Pruitts Establish VGCC Scholarship In Memory Of Sister, Also A Donor

Myrtle Jane Pruitt began giving scholarships to nursing students at Vance-Granville Community College in 1980 and continued until her death in February of this year.

A lifelong resident of Granville County, Miss Pruitt was a music teacher who taught piano and organ for many years. She told college officials when she suffered ill health she was so thankful for the excellent nursing care she received that she wanted to help others become nurses.

Upon Miss Pruitt’s death, her brother, Leonard Pruitt, and his wife, Dr. Dorothy Pruitt, of Oxford, decided a fitting memorial would be to endow a permanent Myrtle Jane Pruitt Nursing Scholarship. Family and friends of Miss Pruitt gave more than $3,000 in her memory, and it was used to begin the Academic Achievement Scholarship. Leonard and Dr. Pruitt have pledged to complete the $6,000 needed to endow the scholarship.

Because it goes into the Endowment Fund, which has almost $5 million in assets, it will be a perpetual scholarship, to be awarded every fall to a deserving student in the healthcare field. Only the interest from the fund is used to provide the annual scholarship grants.

Any individual, business or organization interested in establishing a living memory and help deserving students may contact the president’s office at Vance-Granville Community College about becoming a scholarship donor.

Leonard Pruitt and his wife, Dr. Dorothy Pruitt, present $3,000 to Vance-Granville Community College President Robert A. Miller, right, to begin the Myrtle Jane Pruitt Nursing Scholarship at the college in memory of Mr. Pruitt’s sister. The Pruitts will complete the $6,000 Academic Achievement Scholarship in three years, and the first $500 grant will be made to a deserving student this fall.