SPSCC among the colleges that will benefit from late centenarian’s $10 million donation

South Puget Sound Community College is one of 17 community and technical colleges in Western Washington that will benefit from a nearly $10 million donation from a 101-year-old Seattle woman who died in 2018.

SPSCC will get about $550,000, the largest cash donation in the college’s history, from the Eva Gordon Estate.

“Ms. Gordon’s gift will create an immediate impact on students in Thurston County,” SPSCC President Timothy Stokes said in a news release. “Not only will it allow us to support more students, the gift will allow us to expand the work we’re already doing to help students with ongoing or unexpected expenses like housing, food, child care, utilities, and more.”

Gordon’s gift is one of the largest to community and technical colleges in Washington, according to a press release from Seattle Colleges Foundation.

Tacoma Community College, Clover Park Technical College and Grays Harbor College were among the other schools receiving donations.

Gordon grew up in Oregon and graduated high school at the top of her class. While she wished she’d continued her education, she didn’t have the financial capability, according to John Jacobs, her godson and estate representative.

Over the years, she worked as a legal secretary and for a Seattle investment firm and saved up her money. She married Ed Gordon, a stock broker, in 1964.

“A lot of people didn’t know the wealth she had,” Jacobs said in a press release. “She liked seeing students working, earning and doing things. Her goal was to provide an opportunity for those folks who could ill-afford it, whether vocational training or an academic skill.”

SPSCC renames gallery for trustee Fuller

Also this week, SPSCC announced the art gallery at the Minnaert Center for the Arts will be renamed in honor of retiring trustee Leonor R. Fuller, who is leaving after 17 years on the board.

The college will formally dedicate the Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at an event Jan. 24.