From left, VGCC Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Endowment director Jo Anna Jones and Interim President Dr. Angela Ballentine accept contributions on behalf of the Sherman family from Endowment Fund Board member T.S. “Sam” Royster of Oxford and Endowment Fund Board Vice-Chairman Bob Hubbard of Henderson. (VGCC photo)
The generous spirit of a Granville County businessman and his wife will live on thanks to two new scholarships recently established at Vance-Granville Community College. The scholarships, one endowed at the Presidential Scholar Award level and one at the Academic Achievement Scholarship level, will both be awarded to full-time VGCC students in the names of the late Harold L. Sherman and Helen Jones Sherman.
A Granville County native and U.S. Army veteran, Harold Sherman owned and operated Morton & Sherman Implement Company, an Oxford farm equipment business that had been started by his father. The company, which is still operated by the Shermans’ niece, specialized in restoring and reselling used tractors.
Attorney T.S. “Sam” Royster, Jr. of Oxford, a member of the VGCC Endowment Fund board, knew the Shermans. “Harold was simply one of the most generous men I ever knew,” Royster recalled. “Just because of his charitable nature, he enjoyed giving to a number of worthy causes, including Vance-Granville.”
In March 2009, shortly after Mr. Sherman passed away, VGCC was the recipient of a portion of a trust from his estate, in the amount of $58,000. Years earlier, he had established the Helen Jones Sherman Memorial Scholarship at VGCC in his wife’s memory after her passing. Royster said that he would have wanted the new scholarships to be named for both himself and his wife, because she worked so closely with him in business and community activities.
Mr. Sherman is also remembered for endowing the Harold Sherman Adult Day Center in Oxford, a Granville Health System facility designed to provide care to the elderly, and mentally or physically disabled adults, enabling them to remain in their homes as long as possible, while providing their caregivers with a break from providing care.
The new scholarships are derived from a trust that Mr. Sherman had established for his sister, Gwen S. Critcher of Oxford, who passed away in December 2011.
The Harold and Helen Sherman scholarships will join more than 300 endowed scholarships for full-time students at the college. VGCC has awarded more than 6,000 scholarships since 1982. Scholarships have been endowed by numerous individuals, industries, businesses, civic groups, churches and the college’s faculty and staff. 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.
This may not be the topic to post this under but whatever. Can ANYONE explain to me how a concerned parent gets the opportunity to address the Vance County Board of Education? I have personally sent an e-mail to Ruth Hartness asking for clarification as to what I needed to do in order to address the Board of Education. Needless to say if she had replied I wouldn’t be on HiH asking the same question. It seems as if you need an act of Congress to get a Board Member to answer what I thought was a very straight forward question. I have gone to the VCS website looking for info. and the only thing I was able to find was the meeting dates. PLEASE HELP if you know the answer to my question!!
By the way, there was a nice letter to the Editor in the local paper that appeared on Tuesday, Jan. 24th about some of my same ‘concerns’ at Carver Elementary School. The writer of the letter was an employee of VCS that just so happens to work at Carver Elem. so I applaud her courage for standing up and voicing some of her concerns about the inequity that appears to be going on within the Vance County Schools. Kudos to Mrs. Moss for having the courage to speak up against what she thinks are ‘issues’ at the school that she happens to work for!!!! THANK YOU MRS. MOSS!!!!
I believe you must go to the VCS office on Graham Ave. in person –DAYS before the scheduled Meeting and request a place on the agenda. I am not sure if they will make you write a letter stating your intent first or what.
The other most obvious request is to present yourself in person DAYS before the scheduled meeting and ASK what the procedure might be.
In my opinion, they make up the procedure to suit themselves. Good Luck.