Ladd Macaulay Memorial Scholarship
Ladd Macaulay was the visionary behind Douglas Island Pink and Chum, Inc. In response to lagging salmon runs, Ladd helped develop the non-profit hatchery as a means to enhance both the area salmon runs and the Southeast economy. He included a visitor center in the final hatchery design to support local education and tourism. He graduated from Juneau Douglas High School and the University of Montana with a degree in biology, a teaching certificate, and a minor in Russian. He married his high school sweetheart Linda, and they raised four children in Juneau.
Throughout his life, he was dedicated to education. He taught biology at Marie Drake Junior-High school and then began an environmental education program, including outdoor-education camp for 6th grade students, sea week, emergency and outdoor survival classes and an immigration education program for students to experience the imaginary life of the Yukon gold rush of 1898.
Ladd was known as a creative thinker with a can-do attitude. With his young family living in the Mendenhall valley, he build a barn and stocked it with sheep, geese, chickens, rabbits, and other farm animals. Coaching baseball for many years was a favorite pastime. He could spend hours working on game plans with friends and his sons. He was an operator of the Marie Drake Planetarium. He played drums, piano, and helped found Stroller White Pipes and Drums as a bagpiper, By example, he taught others they could be anything they wanted to be, to live each day to the fullest, to give your best, and ask for forgiveness.
Sadly, while visiting hatcheries in south central Alaska on state business, Ladd was killed by a drunk driver on April 19, 2000. Douglas Island Pink and Chum, Inc. remains a shining example of how one man's dream can become a major influence on the state of Alaska's fishing industry, economy, and way of life. He always dreamed big and encouraged others to follow suit.
DIPAC has established The Ladd Macaulay Memorial Scholarship Fund in honor of Ladd and his commitment to education. It is designed to support post-secondary education for baccalaureate programs and vocational/technical training.
The DIPAC Scholarship Committee offers two categories of scholarships :
1) Baccalaureate degree (BA or BS) - up to a four-year grant with a total amount of $12,000; and
2) Associate degree in technologies or vocational training related to the fishing industry - up to a two-year grant totaling $6,000.
Baccalaureate scholarships are open to all graduates of high schools in Juneau, Haines, Skagway, Hoonah, Chatham, and Kake School Districts, and graduating home school students residing in Juneau, Lynn Canal, or northern Chatham Straits area. Graduating seniors and students who are already enrolled in college who are graduates from these high schools may also apply. Students pursuing BA/BS degrees in any field of study may apply and are eligible to receive these scholarship awards. Applicants who intend to concentrate in fisheries science, natural resource conservation, and related fields will receive particularly close consideration.
Vocational education and technical training scholarships are open to graduating seniors and graduates of high school programs (including home school) throughout Southeast Alaska.
Graduation from the high school programs listed in the preceding paragraph is not required of applicants for fisheries/hatchery technology programs. However, applicants for the fishery/hatchery technology or vocational scholarships, if not graduates of the high school programs listed in the preceding paragraph, must have Alaska fisheries/hatchery work experience or be enrolled or admitted to an accredited fisheries/hatchery technology program in Southeast Alaska.
The application process for these scholarships is from January 1-March 17 for 2025.
Ladd Macaulay Memorial Scholarships for 2025:
Ladd Macaulay Memorial Scholarship Program general information 2025 - Click to download Word document
Ladd Macaulay Memorial Scholarship Program Rules and Procedures - Click to download Word document
Baccalaureate degree (BA or BS) application 2025 - Click to download Word document
Vocational/Technical training application 2025 - Click to download Word document
Ladd Macaulay Memorial Fellowship
Ladd Macaulay, the founder of DIPAC, maintained close relationships with the University of Alaska from the inception of DIPAC operations. In collaboration with Dr. Bill Smoker, professor in Fisheries Science at what was then the University of Alaska Juneau, Ladd included laboratory research space in the initial design of the Macaulay Hatchery. This space was used and staffed by University research assistants and graduate students from 1992 to 2007. Twelve graduate students completed thesis research in the lab on topics ranging from basic biology of salmon (genetics of life cycle timing) to development of novel salmon culture techniques in use today, such as seasonal regulation of rations to enhance marine survival and constrain precocious maturation. Of these students nine went on to public-agency careers in Alaska fisheries conservation. Nine published their results in the peer-reviewed open literature. DIPAC’s in-kind contribution of the laboratory facilities levered extramural funding of research approaching $1 million. When the School of Fisheries developed its own wet laboratory facilities, this cooperative effort at the Macaulay Hatchery was discontinued.
In recognition and continuation of Ladd’s long-standing support of graduate studies in fisheries at the University, DIPAC established in 2014 the Ladd Macaulay Memorial Fellowship with an endowment with the University of Alaska Foundation. The purpose of this endowment is to support graduate students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences in Juneau (CFOS-Lena Point). The Ladd Macaulay Fellowship may be used for tuition, research, stipend, insurance, supplies, and any other cost directly associated with the student’s thesis. The goals are to support research for the enhancement and management of sustainable salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska and to educate future fisheries professionals at CFOS-Lena Point.
The Director of the UAF CFOS Fisheries Division works with the DIPAC Scholarship Committee to identify the most productive areas of research (to the industry and to the University) to be explored by the graduate students selected to receive the Fellowship. The University issues a Request For Proposals (RFP) for graduate student projects to address these areas of interest. For each RFP, a Review Board is established with representation from CFOS-Lena Point and DIPAC as well as representation from the fisheries management sector (e.g., ADF&G, NMFS). The Review Board reviews the proposals received in response to the RFP and makes a recommendation to the Director. The fellowship award is determined by the Director based upon the recommendation of the Board.
Since the establishment of the Fellowship Endowment, endowment earnings have been sufficient to fund the following graduate students for MSc Fisheries programs:
Casey McConnell. MSc Fisheries Program 2014-2017. Thesis: The Analyses of Hatchery Straying Rates of Chum Salmon within Southeast Alaska and Identification of Straying Causality, using Thermal Mark and Coded Wire Tag Data.
Douglas Duncan. MSc Fisheries Program. 2016-2019. Thesis: Predation on Chum Salmon (Oncorhynchus Keta) at Natural Rearing Areas and Hatchery Release Sites Near Juneau, Alaska.
Molly Paine. MSc Fisheries Program, 2019 - 2022. Thesis: What factors make certain streams attractive to hatchery strays.
Mary Commins. MSc Fisheries Program. 2023 - Present. Thesis: Second-generation consequences of sockeye salmon enhancement in Auke Creek.