Linda J. Corder, Ph.D.

The Corder Honors Program Scholarships serve to recognize individual student recipients and to promote the SIU Honors Program.

Linda, called Lyn by family and friends, is a three degree alumna of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She completed her first two years of college at Agnes Scott College, in Decatur, Georgia. During her professional career she was a founder and director of Puka School and Director of the SIU Child Development Laboratories. She also served as a fundraiser for colleges, universities and medical schools.

Her parents, Eva and Joe Corder, were her first teachers. Some of her earliest lessons were to be kind, giving whatever a person could to make life a bit easier for others, to celebrate in good times and bad and, always, to value the positive difference that a good education provides. Her mother, Eva, received a scholarship from a local service club to attend Illinois State University, making it possible for her to emerge from the cycle of poverty into which she had been born. This made a difference in the lives of all those who are descended from Eva and Joe, as well as their relatives and friends. Lyn endeavored to pass the philosophy she learned from her parents to her children and grandchildren.

Lyn initiated this fund in honor and memory of her parents, for the ideals they exemplified in her family, neighborhood, work places and through their own generosity – time, dedication and resources. Eva and Joe Corder promoted an attitude of gratitude and the idea that each person can make a difference, even without having a lot of money. It is our hope that this scholarship will help others, like Lyn’s mother, to make a positive difference in the lives of others and to value the opportunity to attend, excel in and graduate from college.