2025

Alfred G. and Elma M. Milotte

Scholarship Application

Managed by Northwest Trustee & Management Services

Application DEADLINE: April 30, 2025

Alfred G. and Elma M. Milotte had a love affair with nature that they shared with the world through the media of their day, motion pictures, lectures, books and more.

They lived the adventure

Born in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1904, Alfred Milotte married Elma Moore Jolly, a Seattle native, a few years his junior, in 1934, in Ketchikan, Alaska. There they owned and operated a photography studio and later, working as a team, began filming and lecturing on Alaska.

Around this same time, Walt Disney took an interest in the nation’s last frontier, Alaska, and even traveled there. During his trip, he contacted a wildlife magazine editor, who recommended he see the Milottes' work. After viewing it, Walt was particularly taken with the couple's humorous sequence of bears scratching themselves. As a result, he commissioned them to return to Alaska to film Seal Island and The Alaskan Eskimo.

Building on the success of Seal Island, the Milottes continued their globe-trotting work for Disney's True-Life Adventures series, which ran from 1948 to 1960. They also worked on the People and Places travelogue films, released from 1953 to 1960. Over the course of their Disney career, the Milottes won a total of six Oscars, including for Beaver Valley, The Alaskan Eskimo, Bear Country, Nature’s Half Acre, and Water Birds.

Disney sent them to Africa for nearly three years and to Australia for two. Working alone as a two-person production unit, they filmed the theatrical motion pictures The African Lion and Nature’s Strangest Creatures, as well as several television productions.

In 1959, Al and Elma retired to Sumner, Washington, where they wrote three books: The Story of the Platypus, The Story of the Hippopotamus, and The Story of an Alaskan Grizzly Bear. They also filmed a seagull sequence for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. Elma Milotte passed away on April 19, 1989, and Al Milotte followed her five days later.

The Milottes wished to perpetuate their passion beyond the length of their days and so they created this scholarship fund. If you share their fascination and otherwise meet the eligibility criteria, you are invited to apply for the Alfred G. and Elma M. Milotte Scholarship.

Though deceased, the Milottes continue their legacy through their scholarship trust, awarding:

One-year scholarships of up to $4,000 to individuals who share their enthusiasm for exploring, chronicling, and spreading the magnificence of the wilderness through artistic communication. This scholarship supports post-high school education in a course of study that reflects this devotion.

Northwest Trustee & Management Services, LLC serves as Trustee of the scholarship.

Eligibility

Fascination and Artistic Communication are key!

While the Milottes studied exotic animals the world over, sharing their learning primarily through film, a successful candidate may examine life just outside his or her own back door. The results of that observation may be communicated in images, word, song, and by using contemporary technology. The Milottes would invite you to apply if you:

Are profoundly fascinated by nature, have been a careful observer of it and have successfully expressed your observations in an artistic way that engages the everyday person.
Are a high school graduate or hold the G.E.D.
Have acceptance at a trade school, art school, two-year or four-year college or university for either undergraduate or graduate studies.
Have achieved a cumulative high school grade point average of 3.0 or higher.
Have been a resident of the State of Washington for at least five years prior to applying.

Requirements

Your application for an Alfred G. and Elma M. Milotte Scholarship needs to include all the following elements:

A completed Application Form.
Please use the following file naming format: LastName_FirstName_MilotteScholarship_Year.pdf
Art, letters of recommendation, and transcripts must be submitted along with the application and must be properly named. Unnamed or generic file names will not be accepted. Your application will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

- - Academic Performance
  - Strength of Letters of Recommendation
  - Artwork Evaluation (including relevance and creativity)
  - Future Impact (outline of relevant future nature related work)
  - Community Engagement (activity in community or environmental groups)

Sample of work you have created expressing your observations of the natural world around you. This work may be either written or visual. Descriptions of acceptable work are included in the Eligibility section. AI-generated images will not be accepted.
A copy of high school or college transcripts
Two letters of reference from any of the following sources: your high school administration, church, youth group, such as Scouting, 4-H, YMCA or YWCA, a college professor, an academic advisor or employer
Application and supporting documents must be saved as PDFs (and/or music/video mp4 and mov) in the following naming convention: LastName_FirstName_MilotteScholarship_Year.pdf (or .mp4 and .mov for music/video)
Email all documents (in one email) to milottescholarship@nwtrustee.com

Award notification

The Trustee will notify scholarship awards by May 31, 2025. Payments will be made directly to the schools. If awarded, students must send payment instructions for their school to the Trustee by June 15, 2025.