After 40 years Paul Gilbertson's Scholarship comes to an end

Paul Gilbertson, a 1969 graduate of Malta High School was killed in a skiing accident. To Honor Paul’s memory, his parents and his wife decided to establish a memorial scholarship in his honor. Paul was an avid wrestler at Malta High School and so they established this scholarship as a wrestling scholarship. They gave the wrestling coaches a list of criteria for this award and so the wrestling coaches for the last 40 years have been picking this scholarship.

In the early days of the scholarship the Malta Public Schools handled the scholarship which was for $100.00. Over the years, Mary, his sister realized that more money should be added to the scholarship so she and other members of the family contributed money to increase the amount of the award.

The family approached the Mustang Foundation in 2011 to finish out the scholarship until the 40th year in 2016. We were given $3000.00 which would make it a $500.00 for the next six years. In the year of 2014, two wrestlers received this scholarship as they both met the qualifications. We did have a slight problem a year ago when no seniors met the qualifications, so that is why on the last year it will be a $1,000.00 award.

It should be noted that Paul’s mother is in a nursing home in Billings, still has his sister Mary, and brother Don, who was a longtime educator and administrator at Hardin High School. The wrestling coaches chose Antonio Lopez as the final winner of this scholarship in the amount of $1,000.00. The family has been overjoyed with this scholarship and it was a very proud way to honor their brother.