Qualified accounting majors at Pensacola State College are getting a financial boost from two longtime supporters of the school.
Milton and Dona Usry — he a retired professor from the University of West Florida, she a former member of the PSC Board of Trustees — are donating $100,000 to set up an endowed accounting scholarship in their names.
“We are honored to celebrate Dona and Milton’s investment in the best and the brightest at Pensacola State College; their gift is going to endow a scholarship that’s going to help so many students,” said Former Pensacola Mayor Mike Wiggins, a past president of the PSC Foundation Board of Governors and a close friend of the Usrys.
“These are the subject matters that are going to be supported by this particular scholarship,” Wiggins read from notes. “An Associate of Science and Accounting Technology; College Credit Certificate in Accounting. Accounting I and Accounting II, or Introduction to Managerial Accounting.”
The scholarship is available for full- and part-time students who carry at least a 2.5 grade point average and are a U.S. citizen or resident alien. The funds can cover tuition, books and other supplies, with preference given to students seeking a bachelor’s degree in accounting or a related field.
“The legacy that they are leaving in our community is certainly noteworthy beyond today; Dona has made friends with so many of us at the college, so it’s ‘family and friends’ day this morning at Pensacola State,” said PSC President Ed Meadows, who added that Milton and Dona Usry’s gift is the latest chapter in what the couple mean to the community.
“You know, we’re all family here as I look across the room,” Meadows said. “And for the past 11 years – 11 plus two months [of Meadows’ tenure at PSC] – we have come to know the Usrys and become close friends.”
Then it was time to hear from the Usrys.
“Thank each one of you for coming out this morning; I was so honored to serve as a trustee at Pensacola Junior College. It was one of the most rewarding things that I have ever done,” said Dona Usry.
“Having been committed to post-secondary education for most of my life, we are very happy to be able to help accounting students further their education here at Pensacola State.”
“Dona and I in November will have been married 68 years,” said Milton Usry. “All but two of those years in the military have been associated one way or the other with post-secondary education as students and faculty, and volunteers.”
In his remarks, Milton Usry spoke of their “very high regard” for PSC.
“Pensacola State is blessed with outstanding facilities, faculty, staff and administration,” he said. “And we should all be very thankful for that. The bottom line of all this is that we should appreciate what we have here.”
For Milton and Dona, their gift is personal. One son, Wayne, is a retired accountant; their other son — Mark — is a professor of business at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Later this year, the PSC Board of Trustees meeting room in Building-7 on campus will be named in honor of the Usry scholarship.