Brinks memorial college scholarship applications due by April 15
NYACK March 7 2019 – College-bound students interested in law enforcement careers can get a financial boost through the O’Grady-Brown Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Applications are now available at Rockland high school guidance departments, or aspirants can download the paperwork at the fund’s website. The submission deadline is April 15.
The awards are usually $1,000 for up to six students in the names of Nyack Police Sgt. Edward O’Grady and Officer Waverly “Chipper” Brown.
O’Grady and Brown were killed Oct. 20, 1981, at the New York State Thruway entrance ramp off Route 59 in Nyack by six men with automatic weapons who jumped from the back of a van stopped at a roadblock following a robbery at the Nanuet Mall.
The shootings came less than an hour after a Brinks armored car was robbed of $1.6 million by a gang of self-professed revolutionaries at the mall. Security guard Peter Paige was killed during the robbery while his partner Joseph Trombino was wounded.
The robbery was one of more than a dozen in the region by a gang whose members professed to be revolutionaries. The gang included black nationalists and former members of the 1960s violent Weather Underground.
The scholarship fund, started in 1991, is one of several honors for O’Grady, Brown and Paige.
A yearly remembrance ceremony on Oct. 20 is held at the memorial site on Mountainview Avenue. The post office building on Broadway in Nyack is named for the two officers, whose names are etched into monuments in New City and Washington, D.C., for officers killed in the line of duty.
The college scholarship criteria include:
Commitment to pursuing a law enforcement career.
Acceptance at an accredited college or university.
Timely submission of application.
Academic achievement.
Achievement in sports, clubs and service.
Financial need and good moral character.
For more information, students can visit the ogradybrown.com, call 845-638-5461 or write to the O’Grady-Brown Memorial Scholarship Fund Inc., P.O. Box 1024, Nyack, NY, 10960.
A brunch to hand out the awards is usually scheduled for early June at the Nyack Seaport, 21 Burd St.
