June  16, 2011 – NAPLES, FL – The three-dimensional rendering is becoming a three-dimensional reality as construction continues for the Student Services Building with an anticipated opening in the fall.

“The Student Services Building will give our students a one-stop location to better serve them,” said Dr. Robert R. Jones, Interim Campus President. The Student Services Building will be the new home for registration, counseling, testing, the Cashier’s office, and the bookstore on the first floor, with administrative offices and a community room on the second floor.

According to Frank Stout, Project Manager, GATES, the general contractor for the building, the exterior stucco work is nearly complete and interior drywall work is on schedule.  At completion, the two-story Student Services Building will have about 23,700 square feet of space.

The Edison State College Collier Campus, 7007 Lely Cultural Parkway, is located off Collier Boulevard, three miles north of Tamiami Trail East.

Celebrating nearly 50 years of excellence, Edison State College is Southwest Florida’s largest, most accessible and most affordable institution of higher education. Proud to be tobacco-free, Edison State serves more than 24,000 students per year in five counties and online.  For more information please visit www.edison.edu.

Contact:
Teresa Morgenstern, (239) 732-3901; Mobile: (239) 821-3978
E: tmorgenstern@edison.edu

Regina “JJ” Jones, a Punta Gorda Isles resident, has lived a life dedicated toward helping others. She began her distinguished career as a member of the Army Nurse Corps in World War II. While in service, she was stationed in the Philippines to help with the devastating aftermath of the war. After six months, she returned home and continued caring for others as a registered nurse for over three decades in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida.

Due to JJ’s love of nursing, she has established a trust to provide nursing scholarships and support for nursing education at the Charlotte Campus. With this substantial contribution, the Edison State College Foundation will establish two separate programs to ensure success for all students who enroll at the Charlotte Campus. The JJ Jones Nursing Scholarship Endowment will provide scholarships to recent high school graduates, GED recipients and adult students who are returning to college to complete a degree in nursing. The JJ Jones Endowed Chair of Excellence in Nursing will provide funds for staffing, technology and curricular enhancements.

On June 6, 2008, the Edison State College District Board of Trustees, Edison State College Foundation Board of Directors and District President Kenneth P. Walker expressed their deepest gratitude to Mrs. Jones by naming the Health Sciences building the JJ Jones Hall.

An accomplished silhouette artist, Wallie moved to California from her native Ohio during the war years. She dedicated many hours to the USO, the Hollywood Canteen, and military hospitals, where her art gave servicemen a remembrance to send to loved ones. It was during this time that she met her future husband. During the war their relationship continued via daily treasured letters, and they were married the day after he returned from the war in 1945.

Through their generosity, the Edison State College Foundation will establish two separate programs to ensure success for all students who enroll at the Charlotte Campus. The Dr. Hugo D. and Wallie Spatz Scholarship Endowment will provide scholarships to recent high school graduates, GED recipients, and adult students who are returning to college to complete or further their education. The Dr. Hugo D. and Wallie Spatz Chair for Academic and Student Services will provide support programs for at-risk students, leadership development opportunities and activities outside the classroom that promote academic achievement.

On February 22, 2008, The Edison State College District Board of Trustees and District President Kenneth P. Walker chose to express their deepest gratitude to Mrs. Spatz by naming the student services and administration building at the Charlotte Campus the Hugo D. and Wallie Spatz Hall.

Marj Kelly lived a very quiet life in Clewiston, Florida. Born in Concord, Georgia on September 17, 1908, she completed her schooling and moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, where she met her future husband, E.E. (Pop) Kelly. She and Pop lived in Clewiston where they owned the Clewiston Motor Company, now Kelly Tractor Company.

After Pop passed away in 1956, the Kelly family established the Kelly Foundation to provide scholarships for undergraduate students in Southwest Florida and to provide grant money for other charitable organizations. She was a member of the Clewiston Garden Club, the B.P.W. and a member of the First Baptist Church. In 2000, Marj was the recipient of the “Women of Accomplishment” award at Palm Beach Community College.

Marjorie Kelly passed away in March of 2007 leaving more that $400,000 to Edison College for scholarship assistance. “Marjorie supported her causes without any expectations of receiving anything in return. She was as elegant and gracious as they come. She simply wanted to support the community that meant so much to her”, said Tracey Galloway, District Director of the Edison State College Foundation. Edison College is truly blessed to be the benefactor of the Mrs. Kelly’s philanthropy.

