Macon – $10,000,000 and above
The Randolph-Macon System of colleges and preparatory schools was named for two pre-Civil War statesmen: John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia and Nathaniel Macon of Warrenton, North Carolina. It was not unusual in that era for colleges to be named for statesmen and famous persons.
Mr. Randolph and Mr. Macon were close friends but were never affiliated in any way with the schools. Until the latter years of the 19th Century, the name Randolph Macon was not hyphenated.
William Waugh Smith – $5,000,000 to $9,999,999
William Waugh Smith, R-MWC’s first president, envisioned a “college where our young women may obtain an education equal to that given in our best colleges for young men and under environments in harmony with the highest ideals of womanhood.”
While at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Smith petitioned his Board of Trustees for the admission of women to the college. After being denied several times, he led a movement to establish a college for women where they could receive an equivalent education. He was offered land in Lynchburg, Virginia for such a college, and in 1893, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College opened to its first students.
Vita Abundantior – $1,000,000 to $4,999,999
The College motto is translated as “the life more abundant.” It expresses a commitment to integrated living and learning as a foundation for meaningful lives characterized by a lifelong joy in learning.
Roberta D. Cornelius, author of The History of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, published in 1951, commented, “The conservation of the best elements in the heritage from the past and progress toward greater opportunity is the principle that the College has heretofore observed and that will likewise govern it in the future.”
Founder’s Society– $500,000 to $999,999
President’s Society – $100,000 to $499,999
