Parsons Advocate August 2011
Carr, Shahan, Sponaugle and Miller Scholarships Awarded

This is the 5th in a series of six articles recognizing 2011 Tucker Community Foundation (TCF) scholarship recipients. The articles also contain background information on the endowed funds that provide much of the funding for the awards.  Most scholarship awards are supplemented with TCF unrestricted funds and Kep and Alice Smith Trust income.

The Enos, Delbert H. & Shirley W. Carr Scholarship was awarded to Lyndsey Nestor who is entering her first year at West Virginia University School of Pharmacy this fall.  Nestor graduated from Tucker County High School and completed her undergraduate studies at Davis & Elkins College (D&E).  She is the daughter of Craig and Robyn Nestor of Parsons.

The Carr Scholarship Fund was established by the late Shirley Carr in 1994 to provide financial assistance for Tucker County High School graduates wanting to continue their education. Mr. Carr requested that priority be given to students who attend West Virginia University, Marshall University, or Davis & Elkins College, because he studied at Marshall, followed sports at WVU, and D & E College because he was Presbyterian.  

The Carr Scholarship is named for three generations of men from Tucker County.  Enos Carr was an ordained United Brethren minister, a farmer and cattleman, a county commissioner (1856-1861) and a deputy sheriff.  He established a school in the church which he built on his property at Otter Creek / Dry Fork in Tucker County that was used until the early 1930’s. He was among the Justices present July 28, 1856 when the Ann Eliza Church in St. George was declared the first place for holding court in Tucker County. The church, according to Homer Floyd Fansler’s History of Tucker County, served as the court house until 1859. 

Delbert H. Carr was one of 13 children. When he was ten years old he went to work selling candy and newspapers on the Dry Fork railroad.  His half-brother, William Carr, was superintendent of the railroad at the time.  As an adult, Delbert worked and retired from the Douglas coal mines. He and his wife were the parents of  a son and three daughters.  Their son, Shirley was born in 1915.  He attended Parsons High School one year, and graduated from Thomas High School in 1934.  Shirley W. Carr and his wife, the former Mildred Vengen, lived in Virginia Beach until their death.  They had no children. 

The Michael Shahan Scholarship was awarded to Dusty McCauley, a 2011 graduate of TCHS. McCauley plans to major in Criminal Justice at Fairmont State.  He is the son of Kevin and Donna McCauley of Parsons.

The Shahan Fund was established by family member in 1996 to provide scholarships for students from the original St. George, Clover, or Licking districts.

Michael Ellsworth Shahan was born in St. George, August 26, 1917.  He attended St. George School, graduated from Parsons High School with the class for1934, completed a two year Standard Normal Teacher’s Diploma at D & E College in Elkins, and taught school two years in Tucker County at Macedonia and Hobson.  Later he completed an AB Degree at George Washington University, an MS Degree at Plattsburgh New York State University, and extensive postmasters’course work. 

In December 1940, he entered the US Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet earning his pilot’s wings in August 1941.  The attack on Pearl Harbor came three months later.  During the summer of 1942 his fighter group (75 P38 airplanes) in a historic ferry movement flew across the North Atlantic to England.  En route, his squadron was temporarily held in Iceland to augment the Icelandic defense.  From alert status there, he took off, intercepted, and his crew shot down a German Focke – Wulf Kurier patrol bomber; the first German airplane shot down by the U.S. Air Forces in the European Theater during WWII.  For that action he was awarded the Silver Star Medal.  Then, continuing on to England and the entire North African Campaign he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with six Oak Leaf Clusters, and many other decorations.

With 25 years of service, he retired from the Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1964 returning to teaching and counseling at Northern Virginia Community College until 1981 when he retired as a Professor Emeritus.  He was inducted into the Parsons High School Hall of Fame in 1994 and died May 6, 2006.  

Alix Lilly of Davis received the Martha C. Sponaugle Scholarship award.  Lilly, a 2010 graduate of TCHS, is entering her sophomore year at Bethany College.  She plans to major in biology with an emphasis on pre-med.  Her goal is to attend chiropractic school and practice naturopathic medicine. Lilly is the daughter of Roger and Cathy Lilly of Davis.    

The Sponaugle Scholarship Fund was established in 2000 by Berlin “Bud” Sponaugle and his son and daughter –in-law, Capt. Sid and Sandie Sponaugle in memory of their wife and mother, Martha C. Sponaugle.  The fund was established to provide a scholarship for a Tucker County High School graduate.

Martha was born and raised in Hendricks.  A 1956 graduate of Parsons High School, she was a former employee of Stevens’ Florist in Parsons, secretary of Hamrick School until its closing, and retired as secretary in 1998 from Tucker Valley Elementary Middle School.  The family says, “Martha came across as being a very stern person, but had a heart of gold.  She would do anything for anyone.  If she were asked, she would give.  This fund is her family’s way of fulfilling that legacy.”

Cullen Kelley of Parsons received the Madeline R. & Lester E. Miller Scholarship award.  He plans to study Radiologic Technology at Pierpont Community & Technical College. Kelley is the son of Lee and Cindy Kelley

The Miller Scholarship Fund, also established in 2000, provides an annual scholarship, on a rotating basis, for seniors at Tucker County High School and Petersburg High School. Family members requested that scholarship recipients not be required to have a lengthy history of school and/or community activities, particularly if those students did not have access to transportation.  Emphasis should be on a desire for an education following high school. 

Roberta Lantz established the Miller Fund to honor her mother’s teaching career and to memorialize both of her parents, Madeline Richards Hickman Miller, born 1916 in Parsons, and Lester E. Miller, born 1914 in Erwin, WV.

Following her graduation from Parsons High School in 1933, Mrs. Miller attended D & E College and Fairmont State College. She received a BS degree from Frostburg State College, Frostburg, MD and taught school for 35 years in Tucker and Grant counties, WV and two years in Morrow, OH. She ended her teaching career at the Maysville Elementary School in 1978. She also worked at the Tucker County Welfare office. She and her husband Lester were married 62 years. At the time of her death, they resided in Arthur, WV (Grant County). 

Mr. Miller attended Limestone School near his home on Limestone Mountain in Tucker County. A decorated veteran of WWII, he served as a squad leader and later as a platoon leader in Company E 501st Parachute Infantry, 101al airborne division during the invasion of Normandy. His citations included the Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal and a Silver Star. Following active duty Mr. Miller worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps in West Virginia, the J.M. Huber Corporation, Sites’ Excavation, and Advantage Foods. Mr. Miller was an active counselor in the 4-H program in Tucker County and an avid outdoorsman.

Scholarship awards are approved by the Tucker Community Foundation Board of Directors upon recommendation of the Scholarship Committee.

In next week’s edition the Kep & Alice Smith, TCF Directors’ General, Doug & Betty Preble, and the George and Marjorie Walburn scholarships will be announced; the final of this six part series.

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