Fund: Howard H Hays, Sr. Memorial Scholarship Fund Department: Financial Aid Dept D01171 Purpose: Graduate or Undergraduate Student Support History and Purpose: Born at the turn of the 20th century, Howard H Hays, Sr grew up in Metropolis, a small community in Southern Illinois. Hays was 9 years old when his father, an attorney died and his mother to support the family took a position in Texas. Howard was raised by his grandmother. He spend his high school years involved in journalism and debate and attended the University of Illinois in Urbana where he was not to finish his degree. Being that he was the sole support for his mother and grandmother, for financial reasons, he found a job making his living working on a sheep ranch in Montana and in the summers drove a surrey through Yellow Stone National Park, at that time, a park newly created by the Federal government. While in Yellowstone, Hays met the son of the famous General Nelson Miles and persuaded him to finance a business venture which would compete with the Northern Pacific Railway 5 point hotels. He would design and create a more cost effective way for families to visit the Yellowstone Parks employing a series on campgrounds which all included canvas covered units, central office buildings, restrooms and showers. He built such facilities at Mammoth, Roosevelt and Canyon lake. His company became known as the Yellowstone Park Camps Company. Residents came on stage coaches and enjoyed weeks and months of vacation on these sites. Hays worked hard to build this company, bought stock in the organization and, in the end, was hugely successful. Hays found himself in poor health in 1920 when doctors diagnosed him with tuberculosis advising Hays to move to a sanatorium in the West. Hays moved out to Southern California to live in Riverside where he knew Frank Miller a then entrepreneur and O.K. Morton, an attorney who later was made a judge, a man who he worked closely with at Yellowstone. Tours transporting passengers by Pullman car from New York to places such as Riverside, San Diego and Santa Barbara were sold at a rate of about $1000.00 a person. One could buy a ticket and go to the Riverside Mission Inn or to San Francisco and use a chip which they provided to the engineer who would turn in this voucher to the Hays Company to pay his fee. Hays married Margaret Mauger in 1915 and had three sons, Howard Jr. known as Tim, Daniel, and William Hays. Over the years, Hays learned to know Harry Hammond who was looking for an investor to buy out Pittington, partner of the Riverside Press, the evening newspaper. After selling his Camp Company for $750,000 Hays used one portion of his profit to buy the partner's share of the newspaper. The remaining profits were used to strengthen the Sequoia and King's Canyon National Park Company now contiguous, the National Park general fund and the Glacier Park Transport Company in Montana. Hays never played an active role in the reporting side of the Riverside Press but did function as the publisher. Eventually Hammond and Hays decided to buy the Enterprise, the morning Riverside newspaper, establishing Riverside's newspaper as it is still known today, the Riverside Press-Enterprise. For his dedication and tireless efforts for the Riverside community, Howard H. Hays was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of California, Riverside. Selection and Guidelines: Income is to be used for scholarship assistance. The Financial Aid Office selects students for this scholarship based the guidelines listed. Request for Information: Request Scholarship Information