Longtime Board Chair Leaves Generous Bequest to Phi Theta Kappa Scholarship Fund
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI - Dr. Shirley B. Gordon, the longest-serving Chair
of Phi Theta Kappa's Board of Directors and a charter Trustee of the Phi Theta
Kappa Foundation, has left a generous bequest to Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society's
Scholarship Fund. Dr. Gordon, who died in September 2008, left a gift of
$435,000 to the Phi Theta Kappa Foundation, including $50,000 designated
for the Hites Scholarship Challenge.
Phi Theta Kappa is currently
raising $350,000 toward a new Hites Challenge, which the Hites Foundation
will match almost 2-1 to create a second $1 million scholarship endowment.
"Dr.
Gordon was generous in every way - she gave unstintingly of her time to Phi
Theta Kappa for more than 40 years, providing outstanding leadership and
incredible dedication. Our students were always her chief concern, and
she worked hard to expand benefits and scholarships," said Phi Theta Kappa
Executive Director Rod Risley.
"The scholarships that her
$50,000 gift will support will enable generations of members to pursue
additional educational opportunities," Risley said. "Dr. Gordon had
been a generous donor to Phi Theta Kappa for many years, in fact our largest
individual donor. She said that by investing in Phi Theta Kappa, she was
investing in excellence. I am sure that the Phi Theta Kappa Foundation Trustees
will determine an appropriate and wise use for the remainder of her gift."
Shortly
before her death, Dr. Gordon contributed $50,000 to the first Hites Challenge,
which caused Phi Theta Kappa to go over the top and meet the challenge, said
Phi Theta Kappa Foundation Executive Director Dr. Nancy Rieves. "Dr. Gordon
knew that we were very close to raising the required amount, and she wanted
her gift to be the one that allowed us to meet our goal."
"Dr. Gordon
was so hopeful that meeting the first challenge would result in the Hites
Foundation offering a second challenge. If a second challenge was offered,
she said that she wanted to be one of the first to help us reach the goal of a
$2 million endowment, so she made provisions to provide a second gift of
$50,000," Dr. Rieves said. When Dr. Gordon's $50,000 gift is added, the
current Hites Challenge funds will total almost one-third of the required
$350,000, she said.
Dr. Gordon was a resident of Burien, Washington,
in the Seattle area. She was instrumental in the founding of Highline Community
College in Des Moines, Washington, in 1961, and was a dedicated supporter
of community college education. She led efforts to charter Highline's
Phi Theta Kappa chapter in 1967, and continued to actively support the chapter
and the Society when she became Highline's President in 1976.
Dr.
Gordon was appointed to the Phi Theta Kappa Board of Directors in 1986, and
served as Board Chair from 1988-2008. She was Vice Chair at the time of her
death.
She was an International Honorary Member of Phi Theta
Kappa. The Shirley B. Gordon Awards of Distinction, presented to college
presidents/CEOs, are named in her honor.
A nationally known
educator, Dr. Gordon was the only community college administrator invited
by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the National Commission on Excellence
in Education. She served on the Board of Directors for the American Association
of Community Colleges and was recipient of AACC's prestigious national
leadership award.
Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, headquartered
in Jackson, Mississippi, is the largest honor society in American higher
education with 1,250 chapters on college campuses in all 50 of the United
States, Canada, Germany, the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall
Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the British Virgin Islands,
the United Arab Emirates and U.S. territorial possessions. More than two
million students have been inducted since its founding in 1918, with approximately
100,000 students inducted annually.
