Burton W. and Rose Gordon Sugg Scholarship Endowment

The Burton W. and Rose Gordon Sugg Scholarship Endowment carries the name of a couple who raised eight children in Smithfield and strongly supported education and reading.

Jefferson L. Sugg, who created the endowment, wanted to help students with financial need. He was able to go to college thanks to the G.I. Bill, but his daughter remembers that her grandparents were “always just above poverty level.”

Amy Allen, one of Jefferson Sugg’s daughters, remembers her grandfather as a master plumber, and her grandmother had a fulltime job managing the eight children.

“There was always reading material in the house and the family members were all voracious readers,” Ms. Allen said.

Her late father, Jefferson, became a builder and created both residential and commercial developments in Cary over 50 years. He made arrangements prior to his death to have his 150-acre farm became a designated land conservancy. It is now a park in Holly Springs.

Amy Allen remembers her father as a man who was full of fun and described pranks he and his friends played over the years. People who left comments on his online obituary echoed her descriptions, one remembering his “sparkling wit and unique sense of humor.”

Pictured: Jefferson Sugg (fund originator)