Clay Blair had always had great respect for fellow entrepreneur Gene Zaid and his life story.

When Zaid was working to grow his company, he was in contact with Blair who made investment in that company to help grow the company. Blair was very impressed about Zaid’s rags-to-riches success story, because he came here with nothing as an immigrant, and has made a very large business.

It was because of this friendship and mutual respect that Blair started a new fellowship for chemistry in Zaid’s honor.

In a press release Blair said that, “Wichita and Wichita State have a rich heritage of spawning entrepreneurial success stories. Gene Zaid is another great example — a proven rags-to-riches success story and a fine gentleman.”

Zaid came to US at age 17 from Palestine, and he earned an undergraduate degree at Kansas Wesleyan, then Masters’ degree in Chemistry at WSU.

JACAM, a company that Zaid started with investements from Blair, originated in Sterling, Kansas, and manufactures specialty chemicals for the oil and gas industry for use in the salt industry.

In March of 2013 JACAM was purchased for 240 million dollars with Zaid staying in charge as CEO.

As for the choice to support chemistry students, Elizabeth King, CEO and president of the WSU Foundation, said that, “Blair said, ‘I want it to be in any area that Zaid would like,’ and so he put the $105,000 scholarship in Chemistry and for the graduate student level.”

King said that although WSU has had a strong chemistry program they have had difficulty finding donors for graduate education versus undergraduates.

The ability to award promising chemistry graduates with this fellowship will be a significant help in their work, King went on to say.

The scholarship is awarded annually to graduate students in Chemistry, no discrimination for the recipients, and students have to show that they are admitted to the department of chemistry for the graduate school, and they have to maintain a minimum 3.25 GPA. Also, students do not have to demonstrate financial need.