The Julia Cronin Matthews Endowed Scholarship

Criteria: ($500 Award) The Julia Cronin Matthews Endowed Scholarship will be awarded to a female student entering her sophomore year who is majoring in history. The student applying for this award should have an interest in International Relations and the United Nations and provide evidence of this in essay form. Furthermore, to be considered for this award the applicant should be employed full- or part-time while attending Worcester State University.

Julia Ellen Cronin was born in Princeton, Mass., in 1889 and married Ralph Edgar Matthews in 1909. They had four children: Ralph Emmett, John Morrison, Esther Elizabeth and Ann Ellen. Julia Cronin Matthews passed away in 1953.

Many people still have strong recollections of Julia and of her influence in their lives. She loved and understood children, her own and many, many others. Her vivid imagination created marvelous tales for children. One long-going adventure involved a sea captain who roamed the world’s oceans. Plants and animals were another strong focus of her life-energy. Roses were one of Julia’s favorite flowers and she created beautiful gardens wherever she lived. Animals, especially dogs, instinctively loved and trusted her.

Libraries were Julia’s learning place – her “university!” All her life she was an omnivorous reader. She read in diverse fields of knowledge and was especially intrigued with the immense variety of the world’s people. One of her life-long interests included the study of ancient and modern China.

She was a strong political liberal in a very conservative town. She firmly, but quietly, maintained her right to determine her vote as an independent citizen. The vast scope of her mind moved from town, to country, to world. Julia had a strong interest in the founding of the United Nations and read with awe and hope, the Preamble to the Declaration of Human Rights, framed by Eleanor Roosevelt. How she would have rejoiced, decades later, as Nelson Mandela signed the new constitution of South Africa. That document symbolized another milestone in our slow and painful progress toward a more civilized world.

The timeless legacy of Julia Cronin Matthews is her love of learning and her respect and appreciation of education as a pathway to a useful and productive life. The late Esther Matthews ’40 established this scholarship to honor the memory of her mother – her first and most important teacher.