Sheryl T. Watson ('65) and John R. Watson, Jr.

Sheryl Tadlock-Watson graduated from Madison College, now James Madison University, in 1965 with a major in Math and a minor in Physics. Since Sheryl was the only non-education Math major, all of the inquiries for math jobs not requiring an education degree were directed to her. She ended up with a great job at Bellcom, a company formed out of Bell Labs to provide analysis for the Apollo space program. She worked with the Apollo program, including the Apollo 13 flight.

When the company disbanded at the end of the Apollo program in 1972, she and her husband, John, started their family that consists of three sons. After having her sons, Sheryl decided to return to her career.

The Tadlock-Watson scholarship was founded in 2002 with the intent of providing financial aid to students with finiacial need and a disability. The aim is to enable students with disabilities to graduate as debt free as possible given the corpus of the endowment. Sheryl views her contributions to the scholarship as a way of paying back to James Madison University for her wonderful years there and the rewards her education has provided for her. She attributes the ability to give back to the education she received from James Madison University.