The Hodson Trust in Wilmington, Delaware, has announced grants totaling $18 million to four Maryland colleges.

Grants of $4.5 million — the largest ever made by the trust, which is a supporting organization of the four schools — were awarded to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, St. John's College in Annapolis, Hood College in Frederick, and Washington College in Chestertown.

A portion of the grant to St. John's College will be used to establish a fellowship program for teachers to attend the Graduate Institute at St. John's. Open to teachers in the mid-Atlantic region, the fellowships will provide grants of up to 70 percent of the institute's summer-session costs, including tuition, room and board, and books. The grant to Johns Hopkins will support the publication of the collected prose of T.S. Eliot by the Johns Hopkins University Press, fund scholarships and undergraduate research awards, and establish the Hodson Center for Cancer Research Scholars. Washington College will use its grant to augment the Hodson Trust Merit Scholarship Endowment for outstanding students and endow the Hodson Trust-Griswold Directorship and the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, while Hood will use its award to fund campus improvements.

"The impact of the Hodson Trust's support is exponential," said trust chairman Finn M.W. Caspersen, "reflected not only in the accomplishment of the generations of students the trust has supported, but also in the ever-growing contributions of these students to society."