Proceeds from the sale of the English Pub around 20 years ago have been sending Arizona college students to London since 1993. The pub once served the first residents of Lake Havasu City after the London Bridge was erected.

But for the first time in its 19-year history, a chunk of that money is going straight to Arizona State University to help entice students to the new ASU-Lake Havasu City campus opening in the fall.

And maybe one day the funding will entice a college student from London’s University of Westminster to the city that now touts one of its old bridges, said John Parrott, a London Bridge Rotary Club member.

“We don’t think that ASU-Lake Havasu will be ready for our London student for three years,” Parrott said. “It won’t be a big enough entity.”

Lake Havasu City’s founder, Robert McCulloch, gave an acre of land in the English Village to the City of London. A pub was built on the land next to the London Bridge. But after London officials dealt with several failed tenants through leases, they decided to wash their hands of the deal around the early 90s, Parrott said. They sold the pub and around $240,000 in proceeds were put into a trust, he said, with the purpose to strengthen the friendship bond between Arizona and London. Since 1993, 82 students from the state’s three major universities have spent nearly a month studying at the University of Westminster paid for by the trust.

Parrott said good investing grew the trust to nearly $700,000 at one point, and now around $250,000 remains. He said it costs around $5,000 for each student’s airfare, tuition, room and minor traveling expenses for the summer classes. The London Bridge Rotary Club took over the trust in 2005 and its funding is kept separate from the club’s The City of London/London Bridge Rotary Educational Foundation; a Rotarian sat on the trust’s original board.

Parrott said a $10,000 check was given to ASU recently with a promised $7,500 for each of the next two years. ASU can award the scholarships however it sees fit, Parrott said. The club will still fund its current overseas program, he said.

But he said he hopes after the ASU-Lake Havasu campus is established, trust funding can be used for scholarships for London students.

“We want to get the university going,” he said. “These scholarships are an important part. We see the scholarship just like the next step in that. The long-term goal was always (that a) student of London come (to) Arizona. The timing of semesters didn’t work well, but now we see the possibility of ASU-Lake Havasu that we could bring a London student here for a semester and take care of housing them here.”

The Havasu Foundation for Higher Education worked since 2004 to bring a four-year university to the city. The Foundation raised $2 million in 2011 to begin renovations on a former middle school campus one block from Main Street. The agreements to bring ASU to the site were finalized in the fall 2011. Foundation members are currently raising funds for scholarships to help support recruitment for a new student body to the campus.

HFHE and ASU officials have previously said scholarships are crucial to attracting new students.

HFHE is trying to raise an initial $1 million for scholarships and so far as at least $45,000 has been raised.

For more information about how to donate, go to: www.havasufoundation.org

You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com