School of Social Work receives $1 million to establish professorship, innovations fund
With a $1 million gift to the School of Social Work, Carolina alumnus Sam Reeves ’56 and his wife Betsy are honoring two people who have devoted their careers to improving the lives of others.
The gift will establish the Sandra Reeves Spears and John B. Turner Distinguished Professorship at the School of Social Work, enabling the school to attract a leading scholar who will teach students methods of working with families, engaging with community agencies and promoting best practice models.
The professorship is named for the Reeves’ daughter, Sandra Reeves Spears, and School of Social Work Dean Emeritus John B. Turner.
Spears owns and operates The Puffin School in Houston, Texas, a state-licensed program for children three to six years old, and is active in community service involving children, families and environmental causes. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Wellesley College, Beijing Normal College and the University of Toulouse in France. She and her husband Clay have two children, Caroline and Stephen.
Turner, a namesake of the Tate-Turner-Kuralt School of Social Work building, retired in 1992 after a 40-year career in social work filled with national and international honors and accomplishments. He has devoted his life to social activism and social work education.
Sam Reeves is a native of Thomaston, Ga., and is chairman and CEO of Pinnacle Trading, LLC, a commodity contract-brokering firm in Fresno, Calif.
“I am delighted to support the School of Social Work,” Sam Reeves said. “At its core, the school is about valuing people—especially the disheartened and the burdened. And in the process, encouraging choices which will build, transform and embolden people towards a more liberated life. Every person deserves as much.”
A portion of the Reeves’ gift, $667,000, is eligible to be combined with $333,000 from the state’s Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund to create a $1 million endowment.
The remaining $333,000 of the Reeves’ gift will be combined with a gift from Janie and Billy Armfield of Richmond, Va., to establish the Armfield-Reeves Innovations Fund, which will support novel projects that promote successful development and positive social functioning for children, adults and families across the life cycle. The fund will also support pilot-scale projects and allow the school to leverage federal and private resources to further advance research and service to North Carolina communities and society at large.
The Reeves’ gift is one of the largest donations the School of Social Work has ever received.
