Endowed by Jon Chun in honor of his father, Kenyon's new Dr. Newton Chun Award will provide faculty members at the College with the opportunity to undertake the scholarship on which their continuing development as teacher-scholars depends. Chun created the award fund with a gift of founder's stock in a privately held company.

Jon Chun is the former president and chief executive officer of SafeWeb, a leading provider of Web-based security and privacy technologies, which was acquired by Symantec Corporation in October 2003. A 1989 graduate of the College of Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley with a master's degree from the University of Texas, he now serves as Symantec's director of development for the clientless virtual private network adapted from a SafeWeb-designed product. Chun is married to Katherine Elkins, Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor in Kenyon's Integrated Program in Humane Studies. She is on leave from the College this year, writing a book on Marcel Proust. The couple's first child, Beckett Elkins Chun, was born in January 2004.

Dr. Newton Chun, a retired surgeon, lives in Dubuque, Iowa, with his wife of more than fifty years, Rose Marie Chun. Dr. Chun, who lost his father at a young age, was raised by his mother, a Korean picture bride, during the Great Depression. Dr. Chun and his wife raised six children of their own in Dubuque, including Jon, who says he believes his father might have equally enjoyed an academic career under other circumstances.

The Dr. Newton Chun Award will consist of a grant of approximately $10,000 to support research and artistic projects of exceptional merit and promise. The grant may be used for projects that take place in the summer, during one semester, or over one or more academic years. Preference will be given to projects that could not be undertaken without financial support.

Jon Chun hopes the award will be used for a variety of purposes. It might, for example, support a faculty member's travel, research, and writing expenses during the summer or while the professor is on sabbatical. Or if a faculty member wins an outside grant that does not match his or her salary, the award could enable the professor to accept the grant and take the necessary leave of absence. Other possibilities include paying student or other research assistants or allowing for course-release time.

All tenured and tenure-track members of the Kenyon faculty are eligible to apply for the Dr. Newton Chun Award. The winner or winners will be determined through a competition administered every other year through the College's Office of the Provost and the Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC). Awardees will still be permitted apply for other grants administered by FAC as long as those applications are for projects that differ substantially from the one supported by the Chun Award. The Chun Award itself will be a one-time honor, though; recipients may not reapply for additional grants from the fund.