Music Teacher Leaves Farm Assets to Hendrix
CONWAY, Ark. (Sept. 27, 2006)
Hendrix College has received a $738,000 gift from a charitable trust established by the late Sarah Moore Robinson of Jonesboro, Ark., a 1943 graduate and former professor of music at Hendrix.
Miss Robinson, who died in 1998, grew up in Bay, Ark., on her family's farm near Jonesboro. The assets for the trust came from the sale of the farm, one of Arkansas's oldest continuous farming operations held by one family.
Miss Robinson established the trust while she was still living to benefit her younger brother, Tom, during his lifetime and Hendrix at his death. Tom, who died in August 2006, was a 1950 graduate of Hendrix. Both sister and brother were long-time friends of the college.
Miss Robinson's parents, the late Charles Edwin and Mae Moore Robinson, were among pioneering families to Craighead and Cleburne Counties who were cotton planters and ginners.
Hendrix President J. Timothy Cloyd said the gift will help the college in its mission to become one of the nation's leading experiential learning liberal arts institutions.
"We are truly blessed that there are people like Sarah who enable Hendrix to provide the kind of education that prepares students to think critically and creatively in a global society," Cloyd said. "The impact that our graduates will make as musicians and doctors and ministers and public servants throughout the world will truly be a legacy to Sarah, her love of education and the arts, and to the Robinson family and their heritage."
As a student at Hendrix. Miss Robinson was active in the Hendrix Choir, the Chamber Chorale and the Hendrix Band. Following graduation, she received a master's degree in 1944 in music from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Her teaching career began at Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga., where she taught piano for four years before returning to Hendrix to teach piano and theory from 1948 to 1959. She left Hendrix to become associate professor of music at Florida State University in Tallahassee where she taught piano until retiring in 1982.
Miss Robinson moved back to Jonesboro in 1986 where she was active in the Nocturne Music Club, the 20th Century Study Club and a book club. She also served on the Hendrix Alumni Association Board of Governors.
Hendrix, founded in 1876, is a selective, residential, undergraduate liberal arts college that emphasizes experiential learning in a demanding yet supportive environment. The college has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.
