[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 40 (Wednesday, April 1, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2038-H2039]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  COMMENDING DR. AND MRS. SHELTON H. SHORT, III, FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF 
               SCHOLARSHIP FUND AT RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goode) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOODE. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to commend Dr. and Mrs. 
Shelton H. Short, III, of Clarksville, Virginia, for establishing a 
$100,000 permanent scholarship fund at Randolph-Macon College in honor 
of Dr. Short's late father. The scholarship fund is designed to assist 
students from Boydton, Virginia, the first site of Randolph-Macon 
College, as well as students from surrounding communities.
  Dr. Short and his wife Jean are distinguished citizens and active 
participants in their community in Mecklenburg, Virginia. Their 
families contributed in significant ways to that community, the 
Commonwealth of Virginia, and the Nation over the course of at least 2 
centuries.
  Indeed, Dr. Short is a descendent of the late Congressman William O. 
Goode, who served in the body from 1841 to 1843 and from 1853 to 1859. 
Although I am not privileged to be a relative of the former 
congressman, he was a prominent Virginian who served as Speaker of the 
Virginia House of Delegates and wrote the original charter of Randolph-
Macon College.
  Shelton and Jean Short are to be applauded for their generosity and 
their commitment to the education of young men and women at Randolph-
Macon college, an institution of higher learning on which their family 
has had such a significant and tremendous impact.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the article from the May 21 
issue of the Mecklenburg Sun.
  The article referred to follows:

              Scholarship Emphasizes R-MC Ties to Boydton

       Boydton.--A Clarksville couple has honored the memory of 
     the late Shelton Hardaway Short, Jr. by establishing a 
     $100,000 permanent scholarship fund to Randolph-Macon College 
     in his honor.
       As benefactors of the scholarship, Shelton H. Short, III 
     and his Jean were center stage at a ceremony Wednesday night 
     in Boydton announcing the fund. They were joined by Dr. 
     Ladell Payne, president of Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, 
     local elected officials and about 100 onlookers at the 
     Mecklenburg County Courthouse.
       The scholarship is designed to reward deserving college 
     students from Boydton who will serve as ambassadors of the 
     college's roots in Boydton. If no eligible students apply 
     from the town, the scholarship will go to students in 
     Mecklenburg, Brunswick and other surrounding counties. The 
     gift is meant to underscore the historic ties between 
     Randolph-Macon, which was founded in Boydton, and Southside 
     Virginia.
       In remarks to the audience, Short noted that his father 
     ``would be pleased that the scholarship given in his name 
     would bring closer the links between Randolph-Macon as it was 
     in its founding home of Boydton in 1930, with Randolph-Macon 
     of today and tomorrow in Hanover County, Virginia.'' Short 
     also said his father would wish ``that the recipient of the 
     Boydton scholarship consider himself or herself as a goodwill 
     ambassador representing Boydton, Southside Virginia'' and 
     surrounding areas.
       According to Short, the criteria for winning the 
     scholarship will go beyond academic and extracurricular 
     achievements and address the character of potential 
     applicants. The newly-endowed award is need based and will go 
     to academically promising students in Boydton and surrounding 
     areas.
       Applicants ``should consider making straight A's in good 
     manners, a neat appearance and helpfulness to others as well 
     as classwork,'' said Short. ``To me straight A's in Greek or 
     geometry are meaningless without good manners and a sincere 
     desire to help others.''
       ``We would ask the town fathers and town mothers of our 
     area, and especially Boydton, to impress upon the winner the 
     necessity of being a goodwill ambassador for Boydton, 
     Randolph-Macon College's place of birth. What the student 
     does will reflect back upon Boydton--good or otherwise.''
       Short said Boydton students would be the first choice for 
     the scholarship, followed by students in the rest of 
     Mecklenburg County and Brunswick County. Other areas included 
     in the scholarship's territory are Granville, Halifax, Vance 
     and Warren Counties in North Carolina, and Charlotte, 
     Dinwiddie, Greensville, Halifax, Lunenburg and Nottoway 
     Counties in Virginia. Students from the North Carolina 
     counties of Mecklenburg and Brunswick will also be eligible, 
     Short said.
       Short described his father, Shelton Hardaway Short, III as 
     a ``modest gentleman'' who loved Randolph-Macon College. ``He 
     loved the original town of Randolph-Macon's birthplace--
     Boydton--as well as Randolph-Macon's present and future 
     locality, Ashland. Shelton H. Short, Jr. dedicated, designed 
     and donated the official flag for Randolph-Macon in 1968 and 
     used as a centerpiece for the College's ensign a photo of the 
     central structure of Randolph-Macon as it stood in Boydton in 
     the 1930s.''
       At age 16, Shelton H. Short, Jr. left home in Brunswick 
     County, Va. to enroll at Randolph-Macon in Ashland. His 
     education there was interrupted by World War I, and he 
     volunteered for the U.S. Army infantry as a teenager. After 
     being assigned to training school at Virginia Military 
     Institute, Short went to Plattsburg, N.Y. and was 
     commissioned as a second lieutenant. When the war ended, he 
     returned to R-MC and graduated as a member of the Class of 
     1919 with a bachelor's of art degree.
       After volunteering for the Army in World War I, Short 
     returned to the military at the age of 43 to serve his 
     country during World War II. He became a major in the U.S. 
     Marine Corps and served in the reserves after the surrender 
     of Germany and Japan in 1945.
       At Randolph-Macon, his volunteer spirit and energy were 
     readily apparent--he was President of the Cotillion Club, an 
     officer in Kappa Alpha, and centerfielder for the Yellow 
     Jackets baseball team, even playing the day Babe Ruth and the 
     Boston Red Sox played the Yellow Jackets in an exhibition 
     game. After completing his degree, he turned his attention to 
     the local business community, serving as president of 
     Jeffreys Motor Company in Chase City and chairman of the 
     Board of Trustees of Jeffreys-Spaulding Manufacturing Company 
     and of Jeffreys-McElrath Manufacturing.
       He also owned and operated several farms and was a 
     prominent tobacco and tree farmer. He was director of 
     Jeffreys Lumber, Inc., Home Telegraph and Telephone and 
     Virginia Forestry, among other companies. In addition, he 
     served for 4 years as a director of Peoples Bank and Trust 
     Co. and its successor, Fidelity American Bank and Central 
     Fidelity, all in Chase City.
       Short also worked to better the community by serving on the 
     Mecklenburg School Board and the Town Council of Chase City. 
     He served in the Virginia House of Delegates from Mecklenburg 
     County and served on the Virginia Economic Development 
     Commission under three governors. A life-long member of the 
     Methodist Church, he served on the Chase City Centenary 
     United Methodist Church Board of Stewards for much of his 
     adult life. He was also a Trustee of the former Blackstone 
     College for Women.
       The first winner of the Honorable Shelton H. Short, Jr. 
     Scholarship will be announced in the fall, said Dr. Payne, R-
     MC President. The scholarship will reinvigorate the ties 
     between Boydton and the college, he noted.


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