Lockmiller was born in 1910 to a father who came to Florida in 1882 – less than 40 years after Florida became a state – searching for land to farm. Her mother arrived shortly after, lured by swaying palm trees and fresh oranges. Although the farmer and school teacher both successfully settled first in Palmetto and later near Ocala, they both only enjoyed Florida’s prosperity until their their deaths in the early 1930s.  They left Alice with the family house and some land.

With $1,495 her father had given her, Alice built a one-bedroom cottage with indoor plumbing and then bought a four-bedroom house, which she got for only $1,000 because it lacked an indoor toilet. She rented both properties.

This gave her enough income to attend Tennessee Wesleyan College and receive her teaching degree. After teaching for a few years, Alice saw the growth happening in Florida and knew it made sense to concentrate on real estate. Her real estate career flourished and eventually brought her to Fort Myers where her success continued until her retirement in 2000.

Alice never lost her love for education. The success of her real estate business afforded her the opportunity to support several educational institutions. Alice has served on the Board of Trustees at Florida Southern and American University and received an Honorary Doctorate from Tennessee Wesleyan and Wilmington College.

A devout Christian, Alice has been deeply involved in the Methodist Church traveling the world restoring historic Methodist sites and advocating world peace. She underwrote the prestigious World Methodist Peace Award, which has been awarded to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter.
In September of 2006, Alice Lockmiller made a $750,000 gift to Edison State College for the Early Childhood Education Program. The State of Florida’s Dr. Philip Benjamin Matching Program will match the $750,000 with another $650,000. The total endowment fund of $1,400,000 will support the recruitment and retention of students through scholarship incentives and enhancements to the Early Childhood Education Associate in Science Degree Program.
“We are so proud to have the Alice W. Lockmiller Child Development Center on our campus. Alice was been a great friend to the College for more than 30 years and I can’t think of a better way to acknowledge her tireless support of education”, said Mary Lee Mann, Chairman of the Edison College District Board of Trustees and Member of the Foundation Board of Directors.

Lockmiller’s love of education has afforded her the opportunity to serve on the Board of Trustees at Florida Southern and American University, and receive an Honorary Doctorate from Tennessee Wesleyan and Wilmington College. Her “Common Sense Scholarship Fund” awards scholarships to Edison students giving them a chance to use their “common sense” and live their dreams. “You can’t have a dream come true unless you have a dream” says Lockmiller.

Although they have spent a lifetime among the rich and famous – Harry Truman, J. Paul Getty and Jeanne Dixon among them – their philosophy grew from harsh personal experience. When his father died suddenly in 1921, Richard was six and quickly came to appreciate the value of a nickel. His widowed mother forfeited the entire contents of the family’s New York apartment to creditors, and moved to a farm in Connecticut where life required both pluck and enterprise. “To go to college I didn’t have a penny. We didn’t have any money. The taxes were defaulted and the mortgage was defaulted so how was I going to go to college? There were no jobs to be had,” he remembers. “The brick factory was paying $1 a day so I decided to raise chickens. My aunt gave me enough money to buy the chickens and I raised and sold them until I had enough to go to a nearby college.”

His grit, determination and keen mind won him admission to Dartmouth the following year, and a degree in business that opened the door to success. He subsequently entered Harvard on a full scholarship (Littauer fellow, Brookings fellow), graduating in 1941 with a doctorate in Commercial Science.

Shaped by the school of hard knocks, he vowed to help others whenever he could. “In those days,” he says, “I didn’t have anything and I wished somebody would give it to me and they didn’t. When I later had ample resources, I thought about giving. Edison’s tuition is far less than any other college,” he says. “Education is the key to success and if education can be made affordable, why not help others?”

The Rushes are long time supporters of Edison State College. Their generosity funded the original garden flanking the Barbara Mann Hall. In 1994 they procured an exquisite bronze statue called Romeo and Juliet from the estate of New York publisher George T. Delacorte, Jr. to grace the garden. Always eager to assist students, they provide an annual art scholarship and student art show awards. They also have planned for their future support of the College through an estate gift and gift annuities. “I feel you should use your money for the improvement of people, particularly those who need it,” Dr. Rush says.

Most recently, the Rushes have continued their generosity with a $2.3 million gift to endow library resources and student scholarships. In tribute, the Edison State College District Board of Trustees has named the library facility the Richard H. Rush Library.
The gift coincides with a major twenty-first century-style renovation to the 38-year old library. Construction will commence in July 2007 and will include a cyber café, study areas, classrooms, conference centers and state-of-the-art multi-media and information technology resources.

Edison State College district president Kenneth P. Walker praises the Rushes for their steadfast support and benevolence.”The Rushes greatly deserve to be honored because of the way they have lived their own lives and because of their generosity to others.”