lot for me and will do a lot for others in my field. That’s how I settled on the [Richards] Civil War Era Center.”

   Specifically designated for graduate support, Isham’s gift will provide small grants for incidentals such as travel money to conferences, funds to help in career preparation, new library materials, and as an award to honor graduate student publications.

   “I want to help the Richards Center move toward its goal of being the preeminent center of its kind in the United States,” he says.

    And with his generous gift, that is exactly what Matthew Isham is doing.