SCC President Kathy Matlock and Richard Wright stand with a photo showing Lucy Nesmith, center, and Ben Nesmith, center back, playing a game of shuffleboard in the Nesmiths’ younger days. Wright, a life-long friend of the family, announced the couple’s $3 million gift to the SCC Foundation Tuesday night

By RAY WYCHE
Staff writer

The annual Southeastern Community College Foundation fund drive kicked off Tuesday night with the largest gift in the foundation’s history with the announcement that that the Ben L. Nesmith III estate had willed $3 million to the college.

The SCC trustees and the directors of the foundation have approved the expenditure of $1 million of the bequest for the construction of an amphitheater on the campus on land recently given to the college by the James Allen Cartrette family.

SCC Foundation Director Richard Wright made the announcement of the gift at the fund drive kickoff dinner and said that long range plans for the college, made at least 20 years ago, included an amphitheatre.

Columbus County commissioners have agreed to fund annual maintenance costs of the amphitheatre.

The foundation’s fund drive kickoff annually seeks gifts and pledges from those present and this year’s goal has been set at $165,000. A total of about $91,000 was paid or pledged Tuesday night. Terry Mann of Whiteville is chairman of this year’s fund drive and Henry Edmund is foundation chairman.

More than $250,000 in additional endowments and gifts were announced at the dinner Tuesday night, including new contributions to the Lloyd Batten Scholarship Fund to bring its total to $215,000, and a $30,000 gift from Blue Cross-Blue Shield of North Carolina in honor of Rhone Sasser, past BCBS director and former president of United Carolina Bank that later merged with BB&T.

A new Allied Health Care scholarship in honor of the late Eleen Williams was announced at the kickoff, and Heather Brown, currently a nursing student at SCC, was awarded the first scholarship.

The Williams scholarship was presented by Eleen’s son Johnny.

In announcing the gift, Wright recalled some of Nesmith’s earlier life and the events leading up to the bequest.

A native of Tabor City, Nesmith served as an AirCorps officer in the Pacific in World War II and later graduated from The Citadel, the military college of South Carolina. He and his brother Frank operated an insurance agency for several years. Nesmith was known as “Little Ben” since his father was Ben Nesmith Jr., an early official with the old Waccamaw Bank and Trust Company.

Nesmith retired in 1986 and devoted his time to managing his property and investments. He was active in civic and church affairs in Tabor City and helped establish Westside Baptist Church.

He was predeceased by his wife Lucy and his only child, daughter Martha Anne “Mopsy.”

In planning their estates, after making provision for each other and their daughter, the Nesmiths directed that a “significant portion” of their residuary estates be given to SCC “for capital improvements, curriculum and student scholarship needs,” Wright said.

Wright said that at his (Wright’s) suggestion, Nesmith met with SCC President Matlock and Sue Hawks, executive secretary of the SCC Foundation, to discuss the prospective gift.

The gift will fund the amphitheatre that will be called the Nesmith Bicentennial Amphitheatre since it will be constructed during the 200th year of Columbus County’s existence.

SCC will use a consultant in deciding the exact location on campus for the structure.

The county Bicentennial Committee is planning for some events of the commemoration to be held in the amphitheatre, if possible.

The amphitheatre is expected to be used by different groups, including high school drama classes.