Henry Taylor & Lorraine Steinberg Endowed Scholarship

The Steinberg’s met in 1962 at WIU, pursuing degrees in Agriculture (‘67) and Communication (’66).

Lorraine was born in Brooklyn, NY, but grew up in the Midwest. Before having children, Lorraine taught high school English, speech and creative writing at carious Illinois high schools. After beginning their family in 1969, Lorraine stayed home for a few years to be a full-time mother. During this time, she opened a dance studio and taught classes for 10 years, and eventually returned to the classroom.

Lorraine eventually retired after spending 20 years in the classroom, followed by 10 years working with the Regional Office of Education in West Central Illinois, where she assisted 22 school districts, teaching educators to write grants, incorporate computers into the classrooms and develop tech corps.

Taylor was born and raised on the family farm near Belleview, IL. From the time he was old enough to assist with farm chores and labor intensive activities, he did.

Taylor has worked in Ag Mechanics at Steinberg Farms (since 1865) and will contiune to raise future generations of farmers with his daughter, son and grandchildren in line to take over.

After graduating from WIU, Taylor joined International Harvester Company in sales and marketing, and continued in his dealership, Pikeland International in Pittsfield, IL. The early 1980s agriculture market pressures and high inflation interest rates required a new career path in late 1985. Taylor joined the Knapheide Manufacturing Company in sales in marketing retiring after 36 years.

CRITERIA & ELIGIBILITY:

• Incoming full-time Freshman, Sophmore, Junior and Senior
• Declared Major in Agriculture
• Minimum cumulative 2.5 GPA
• Incoming Freshman must submit a brief statement of where the application has been in life, where they are now and where they would like to be in the future and the applicant’s motivation for pursuig a career in agriculure
• Preference given to and not limited to female students, students with financial need and student actively involved with Agriculture Mechanization and/or Precision Agriculture