When George Mortimer Pullman, founder of the Pullman Palace Car Company, died in 1897, he bequeathed $1.2 million (about $30 million in today’s dollars) for the establishment of a free school of manual training for the sons and daughters of the employees of the Pullman Company and the residents of the Roseland and Pullman communities. This school, The Pullman Free School of Manual Training, which opened in 1915 and was fondly referred to as Pullman Tech, operated until 1949, when it was converted in 1950 to the George M. Pullman Educational Foundation.

Pullman Tech was quite innovative for its time. Girls took secretarial courses and home economics, while boys took shop and mechanical arts. While a girl taking secretarial courses today is just about an anachronism, in 1915, it was cutting edge, as most secretaries were men.

In 1949 the Board of Trustees decided to close Pullman Tech and use the school’s endowment to establish a foundation which would “administer the funds for counseling and guidance, scholarships and other desirable purposes that would accomplish as closely as possible the purposes set forth in the Will of George M. Pullman.” In 1950, the George M. Pullman Educational Foundation awarded the first need-based, merit-based scholarships to 60 students in an amount totaling $20,000.

Since those first scholarships were awarded, the Foundation has awarded over $27 million in scholarships to approximately 11,000 students.

Today, the Pullman Scholarship remains need-based and merit-based, but now plays the critical role of closing the gap between the student’s total financial aid package and his or her tuition.