Lee Roberson Scholarship Fund to aid Liberty students

The Lee Roberson Foundation has established a scholarship fund at Liberty University to aid Christian men and women in college, graduate school or seminary.

The foundation honors Dr. Lee Roberson, founder of Tennessee Temple University and longtime pastor of Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tenn. Roberson died April 29, 2007, at the age of 97.

The late Rev. Jerry Falwell, who received his honorary Doctor of Divinity from Tennessee Temple Theological Seminary, was a close friend with Roberson. The two shared a similar vision for their schools to train preachers, missionaries and others for Christian service.

John Roberson, Roberson’s son and a member of the Board of Trustees at TTU, said the tie between his father and Falwell “was very strong, and that’s one reason we started the scholarship fund at Liberty.”

He said the two were often able to advise each other on future plans.

“Dr. Falwell talked to him [Roberson] before he started Liberty and a lot of the beginning days at Liberty were maybe modeled after what happened at Temple,” he said.

Dr. Lee Roberson led Highland Park Baptist Church in the organization of Tennessee Temple Schools in 1946. It was to be a two-year college and Bible school, but soon expanded to incorporate a four-year college, Bible school and seminary. It became a university in 1979 and received full accreditation by the American Association of Bible Colleges in 1984.

The Lee Roberson Foundation, formed less than a year before his death, has also established funds at TTU and Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio. Each was started with a $5,000 gift.

Money from the LU fund will be made available to qualifying Liberty students once the fund reaches $50,000.

For more about scholarship guidelines and disbursement of funds through Liberty University, call Harold Knowles with Estate Planning at 434-592-6019.

For more about the Lee Roberson Foundation and contributing to the fund to help LU students, go to http://leeroberson.org.