Griffiths Trust Established

The School of Divinity has received more than $1.4 million in gifts to fund new and expanded scholarships. More than $500,000 was received from a trust established by Margaret Hines Griffiths. Her gift was used to match gifts from five other donors who gave at least $100,000 each to establish new scholarship funds or add to existing ones.

Griffiths’ father, the Rev. H.B. Hines, was a 1908 graduate of the College. In the 1990s, she established a charitable remainder trust to benefit a number of family members and Wake Forest’s divinity school, then still in the planning stages. She died in 2000, a year after the divinity school opened.

At the death of each of the trust’s beneficiaries, the majority of his or her share passes to Wake Forest, with a smaller share to Meredith College, Griffiths’ alma mater. University officials estimate the divinity school could eventually receive $4 million from the trust.

“Mrs. Griffiths was so committed to the idea of theological education that she made this commitment in the hope that one day Wake Forest would have a divinity school,” said School of Divinity Dean Gail O’Day. “A decade later, she is now helping educate the next generation of religious leaders.”

Her gift was used to match gifts from the following donors:

Michael and Pamela (’80) Frey of Sylva, NC, and Charlotte and Patrick Murphy of Goldsboro, NC, established a scholarship in honor of Pamela Frey’s and Charlotte Murphy’s parents, Randall and Lou Lolley. 

Elms (’62, MD ’66) and Harriet Allen of Winston Salem, NC, established the Elms and Harriet Allen Scholarship.

Carl (’68, P ’95, ’97, ’04) and Linda Tucker of Pageland, SC, added to two scholarship endowments they had previously established: the Carl and Linda Tucker Family Divinity Scholarship and the Michael G. Queen Scholarship, named in honor of Wake Forest Trustee, Rev. Michael G. Queen (’68, P ’94).

Sam and Susan (’78, P ’10) Rankin of Charlotte, NC, added to the Susan Creech Rankin Scholarship, which they established in 1999. Susan Rankin is a member of the Divinity School Board of Visitors.

Craig (’73, MBA ’03) and Martha Siler, of Greensboro, NC, added to the Siler Family Scholarship, which they established in 2008.

Source: Wake Forest Magazine, Fall 2011

Media Contact: Mark Batten