Why I Give: Tom and Betty Wimbrow

 

Cousins Tom Wimbrow and Nutter Jerome “N.J.” Wimbrow III had gone to school together since second grade, eventually attending Maryland State Teachers College, now Salisbury University. Tom describes his cousin as a “brain in math” with dreams of being a math teacher.

 

“We called him Nutt,” Tom remembers. “He’d be out meeting girls on campus and his friends would come up to him and say, ‘Hey, Nutt!’”

 

After graduating in 1961, N.J. decided to go into the United States Air Force instead and became a warfare officer. His plane was shot down during the 1972 bombings in Vietnam.

 

When the traveling Vietnam War Memorial came to Salisbury, one of N.J.’s classmates, Dr. Jerry Wilson, saw his name on the wall. In an emotional moment, he was inspired to do something to memorialize him. It was then that he posed the idea of a scholarship to Tom.

 

At their class reunion, Tom and his wife Betty approached the classes of 1957 and 1961 and asked for help establishing the Nutter Wimbrow Veterans Scholarship for veterans or children of veterans who were killed or wounded in war.

 

With pledges, Tom and Betty reached their five-year goal of $25,000 in just two years.

 

It was a way to honor his cousin, but also a way for Tom to give back to SU.

 

“It was something I wanted to do to remember my time at Salisbury,” Tom said. “The four years I spent there were the best of my life. For one thing, I met my wife of 58 years there. The best decision I ever made was going to Salisbury. I made a career. I made a life.”

 

Tom said the SU he knew was a different world. A structured teachers college, tuition was waived for students who pledged to teach for at least two years in Maryland.

 

“Most of us couldn’t have afforded an education otherwise,” Tom said. “My generation grew up in a nation coming out of the Great Depression, so we were tickled to death to have all of that behind us and have an education where we could get a job and raise a family.”

 

Things have changed a lot since Tom attended the school in the 1950s. For one, he says the campus has grown so much, he doesn’t know where to park anymore.

 

But some things haven’t changed. Last year, Tom had the chance to meet one of the recipients of the Nutter Wimbrow Math Scholarship, made possible by a one-time gift.

 

“She was a delightful person,” Tom said. “I’m impressed that SU has been able to grow and get big and diverse but still have a lot of good Eastern Shore values. I hope we never lose that.”

 

At an upcoming class reunion, Tom and Betty plan to share their progress and give another opportunity to contribute.

 

“We have nothing but fond memories of Salisbury,” Tom said. “It gave both of us an opportunity we wouldn’t have otherwise had. It was an opportunity for people of integrity to make something of themselves—and it worked.

 

“I hope SU never loses sight of the true purpose of what that institution was, to give young people an opportunity to become educated and successful in life.”