Dr. C. Nelson and Wilma Grote Endowment receives estate gift

The Morehead State University Foundation has announced an estate gift from the late MSU President Emeritus Dr. C. Nelson Grote and the late former First Lady Wilma Grote to support the Dr. C. Nelson and Wilma Grote Scholarship Endowment, a fund to benefit MSU students.   

The endowment was established in 1991 to fund scholarships for students from Kentucky community or junior colleges who transfer to MSU. Qualifications for scholarship recipients include completing at least 60 credit hours and having a cumulative GPA of at least 2.5 on a 4.0 scale. The scholarship is renewable if students earn a 2.75 GPA for the first 30 credit hours earned at MSU and a 3.0 GPA on the remaining credit hours leading to graduation from MSU.  

"It was their wish that the love they had for the University, the faculty and the students be shared with deserving individuals to further their education,” said Carol Grote Vencill, daughter of Dr. And Mrs. Grote.   

President Emeritus Dr. C. Nelson Grote passed away in January 2019 and was preceded in death by his wife and former First Lady Wilma Grote in August 2018. Grote was the 11th president of Morehead State University and retired from the University in 1992 after five years of service as its chief executive officer. He assumed the presidency on July 1, 1987, returning to a campus where he began his career in higher education administration nearly three decades earlier. Of his 42 years in education, he served the Commonwealth of Kentucky for 18 years, with 16 of those years spent at MSU.  

Wilma Grote was a teacher of gifted elementary school children, high school social studies, college English and was an English as a Second Language (ESL) tutor. She met her future husband, C. Nelson Grote, as a freshman at Eastern Illinois State Teachers College in 1945. They were married in 1949 and enjoyed 69 years of marriage. When Dr. Grote became president of MSU, Wilma was his steadfast partner in many University activities.     

For more information about this endowment or planned gift options, contact MSU’s Office of Alumni Relations and Development at 606-783-2033, email giving@moreheadstate.edu, or visit alumni.moreheadstate.edu/give to make a contribution.