WATCH: Tina Fey Announces Temple Scholarship, Shouts Out Philly on Fallon

The Donald H. Fey Memorial Scholarship will honor Fey’s late father, who served in Korea and then studied journalism at Temple when he returned.

Tina Fey announced a Temple University School of Media and Communication scholarship honoring her late father, Donald Fey, last night on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

“My dad served in Korea and he also was a journalist at the beginning of his career,” Fey said in the announcement. “After he came back from Korea, he went to Temple University — Philly! Right? – Temple University School of Journalism.” The Roots cheered the hometown shout-out.

Donald Fey, who died in October, studied journalism at Temple in the 1960s after returning from military service in Korea. The Donald H. Fey Memorial Scholarship is for returning veterans who want to study journalism. 

Fey said her father, who grew up in Philadelphia, inspired her and her brother Peter, a writer and producer for QVC, to pursue creative careers.

“He was really inspiring,” Tina Fey said in a Temple press statement. “A lot of kids grow up with dreams of doing those things and their parents are fearful and want them to get a law degree, and have things to fall back on. But he and our mom always encouraged us to pursue whatever truly interested us.”

Fey was on the Tonight Show to promote her movie, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, which comes out today. The film, based on a memoir about journalist Kim Barker’s experiences in Afghanistan and Pakistan, is also dedicated to her father.

“Am I kind of relieved he doesn’t have to see me, like, have sex with Martin Freeman? Yes. But other than that I think he would have liked this movie,” Fey said last night.

You can donate to the scholarship here: giving.temple.edu/feymemorial

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