UVa-Wise honors Benefactors of the Year

Pictured left to right: Chancellor Prior, Charlie R. Jessee ‘62 who accepted the award in Wright’s honor, Don Green, president of the Foundation Board, and Chancellor Emeritus Joseph C. Smiddy, a friend of the Cohen family for decades, who accepted the award on their behalf.

The late Phyllis Marks Cohen and the late Harold C. Wright were honored as the College’s Benefactors of the Year for 2004-2005 during the annual Benefactors Celebration.

Mrs. Cohen’s $1.1 million bequest to UVa-Wise established an endowed scholarship in memory of her late husband, William B. Cohen, a longtime friend of the College. The William B. Cohen Memorial Scholarship Fund will benefit needy and deserving students, with preference given to students who are unable pay their college expenses. The first William B. Cohen Memorial Scholarships were awarded in the fall of 2005. The fund will provide up to 40 scholarships annually. Mr. Cohen’s family, who came to the United States from Lithuania, founded Cohen’s Department store in Norton. Mr. Cohen managed the store for a number of years before going to Harvard Law School. Mr. Cohen and his family have been friends of the College for decades. It was through the generosity of Mr. Cohen, his brother Wallace, an attorney in Washington, D.C., and his sister, Jeanette, a physician in Boston, that the Chapel of All Faiths was built in 1981. The family’s benevolence to the College also includes the Cohen Lecture Fund, the Cohen Memorial Scholarship, and the Sylvia Stone Cohen Scholarship Fund.

Chancellor Emeritus Joseph C. Smiddy, a friend of the Cohen family for decades, accepted the award on their behalf. The engraved plaque will hang in the Chapel of All Faiths.

Harold C. Wright’s $450,000 bequest to UVa-Wise will benefit as many 20 Southwest Virginia residents each year. The Wright Family Scholarship Endowment, established in honor and memory of Mr. Wright, his late wife, Sally June Cross Wright, and his parents, B. K. Wright and Goldie Eva McClannahan Wright, is open to students from Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Scott, Washington, and Wise counties and the cities of Bristol, Va., Bristol, Tenn., and Norton. Friends describe Wright as a kind, caring man who enjoyed helping people. He was a devoted philanthropist who shunned public recognition of his benevolence. A Washington County native, Wright was raised on a farm and worked hard to pay his college expenses at Virginia Tech, where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering. After college, he co-founded Wright Equipment in Abingdon. Wright passed away suddenly in December 1999, leaving a large portion of his estate to area colleges including UVa-Wise; his alma mater, Virginia Tech; his wife’s alma mater, the University of Tennessee; and Emory and Henry College. Charlie R. Jessee ‘62, Wright’s friend and attorney, accepted the award in Wright’s honor.