About Tri-County
Edward L. Hennessy, Jr.
Ed and his late wife, Ruth, who was also a devoted friend of Tri-County Scholarship Fund.
THE VISIONARIES
Combining their talents, Ed Hennessy and Bishop Rodimer created the Tri-County Scholarship Fund. The Fund would exist to give financial scholarships to financially disadvantaged children in grades K-12 to go to accredited private and parochial schools.
They started the program with a fundraising dinner in 1981. As Ed likes to say: “the dinner cost me $50,000 and we brought in $45,000!” But it was a start, and suddenly many prominent business leaders knew about Tri-County, as it came to be called, and about the plight of young people who could not afford a good education. Ed and Bishop Rodimer lost no time in recruiting them to the board. Meanwhile, they visited the homes and families of many students.
There they met mothers and fathers who would forego a meal so that they could do their part in sending the children to the diocesan and parochial schools. And so, between the parents, the teachers and the business leaders, Tri-County took off.
