Oscar M. Hansen Scholarship

Established in 1997 by his son Paul Hansen, this scholarship memorializes the life Oscar M. Hansen. Hansen was born in August 1907 and attended Chatham Academy. He later attended the University of Virginia where he earned a degree in architecture in 1931. After serving in the United States Air Force, Hansen returned to Savannah and joined Cletus Bergen Architects. He eventually started his own firm in 1945 and focused on educational project design. Hansen’s firm designed over thirty-five secondary public school projects in Chatham and Effingham counties as well as on the Savannah State College Campus. Hansen completed the original master plan for Armstrong State College’s move to a two hundred-fifty acre site on the southside of Savannah, was involved in the beginning of the restoration effort in Savannah’s Historic District, and served as the architect of several buildings on Broughton Street. During his life, he served as Vice Consul of Denmark for the Ports of Savannah and Brunswick. He was knighted in 1963 by the King of Denmark into the Order of Dannebrog. Hansen served as past president of the South Georgia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Board of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, and was an officer of the Kiwanis Club. He also received the National Design Award from Progressive Architecture in 1953. This scholarship is available to incoming students on the Armstrong Campus who have met all standards for admission to Georgia Southern University.