Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Lincoln
Alumnus Bequeaths Estate Valued at nearly $1.2 Million
to University
Funds to Endow Student Scholarship and Renovate Classrooms
and Dormitories
James F. Collington Served with Famed Red Ball Express
During WWII
James F. Collington
Lincoln
University, PA (www.lincoln.edu)—In an unprecedented
show of support for his alma mater, James F. Collington
’47 has left nearly his entire estate, valued at
$1,196,923.83, to Lincoln University.
The
estate Collington bequeathed to Lincoln includes insurance,
securities, a vast record and book collection as well
as a condominium valued at $66,000. Mr. Collington, who
attended the University on an academic scholarship and
graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree
in psychology, was a member of the football team and the
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. Before finishing at Lincoln,
Collington served as a technical sergeant in the U.S.
Army’s famed Red Ball Express under the command of
General Patton during World War II.
It
was Mr. Collington’s wish that his estate be distributed
to address the following University initiatives:
• $500,000 to endow a scholarship fund for the benefit
of single-family students.
• $100,000 endowment to catalog and maintain his
extensive music and book collection.
• $596,923.83 to assist the University in upgrading
classrooms, dormitories, and finance the current project
to renovate the Mary Dod Brown Memorial Chapel.
"We
truly appreciate Mr. Collington’s support as a son
of Lincoln University," said Lincoln President Ivory
V. Nelson, Ph.D., who later added that Mr. Collington's
"magnificent contribution shows the depth of love
and loyalty" that Lincoln alumni have for their alma.
After graduating from the University in 1947, Collington
had a long and distinguished career as an administrator
with the U.S. Treasury Department.
Founded in 1854 as America's first Historically Black
University, Lincoln University provides the best elements
of a liberal arts and sciences-based undergraduate core
curriculum and selected graduate programs to meet the
needs of students living in a highly technological and
global society. The University is nationally recognized
as a major producer of African Americans with undergraduate
degrees in the physical sciences (biology, chemistry and
physics); computer and information sciences; and biological
and life sciences.
Lincoln
has the unprecedented distinction among all colleges and
universities of having two of its alumni honored with
U.S. commemorative stamps. Earlier this year, the U.S.
Postal Service honored Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American
Supreme Court Justice, and a 1930 Lincoln University graduate,
by making him the 26th honoree in Black Heritage Commemorative
Series. In February 2002, the U.S. Postal Service also
issued a Commemorative, first-class stamp for 1929 Lincoln
alumnus Langston Hughes, a world-acclaimed poet.
Lincoln
recently kicked off its yearlong celebration of its sesquicentennial
with a campus ceremony and Honors Convocation. The celebration
of Lincoln’s 150th anniversary will continue through
May 2004 with an array of campus and external events,
activities, and announcements.
