Deborah Wehrman believes in giving back to her roots. Her strong attachment to her hometown of West Plains, Mo., and her family’s history with Missouri State University-West Plains prompted her to recently establish the Deborah and David Wehrman Leadership Scholarship, which will be awarded for the first time in fall 2012 to an incoming freshman on the Missouri State University-West Plains campus.
Deborah’s grandparents, Ruth and Howard Kellett, donated their home at 905 W. Main St. to then Southwest Missouri State University in 1972. The structure became the first home for the infant West Plains campus, which was still meeting in the evenings at the local high school. The stately home originally housed all administrative offices, classrooms and even the student recreation center. Today, 100-year-old Kellett Hall is home to the university’s development office, the chancellor and his staff, and the honors program. Debbie has fond memories of visiting her grandparents in their home and remembers helping her “Mimi” make Christmas decorations for the hospital bazaar in the home’s dining room, now the office for Development Administrative Assistant Deb Mosley. Debbie’s mother, Jeanette Kellett Grisham, is a director emeritus on the university’s development board, and her niece, Mary-Louise Grisham, is a graduate student at Missouri State in Springfield.
Although Debbie now lives in north-central Missouri, she says she likes to support projects in her home town, because her resources “should go back to where they came from.” She also has supported other local charitable efforts, including construction of the West Plains Public Library and the Ozarks Medical Center Emergency Department.
An alum of William Woods University in Fulton, Debbie earned her education degree there in 1973, then later her master’s degree in education at Webster University in St. Louis. She served for 20 years on the William Woods Alumni Board and established a named scholarship on that campus as well. After a career in education and banking, she and her husband, David, settled in his hometown of Centralia where she is senior branch office administrator of the Edward Jones office and he is employed by Economy Metals. They both enjoy farming, traveling, building their home and visiting their 15 nieces and nephews around the country.
The Wehrman Leadership Scholarship is the first institutionally funded leadership scholarship on the West Plains campus to be converted to private funding. The university has historically funded a leadership scholarship for a student at each of the 23 high schools in its service area. Valued at $1,100 per year, the Wehrman scholarship will be awarded to a West Plains High School student intending on furthering his education at Missouri State University-West Plains. In these challenging budget times, this private gift not only provides continuous financial aid for students, but positively affects the university’s operating budget as well. “Everyone should applaud the Wehrmans for their interest in Missouri State University-West Plains and their support of our campus, Missouri State University-West Plains Chancellor Drew Bennett said. “I especially appreciate their willingness to take the lead in replacing an institutional scholarship with a private one. The Wehrmans are a family who believe in higher education and help make our institution strong.”
“The only way to economically elevate an area is through higher education,” Debbie said. “I hope David and I play some small part in helping make this happen.”
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