JULY 4, 2019
National and local media alike covered the life and death of Major Brent Taylor, an alumni of the BYU political science department, who passed away last November while deployed in Afghanistan. He had been a successful community leader as the mayor of North Ogden and a loving husband and father of seven children. To help his example and legacy live on, his wife, Jennie Taylor, has decided to create the Brent and Jennie Taylor Family Endowed Scholarship Fund.
As explained on the Major Brent Taylor Legacy Foundation website, the plan with the new scholarship is “to establish a memorial scholarship in Brent’s name at each of his collegiate alma maters–namely, Brigham Young University and the University of Utah… [there will be] one full-tuition undergraduate scholarship each year, awarded in perpetuity [to BYU]; one master’s and one doctoral candidate scholarship each year, awarded in perpetuity.”
Jennie Taylor decided to create the scholarship, because she wishes to continue Brent’s commitment to service. As she explains on the scholarship fund’s website: “It is our desire, as a family, to carry on Brent’s legacy of service, sacrifice and statesmanship in a way that inspires future students to likewise focus on the same. Our cities, communities, state and nation need more of the kind of service-leadership that Brent exemplified. There are many things Brent might have gone on to do with his professional and public-service life, had he had more years of life on earth. Now that he is no longer here to fulfill any such future roles of leadership, that torch must be passed on to the next generation.”
To donate to the Brent and Jennie Taylor Family Endowed Scholarship Fund, go to http://www.majorbrenttaylor.com/. Also, read the article featuring his story in the Political Science Post, the quarterly newsletter published by BYU’s political science department.
