News and Information
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322

Release date: March 3, 1999
Contact: Elaine Justice, Assistant Director

EMORY'S CANDLER SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY RECEIVES LARGEST GIFT IN ITS HISTORY

Emory University's Candler School of Theology is one of four beneficiaries of a $166 million trust established by W.I.H. and Lula Pitts of Waverly Hall, Ga., whose generosity throughout their lives touched Emory and other Methodist institutions across the state. The bequest is the largest gift ever received by Candler, one of 13 seminaries of the United Methodist Church, and the third largest in Emory's history.

Income from the trust will be divided among Emory; Young Harris College in Young Harris, Ga.; the South Georgia Methodist Home for Children in Macon, Ga.; and a fund for retired pastors of the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. Candler will receive dividend income from 50 percent of the trust.

Candler will use income from the trust to establish scholarships named for Margaret Adger Pitts, daughter of W.I.H. and Lula Pitts, says Dean R. Kevin LaGree. Six scholarships will be available this fall, consisting of full tuition and a $3,000 stipend, and the school will add six scholarships per year for the next three years for a total of 18, he adds.

"Candler's primary development goal has been to increase scholarship support for students who too often carry too much debt with them from their theological education," says LaGree. "The generosity of the Pitts family will help Candler reduce student debt."

Margaret Pitts was 104 when she died last July at her home in Waverly Hall, where she had lived since 1901. She and her parents took particular interest in the theology library at Candler, which is named for the family.

With Miss Pitts' encouragement and support from the W.I.H. and Lula E. Pitts Foundation, Candler in 1975 was able to purchase the Hartford Seminary Foundation library, one of the largest and most valuable such collections ever sold.

"That generous act catalyzed growth in the quality of students at Candler and provided Emory's Graduate Division of Religion an essential research tool," says LaGree. Pitts Theology Library currently is the second largest theology library in North America, with some 490,000 volumes.

In addition to Candler and the three beneficiaries, many other United Methodist institutions in Georgia have benefited over the years from the Pitts family's generosity, including Andrew College in Cuthbert, Ga.; Reinhardt College in Waleska; Epworth By The Sea, a United Methodist retreat on St. Simons Island; Magnolia Manor in Americus; and Open Door Community House in Columbus, Ga.