VGCC Endowment Fund Benefits From Gifts Left By Two Area Benefactors
The deaths on July 6, 1998, of Miss Nannie A. Crowder of Henderson and Robert B. “Bob” Butler of Warrenton directed about $2.6 million to Vance-Granville Community College in Henderson, to benefit the students the college is training.
Miss Crowder informed VGCC officials in November 1995 that she was placing $800,000 in a trust to be given to the college at her death, but the gift from Butler was a total surprise to VGCC officials. A retired executive with Mount Olive Pickle Co. and the operator of a thriving auction business, Butler left an estate valued at $8.5 million to individuals, service organizations and five major institutions, of which VGCC was one.
Vance-Granville and the other four institutions each received a $1.8 million bequest at Butler’s death. N.C. Department of Community College officials said his gift was the largest single one of which they knew.
While numerous businesses, industries, organizations and individuals in the four-county area served by Vance-Granville have donated to the school’s Endowment Fund, Butler did not have a history of monetary support for the college. “We are very happy and surprised that this would happen out of the blue,” said Dr. Ben F. Currin, VGCC president.
At the time of her death, Miss Crowder’s gift had appreciated in value to well over $900,000, Dr. Currin said. The Butler and Crowder bequests, if applied to the college Endowment Fund, would push its assets to more than $4.3 million.
Neither Miss Crowder nor Butler placed any restrictions on their gifts. However, when she informed Vance-Granville of her intentions in 1995, Miss Crowder suggested the college “give first priority to scholarships or financial assistance to deserving students, and second, to salary supplements for faculty members…”
The VGCC Endowment Fund Corporation currently provides more than $300,000 annually for scholarships. Dr. Currin said that about 25 percent of the full-time and part-time students at the school receive some kind of financial aid.
Dr. Currin said the college had not planned on getting a gift such as Butler’s, and the Board of Trustees will have to decide how to spend or invest the money. “One thing we know, it will be a real plus for this college for many years to come,” he said.
