Nelms endows VGCC scholarship in wife’s memory
Vance-Granville Community College trustee emeritus John K. Nelms of Oxford has endowed a scholarship in memory of his wife, Mary Ruth Nelms, who passed away April 6 after 61 years of marriage. The VGCC Endowment Fund will present the Mary Ruth Nelms Presidential Scholar Award to a college student who graduated near the top of his or her class from a Granville County high school, as a way of honoring a woman who graduated at the top of her Oxford High School class (and as class president) in 1946.
“She was a special lady,” John K. Nelms recalled. “We had a very good life together.” That life began when Nelms hired Mary Ruth, a Granville County native who was fresh out of Louisburg College, as his secretary at Oxford Auto Machine Company. Before long, the two began a marriage that lasted 61 years. In 1953, Granville County Clerk of Court A.W. Graham hired her to work in his office. Mary Ruth Nelms was appointed Clerk of Court for the county in 1964 by Judge Hamilton Hobgood and continued in office until 1995, winning election after election without opposition. “She would have made a good lawyer,” John K. Nelms said, noting that the local legal community had great respect for the longtime Clerk of Court and judge of probate.
In addition to her husband, Nelms was survived by the couple’s son, John K. “Johnny” Nelms, and two grandchildren, ages 13 and 10, all of whom live in Raleigh.
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. 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: John K. Nelms of Oxford presented a gift to Vance-Granville Community College that will establish the Mary Ruth Nelms Presidential Scholar Award. From left, VGCC Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Endowment director Jo Anna Jones, Nelms and VGCC Endowment specialist Kay Currin. (VGCC photo)
