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gifts & grants
A Teacher ' s G ift Esther E. Wood '26 touched students' lives for half a century ; now she's doing it again By Ket•in Cool
W
hen Esther Wood '26 ar
rived four years ago at the annual conference of the Maine Federation of Business and Professional Women, she was years old, an accomplished writer and educator who that n ight would be i nducted into the M aine Women's Hall of Fame.
Esther Wood '26
The women a sembled knew that the retired teacher whom they were hononng wa> ras;,tonate about education. J ust how pa;, 'tonate they >OOn learned when Wood ra,,eJ out a qui: on U . . rre,tdent' and a ked them to 'end the an"1·er to her home. " I fell tn love \\ tth teachtng the ftr't year I taught at �ton mgwn lm I 9261 anJ I never fell nut nf n , " 'a t J WnnJ, no\\ 92 , m J ,t i l l gntng 'tmng. For nearly 5 "l year' he tntluem.eJ 'tudenb a' ,1 teacher; her recent gtft nf "' fnr endnwcJ 'chnlar ,htp' .u 'nih " t il heir future genl:f.lttlln' ,1, \\ ell. &1rn t n I 9L 5 t n the ,,1me Blue H t ! l . . l.une, netghf-,,rhn,,J \\ here ,he ,ull II\ e,, \X1,,,,J ,,11 ,
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Wood also wrote extensively for newspapers and magazines fol
she was determined from age 4 to go to Colby. "Long before I even knew what a college was, I was
lowing her retirement. Her ar t icles have appeared in Down East, Woman's Day , Maine Life and The Christian Science Moni tor, and for more than 20 years her column, "The N ative," ran
telling adults that I was going to Colby when I got big," he said. At 1 7, she left for Waterville with a trunk from her father, dresses from her mother and a 1 0 gift from her Aunt Fan, who e admonition to work hard fel l on deaf ears, says Wood. "] was more interested in enjoying myself than doing my school work ," she said. It wasn't until her sopho more year that she began to take her studies seriously, says Wood, sparked by Colby professors Herbert Libby '02 , J u l ian Tay lor, Class of 1 6 , and Edward Perkins. Perkins, a geology pro fe sor for whom the Perkins Ar bore t u m is n a m e d , was so enthusiastic, Wood recalls, that he would sprint to the outdoor classroom, leaving h is tudents behind. "People with hort legs were late for his lectures," she aid, laughing. After graduation, Wood was h i red to teach Latin at the tonington Public chool for the "extraordinary" alary of 1 , 1 00, she ays. Two years later, he enrolled at Radcliffe, where :,he earned a ma ter' degree. Folio" tng a hort t tn t at a Pm fteld preraratory chool, she began her ·H -year teach mg ten ure at the Gorham tate Teach er' College, now known a:, the ntl'er,ny of outhern Matne, \\ here ,he <1bo erved for a ttme a' Jean. The authnr nf three book , tnclud tng the acdatmeJ Deep Ru()[ A \ 1am� Lcgac) a[,out her L h t ldho,)J < m thc n1,J>t of i<unc,
in the Ellsworth American. Wood's inrerest in education and a d e s i r e t o honor her family combined to produce the 300,000 gift, says Sue Conant Cook ' 7 5 , assoc iate director of planned giving. In addition to the scholarship money, Cook says, the College will receive Wood's decades-long collection of daily journals. President Bill Cotter thanked Wood for her "extraordinary generosity."
"The assoc iation between Colby and Esther Wood has spanned v i r t u a l l y the e n t i re twentieth century, and the schol a r s h i p s she ha e s t a b l i s h e d w i l l conrinue that association through the twenty-first century and beyond," Cotter said. "When I came to Colby I l a c k e d s e l f- c o n f i d e n c e a n d wasn't sure I would measure up," Wood said. "By the time I gradu ated I knew I would be a suc cess." She says she hopes her gift w i l l simi larly empower future Colby students. "One of the greatest days of m y l i fe was the day C o l b y granted me an honorary degree [in 1 97 1 ] ," she said. "] j ust love that college . " +
Maine Students Get a Boost Maine students who choose Colby will have new financial aid opportunities thanks to a grant from the Bernard Osher Foundation of San Francisco. The foundation awarded scholar ship endowments totaling $4 million to provide funding for students from Maine attending Bates, Bowdoin, Colby or the University of Maine System. Each institut ion will receive $ 1 million to be used for undergraduate scholarships. The endowment will enable a number of qualified students who have demonstrated financial need to enroll in the M aine in titutions. The 0 her cholars will be selected by each insti tution. Those selected will retain the scholarship for all four undergraduate years provided that they maintain full-time status and good academic standing. The Osher Foundation was established in 1 97 7 by business man Bernard Osher and his family to provide financial support for the arts, education, the environmen t, health care and social and community projects. Osher i a native of Biddeford, Maine, and a I 94 graduate of Bowdoin. He i the chairman of Butterfield & Butterfield Auct ioneer:,, a an Franci co-based auction house. "I grew ur in Maine, and I know what a truggle it is for many Maine fam t l ies and their tajented son and daughters to cope w t t h the co ts of col lege ," Osher said. " I t is grat ifying to rro v tde thi;, endowme nt gift so that future generation s will have tht opport u n t t y . "
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