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College Recognizes Jessie Ball duPont
Washington College has named the Academic Resources Center in Goldstein Hall in honor of the late Jessie Ball duPont. Consisting of the math center, the writing center and the study skills office, the Jessie Ball duPont Academic Resources Center recognizes Mrs. duPont's philanthropic spirit and support of the College through the generosity of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund.
Since 1983, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund has awarded 18 grants totaling $1.8 million to Washington College for a variety of purposes. Among the key initiatives supported by the Fund are the environmental studies program and the new Center for the Environment and Society, internships with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, scholarships for non-traditional students and the development of a behavioral neuroscience concentration. Additionally, the Fund supports a joint program with Western Maryland and Goucher colleges that brings visiting African American scholars to campus. Other grants from the Fund have included support for student/faculty collaborative research in the sciences and planning for the Campaign for Washington's College. A plaque recognizing Mrs. duPont will be on display in Goldstein Hall.
"In so many instances, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund has been a pioneering partner as we have developed new programs at Washington College," said College President John S. Toll. "Mrs. duPont's vision, as carried out by the trustees of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, has enabled the College to move in bold new directions to enrich our academic program. We are honored that the Fund President, Sherry Magill, agreed that the College should recognize Mrs. duPont's great contributions with the naming of the Academic Resources Center in Goldstein Hall."
Jessie Dew Ball was born in 1884 into a genteel Virginia family impoverished by the Civil War. Educated in a one-room country school and later at what is now Long-wood College in Farmville, VA, she helped her father in his law practice and taught school in her home county until 1908, when she moved to San Diego, CA. There she became assistant principal in the largest elementary school in the city.
In 1921, she married Alfred I. duPont, whom she had met as a teenager when he came to Virginia on hunting expeditions at the turn of the century.
From the time of her marriage, Mrs. duPont focused her life on charitable and philanthropic work. For four decades she funded hundreds of scholarships for college students, mostly in the southeastern states. Her gifts to colleges and universities augmented faculty salaries and built libraries.
When she died in 1970, her will established the Jessie Ball duPont Religious, Charitable and Educational Fund to continue her philanthropic work. The principles and interests that she pursued during her life still guide the Fund today.
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