ISSUED: 7 May 2014
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Six new members were welcomed into the Joseph P. McMurran Society at its annual reception, hosted by President Suzanne Shipley and sponsored by the Shepherd University Foundation, April 26 in Erma Ora Byrd Hall.
The event honors those who provide for the future of the university through estate and other planned gifts.
Foundation president Michael A. Smith recognized new members William T. Simmons, Jane Cook, Jeffrey Purnell, Beverly Schwartz Purnell, Larry Strite, and Nancy Strite and presented them with framed medallion nameplates.
Shepherd music major Andrew Seaman sang “Avant de quitter” from Charles Gounod’s opera “Faust” and “Youth and Love” from Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Songs of Travel.” He was accompanied by Nathan Arch, also a music major, on piano. Scott Anderson, assistant director of dining services, and Catering Services prepared a four-course dinner.
McMurran was the first principal of Shepherd and set standards of academic excellence that required him to make personal financial sacrifices to keep open the college. Through this dedication he began a tradition of philanthropy which the society members carry on today.
For more information about establishing a planned gift through the Foundation, contact Monica Lingenfelter, Shepherd University Foundation, P.O. Box 5000, Shepherdstown, WV, 25443-5000, 304-876-5397, mlingenf@shepherd.edu or go to www.shepherd.edu/fndtnweb/.
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