The new scholarship bears the name of DFI Trustee Thomas Wysockey. Source: DFI

The fund started with a $50,000 donation from Thatcher Foundations Inc., which has pledged an additional $50,000 over the next five years.

Fundraising for the scholarship fund will begin at a dinner at the Union League Club of Chicago on Aug. 27. Clyde N. Baker Jr. of GEI Consultants will serve as the special guest speaker.He has worked as a geotechnical engineer or consultant on some of the tallest buildings in the world, including Chicago's iconic Willis Tower, the Petronas Towers (Malaysia) and Burj Khalifa (Dubai).

The scholarship fund honors Thomas J. Wysockey, chairman emeritus of Thatcher Foundations Inc. and Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the American Subcontractors Association (ASA), Chicago Chapter.

Wysockey joined Thatcher in 1957 and served as vice president, president and, most recently, chairman and owner. Wysockey is involved in many industry associations including as board member of ASA, Chicago Chapter; director at the Builders Association of Greater Chicago and the Chicagoland Construction Safety Council; trustee of the Construction Advancement Foundation; trustee of the Deep Foundations Institute; president of the Industrial Contractors and Builders Association of Indiana; board member of the Society of American Military Engineers; and member of the Chicago Committee on High Rise Buildings.

The first $5,000 scholarship will be awarded to Sebastian Villa, an undergraduate student of Civil Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and former U.S. marine. Villa researches induced seismicity in energy technologies. He will receive the award at the DFI 39th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations in Atlanta in October.

The DFI Educational Trustis the nonprofit, charitable arm of DFI. Created in 2006, the mission of the trust is to provide scholarships and opportunities to those studying the deep foundation industry. To learn more about the trust, visit www.dfitrust.org.