New London — More than six decades after the Bulkeley School closed its doors, the Bulkeley Boys, as members of the Bulkeley Alumni Association call themselves, have continued to build the school’s legacy by contributing to the education of their descendants.

Each year, the Bulkeley Alumni Association awards scholarships to direct descendants of men who attended the school. But the Bulkeley Alumni — Harold J. Arkava Scholarship Fund began with one man and a modest investment.

“In 1976, I took two $1 bills and decided to open a savings account at what was then the most venerable banking institution in Southeastern Connecticut, the Savings Bank of New London,” Harold Arkava, Class of 1944 and the scholarship fund’s namesake, said.

From that $2 seed account planted 39 years ago, the Bulkeley Alumni Association has awarded now more than $1 million in scholarships to some 337 descendants, a new generation of Bulkeley boys and girls.

In 2002, Arkava told The Day, “I’ve got to live long enough to break that million-dollar mark ... and I’m going to do it, too.”

This year, the fund granted nine awards for $5,600 each, the highest award amount in the fund’s history, he said.

“It was a thought I had in my mind since I was a kid about scholarships, because I come from a family of very modest means and my parents couldn’t afford to send me to college,” Arkava, 88, said.

After years of soliciting donations from other alumni, investing in market-rate, one-year certificates of deposit and rolling them over into more CDs and conservative fixed-rate bonds, the fund gave away its first scholarships in 1988.

“It took me eight years to put the first $15,000 together and to get tax-exempt status from the IRS,” Arkava said. “In the course of that time, how have I raised money? By asking people for money, I’m a salesman.”

Though the Bulkeley School closed officially in 1951, Arkava keeps close tabs on his fellow Bulkeley Boys through an alumni mailing network, which he updates on a routine basis and uses to solicit donations.

When he runs into another Bulkeley Boy or successful business owner around town, he makes sure to ask for an annual contribution.

Arkava is ubiquitous on the streets of New London, walking at least three miles a day, seven days a week, collecting bottles and cans to recycle for a little extra money for the scholarship fund. In total, he estimated that he works 1,500 to 1,800 hours a year for the scholarship fund.

“It’s my life,” he said. “It’s what I do.”

Arkava also organizes the annual Bulkeley Boys reunion at Ocean Beach Park, which brings together many of the surviving members of what Arkava calls “the most exclusive club in the United States of America.”

And though the Bulkeley Boys are dwindling in number, Arkava said he is confident the legacy of the school and its alumni will persist through the ages.

“The inevitability is that there won’t be any of us left,” Arkava said. “And what will be left will be the scholarship fund.”

c.young@theday.com

Twitter: @ColinAYoung