Note: The Office of Financial Aid awards funds and scholarships based on fund criteria. You do not need to apply separately for this or any other scholarships when applying for admission to the University of Lynchburg.
A $400,000 planned gift from the late Hugh Scrogham ’66, ’69 MEd will support two University of Lynchburg scholarships that the alumnus and longtime staff member established in 2018.
According to the University’s Office of Advancement, Scrogham’s gift will be split between two funds: the Hugh McNeil Scrogham, Jr. ’66 Scholarship Fund and the Hugh Scrogham, Jr. ’66 School of Graduate Health Sciences Scholarship Fund.
Scrogham died in 2019 at age 74. The Staunton, Virginia, native started working at what was then Lynchburg College in 1967, less than a year after graduating from the College with a degree in political science and after a short stint teaching in the Nansemond County schools.
Over the next 40 years, Scrogham served the College in numerous capacities, including business office purchasing manager, resident manager of men’s housing, director of residential life, assistant dean of student affairs, director of financial aid and enrollment research, director of institutional research and planning, and finally associate vice president of enrollment management.
He also earned a Master of Education at Lynchburg.
Gene Frantz ’71, ’76 MEd, former vice president for external affairs at Lynchburg, met Scrogham in the first semester of his freshman year at Lynchburg College. Frantz was living in McWane Hall, a men’s dorm at the time, and Scrogham was the residence manager.
They were later longtime colleagues at the College.
“I got to know him then and then he moved on to director of financial aid for a long, long time,” Frantz said. “When I got into development and, in particular, planned giving, he asked me sometimes for information on how to do planned gifts and stuff like that.
“Just before I retired, I drafted a scholarship agreement [for Scrogham] and so I was involved in that way.”
According to Frantz, Scrogham — who he described as “quiet and reserved,” with a “keen intellect” and “high character” — loved Lynchburg. He also enjoyed helping students afford the same Lynchburg experience he was able to have.
“He was always student-centered and had to put together these packages for financial aid for students with demonstrated financial need,” Frantz said. “He was always helping students and their families to afford to go to college so they could reach their educational goals.”
Scrogham retired in 2007 but he didn’t relax.
While he didn’t serve in the U.S. military due to health issues, he had a passion for the military and World War II history in particular. In his retirement, he volunteered at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, several days a week.
He also amassed a huge collection of militaria from the second world war — a sizable amount of which he donated to the memorial.
“Had a very good sense of what a lot of people might not consider primary artifacts, right down to we have a bunch of cigarettes in the original World War II packs and hard candy,” said John Long, director of education at the National D-Day Memorial.
“He thought about how to preserve what the experiences of the American fighting man was, right down to the minor items that might have been in his pocket.”
According to Long, much of what Scrogham did at the memorial involved researching and documenting artifacts. “His passion was really for artifacts — for collecting the objects that tell the story of D-Day or the larger story of World War II,” he said.
“He would catalog our donations as they come in. He solicited some of those donations and worked on cultivating the gift, which in some cases were fairly significant collections of artifacts or documents or photos.
“Then, he would catalog it, put it on our computer so we’d know what’s what.”
Scrogham also supported the memorial financially. “The other thing that always impressed me about Hugh was, because he loved the collection so much, he also gave a yearly donation to the collection, basically to buy supplies,” Long said. “We were part of his estate as well.
“One of the plans is that in a future building, where we will house artifacts, the archives storage room will be named for Hugh. … A lot of people would want a gallery named after them, but he wanted the archives room, because that was his priority.”
Long added, “He’s already being missed, if you could see how far behind I am on cataloging items. I said not long ago, ‘I wish Hugh was still here.’ He was such a great volunteer and such a great financial supporter and such a great artifact donor.
“We have a lot of people through the years who have been one of those and he was all of them. That is an unusual combination.”
Scrogham’s passion for the military also prompted him to establish the Hugh McNeil Scrogham, Jr. ’66 Scholarship Fund at Lynchburg. It supports undergraduate U.S. military veterans, with preference for — in this order — those who have seen combat, any veteran, and any student with demonstrated financial need.
“Two scholarships set up from his wonderful planned gift will serve [Lynchburg] for many years to come,” Frantz said. “He served students here and it continues in his legacy of helping others.”
Tom Burrowes ’93, ’21 MA joined Lynchburg’s admissions team in 1998. It was there that he first met and became friends with Scrogham. Later, when Burrowes moved to the Office of Advancement, he worked with Scrogham on his estate plans.
“He was always very generous to the art department and veterans,” Burrowes, senior director of alumni and external engagement, said.
Before founding his own scholarship to benefit veterans, Scrogham helped Burrowes identify potential donors to the University’s Dr. John D. Bower Veterans Scholarship Fund. He also “donated to some of the scholarships that were under the umbrella of the Bower Scholarship,” Burrowes said.
Burrowes and Scrogham also would meet on a regular basis at local restaurants, where Scrogham would quiz Burrowes about goings on at the College: How is enrollment? Are we getting the “right” students? Where are they from?
“He was just a sweet, very genuine person,” Burrowes said. “Toward the end, we would go to all different restaurants. But his mobility was a little shaky, so the last year we ended up at La Villa on Timberlake Road. They knew him there. It was like walking in with a celebrity.”
For more information on how to make a planned gift to the University, please contact Shawn Wood, assistant vice president for development, at wood_sp@lynchburg.edu or 434.544.8450.
