First Sean Collier Memorial Scholarship awarded at Salem State

SALEM, Mass. -- Five years after M.I.T. Police Officer Sean Collier was gunned down by the Boston Marathon bombers, his legacy lives on at his alma mater, where the very first scholarship was awarded in his name Thursday.

Salem State University sophomore Dana Williams accepted the very first Sean A. Collier Memorial scholarship at the school's criminal justice awards banquet. Williams will receive $1,000 each year until she graduates, as long as she remains in good academic standing.

Collier's family helped establish the scholarship to help students pursue the same dream he always had, to become a law enforcement officer.

"I think he would be very proud and happy that we did this," Collier's stepfather Joe Rogers said. "Since he was 18 years old, even before then, he was bound and determined to become a police officer."

Collier, 27, was fatally shot by the Tsarnaev brothers as he sat in his patrol car five years ago Wednesday. Since his death, family, friends and supporters have raised thousands of dollars for the foundation in his name

Outside his work as a police officer, Collier also volunteered in the community and donated to charities.

He had been eager to join the Somerville Police Department, where he would have been sworn in two months after his death. Somerville police posthumously appointed him a police officer.

"I just think helping other people is really what really motivated him," Rogers said.

For Collier's family, the pain of his murder on this somber anniversary is sharpened by the shooting death of a beloved Yarmouth police office laid to rest this week.

"It’s doubly sad this week, because we have the death of Officer Sean Gannon as well. So it brings back a lot of memories," Rogers said, extending his sympathy to Gannon's family.

But Collier's family is committed to keeping his name and his work alive.

"We’ve given back like $50,000 in the last year," Rogers said. 'So we hope to continue that and do things in his memory."

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