New VGCC Scholarship honors Pratt and Gwendolyn Winston

Vance-Granville Community College recently announced that a new scholarship has been established in honor of J. Pratt Winston and in memory of his wife, Gwendolyn Blackwell Winston. The Winstons are well-known Granville County business leaders who founded Winston International Ltd. in Oxford. Gwen Winston died earlier this year.

The announcement was made at the Nov. 4 meeting of the Granville Industrial & Business Club, which was held at VGCC’s South Campus between Creedmoor and Butner. During the meeting, VGCC President Randy Parker surprised Pratt Winston with news of the new scholarship’s creation. The James Pratt and Gwendolyn Blackwell Winston Academic Achievement Scholarship, when fully funded, will be presented to a VGCC student each year.

The new scholarship will add to the more than 5,000 VGCC scholarships awarded since 1982, which have been funded by interest earned on the Endowment Fund and Scholarship Program. VGCC’s fund awards more endowed scholarships than any program of its kind in the state. Tax-deductible donations to the VGCC Endowment Fund have often been used to honor or remember a person, group, business or industry with a lasting gift to education.

Above: VGCC President Randy Parker (left) congratulates J. Pratt Winston on the new scholarship named in honor of him and in memory of his late wife, Gwendolyn Blackwell Winston. (VGCC photo)