Scholarship will honor pair of VGCC educators
A new Vance-Granville Community College scholarship will carry on the legacy of a husband and wife who both made key contributions to the college in its first two decades. The Julian and Elsie Gray Pernell Academic Achievement Scholarship honors Mr. Pernell, who was the college’s original program head of Light Construction (today called Carpentry ) and later chair of the college’s Trades and Industries division, and Mrs. Pernell, who was the first faculty member at Vance County Technical Institute, as the college was then known, in 1969. She started as the coordinator of the adult education program, and retired in 1987 as the director of VGCC’s Learning Resources Center .
Julian J. Pernell was a Franklin County native and a decorated veteran of the Second World War. As the first program head of Light Construction, he initiated the practice of having VGCC students build houses as live projects, first at various locations in the community. That later evolved into building the houses on the college’s main campus to be sold. Pernell retired in 1983 and passed away in 2005.
Elsie Gray Hunt Pernell was a high school and elementary school teacher and supervised instruction for adult students for Durham Technical Institute’s Henderson-Vance Adult Education Center before the new Vance County Technical Institute absorbed the center in 1969. She became head of the LRC when the laboratory and the college’s library were combined. Mrs. Pernell was the only instructor present both at VCTI’s first commencement exercises in 1970, when she watched her 21 Adult High School students graduate, and at the college’s 40th commencement in 2009, when she was honored as a special guest. Mrs. Pernell earned a B.S. and M.A. from East Carolina University and an M.A.T. from UNC-Chapel Hill. The Pernells lived in Henderson for many years, and today, Mrs. Pernell resides in Wake Forest.
Mrs. Pernell’s niece, Marbeth Holmes of Louisburg, recently presented contributions on behalf of Mrs. Pernell and her family to fully endow the scholarship. Holmes is herself part of the family’s educational tradition. She earned a GED at Vance-Granville and later went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She has taught English and critical thinking at Nash Community College since 1996 and has received the J. Edgar and Peggy Moore Excellence in Teaching award (2004) and the NISOD Excellence in Teaching awards (2001 and 2004). The Pernells’ son, Julian, Jr., is also an educator who teaches for the College of Hospitality, Retail, and Sports Management at the University of South Carolina. He received the Harry E. Varney Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award in 2006. Holmes said of her aunt, “Even at age 84, she continues to be one of the greatest educators I’ve ever known.” Holmes added that it was her privilege to be able to endow the scholarship (which Mrs. Pernell started contributing toward in 2005), both for the Pernells and for the VGCC students of today and tomorrow who will benefit. Eligibility guidelines for the Pernell Scholarship include financial need and a high grade point average. Preference will be given to students who are older than the traditional college age. Contributions to the Endowment Fund in honor of the Pernells can be made on an ongoing basis.
Above: From left, VGCC Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Endowment director Jo Anna Jones and President Randy Parker receive contributions from Marbeth Holmes of Louisburg on behalf of Elsie Gray Pernell and her family. (VGCC Photo)
