The Maury Foundation Donates $500,000 for Scholarships

In 1986 Norfolk attorney Robert C. Nusbaum of Williams Mullen (class of 1941) was among the Maury High School Commodores who founded The Maury Foundation. Joining forces with alumni like the late Mayor Vincent Thomas (class of 1939), Bob and friends raised enough donations to start what is believed to be one of the first foundations in the United States designed to benefit a single public school. "It was a rarity, and we didn't have any models to follow," Bob recalls.

	Maury High School opened in 1911

Over the decades The Maury Foundation provided about $150,000 in one-year scholarships for 115 Maury graduates and awarded $50,000 in grants for school needs. Through its new partnership with the Hampton Roads Community Foundation it will do even more, and it will be doing good forever.

In March the Maury Foundation board donated $500,000 to the community foundation to create two Maury Foundation Scholarship funds, including one named for the late Oscar Ferebee (class of 1936). Both endowed funds will provide scholarships for Maury graduates at four-year colleges or universities.

The Maury Foundation will continue to operate as a nonprofit, have events and raise funds. But its scholarship funds will be invested and administered by the community foundation.

"This makes sense," says Maury Foundation board President Ryan King of TowneBank (class of 2004). Ryan is pleased to be part of the community foundation and be able to "do more than one-year scholarships."

Starting next year, the community foundation will award Maury Foundation scholarships and give each recipient the opportunity to renew them for four years. As an all-volunteer organization, The Maury Foundation "was not geared to monitor student scholarships over four years," Ryan says.

Board member Peggy Beale of Paxton Company (class of 1973) likes knowing the community foundation will help ensure "The Maury Foundation will perpetually be helping Maury students."

Bob Nusbaum calls the new partnership "exciting. The school foundation has already grown to a magnitude beyond my imagination."

Interested in supporting Maury Foundation scholarships? Click here to donate to one of the new Maury Foundation funds at the community foundation.