Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

Alumnus Perry Laudenslager was a concrete canoeing champion, long distance runner and dedicated civil engineer, but his friends wanted him remembered forever.

That's why, when Laudenslager died in a car accident last year after he fell asleep while driving to work, his friends and family wanted to memorialize him by creating a scholarship for students with a similar fervor for life.

To honor Laudenslager, his friends are holding the first annual Project Perry Benefit Golf Tournament this Friday to raise money for the Perry Laudenslager Memorial Scholarship, which was created last year to memorialize the bright alumnus.

In his free time, he approached his passion for local music with almost as much zeal, and friends said he was rarely seen without his Early November hat, a nod to one of his favorite underground rock bands.

"Perry was the first to try anything new," said alumna Candace Boteler, a close friend of Laudenslager. "He always found the silver lining in every situation."

Laudenslager, who graduated in 2003 and died March 18, 2005, was a creative person who loved to attend Mousetrap, the Britpop Dance Night at the Black Cat and watch the original Law & Order, yet still managed to get all his work done, Boteler said.

The organization is hoping to get 100 participants, which, at $100 per entry, would raise $10,000 for the scholarship fund.

There will be 18 golf holes, a closest pin and longest drive contest, swinging lessons and a catered lunch.

"We hope as many people as possible show up to honor a scholarship for a good friend of ours," Boteler said.

The committee hopes to raise $50,000 for the scholarship fund by 2010. The interest from the money invested will pay two scholarships of $2,500 each year.

The scholarship, organized by Laudenslager's friends and family, will be given annually to two undergraduate students who convey Laudenslager's qualities an are enrolled in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

"When we award a scholarship, we want to talk and communicate with that individual and say we are talking to someone like Perry," said Perry's father, Steve Laudenslager. "I'm not going to pick up someone lazy that does not exhibit his qualities."

Laudenslager graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering and a certificate in Entrepreneurship. He was also an active member of the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

"You can tell the family and friends really cared about Perry," said Radka Nebesky, associate director of development at the A. James Clark School of Engineering. "We do not have enough committees so involved in choosing the recipients of the scholarship."

The committee, which is made up of three of Laudenslager's friends, his father and his former employer, Pat Klima, is currently going through the selection process to choose this year's recipients.

"I know I cannot help my son; I cannot be there. But I can be there for other students," Steve Laudenslager said. "I can help through the scholarship. We are not going to let the memory of [Perry] die."

More information about the scholarship and the golf tournament is available online at http://www.myspace.com/ProjectPerry.

Contact reporter Arslaan Arshed at newsdesk@dbk.umd.edu.

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