Meet Our Donors

Charles and Anne Allen

Longtime educators establish endowed scholarship A couple that has built their life together on the foundation of service and education has taken advantage of a recently enacted tax law to create an endowed scholarship at Lyon College targeted for future teachers. And a student has already benefited from the new scholarship.

Thanks to the August passing of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, Charles and Anne Allen established the Charles F. and V. Anne Allen Endowed Scholarship.

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Lois Ferguson

Lois Ferguson says God led her to Lyon College Lois Ferguson was first introduced to Lyon College in 1996 when she attended the Presbyterian Women’s Conference on the campus that year. She returned in 1998 as conference director.

“I felt so good about being in this place,” she said. “God led me to

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Fred Griffin
Fred Griffin was well known as a generous man who loved and supported Lyon College, but when he passed away in September, his family stepped up and took over where Fred’s work left off.

Tim Bruner, Lyon’s vice president of Institutional Advancement, said Griffin was a “money saver, not a money maker,” but he still managed to donate significant sums to Lyon College. In addition to monetary gifts, Griffin also gave the College a car which campus security still uses and a house which was sold and the proceeds used to help fund College programs and goals.

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The Brown Society: Three New Members Inducted :
The Brown Society of Lyon College has rolled out the red carpet for three individuals whose generosity with their green will help keep the school’s accounts in the black for future generations.

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Hicks family found rewards in planned giving

Each of us left Lyon with a quality college experience and having grown in a number of significant ways. For this we were deeply indebted. We have repaid much of that debt through our lives of productive work and service and, for most of us, sharing a bit of our financial resources with Lyon.

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Basil and Dale Hicks
Tradition and duty. For Basil and Dale Hicks, they are more than words -- they embody their commitment to Lyon College and a Presbyterian education.

The Hickses are doing what they consider their duty by funding a scholarship at Lyon. The endowed scholarship is named after Basil's parents, Clyde and Delpha Beasley Hicks. That scholarship fund will grow in the future through two gift annuities the Hickses have established, one through the Texas Presbyterian Foundation and one through Lyon College, as well as contributions from other family members.

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Jerry and Mary Bensberg of Wimberley, Texas, were searching for a way to diversify their investments. One possibility was a charitable gift annuity, which would financially benefit both them and the organization they chose.

A visit to their alma mater -- Arkansas College, now Lyon -- helped them make their decision.

"That was what clinched our decision," said Mary, a retired speech therapist. “It is such a beautiful campus, and the students are wonderful. We were able to visit with several, and that made up our mind. I want our grandchildren to come here."

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Helen Sullivan Knight ‘31
At age 14, Helen Sullivan Knight '31 was one of the youngest students to attend Lyon College (then Arkansas College). But she found "warmth and acceptance" from her fellow classmates.

"College was a wonderful experience," the Poughkeepsie, Arkansas, native said in an interview shortly before her death in November 2002.

After retirement, Mrs. Knight resided in Evanston, Illinois, where she was an educator at Evanston schools and Northwestern University for many years.

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For Dr. Theodore A. Stroud '32 of Des Moines, Iowa, the reason he decided to start two charitable gift annuities with Lyon College is simple.

In an interview prior to his death in July of 2005, Dr. Stroud said, "It's mainly out of gratitude. It's out of gratitude for the chance to improve myself and the opportunities it opened up that my education there gave me."

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