Lynn woman’s legacy lives on through new scholarship

LYNN – Two Lynn students hoping to study medicine in college will have at least a small portion of their expenses paid this semester thanks to a new scholarship dedicated to the memory of a longtime Lynn resident.Ellen (Farmer) Penley died of ALS, or Lou Gherig’s disease, in 2005 at the age of 62. Prior to her death, she and her husband Richard spent countless hours in hospital rooms and doctors’ offices trying to combat the terminal disease.The graduate of Lynn English High School Class of 1961 was so grateful for the help and support she received from her doctors and nurses that, prior to her death, she discussed using some of the money she and her husband had saved for retirement to fund scholarships for students hoping to go into the medical field.Now three years later, Richard Penley made the idea a reality, as he was on hand in Superintendent Nicholas Kostan’s office Thursday afternoon to present the first ever Richard and Ellen Penley scholarship to two recent Lynn graduates.The matching $2,500 awards went to Emily Pring of Lynn Classical High School and Kristi Rebidue of Lynn English High School, both of whom are looking to study nursing this fall.Pring will attend Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. while Rebedue will stay local and enter Salem State College’s respected nursing program.”My wife had ALS and the nurses and doctors were all just wonderful,” said Penley. “So I said, ‘Well, we saved all of this money for retirement, let’s put it into a scholarship.'”The scholarship will be awarded to two students every year going forward, which will aid two lucky families in the difficult task of funding an expensive college venture.”I would like to thank Mr. Penley for his generosity in helping these two Lynn students further their education, especially nowadays when college is getting more and more difficult to pay for. I am sure that their parents appreciate the help also,” said Kostan. “We have two of our seniors here that have graduated from Lynn schools last year and they are truly deserving of this award.”Ellen Penley was originally from Philadelphia, but moved to Lynn at a young age. She worked for years at General Electric before retiring in 2000.