02/26/2009

Asheville, N.C., Alumna To Provide $1.2 Million Charitable Annuity and Other Gifts

Quick Facts

Elizabeth Hope Reed's donation will create the Reed Fellows Program.

Scholarships will encourage community service experience.

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Winthrop University will establish a scholarship program named for an Asheville, N.C., alumna who donated a $1.2 million charitable annuity and other gifts.

The Elizabeth Hope Reed Fellows Program will aid students who demonstrate financial need, who have and maintain a B average and who commit to volunteering an average of at least eight hours a week to area agencies. Reed, a former home economics teacher in the North Carolina public schools, wants to foster learning through community service experience. Scholarships will be renewable and will be available to both undergraduate and graduate students. The program’s start date has not been determined.

President Anthony DiGiorgio noted that, “This generous gift both affirms and advances a core value that is part of what makes Winthrop special – a lifelong commitment to service beyond self that is passed from generation to generation as part of the Winthrop experience.”

Reed earned a bachelor of science degree in home economics from Winthrop in 1941 and returned to earn her master of arts degree in home economics in 1951. Reed taught home economics in the North Carolina public school system for more than 38 years and was among the first to teach co-educational classes in family life education. She also began pilot programs in child care and the dual role of women as wage earner and homemaker to keep pace with a changing society.

Honored for her 50 years of membership in the American Home Economics Association, Reed earned the “Quality of Life Award” from the N.C. Chapter of the American Cancer Society for her volunteer work. She and her late husband, Robert V. Reed, formerly lived in Sylva, N.C.

Gift annuities provide income for the remainder of a donor’s life or a specified period of time while entrusting the remainder of the gift to Winthrop University. To learn more about this and other unique ways to make a legacy gift to support the Winthrop experience, contact Laurie Nortz in the Winthrop University Office of Development at 803/323-4748 or nortzl@winthrop.edu.

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