Dr. Art Buswell, a University of Alaska administrator and agriculture professor was a faculty member for a 20-year tenure here at UAF. He served as vice president for public service, dean of the Division of Statewide Services, director of the Cooperative Extension Service, and as the UA agriculture department head. He and his late wife, Frances, were ardent supporters of the university. Dr. Buswell was one of the university's finest champions, as a teacher, leader, volunteer and a friend. He understood the university's potential and helped lay the groundwork for many of our programs that are still flourishing today.

Dr. Buswell help to expand the cooperative extension, mining programs, add a sea grant program and extend academic credit programs to military personnel at installations through distance options. He worked to make post-secondary education available to a wide range of students, using radio, television, correspondence courses and traveling professors to provide learning opportunities throughout the state. He received an honorary doctor of laws degree from UAF in 2001.

Dr. Buswell served as the president of the University of Maine at Machias from 1971-1981 where he retired as president emeritus. He and his wife returned to Alaska in 1984 where he remained active in the Fairbanks volunteer community including the UAF College of Fellows, Friends of the Museum and the University of Alaska Foundation, Board of Trustees until his passing in 2005.  After his wife's death in 1999, Dr. Buswell established the Arthur and Frances Buswell Scholarship for UAF students whose major is in Psychology.

Dr. Richard G. Possenti was a faculty member of the Department of Psychology at UAF for 31 years, from 1967 through 1998. He originally came to Alaska in 1958 with the Aero-Medical Lab at Ladd Air Force Base and conducted research throughout Alaska at remote military installations before joining UAF.

Dr. Possenti dedicated himself to education and learning and had a great joy of life. A strong, generous, and kind man, he was always willing to help anyone who had an impossible task to tackle, and always seemed to have time for his students. The endowment was established by the Possenti family as a memorial to Dr. Possenti.  His widow, Wynola, continues to take an active role in the processes of this award and is always delighted to meet the student recipient and to learn of their projects first hand.