Veterans Scholarship at ArtCenter College of Design Expands to Include Undergraduate Students

A veteran-focused scholarship at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena has broadened its scope from continuing studies to supporting undergraduate student veterans, according to an article in ArtCenter’s DOT Magazine last week^[a].

The Ross Dimond Player and Madelyn Maberly Player Endowed Memorial Scholarship, established in 2012, has provided approximately $25,000 in endowment earnings for financial assistance since its inception.

Four daughters of Ross Dimond Player, a wounded and honorably discharged World War II veteran who fought at Iwo Jima before attending ArtCenter, pooled their inheritance after his 2012 death.

After attending Utah State University, Player graduated from ArtCenter in 1951 with a BFA in Illustration degree, having utilized the GI Bill to fund his education.

Player and his wife Madelyn, who passed away in 2005, raised four daughters – Marguerite (Peggy), Maureen and twins Sally and Nancy – while living initially in a Quonset hut in Los Angeles.

“It felt like a natural thing to do: to support veterans coming back from serving and to help them find peace in their own creativity,” Nancy Player said about creating the scholarship during the Iraq War’s end.

Player’s 40-year career as a graphic designer at Eastern Iron and Metal Corporation in Utah included extensive freelance work for Brighton Ski Resort and the Latter Days Saints Church office building.

“We all thought that would be a much more meaningful legacy than going on a trip or paying off something,” Nancy Player told ArtCenter’s DOT Magazine.

The sisters recounted their father’s experience at ArtCenter, with Marguerite noting how he would talk about how he liked his classes and how much he learned, particularly emphasizing his study of human form.

The scholarship also honors their mother, Madelyn, who served on numerous PTA Boards, the Millcreek Community Council and the Salt Lake Planning Commission until her retirement in 1991.

“It changed the trajectory of their lives, and it taught them they could do anything,” Nancy Player said.