Laughter filled a small room at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Annapolis & Anne Arundel County (BGCAA) as a group of people reminisced about the vibrant personality of Annapolis City Police Department detective, Shelley Curtis White, Jr. who died suddenly from pneumonia on May 22, 2015.
His wife, retired Navy Commander Delores (DeDe) Duncan-White’s desire to further her late husband’s legacy resulted in the creation of the Shelley C. White, Jr. Memorial Scholarship.
Duncan-White beamed with pride while describing the standout qualities of the 2016 scholarship winner, Harold Lloyd, III. The 18-year-old is a recent Broadneck High School graduate who will continue his education at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore this fall. He plans to study criminal justice and to become a lawyer someday.
Lloyd said that he lived in Robinwood and on Clay Street in Annapolis and knew the late Dectective White, who was known to take an interest in local youth. Through his own independent research, he found out about the scholarship and applied.
Duncan-White said five candidates applied for the $2,000 award and a five-person committee selected Lloyd.
“The fact that they chose me really made me feel so special, because it made me feel like I was the chosen one to get it,” Lloyd said. “College is very expensive, so this money is going to help me with my tuition.”
In addition to current or former Boys & Girls Club of America membership, scholarship eligibility requirements included submission of three recommendations and a 500-word essay; being a graduating senior in Anne Arundel County; having a minimum of 2.7-unweighted grade point average throughout the final two years of high school; and acceptance and enrollment as a full time student in an accredited or college with a plan to pursue early childhood, sociology or criminal justice.
“This is a blessing. God is good,” said Mary Green-Sills. “Harold is my first nephew in the family- the first boy. I am so proud to see that we have a young man that is going to be somebody. He will be somebody. His dad and mom (Harold Lloyd, Jr. and Rachelle James) have guided him [in] the right direction and it doesn’t matter what neighborhood you come out of, [if] you keep your mind focused and stick to your goals.”
Duncan-White says the memorial scholarship serves as a reminder that good policemen exist.
“I think this is perfect timing, especially with what is going on around the country,” Duncan-White said, referring to tensions between the police and the public. “As everyone says, the majority of police officers are good people, and it’s all about community policing, and that’s what my husband was all about. You cannot serve a community if you are not a part of a community. I’m not saying you have to live in the community but you have to go [into] the community and work with the kids and get to know the families. And so when you have police in the community working with the kids [and] talking to the parents, it’s a positive thing. That’s when you have true community policing and that’s when you don’t have a problem. My husband served the communities for twenty plus years and in all of the communities- Robinwood, Harbour House- we never had problems when it came to our youth.”
Duncan-White and the late Shelly White’s son, Shelley C. White, III who is a 2016 U.S. Naval Academy graduate said that he knows it would mean a lot to his father that Lloyd was selected as the first scholarship recipient.
“He was just meant to serve,” Shelley C. White, III said about his father. “Everything was just positive, and everything was just about him uplifting other people, so I feel like this scholarship is something that he would be proud of, and be bragging about, definitely. Something that is in his name- it just fits him perfectly.”
To learn more about the Shelley C. White, Jr. Memorial Scholarship,
visit: http://www.shelleycwhitejrmemorial.com.