Our Donors Give With Their Hearts
The proverb, “It takes a Village” couldn’t be more accurate. As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, we share our gratitude with our community of donors who have contributed so much to Road Scholar over the past five decades. Here, we spotlight several of our generous supporters: Mabel Clark, K Harland, Rachel Ledbetter and Gretchen and Jerry Davis. With heartfelt appreciation, we honor these trailblazers who have made a lasting impact on our Road Scholar community.
These early champions paved the way for future generations of Road Scholars with their visionary contributions. We celebrate these donors who share our belief that learning is the journey of a lifetime.
In Memoriam: Mabel Clark
An extraordinary woman, Mabel served in the Navy during World War II and as a program officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Southeast Asia, East Africa and Washington. During her 11 years of marriage, she, and her husband, T.C., participated in 90 Elderhostel programs (as it was known then). She continued to enjoy more learning adventures after her husband passed away, bringing her total number of programs to 150!
A generous friend who believed in Elderhostel’s mission, Mabel made her first major gift in 1998 and continued to make gifts over the years as a member of the Legacy Society and the Founder’s Circle in 2007.
In Memoriam: K Harland
For Kathleen Harland, “K” as she was known to her friends — traveling the globe was her lifeblood. K experienced her first taste of travel in 1940, when she began her 40-year career in the oil industry with Caltex Petroleum (now Chevron). Traveling for work and visiting family worldwide, she was in her element. Following her retirement, K discovered Road Scholar — a new kind of family — in 1995. As she explored with Road Scholar, she expanded her passion for classical music in Germany, deepened her appreciation for food and wine in Italy and followed her love for wildlife on safaris in Africa.
As a longtime generous supporter of the Annual Fund, K furthered her commitment to Road Scholar with a contribution to the organization’s Capital Campaign in 2001. Her appreciation for Road Scholar’s educational travel experiences for solo travelers, especially during the holiday season, prompted her to make Road Scholar a beneficiary of her trust in 2003. Always an adventurer, K passed away in 2017, a few weeks after returning from Europe at the age of 97.
Rachel Jewett Ledbetter
Rachel Jewett Ledbetter attended her first Elderhostel program at a nearby college not long after her husband of 35 years passed away. Thoroughly enjoying her experience, Rachel went on to attend more learning adventures in Alaska, Quebec and Bermuda, as well as Elderhostel’s 30th-anniversary program in New Orleans in 2005.
In 1998, Rachel established a trust for the benefit of Road Scholar. In 2003, she initiated the Franklin Nelson and Harriet Lyon Jewett Scholarship Fund in honor of her grandparents’ contributions to education. Her grandfather worked as a professor, and her grandmother was one of 10 young women in the first class of female students admitted for full credit at West Virginia University in 1889. So inspired by the knowledge that her mother would have loved Road Scholar, Rachel endowed the Lydia C. Dunlap Scholarship Fund in her mother’s memory in 2007.
Gretchen and Jerry Davis
With 91 Road Scholar programs behind them, second-generation participants Gretchen and Jerry Davis have traveled the globe. From the Greek Islands to Paris, Portugal to Dublin, the Davises have covered a lot of ground since 1999, when they first traveled to Costa Rica with Road Scholar. Over the years, they have been generous donors, supporting Road Scholar at the Leadership level and beyond.
In 2011, Jerry and Gretchen endowed the Norcross Scholarship Fund so others could experience the joys of Road Scholar’s life-changing adventures. The scholarship honors Jerry’s parents, who instilled a passion for lifelong learning in him. In 2018, Jerry and Gretchen established the DreemKumTru Caregiver Grant Fund, named after a small camp where their family gathered for over 50 years.
Learn more about how you can support Road Scholar for generations of adult learners to come.