PORTSMOUTH- The Scioto Foundation is pleased to announce the establishment of the Constance Burns Ackerman Memorial Scholarship Fund, created by her husband Marion Ackerman in memory of his wife of almost 57 years.

To be eligible for the scholarship, a student must be a graduate of Portsmouth High School and plan to major in education. Preference will be given to students that attend Ohio University.

The volunteer scholarship committee of the Scioto Foundation will make annual selections of scholarship recipients on behalf of the Board of Governors.

Constance Ackerman passed away on August 12, 2021 at age 82. She was born in Portsmouth in 1939 and graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1957. One of nine children in the Burns family, she worked while she attended the Ohio University Branch in Portsmouth for two years and then transferred to the main campus where she met her future husband. After Constance graduated from college, the couple lived in Portsmouth for several years where Constance taught at Garfield Elementary School and earned her Master’s Degree in Education in 1962 while her husband was in the Peace Corps. Later, with their young daughter Susan, the Ackermans established their home in Westerville where Connie continued her career in education and Marion became a contractor.

The family later moved to Sunbury where Connie spent most of her career teaching fifth and sixth graders at Westerville’s Hanby School. She enjoyed helping students who were slower in their studies and could always be found working with children with math or reading after school. She retired after teaching for 31 years and then substituted for several more years.

Connie loved children and knew she wanted to become a teacher from the first time she went to school herself, according to her husband. “An education is something no one can ever take away from you,” she frequently said.

Connie loved to write letters to keep in touch with distant relatives and friends over her lifetime. She never knew a stranger and always made people feel welcome, her husband said. She was active in retirement – delivering meals at SourcePoint in Delaware, organizing funeral meals at First Presbyterian Church in Westerville, working with the Community Library Friends and the Big Walnut Area Historical Society, making cookies, visiting home-bound seniors and spending time with her family, especially her two granddaughters.

Marion formerly created two scholarships for graduates of Salem High School in northeastern Ohio where he attended school; they were designated for vocational studies at the local community college since he was a contractor and his family worked in the trades, he explained. Now he wanted to set up a fund in memory of Constance in the educational field in Portsmouth where the couple had lived for several years, he said.

Marion was also inspired by the Salem High School Alumni Association which originally created an endowment in for the school in 1903 and is now valued at around $11,000,000.

Contributions to the Constance Burns Ackerman Memorial Scholarship Fund from family, friends or the general public may be made at any time. Donations may be in the form of cash, securities or properties. .

Additional information about the Constance Burns Ackerman Memorial Scholarship Fund or other planned giving opportunities at the Scioto Foundation may be obtained by contacting Patty Tennant, Program Office – Donor Services, or SF Executive Director Kim Cutlip at (740) 354-4612.