Eleanor Reesor Wheler Music Scholarship

Eleanor Reesor Wheler Music Scholarship

Maximum Amount: $1,000.00

Faculty: Arts

Status: Entering 1st Year

Process: Recommendation from the Department of Music

Scholarship Type: Scholarship

Description: Awarded to a first-year piano, string, or flute Major upon entrance into the Bachelor of Music program. The recipient will demonstrate a high standard of performance and the potential for substantial growth in the Bachelor of Music program. Renewal of the Award will be contingent upon maintenance of 75% in the first year and 80% in the second and third years based on a full course load.

Background: This scholarship, in memory of Eleanor Wheler, is to assist students wishing to study music at the University of Prince Edward Island, and to recognize superior dedication and performance. Established by her friends, to whom she gave wisdom, inspiration, laughter and love, it is intended to honour the life of an outstanding woman. Eleanor Wheler lived 96 joyful years, 49 of the happiest in her beloved Windswept, her Fernwood, PEI home by the sea. There she loved to listen to the waves crashing against the cliffs or lapping against the shore; swam and walked along the shores, fields and roads, and enjoyed everything about the outdoors. Eleanor Wheler was a pioneer in Public Health Nursing who moved to Prince Edward Island to work with Mona Wilson in 1945. Born in Edgewood Park, Pittsburgh on October 17, 1900, Eleanor Wheler graduated from Toronto General Hospital Nurses' Training in 1924, completed post-graduate Public Health Nursing in 1929 and a B.A. extramurally and in evening classes from the U

University of Toronto in 1944. Public Health work in Ontario, 1929-39, often required skiing many miles to visit patients from the outpost dental base in a railway car. Miss Wheler supervised the Public Health Demonstration Unit at The University of Toronto, 1939-44. Eleanor Wheler studied violin with Katherine Lee. Music and art were among her chief delights, and even after she became blind and could no longer read her music, listening to the Masters, and playing by ear gave her great pleasure. It is the hope of the founders that this scholarship will keep the spirit of Eleanor Wheler alive in beautiful music; that the winners will share her talent and love of music; and that it will bring as much joy to their lives and to the lives of those they touch.