When the University of South Carolina was presented with the Robert Kelley Memorial Award by the National Council on Public History, the award was accompanied by a generous check. This money will be invested in an existing account dedicated to assisting Public History students attend professional conferences. Public History faculty Constance Schulz, Robert Weyeneth, and Kasey Grier made the decision shortly after returning to Columbia from Washington, D.C., where the Kelley Award was presented at the NCPH Presidential Luncheon on 12 April 2002, with Professors Schulz, Weyeneth, Grier, and Page Putnam Miller in attendance.

In accepting the award, Robert Weyeneth thanked all faculty members who had been associated with the Public History Program over its first 25 years: Walter Edgar who founded the Applied History Program in the 1970s, Michael Scardaville who directed it in the 1980s, Marcia Synnott who has taught courses in historic site interpretation for many years, and David Chesnutt who has long taught documentary editing in the USC program.

In her remarks, Connie Schulz singled out for special mention the contributions of colleague Kendrick Clements, a long-time supporter of public history in the USC history department who formulated the tenure and promotion criteria that recognized the public history work of faculty within the merit system of the academy. The criteria laid the foundation for public history to survive and prosper at USC and at other universities.

For Kasey Grier, there was no question that USC should use the Kelley Award money to provide conference travel for graduate students. Investing the money in the conference fellowship fund, she noted, was the best way to say "our students come first and we do whatever we can to support their development as young professionals."