The Fred Maytag Family Foundation is donating $2.25 million to Central College to fund an annual full-ride scholarship program for multiple students from Iowa pursuing a career in a STEM-related field. The donation also will fund scientific instrumentation needs at the college.

The gift, which has created two funds – the Thomas Ross Smith Scientific Instrumentation Initiative and the Thomas Ross Smith Scholarship – will unlock opportunities afforded by a Central education for hundreds of future students for generations to come. The initiative will be used to purchase scientific equipment at the college and the scholarship will provide a four-year, full tuition scholarship to students intending to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

The first full-tuition scholarship was awarded in August 2021 to Amber Reysack of Ankeny. Eventually, the scholarship will be provided to four students each year on a recurring basis.

Through both funds, the Maytag Family Foundation honors a friend of the Maytag family. Thomas Ross Smith was a Newton native who became an electrical engineer and began working in Maytag’s machine shop in 1934. Smith graduated from Newton High School in 1926 and was a childhood friend of Fred Maytag II. During his 40-year career at Maytag, he was involved in the design of many successful Maytag appliances, including the Model E washer, and held more than 250 U.S. patents and many foreign patents and was named Iowa Inventor of the Year in 1979.