What is LEAVE A LEGACY
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Florence Smith’s bequest is
still funding scholar-ships more than half a
century later. |
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One Woman’s Philanthropy Touches Hundreds of
Physicians
Florence L. Smith had a dream of helping Virginia
medical school students with their education. Before
her death in 1952 the Norfolk, Virginia, physician’s
daughter entrusted The Norfolk Foundation to carry
out her wishes for scholarships for students
attending the Commonwealth’s medical schools.
If Smith were alive today, she would be amazed to see
what her initial contribution of $460,000 has done.
In the first 50 years, her fund provided in excess
of $2.4 million in scholarships to help educate more
than 620 physicians who practice all over the
country and in several foreign countries. Today,
Smith’s perpetual fund is valued at more than $2
million and continues the work Smith planned more
than half a century ago. Currently 25 medical
students receive $103,000 in scholarships from her
fund. In the first three decades, the Smith fund
paid for most students’ complete medical school
costs. Today, with the rising cost of education,
Smith scholarships average $4,120 a year and are
renewable for four years of study.
“The scholarship made it possible for me to go to
medical school,” recalls Dr. Edward L. Lilly, a
Norfolk internist who attended the Medical College
of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University in
the 1960s. “The foundation’s scholarship was an
important part of my life.”
Smith is all but forgotten today except for the
ongoing generosity of her scholarship. Her 22-line
obituary told only that she was born in New Orleans
and came to live in Norfolk as a child. She was the
daughter of Dr. Hy and Julia Tyler Smith, and her
only brother, H. Tyler Smith, died six months
earlier. No other family members survived her.
Her heirs are the hundreds of physicians educated
with the help of Smith scholarships. Among them are
former presidents of the American Medical
Association, the American Academy of Ophthalmology,
The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and
numerous state medical societies. The current
president of the International Society of Pediatric
Surgical Oncology is a Smith scholar as are
missionaries in Kenya and the United Arab Emirates.
Other Smith scholars are conducting important
medical research and teaching at medical schools as
well as providing primary and specialized care to
thousands of patients.
Dr. John T. Nuckols, a Fredericksburg, Virginia,
psychiatrist, is among those touched by Smith’s
philanthropy more than three decades ago. He
believes Florence Smith played an integral part in
shaping his life. “I had some 18 to 20 part-time
jobs to pay for college,” Nuckols says. “Then in my
senior year Florence Smith came into my life, and
this allowed me to devote full attention to my
medical studies. I say a little prayer to Florence
Smith each day.”
At the time of Smith’s gift in 1952, The Norfolk
Foundation was only two years old and held just one
other fund. Smith was led to the foundation by her
attorney Barron F. Black, a foundation founder who
convinced her that the fledgling foundation was the
right place to carry out her wishes. Since then the
foundation has grown into one of the largest
community foundations in the country and has become
southeastern Virginia’s largest scholarship provider
and grantmaker. It also is among the top providers
of medical scholarships at Virginia’s three medical
schools. The Smith fund is one of more than 40
scholarship funds administered by the foundation.
In her will, Smith named only the Medical College of
Virginia in Richmond and the Medical School of the
University of Virginia as beneficiaries of her
scholarships. However, her scholarship was expanded
to Norfolk’s Eastern Virginia Medical School after
it was formed in 1977 in her hometown.
“When EVMS came along and it didn’t qualify for
scholarships because it wasn’t a named school, we
went to court,” recalls Toy D. Savage Jr., vice
chairman of The Norfolk Foundation board. “We told
the court that if EVMS had been in existence when
Miss Smith drew up her trust, it would have been
included.” The court agreed, and EVMS students
became eligible to compete for scholarships.
For Trey H. Leaven of Norfolk, Virginia, a
third-year student at Eastern Virginia Medical School, “The Norfolk Foundation scholarship
has been an overwhelmingly affirmative presence in
my life by loosening the manacles of student debt so
I can focus on job one—taking care of the patient.”
LEAVE A LEGACY® wishes to thank
The Norfolk Foundation for
sharing this story. |
