Campus News

Brothers Endow Scholarship for Natural Science Students at Juniata College

(Posted January 6, 2026)

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Dr. Thomas Pearson ’75 and Dr. Andrew Pearson ’83  

Dr. Thomas Pearson ’75 and Dr. Andrew Pearson ’83  

HUNTINGDON, Pa - Brothers Thomas and Andrew Pearson are carrying forward the lessons of empathy and hard work instilled by their parents and shaped by their education at Juniata College. With accomplished careers in the field of medicine, they recently decided to come together to endow a scholarship to support Juniata students in the natural sciences.

Dr. Thomas Pearson graduated from Juniata College in 1975 with a degree in biology and is now Executive Director of the Transplant Center at Emory University in Atlanta, where he serves as the Livingston Professor of Surgery. His brother Andrew graduated from Juniata in 1983. He teaches and practices in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Kentucky, where he served as Chair of the department for 24 years before stepping down this past summer.

In creating the scholarship, the Pearsons wanted to support Juniata students and at the same time honor their parents. Their father, Dr. Paul Pearson, taught zoology at the University of Tulsa and then at Rutgers University. After serving in senior administrative positions at Rutgers, in 1981 he became the eighteenth president of Miami University in Ohio. He retired in 1992 and passed away in 2000.

Their mother, Winifred Pearson, had a life-long passion for education and taught Spanish and English in Florida early in her career. Later, when they moved to Ohio, she relished her role as “first lady” of Miami University. When she passed away in 2021 at the age of 94, her obituary described the couple’s “deep-set values” including “self-worth, a love for others, academic pursuits and an appreciation for nature and the environment.” Thomas and Andrew’s sister also works in the healthcare profession. The new scholarship at Juniata is a fitting tribute to the family’s legacy.

When asked why he attended Juniata, Thomas Pearson recollected that his father had been invited to campus as a guest lecturer and was impressed by the science facilities, which were new at the time. “When I went to Juniata,” Thomas confessed, “I was not that motivated academically. I was more interested in working at the gas station and learning about auto mechanics.”

Yet his first year at Juniata changed that. The coursework and the professors “sparked an interest in science and learning,” Thomas shared. He graduated within three years and got a job at a marine research institute, thinking at first that he wanted to become a marine biologist. He eventually went to Emory for medical school and, as he put it, “never left.” An opportunity to study transplant immunology at Oxford University further clarified his vocation. He spent three years in England, completed his Ph.D., and returned to Emory to conduct clinical research.

When asked about his early memories of Juniata, Andrew Pearson reflected that he would have been “swallowed up by a big school.” Attending a small school enables students to participate in a range of activities, including music, theatre, and athletics. For Andrew, it was important to compete on the cross-country team. The small classes in biology and chemistry and the access to professors and their advice was “unmatchable,” he said, mentioning chemistry professor Donald Mitchell specifically as a coach and mentor.

After graduating, Andrew went on to the University of Cincinnati for medical school, which he described as surprisingly “kind of fun” because the courses in biology, chemistry, and anatomy taken at Juniata had prepared him well. In teaching his own students now Andrew draws upon those experiences with Juniata faculty as a model for his approach: “if someone calls and wants to meet, I never say ‘no,’” he said.

A recent book by Susan Dominus explores why some families produce successful siblings. Titled “The Family Dynamic: A Journey into the Mysteries of Sibling Success” (Crown, 2025), the book is based on interviews with dozens of families and identifies several factors. For the Pearson brothers, there is no mystery. They learned an ethic of hard work from their parents and their education at Juniata College helped set them down a path of accomplishment beyond what they could have imagined.

According to Andrew, it was Thomas’s idea to endow the scholarship for students at Juniata. They wanted to help students in a direct way, and, as Andrew said when asked about the scholarship, “Kids need a chance.” Financial support seemed like a significant way to give students the boost they might need to get ahead.

For further information on how you can create a scholarship or make an impact at Juniata, contact advancement@juniata.edu

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.