Restaurateur Teixido endows UD scholarship

4:22 p.m., Nov. 16, 2004--Xavier Teixido, AG ’76, has established a $25,000 endowment to support the Harry’s Savoy Grill Hospitality Scholarship for a UD student majoring in hotel, restaurant and institutional management (HRIM). Teixido is the owner/operator of Harry’s Savoy Grill in north Wilmington and Harry’s Seafood Grill at Wilmington’s Riverfront.

“This is a most generous act by Mr. Teixido,” Fred DeMicco, ARAMARK Chair of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management, said. “Scholarship funds are our greatest need, and this is HRIM’s first endowed scholarship. He’s long been a leading restaurateur both in Delaware and nationally, and now he’s providing leadership in hospitality education.”

“I have great confidence in the UD hospitality program,” Teixido said, “and I’m proud to serve on the HRIM advisory board. It’s not every day that one gets to help influence the direction of one of the top 10 hospitality programs in the country.”

Through an annual golf outing fund-raiser, Teixido has been funding Harry’s Savoy Grill Hospitality Scholarship for four years through annual gifts, and he says he plans to continue to provide support to fund the scholarship while the endowment builds.

Scholarship recipients must demonstrate financial need, show a commitment to the hospitality industry and perform community service. Scholarship holders include HRIM alumni Christopher Wyles (2001), Aliza Hait (2002), Amanda Gastner (2003) and Joanie Baczewski (2004).

The past president of the National Restaurant Association and a trustee for its Education Foundation, Teixido also serves on the Governor’s Tourism Advisory Board, the Riverfront Development Corp. board of directors and with the Multicultural Foodservice and Hospitality Alliance. In addition, he is involved with local charities concerned with hunger and children’s issues.

Teixido and his wife, Nina, live in north Wilmington with their two children.

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