Flagler College completed the planning phase of its 50th Anniversary Campaign and will spend the next 24 months in an organization phase of the campaign, to be followed by the leadership gift phase in 2014 and the public phase in 2016. The College will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2018.

Grant helps to launch college’s 50th anniversary campaign

Supporting its long-standing relationship with Flagler College, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust made a commitment of $1 million to help launch Flagler’s 50th Anniversary Campaign. The gift, which is earmarked for endowment, must be matched equally by other donors. In 2018, the college will celebrate its first half century.

Flagler College has added four new members to its Board of Trustees, including two alumni and a former U.S. ambassador. Long-serving members Judge Howell Melton and W.W. Gay also resigned from the board and were named Trustees Emeriti.

From world-renowned performers and college theatrical performances to educational lectures and top political commentators, the Flagler College Auditorium has been a hot-seat of cultural activity since its opening in 1991. Now, the college is embarking on a fundraising effort called “Setting the Stage: The Campaign for the Flagler College Auditorium” for a major renovation and expansion of the auditorium.

Twenty-five years after his father received Flagler College’s highest honor, Tom S. Kenan III has now received his own Flagler College Medallion for supporting the college.

“I was surprised and overcome when I was informed that I would be receiving the medallion,” Kenan said. “I remember when my late father received it in Palm Beach, and he was very thrilled and grateful, as am I.”

Flagler friends make gift to the college and ensure life income

Thanks to the generosity of donors Frank and Joan Tepper, Flagler College has celebrated a notable first – a gift for the college’s first Two-Life Charitable Gift Annuity (CGA). Their decision to donate $127,000 — proceeds from the sale of an investment property — provided clear tax benefits to the Teppers.

Flagler College President Dr. William T. Abare Jr. announced receipt of a $2.5 million bequest from the estate of Mary L.F. “Molly” Wiley, sister of the college’s founder Lawrence Lewis Jr. The funds were added to the college’s endowment, which was established in 1978 through a gift from Lewis and stands at more than $44.7 million.

Wiley passed away on May 28, 2010, in Richmond, Va. She served as a trustee of Flagler College from May 19, 1995, to May 16, 1997, and she served as a trustee on the board of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust until her 90th birthday in 2010.

Long-time Flagler Trustees Retire from Board

Lawrence Lewis would be proud.

Back in 1971, Lewis, the founder of Flagler College, hand-picked two energetic community leaders, John D. Bailey Sr. and Frank Upchurch Jr., to take seats on the college’s fledgling Board of Trustees. Ten years later, the board welcomed the addition of Lewis’ daughter, Louise Foster. This year the three trustees, who have given a combined 107 years of service and leadership to Flagler, have retired from the board.

Local investor James Babcock, a partner in upscale St. Augustine eateries Opus 39 and The Tasting Room, has pledged $250,000 in unrestricted funds to help the students of Flagler College

A relative newcomer to the Flagler College community, Babcock was inspired to help support the college after meeting and working with a number of Flagler students employed in the restaurants.

“I have been so impressed with the quality of the students who have become my friends and colleagues,” Babcock said. “They immediately caught my attention, and I started to think about how I could get involved with the college that’s helping to shape them.”

It’s been only four years since Flagler College first launched the Flagler Athletic Boosters Club, but in that time, the group has already raised almost $490,000 to help benefit Flagler’s sports teams that are now competing in NCAA Division II.

The boosters club was created in 2004 while Flagler athletic teams were still qualifying for NAIA Tournaments and the NCAA was but a murmur going around the administration.