Legacy of Winthrop Alumnus Fred Hembree Honored by New Gift from Carrolls

Quick Facts

The Fred Hembree History Scholarship will honor Larry Carroll’s cousin, the late Fred Hembree, Winthrop Class of 1980.

This is the second major gift to Winthrop from the Carrolls.

Larry Carroll

ROCK HILL, S.C. - A new gift from Larry and Vivian Carroll of Charlotte, N.C., will create a scholarship for outstanding junior or senior history majors at Winthrop. The Carrolls have committed $100,000 initially for this scholarship, and they have challenged other donors to support the scholarship by promising to match gifts up to $50,000 per year over the next three years.

The Fred Hembree History Scholarship will honor Larry Carroll’s cousin, the late Fred Hembree, Winthrop Class of 1980. Hembree majored in history while at Winthrop and was a professor of history at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla., until his death in July 2010. A nationally recognized scholar and author on the French Revolution, Hembree was a native of Rock Hill.

The Carrolls hope that this scholarship will grow into one which will provide full tuition for a Winthrop student majoring in history. The gift match pledged by the Carrolls has already been initiated by a generous leadership gift from Norma and Bob Thompson of Rock Hill. Bob Thompson is a member of the Winthrop University Board of Trustees.

This is the second major gift to Winthrop from the Carrolls. They previously made a $1.25 million commitment for programming, operations, and specialized equipment for Carroll Hall, the new facility for the College of Business Administration that was named in Vivian’s honor.

Larry Carroll is president of Carroll Financial Associates, a Charlotte-based financial planning and investment management firm. Vivian Carroll, a 1973 graduate of Winthrop, retired from Merrill Lynch in 2001 after spending more than 20 years building a successful financial planning practice. She is currently president of the Winthrop University Alumni Association Executive Board.

For more information about supporting the Winthrop community, contact the Winthrop University Office of Development at 803/323-2150.

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