J. Stalnaker; Scholarship Corp. Founder

SARASOTA, Fla. —  John M. Stalnaker, founding president of the National Merit Scholarship Corp., the organization that selects the brightest high school students in the country for college scholarships, has died at age 87.

Stalnaker, a psychologist who died at his home in Sarasota on Aug. 19 of lymphatic cancer, headed the program from its establishment by the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corp. in 1955 until he retired in 1969. It was the largest independent college scholarship program in the history of American education.

Stalnaker also taught psychology, developed tests and handled administrative duties at the Universities of Chicago and Minnesota and at Purdue, Princeton and Stanford. He also was associate director of the College Entrance Examination Board from 1936 to 1945.

At Princeton, Stalnaker originated and operated the National Pepsi-Cola Scholarship Program, forerunner of the National Merit Scholarship. He helped develop that project as a consultant to the Ford Foundation.

Today, the nonprofit organization channels money from 425 corporations and foundations and 200 colleges and universities to more than 30,000 students. Eight thousand high school students are selected each year for the program.

During World War II, Stalnaker directed the Army-Navy College Qualifying Test and other examinations. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the Board of Foreign Scholarships, which he served as chairman until 1965.

In 1964, he became the first director of the Presidential Scholarship Program.