5/15/2006
Contact: K.E. Schwab -- 724-738-2199;
e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu
GROVE CITY RESIDENT TURNS HORSE FARM INTO SRU
SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa.
– A 30-acre Grove City horse farm, known as “Sincerrey
Andalusians,” is being turned into scholarship funding to
help Slippery Rock University students and the gift honors family
members of the farm’s owner, Lois Hamilton.
Hamilton, a former
art professor in Grove City and owner of the Pottery Dome
operations in Mercer and Grove City, has turned over the property
to the Slippery Rock University Foundation, Inc., which has put the
farm up for sale. Proceeds will be used to create endowed
scholarships honoring her father and SRU graduate Rhesa Service
Byers, her mother, Lily Ray Byers, and her great-aunt, Rancie E.
Byers. Some of the funding will also expand the previously created
endowed scholarship honoring her late son, Charles B.
Hamilton.
The farm, including
a house, farm manager quarters, stalls for 14 horses, an outdoor
arena and other amenities, offers pastures and storage space for
nearly 1,000 hay bales. The realty firm handling the farm’s
sale expects it to generate nearly $325,000.
“This
is truly a remarkable gift to Slippery Rock University,” said
Dr. Robert Smith, university president. “We are grateful Ms.
Hamilton selected SRU for this honor, and our students are certain
to enjoy the benefits of three additional endowed scholarships as
they seek financial help in attending our university. We applaud
her generosity, and we thank Ms. Hamilton for selecting our
university to help keep the memory of her family members vibrant in
the regional community. Students are the true beneficiary of such
philanthropic gifts, and I am certain those who receive scholarship
help from these four endowed scholarships will remember the
kindness for the rest of their lives.”
The Charles B.
Hamilton Art Scholarship was created in 1997 to honor the late
Grove City resident and 1984 SRU graduate whose work was displayed
at the Cleveland Museum of Art and at the Meadville Council on the
Arts October Exhibition. The scholarship is open to SRU sophomore
and junior art majors studying painting as a way of remembering Mr.
Hamilton’s love of painting and his work at the family-owned
Pottery Dome.
In creating
the scholarships, Hamilton explained, “Part of the reason for
my gift is my mother and my great-aunt both wanted to attend
Slippery Rock to become teachers, but family circumstances
prevented them from being able to follow through. My mother
attended, but dropped out to take care of her siblings, and my aunt
stayed at home to take care of my father as a child. My father did
get to come to Slippery Rock University on a scholarship and was
the first four-year letter winner in sports. I think he would be
proud to know others are reaping the same benefit in his
name.” Mr. Byers graduated in 1913 and after Army service in
World War I, went on to be an elementary school teacher and later a
principal at a three-year high school in Irwin Township. Hamilton
says she is proud to also provide the scholarships as ways of
remembering her loved ones.
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HamiltonFarm.kes.doc