History of the MacKenzie, Lewis & White Scholarship
In 1976, Jim Myers and Gene Pelzar, co-owners of the Up Country Restaurant, traveled to Bermuda on the Bi-Centennial. There he came across a fun band that called themselves the ’MacKenzie, Lewis, & White Band’. He asked them to the Mount Washington Valley, and in 1977 Peter Lewis, Rod MacKenzie, and Peter White came to the valley. And the rest as they say is history!
Peter Lewis went back to his native Britain where he passed away far too young in 1986. That year Nancy Bartlett, Rod MacKenzie and Peter White decided to create a scholarship in his memory since Peter Lewis had a love of music, life, and kids
Rod MacKenzie and Peter White remained in the valley, familiar faces to many for good music and good fun. And every year the Peter Lewis Memorial Scholarship Concert was held to help send a Kennett Senior to college for music, whether it be applied music or music education.
Sadly, in 2002, Peter White joined Peter Lewis to sing in another place, and probably to create havoc. The scholarship concert was renamed to the Lewis and White Scholarship Concert.
On Christmas Eve 2012, the third member of the Mount Washington Valley “British Invasion”, Rod MacKenzie, passed from cancer and joined his bandmates. In 2013, marked the first year of the renamed MacKenzie, Lewis, and White Music Scholarship.
After the 2017 benefit concert, Mountain Top Music Center was asked to take over the scholarship program.
The scholarship is funded totally by the annual concert, which is not only a fundraiser, but a celebration of the lives of three men who always encouraged young people to pursue their dreams, especially their musical dreams.
A partial list of past scholarship awards includes
(help us fill in the missing names)
- Brenda Hathaway, University of New Hampshire (1988)
- Derek Badala, University of Massachusetts Lowell (1988)
- Kristine Moffett, NYAK College (1991)
- Teresa Clemons, University of Maine (1991)
- Michael Perrault, Gordon College (1991)
- Molly Ricker, Plymouth State University (2014)
- Riley Parkhurst, Berklee College of Music (2017)
- no award (2018)
Riley Parkhurst, 2017 Scholarship Awardee
History of the Scholarship Who’s Playing Scholarship Application Information Biographies