​

The John P. Urban Scholarship Fund was originally established in Naples, FL by Michelle Finnegan and John P. Urban with proceeds from sales of limited edition prints of "Woolly Urby."  Michelle and John began working with the President of John's national fraternity who could help find worthy recipients but rather than set the fund up within the fraternity, John decided to create a "stand alone" entity that Michelle should oversee allowing her to help people who might be in John's fraternity as well as individuals that met the criteria who were not planning to be members of John's club.  The purpose of the creation of the John P. Urban Scholarship Fund is for financial administration of a scholarship program that promotes education through the granting of scholarships, the recipients being selected in local, state and national contests based on such criteria as scholastics, talent, community service and athleticism.  Each criteria was given to Michelle by John verbally and in writing after he expressed his desire to have Michelle oversee the fund in his memory in part because John was so impressed with the work she did to establish the Alyce Nash Memorial Scholarship Fund in memory of Alyce "Sandy" Nash who was a friend of John and Michelle's.  John and Sandy were both WWII officers, Sandy being one of the first female officers in the US military who chose to study art after the war and ultimately became founding curator of the Naples Art Museum aka The Baker Art Museum at Artis.  Sandy was previously the curator for the Philharmonic Galleries and John loved attending concerts and art openings with Michelle and her parents and Sandy regularly.