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Slippery Rock Grad Leaves Largest Legacy Gift
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - Jeanne Powell Furrie, a 1945 Slippery Rock University physical education graduate and longtime university benefactor, has bequeathed $735,000 to the university to date as part of her estate. It is the largest legacy gift in the history of the university.
Furrie, of Monroeville, Pa., died April 14, 2013, at age 89.
The funds have been earmarked for the Jeanne P. Furrie Scholarship fund at SRU, which she created in 1999. The first scholarships will be presented at next year's SRU Alumni Association Spring Recognition and Awards Banquet. The gift total is expected to increase once all paperwork is completed.
"Slippery Rock lost a friend and champion when Jeanne Powell Furrie passed away," commented Cheryl Norton, SRU president. "While I did not have the opportunity to meet Jeanne, I know she was an accomplished alumna who taught physical education for 22 years in the Penn Hills School District and, early in her career, graciously convinced the superintendent to approve varsity teams for women."
Furrie was a lifelong member of the SRU Alumni Association and served on its board of directors. In 2001, she was inducted into the SRU Athletics Hall of Fame for field hockey, a club sport in her days at SRU. She was a member of the Ruby Lifetime Giving Club at SRU and had given generously to the Russell Wright Alumni House expansion project.
In 2007, Furrie received the alumni association's Past Presidents' Service Award, given annually by its board of directors to recognize a graduate who makes the greatest overall contribution to the association.
Before Furrie's gift, SRU's largest legacy gift was $485,000.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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