PELHAM — A former Pelham resident who died in Florida last year has left $575,000 to the Friends of the Pelham Library, stunning its members.
Virginia Davis, who taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, served as chairwoman of the town’s zoning board of appeals and was active with the Pelham Historical Society, left the money to the Friends group through her estate.
“It certainly floored us,” said Emily Marriott, president of the Friends, of the gift it received in February. Town residents were recently informed about the gift through a letter Marriott sent to the community.
“We had gotten notification that we were beneficiaries last year, but no idea of the amount,” Marriott said. “We were not at all expecting that.”
Marriott said she did not know Davis, but describes her in the letter as “an energetic and civic-minded resident of Pelham for many years.”
According to a memorial notice posted on Skidmore College’s website, Davis was a 1943 graduate of the school in Saratoga Springs, New York, who was living in Orange City, Florida at the time of her death in June 2017. After graduation, she served as professor of home economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with an expertise in clothing, and as director of a statewide program in textiles and clothing for the Cooperative Extension at UMass.
Daniel Fitzgibbons, a university spokesman, said records show Davis began her tenure at UMass in September 1952, becoming an associate professor in 1963. In January 1974, she was appointed acting head of the Division of Home Economics in the College of Food and Natural Resources. She left university service in January 1979.
The brief obituary provided by Skidmore noted that her only survivor is the executrix of her estate, Debbie Hogan, of Deland, Florida.
Hogan, a financial adviser at Financial Advocates of Central Florida, said she did not know Davis well, but understands that she appreciated libraries.
“She loved the (Pelham) library, and even worked at the library down here at her retirement place,” Hogan said.
Calls to several longtime residents in Pelham yielded little information about Davis’ life. Mary Stuart Booth said she remembered Davis visiting her mother, Alberta Booth, shortly before she died in 2011.
Davis had previously given back to the town she called home for many years. In 2010, Davis left the Pelham Historical Society a Pelham pie plate, a plate depicting the Pelham House, a book of snapshots of the town, and a “Treasures of Pelham” booklet. She also left three larger pictures, including a painting of the former United Church of Christ in Pelham by Stephen Hamilton, a well-known watercolor artist who served as director of the Amherst Boys and Girls Club from 1945 to 1982.
With the money in hand, Marriott said the Friends group is working with the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts to protect this new financial asset.
“We’re a very small organization. We’re not managing funds in in any sophisticated way,” Marriott said. “We were not prepared for this kind of donation.”
Marriott said the Friends of the Pelham Library typically spends between $5,000 and $10,000 annually in enhancing the library’s services, such as providing museum passes to library patrons, purchasing newspaper subscriptions, supporting the Pelham Players theater group and helping the children’s book fund, and making purchases, such as assisting the Aldrich Society in acquiring a telescope. Most of this is done through fundraisers and annual membership dues.
“All of our plans for this year we can cover with our current funds. We’re not planning any kind of huge outlay,” Marriott said.
Marriott said she isn’t sure how the large amount of money will be used, whether for ongoing support or one-time expenses. The current library opened in 2000 as part of the $2.2 million Pelham Community Center.
“We will definitely expand our support of the library,” Marriott said.
The gift is similar in scope to one the Friends of the Jones Library received in 2010 from Nathalie and Richard Woodbury of Shutesbury, who gave well over $500,000 to the Amherst library. A portion of that money was used to renovate a community meeting room at the Jones Library, with some of the money used annually to fund requests made by library staff.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.