New VGCC Scholarships honor memory of Granville County couple
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.
Above: From left, Endowment Fund Board Vice-Chairman Bob Hubbard of Henderson and Endowment Fund Board member T.S. “Sam” Royster of Oxford formally present contributions on behalf of the Sherman family to VGCC President Dr. Stelfanie Williams and Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Endowment director Jo Anna Jones. The presentation was made at the Endowment Board meeting on Feb. 22, which was the first such meeting for the new college president. (VGCC photo)
