Fred Earl Brink Scholarship Endowment

Fred Earl Brink got to know most every kid who grew up in Smithfield between 1946 and 1976 while working at the movie theaters his wife’s family operated in small towns across Eastern North Carolina.
“He didn’t really have a connection to (Johnston Community College) except for the kids who went there,” said Louise Brigman of Wilmington, Brink’s daughter.
Those young people are probably why her mother created the Fred Earl Brink Scholarship Endowment in his memory after her father died, she said.
Carolyn Howell Brink met her future husband at a dance at held at a log cabin still standing near U.S. 70 in Smithfield while Brink was a young soldier stationed at Fort Bragg. They married before he deployed in World War II.
Although he was born in Nebraska and grew up in Texas, he returned to Smithfield after the war and worked at the Howell Theaters. “Mother said he was a jolly good fellow who always had a smile and loved a joke,” Mrs. Brigman said.

Pictured (left to right): Lisa Sullivan (JCC Foundation Board Member) and scholarship recipient.