Clyde and Carole Leeds’ Gift to Support the Legacy Society Scholarship Fund

“Every gift comes with a story, I suppose,” Pastor Leeds told me. The story of Clyde and Carole Leeds’ gift begins in 1968 when Clyde left a full scholarship at a public university in his home state of Florida to come to Southern Missionary College to pursue a Christian education. Clyde had long desired to serve God as a minister, but business losses made it impossible for Clyde’s parents to pay for a Christian education—so Clyde (and Carole) relied on grants, loans, and their earnings to pay tuition costs.

Clyde worked in the cafeteria, eventually becoming an assistant chef at $1.55 an hour on the work study program. While working in the cafeteria, Clyde became acquainted with a lovely Christian farm girl from Georgia, Carole Perry. Carole had recently become a Seventh-day Adventist and had also come to Southern for a Christian education in home economics.

During Clyde’s senior year, Clyde and Carole were married. They spent 31 years serving the Lord together in pastoral ministry in the Kentucky-Tennessee and Georgia-Cumberland Conferences. After their two sons began school, Carole returned to school to complete her degree in elementary education. In addition to pastoral ministry, the couple has worked as educators in both the public and Christian schools.

In their estate plan, Clyde and Carole included a bequest to Southern to benefit worthy student scholarship. They owned a small parcel of real estate in Florida and planned for the proceeds of that sale to provide for others to receive a Christian education. Recently, they decided to sell the property and donate the proceeds to the Legacy Society Scholarship Fund here at Southern.

Clyde said, “We both want to take this opportunity to thank Southern Adventist University for the loans and grants we received that made it possible to receive this Christian education we value so much. Not only for us, but also our two sons who graduated from Southern.”