Former Faculty Giving Back
Cady and Huskey believe once you receive something, you owe something back

Ruth Cady and the late Dorothy Huskey had two things in common: both were former Sam Houston State health professors, and both wanted to give back to the university that had been a part of their lives for 32 and 18 years, respectively.

In 1998, the two friends decided to combine their resources to endow a $100,000 health science scholarship in their names.

"We felt that by working together we could probably give more," Cady said.

The scholarship is designated for a full-time female freshman or sophomore at SHSU, majoring in a preprofessional health related program, community health education or school health education.

Financial need is also a consideration because the two wanted to aid students in the same way they were aided as students.

"We both had scholarships as students, and I always felt that once you received this much, that you owe something back," Huskey said (prior to her death in 2009).

When the two taught at SHSU, the university was quite different.

"I came in '57, when Sam was really just starting to grow," said Cady, a native Houstonian whose undergraduate and graduate degrees are from Texas Woman's University. "Women probably made up about one percent of the entire faculty."

They witnessed quite a few changes in both their programs and the university, including integration, the construction of the Health and Kinesiology Center, and the combination of the women and men's health departments.

The pair were groundbreaking leaders in health education among universities in the United States.

Under Cady's direction, many changes were instituted to bring recognition to the women's department across the country and even around the world.

"We (Sam Houston State) were the prime movers to have health education as a separate major," Cady said.

"We were one of the first universities to be accredited by the state for a major in health education."

She added the Sam Houston State program was the first to include both school and community health.

"We were also one of the first to have an internship program where our students went out and spent the summer at UT and Houston in medical school; at Galveston in hospital and patient education; at community health with the American Heart Association; or at the Harris County Health Department," Cady said.

"We were a leader and model for other schools in the country," said Huskey, who began teaching at SHSU in 1969 after earning bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Tennessee, another master's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a doctorate from the University of Michigan.

Huskey attributed her success to the financial assistance she received as a student.

"My professors were always very interested in helping me in every way," she said. "I wouldn't have been able to go to graduate school without a scholarship myself."

Along with their contributions to SHSU, Cady and Huskey established scholarships at their alma maters.