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Johnny Carson Foundation Gives $5M To Support More UNL Students

By Tom Stanton Oct 22, 2021 | 10:13 AM

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln announced on Friday it has received a $5 million gift from the Johnny Carson Foundation that will provide tuition assistance to even more students at the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.

The gift was announced on the eve of what would have been the late entertainment icon’s 96th birthday. It augments the Johnny Carson Foundation Opportunity Scholarship Fund, created in 2010 at the University of Nebraska Foundation with a $1 million gift in honor of Carson, a Nebraska alumnus who died in 2005.

The permanently endowed fund enables the university to award annual scholarships to students enrolled in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film and the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts. The university may award both need-based and merit-based scholarships from the fund.

With the increased funding, the scholarship fund is expected to provide scholarships to 50 to 60 students annually, totaling about $300,000 in aid. The scholarship currently helps 15 to 25 students annually, totaling about $100,000.

“The Johnny Carson Foundation, just like Johnny once did, understands how student support and endowments can transform the educational experience of our students and, by doing so, lead our graduates toward powerful, meaningful working lives,” said Charles O’Connor, dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. “I appreciate their belief in what we are trying to do here at Nebraska, as well as my friendship with them over many years.”

Christina Kirk, director of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film and executive director of the Nebraska Repertory Theatre, said the university is grateful for this generosity that provides additional tuition support.

“We have been awarding these scholarships for several years, and they have helped us recruit many of the most talented students from right here in Nebraska,” Kirk said. “I am so grateful for this gift, which will allow us to award even more scholarships in the years to come and to extend these opportunities to students from around the country. We proudly carry the name of Johnny Carson on our school and on these scholarships. His legacy continues to inspire the next generation of artists.”

Carson was born in Corning, Iowa in 1925 and grew up in Norfolk, Nebraska.  He hosted “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” from 1962 to 1992.    In 2004, Carson donated $5.3 million to support theatre and film programs in the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. The funding also enabled the renovation and expansion of the Temple Building, at 12th and R streets, home to the theatre program and where Carson studied.

Following Carson’s death, the university received an additional $5 million gift from Carson’s estate for endowed support of programs in theatre, film and broadcasting. In recognition of his generosity, the university renamed its Department of Theatre Arts the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film.

(Photo: University of Nebraska-Lincoln)