Posted: Friday, December 14, 2012 -- 7:45 a.m.

MENOMONIE, Wis. (AP) -- A group of University of Wisconsin-Stout alumni has created a scholarship in honor of a classmate who was killed in Vietnam.

Lt. John Abrams graduated from UW-Stout 50 years ago, in 1962. He died six years later when the Navy helicopter he was flying was hit by enemy fire and crashed.

He was a member of the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity. Last year, eight of his old fraternity brothers decided to start a scholarship in his memory. They raised nearly $41,000.

The first John Leon Abrams Memorial Scholarship was awarded this fall.

The scholarship is open to upperclassmen majoring in plastics engineering, veterans and descendants of veterans.

Bob Dealey helped establish the scholarship. He says Abrams' friends wanted to make sure the war hero was being properly honored.

Copyright 2012: Associated Press