WEST PLAINS, Mo.- A West Plains woman’s desire to honor her former husband and grandson while helping others better themselves and their community has led to the establishment of a new endowed scholarship at Missouri State University-West Plains.
Virginia Riley-Guilliams recently established the Cecil Riley and Greg Prevett Memorial Scholarship to honor her former husband of 42 years, Cecil, who died in November 1992, and her grandson, Greg, who was killed in a traffic accident just five months later.
“I thought they deserved to be recognized, but I also thought they would be happy to help someone better themselves so they could better their community,” Guilliams said during a recent phone interview. “That’s what we’re here for, to help others.”
Guilliams said she met Riley, a graduate of West Plains High School, after he returned from a three-year tour in the U.S. Army in the late 1940s. The two married and bought a farm off CC Highway near the community of Crider. They raised two daughters, Jean Ann and Phyllis, and a son, Mark, while operating a 600-acre farm full time.
“My husband was a very generous person,” Guilliams recalled. “When neighbors needed help, he would always go and help them. He always gave of himself.”
Riley served as a deacon at the Union Grove General Baptist Church and worked for the U.S. Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) for 25 years before retirement. “My husband touched a lot of people’s lives,” she added.
Riley had suffered from heart problems for several years, Guilliams said, but it didn’t make his loss due to a massive heart attack on Nov. 6, 1992, easier to bear. Guilliams said his death struck Greg very hard, but he was determined to complete high school and attend the University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri University of Science & Technology) with the hopes of becoming a geologist.
“Greg was a very good boy. He wanted to be a geologist. He was always collecting rocks as a child,” Guilliams said.
On April 15, 1993, Prevett, a junior at Willow Springs High School, had stayed after school for some additional study time and was heading home with a friend on Highway N outside of Pomona when his car hydroplaned on wet pavement and struck a milk truck. Both Prevett and his friend were killed in the accident.
“Greg was a talented boy,” his grandmother recalled. “He played the piano by ear, and was a very good artist. He was taking art classes at school. He also wrote poetry. Greg was a very sweet, loving and kind boy. I think he would have been very successful.”
Guilliams said she established the scholarship with the money she would have used to help Greg go to college. “I hope it will help someone else now, someone who will change their community for the better,” she said.
“To endure such loss and then turn it into something so positive speaks volumes about Mrs. Guilliams,” said Missouri State-West Plains Director of Development Elizabeth Grisham. “Her generous spirit and genuine desire to help others is inspiring and infectious. The university is extremely grateful for this new endowed scholarship, and we are touched she has chosen to remember her loved ones with a gift to our institution.”
For more information about financial aid opportunities available to students at Missouri State-West Plains, call the Office of Financial Aid at 417-255-7243, or visit the office’s Web site at http://www.wp.missouristate.edu/FinAid/.
To find out how you can establish a scholarship at Missouri State-West Plains, contact the Office of Development at 417-255-7240.
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