Tag Archive for: #samwatkins

A TRIBUTE TO SAM WATKINS

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SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT TWO O’CLOCK, MCGREGOR HALL PAID TRIBUTE TO ITS PRIME VISIONARY, SAMUEL MERRIWEATHER WATKINS, JR.

THE LATE SAM WATKINS WAS A DRIVING FORCE BEHIND PERRY MEMORIAL LIBRARY BEING IN ITS PRESENT LOCATION ALONG WITH THE PERFORMANCE AREA AND CONNECTING SPACE KNOWN AS MCGREGOR HALL. THE HENDERSON POLICE STATION TOO FOR THAT MATTER.

IN ADDITION TO A FULL 13-MEMBER ORCHESTRA, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF MARK HOPPER, A LOCAL SOLOIST, JONATHAN O’GEARY, AND THE WORLD PREMIERE OF “REMEMBRANCE,” A SONG COMPOSED BY HENDERSON’S OWN DR. PHILIP M. YOUNG, REMARKS OF HONOR AND REMEMBRANCE WERE PROVIDED BY LONG-TIME FRIENDS DONALD SEIFERT AND THE HONORABLE JAMES W. (JIM) CRAWFORD, JR., BOTH OF WHOM ARE ALSO PILLARS OF THE COMMUNITY. ALSO OFFERING REMARKS OF GRATITUDE AND TRIBUTE WERE DR. YOUNG AND JOHN WESTER.

THE PICTURE SHOWS THE MOMENT THE PERFORMANCE OF “REMEMBRANCE” BEGAN.

AND WHILE THE FOCUS OF THE MUSICAL PERFORMANCE AND THOUGHTS OFFERED WERE ZEROED IN ON THE VISION, LEADERSHIP AND DETERMINATION OF SAM WATKINS, THE WORDS, THE MUSIC AND THE ENTIRE GATHERING ALSO HONORED SAM’S TWIN BROTHER GEORGE WATKINS AND THE WATKINS FAMILY. FOR WHERE ONE WATKINS BROTHER WORKED AND SERVED, SO DID THE OTHER.

TO HEAR IT ALL, THE AFTERNOON WAS A CELEBRATION OF COMMUNITY AND GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY.

SO WHETHER IT WAS THE WORDS OF WESTER, SEIFERT, YOUNG OR CRAWFORD, OR THE INSPIRING COMPOSING, PERFORMING OR JUST BEING IN AWE OF THE SPACE, A NUMBER OF SPECIAL THOUGHTS, PHRASES AND NOTES REVERBERATED THROUGH MCGREGOR HALL ON A SUNNY SUNDAY AFTERNOON ABOUT THE MAN, THE BROTHERS AND THE CHORUS OF SUPPORTERS WHO GOT MCGREGOR HALL TO WHERE IT IS, NOT ONLY A PROVISION FOR LEARNING AND THE ARTS BUT ALSO A REVITALIZATION OF THE VIBRANT BLOCKS OF HENDERSON THAT WERE, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NO MORE IF NOT FOR THEIR HARD WORK.

AS THE ONES WHO SPOKE SUNDAY OF SAM WATKINS SAID IT: “THANK YOU.” “WELL DONE.” “HE WAS MY BUDDY.”

IT WAS AN AFTERNOON OF AMERICAN MUSIC, A TRIBUTE TO SAM WATKINS, AND IT WAS SO MUCH MORE.

O’Geary to Perform at McGregor Hall’s ‘A Tribute to Sam Watkins’

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-Information and photo courtesy the McGregor Hall Performing Arts Center’s Facebook page

Audiences fell in love with Henderson’s own Jonathan O’Geary this past fall as “The Beast” in McGregor Hall Performing Arts Center’s hit production of “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.” Hear his beautiful voice once more on Sunday, January 6, 2019, at 2 p.m. as the featured guest soloist during “A Tribute to Sam Watkins – An Afternoon of American Music.”

Buy your tickets today (click here) as a holiday treat to yourself or someone you love!

This concert is part of the “Music at McGregor” series sponsored by the Henderson Community Concerts Association. A 13-piece chamber orchestra of the area’s finest musicians will present the original “Appalachian Spring” of Aaron Copland and will premiere “Remembrance,” a work written by Philip Young in memory of McGregor Hall’s founder, Sam Watkins.

(This is not a paid advertisement)

Audiences fell in love with Henderson’s own Jonathan O’Geary this past fall as “The Beast” in McGregor Hall Performing Arts Center’s hit production of “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.” Hear his beautiful voice once more on Sunday, January 6, 2019, at 2 p.m. as the featured guest soloist during “A Tribute to Sam Watkins – An Afternoon of American Music.” (Photo courtesy McGregor Hall)

New VGCC Scholarship established in memory of Sam Watkins

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A new scholarship at Vance-Granville Community College will honor the memory of longtime Vance County business and community leader Sam Watkins Jr.

His son, Trey Watkins of Wake Forest, recently visited VGCC to formally establish the “Sam Watkins Jr. Academic Achievement Scholarship” on behalf of himself and his wife, Sarah.

Sam Watkins, who died in 2014 at the age of 80, was a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a U.S. Army veteran. For many years, he was the president of Rose Oil Company, a member and chairman of the Henderson-Vance Economic Development Commission, and a member of the Maria Parham Medical Center Board of Trustees.

Watkins co-founded the Henderson Downtown Development Corporation, from which the North Carolina Main Street Program evolved. In 2008, he and his twin brother, George, were the recipients of the Community Hero Award given by the Vance County Commissioners for making the community a better place in which to live. He was a recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine and, in 1985, he was Vance County’s Outstanding Citizen of the Year. He served on the local Salvation Army Advisory Board, the Citizens Bank and Trust Company Board, and chaired the local North Carolina National Bank (NCNB) Board in Henderson. In his later years, his proudest accomplishment was the forming of the Embassy Cultural Center Foundation, responsible for building a new public library and cultural center in Henderson. Watkins was also a beloved father and grandfather.

In awarding the new scholarship, preference will be given to students in the VGCC Nursing program. “We would like to support students with compassion, who show commitment and pride in their work in the health care field,” Trey Watkins said. “My father loved both the hospital and the college, so this would be a fitting tribute.”

Sam Watkins supported and partnered with the college in his economic development roles, and VGCC President Dr. Stelfanie Williams remembered him with fondness. “Sam Watkins was a tireless leader and advocate for his community,” Dr. Williams said. “His legacy of service will continue through a scholarship that will help Vance-Granville students for generations to come.”

Just as Trey is establishing this scholarship in his father’s memory, Sam and George Watkins endowed the S.M. Watkins Sr. Memorial Academic Achievement Scholarship at VGCC to honor their father in 1991.

Through the Endowment Fund, VGCC has awarded more than 8,500 scholarships to students 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. For more information about the Endowment Fund, call (252) 738-3409.