Funded by W. Barry Blum, in honor of the memory of his elementary school teacher, Eleanor Hansell, in 2024, the Eleanor Hansell Memorial Scholarship will award a USD $5,000 academic scholarship to an eligible Jamaican student attending university, trade, vocational or graduate school.

About Eleanor
Eleanor was born November 14, 1929, in Dodge City, Kansas. She began a life of service to others as a member of the U.S. Navy (WAVES) during the Korean Conflict. She first attended Dodge City Community College in Kansas where she received her Associates Degree, and she later received her BA from The College of New Jersey and a Master’s degree from Penn State University. Eleanor taught elementary school in Kansas and in Bristol Township, Pennsylvania for 32 years, shaping the lives of countless children with an uncanny ability to see the best in every child. She was a teacher in the spirit of the Lynne Mitchell Foundation. In 1963, during just her second year in Bristol Township, “Mrs. Hansell” took a special interest in a precocious and unruly first-grader, not only tolerating his near-constant disruptions but always encouraging him with love to reach for the stars. That began a life-long relationship that saw Eleanor and her husband Bob attending that former first-grader’s wedding in Jacksonville, Florida in 1985, now culminating in this memorial scholarship.
Eleanor and Bob were married for 60 years and they raised two son and a daughter. She handled with grace and resolve life’s challenges, including the untimely passing at age 53 of her only daughter, Eleanor Ann, in 2009, by leaning on her faith. Eleanor was a member of Emilie United Methodist Church in Levittown, Pennsylvania, where she served on the Administrative Board and Visitation Team and served as the Chairperson of the Emilie Christian Day School and as a Christ Servant Minister. She also served as a chaplain at the Lower Bucks Hospital for the last fifteen years of her life. Eleanor passed away on December 25, 2012, in Bristol, Pennsylvania, at the age of 83.