John K. Nelms and Julia Ann Taylor, both of Oxford, recently announced their retirement from the Vance-Granville Community College Endowment Fund Board of Directors, effective in December.
Nelms has been on the board of directors since 1978. Among his numerous contributions to the Endowment Fund, Nelms created the Mary Ruth Nelms Presidential Scholar Award in 2009 in memory of his late wife of 61 years. The Endowment board also created a Presidential Scholar Award in his honor in 2011.
When the college was still young, Nelms — then the director of the Granville County Economic Development Commission — was instrumental in getting his county involved in supporting what was then Vance County Technical Institute. He persuaded Granville County commissioners to join Vance County in funding the school and in locating its main campus near the county line between Henderson and Oxford. Nelms served on the VGCC Board of Trustees in an advisory capacity from 1971 until 1973, and as an active member from 1973 until 2005. He was its chair from 1983 through 1984 and from 1999 until 2003. Nelms was named VGCC’s first (and to date, only) Trustee Emeritus upon his retirement.
Taylor, meanwhile, has served on the Endowment Fund board since 1985 and has been the board’s secretary for all of those years. She is responsible for endowing the college’s Grace Hamme Jester Presidential Merit Award scholarship, in memory of her aunt, and she helped, along with other family members, to endow the Joseph and Carrie P. Hamme Presidential Merit Award. Active in her community, Taylor served on the Granville County Planning Board for 28 years — the longest period of service of any resident on any Granville County board — while also volunteering with the local historical and genealogical societies. Both Taylor and her husband, Dr. Richard Taylor, received the John Penn Citizen Award from the Granville County Chamber of Commerce in 2015.
The board of directors oversees the Endowment Fund Corporation, a nonprofit organization established in 1976 to seek and receive scholarship funds and other contributions for the college. The most recent additions to the board include Clay Frazier of Henderson, the president of Universal Leaf North America, U.S.; Darryl Moss, the mayor of Creedmoor; and Josh Towne of Henderson, the owner/operator of the Chick-fil-A franchise in Henderson.
Other current board members include Robert L. Hubbard (the vice-chair), Julius Banzet III, Sarah Baskerville, Jim Chatman, Rep. James W. Crawford, Jr., Dr. Ben F. Currin, L. Opie Frazier, Jr., Rev. Dr. Richard M. Henderson, T.S. Royster, Jr., Donald C. Seifert, Sr., and Todd Wemyss. As president of VGCC, Dr. Stelfanie Williams chairs the board.
Through the Endowment Fund, VGCC has awarded more than 8,800 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.
