Transforming Lives One Scholarship at a Time
“He would’ve been so happy to see how Tech has grown and evolved while maintaining its
leadership in the sciences and in engineering.”
George E. Miles, EE 1960, lived a quiet life. Described by his niece, Peyton Underwood Bender, as “private and serious, yet with a witty sense of humor,” Miles went to work for the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia after graduating from Georgia Tech. An electrical engineer, he was responsible for payload electrical systems under the Biological Space Study project and worked with teams that designed, built, tested, and launched rockets.
“He was proud of the work he did for NASA,” Bender said. But what really got Miles animated was talking about Georgia Tech and his college years. “Even as a young man, college was so meaningful to him,” she said. “Being on campus, going to class, eating at the Varsity, attending games — he loved all of it. And as he grew older, he reminisced more and more about his time at Tech.”
Miles remembered Georgia Tech in a more concrete way through a generous estate gift announced this spring: an eight-figure endowment to support scholarships. Miles was a nephew and namesake of George W. Jenkins Jr., who founded Publix Super Markets. “He received shares of Publix stock as a young man, and because he was very conservative financially, he saved almost everything so the value grew and grew,” Bender said. The George E. Miles Scholarship Endowment was funded primarily through a gift of Publix stock.
Miles, who lived in Maryland for most of his adult life, also funded scholarships at Salisbury University, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and Wor-Wic Community College. According to his nephew, F. Rand Underwood III, Miles was a great believer in the transformational power of higher education. “He valued his own education so much, it was no surprise that he elected to establish a number of scholarships,” he said.