Winthrop Receives Million Dollar Planned Gift for Scholarships

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Winthrop University students from York County, and particularly Hickory Grove, S.C., will one day benefit from a $1.2 million gift from Thomas G. Slaughter of Charlotte, N.C.

Slaughter will contribute through a trust and will bequest to the Slaughter-Wilkerson Endowed Scholarship, to which he has already contributed $200,000. The scholarship is already being awarded, and Mr. Slaughter’s planned gifts will add to the existing scholarship. Slaughter endowed the scholarship in 2007 in memory and in honor of his mother, Sally Allison Slaughter and his sister, Sara Emily Slaughter, both Winthrop alumnae; and his cousin, Tommy W. Wilkerson and their hometown of Hickory Grove. During his career, Mr. Slaughter taught chemistry each school year and worked as a pharmacist each summer; in giving to Winthrop, he makes a gift in support of the many York County students who attend Winthrop and feels that his support can do the most good for talented students from York County.

The Slaughter-Wilkerson Endowed Scholarship will provide scholarships for students from York County with first consideration given to students from Slaughter’s hometown of Hickory Grove. Such scholarship support will allow talented students to pursue their educational goals in any of the fully accredited programs at Winthrop.

This is the second major planned gift announced by Winthrop University this month. The other gift, also in excess of $1 million, was a gift annuity from alumna Elizabeth Hope Reed for a scholarship program with a focus on community service.