Gifts In Memoriam
In memory of UNC Charlotte family members who have passed away in recent years, three gifts have been made to scholarship and program funds in The William States Lee College of Engineering.
Jeff Morgan, BSME, ‘06, passed away in December 2018. After graduating from UNC Charlotte, Jeff was employed by several government contractors in the Washington, D.C. area, including Fort Belvoir Night Vision Optics and the Washington Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Dulles Metro). The Jeffrey P. Morgan Memorial Gold Rush Scholarship has been established in Jeff’s honor. Funds from the $50,000 scholarship grant will be available to engineering upperclassmen to help them through the final stages of their education.
UNC Charlotte made a posthumous award of a Degree in Memoriam in Electrical Engineering to Joel David Laws in May 2019. Joel passed away in November, 2018. In honor of the memory of their son, Sandra and James Laws have established a Gold Rush Grant Endowment. Funds from the $25,000 endowment will provide one-time, micro-grants to selected seniors with a GPA of 2.0 or higher, of good academic standing, who meet FAFSA low-income criteria. In exchange for the grant, students will complete two futurebuilding activities designed to help them complete their degrees or help them prepare for their future.
Andrew Stephen Denbow, aka “Thundercat,” died in a tragic dirt-bike accident on February 3, 2018, at the age of 23, just three months shy of graduation. He was a treasured member of the Lee College of Engineering, and was looking forward to earning his BS in Mechanical Engineering degree with a concentration in Motorsports. In Andrew’s memory, Marie and Gary Roberson have established a $25,000 endowment to support the UNC Charlotte Motorsports programs that meant so much to Andrew. The donors’ sincere wish is that Andrew will be remembered fondly by future motorsports engineers, and that the name “Andrew ‘Thundercat’ Denbow” will live on as part of UNC Charlotte motorsport design competitions.
People wanting to make additional contributions to the “Andrew ‘Thundercat’ Denbow Motorsports Fund can go to this web page, then:
- Scroll down on the “Area of Interest” page to the search box and type “other,”
- “Search Results” will pop up, select the “other” box, select “credit card” on right,
- On “Gift Amount and Designations” enter “Andrew “Thundercat” Denbow Motorsports Fund”,
- Fill out donor and contact information boxes,
- Scroll down and select “Additional Gift Instructions” by clicking on the “+”
- Enter name of scholarship “Andrew “Thundercat” Denbow Motorsports Fund”, then ”save and continue”,
- Proceed through the rest of the donation process as prompted.
If you have questions about contributing to or establishing in-memoraim grants, please contact Tom Turpin, Director of Development for The William States Lee College of Engineering at 704-687-1145 or email at tom.turpin@uncc.edu.