His Birthday Present Is a Gift to Students
“I have seen firsthand how Georgia Tech helps young people meet their potential and prepare for a meaningful future.”
Darrell Gray — who has served as senior manager of Georgia Tech’s Wardlaw Center since 2001 and worked in the Office of Human Resources for three years before that — learned to give at his parents’ side. They taught him to give from the heart and expect nothing in return. His reward, they assured him, would come, but it would not be on this earth. His legacy, though, would be.
So, in the fall of 2017, with a milestone birthday coming up in 2018 — his 50th — he started thinking about what that legacy would be. Gray already works with the Light of Hope Ministry at his church, cooking food and serving it to the homeless. And he already volunteers as a mentor to Tech students — his current mentee is a Ph.D. candidate from China.
As a widower with no children — his beloved wife, Carolyn, who worked at the Georgia Tech Research Institute for 17 years, lost her battle with breast cancer in 2011 — he hasn’t had to pay for childcare, private school, sports, summer camps, or “the biggest one of all, which is college tuition.”
And, even for someone whose hobby is experiencing other cultures, there’s only so much travel he can do. Gray has been to the Bahamas, Belgium, China, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Hawaii — and an Alaskan cruise is next on the agenda.
So Gray decided to start celebrating his birthday early by committing $100,000 from his estate to deserving students for college tuition. Some of it will go to his alma mater, Johnson and Wales University, some will go to his church’s college scholarship fund, but the bulk of his gift — $50,000 — is going to endow Georgia Tech scholarships.
“I have seen firsthand how Georgia Tech helps young people meet their potential and prepare for a meaningful future,” Gray said. “If I can help remove financial barriers to their success, I will have done something truly meaningful myself.”
Your gift will help deserving students reach their potential too. To learn more, contact Gift Planning at 404.894.4678 or giftplanning@dev.gatech.edu today.