MHU Legacies
Four Faithful Friends of MHU Pass from the Scene Ferguson, Helvey, Nash, Pittman. For anyone associated with Mars Hill University, their names may sound familiar. Whether you knew them in life or not, they have impacted you and the institution you call home.
Dr. Jack Ferguson by Teresa Buckner, Director of Publications
Some people have the goal to make a million dollars in their lives. Jack Ferguson’s goal was to give away a million dollars. By the time he passed away in May of this year, he had done that many times over.
nature, even in the leaner years of their lives together. From buying things he didn’t need to help out the seller, to making numerous small loans to friends, Jack Ferguson made helping out people in times of need a way of life.
“He was always very much a gentleman,” Carolyn Mars Hill University was one of the primary said. “He was a very outgoing person; never met recipients of the generosity of Jack Ferguson and a stranger. Since he worked in his wife Carolyn. Faculty, staff, sales all his life, he had to be students, and alumni of MHU that way. And he wanted to help experience that generosity any people whenever he could.” time they attend class, have a meeting, or go to a homecoming Jack Ferguson was born in event at Ferguson Math and Clyde, N.C., and lived much Science Center or Ferguson of his childhood during the Health Sciences Center. Less Great Depression. According to visible is the nursing scholarship Carolyn, he always remembered the Fergusons established at the insecurity of having to save MHU, or their contributions to up ration stamps to buy the upgrades to the Ammons Field basic necessities of life. Those House, or to Henderson Field, memories made him want to Jack and Carolyn Ferguson or the time and leadership contribute to a better life for his they have donated, she as a children, his grandchildren, and trustee (multiple terms) and he as a member of the his community. Foundation Board and the university’s Investment After his service in the Korean War, Jack attended committee. Blanton’s Business School (now South College), and
For their many contributions to MHU and to the region, in 2004, MHU named the Fergusons Philanthropists of the Year and in 2006, the university awarded them with doctorates of humane letters. They were also awarded with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by the state of N.C. in 2002. According to Carolyn Ferguson, generosity and kindness were always part of Jack Ferguson’s 16 Mars Hill, the Magazine | Fall 2020
he went to work for Lowe’s Home Improvement. He and Carolyn married, and raised cattle, tobacco, and sometimes produce, as well as four children: two boys and two girls.
He became a manager at Lowes, and over time, he managed various stores in western North Carolina. Through an employee payroll deduction program, the Fergusons began buying stock in the growing company, a little at a time.
