Awarded annually to the most outstanding Ph.D. student in the Economics program, preference is given to a student whose study focuses on public economics. The scholarship was established in 2001 by the Taylor-Ebanks family in memory of Professor W. Irwin Gillespie, a member of the Department of Economics from 1964 to 1997. Dr. Marvin Taylor, a member of the family, was the last Ph.D. student Professor Gillespie supervised before he passed away.