Raytheon Chairman and CEO William H. Swanson traveled to the Citadel on March 13 to announce the establishment of the Raytheon Scholars Fund at the military college. The $500,000 partial endowment will support scholarships to women and minorities in the engineering and science fields.

Announcing this generous, long-term partnership, Swanson remarked, “The Citadel and Raytheon both have strong values to guide them — values such as academics, duty, honor, morality and discipline for the Citadel, and people, integrity, commitment and excellence for Raytheon. In addition, one of our shared values is diversity.”

Swanson said that diversity is key because “we must be able to draw on the largest pool of wonderful talent to meet the engineering and scientific needs of our company and our nation.” He also noted that Raytheon, as a technology company, depends on innovation to support the needs of servicemen and women and other customers — and that the company believes “innovation thrives on diverse perspectives.”

During his visit, Swanson also participated as a keynote speaker at the Citadel’s inaugural Principled Leadership Symposium. Swanson addressed about 100 cadets and students from the Citadel, the Merchant Marine Academy, West Point and the Coast Guard Academy, among others.

Joining Swanson at the event was Jack Costello, vice president for Business Development and Strategic Planning for Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems business — and a proud graduate of the Citadel, class of 1969.

*The content on this page is classified as historical content. See this important information regarding such content.