news-record.com

GREENSBORO — A former postal worker and his wife have given $2.2 million from their estate to establish the first endowed full-tuition scholarships at Guilford College.

Recipients of the Frank Erwin and Eva Roberts Werner Scholarships will receive full tuition and a stipend for additional academic support needs. The need-based awards are renewable for four years, and students must maintain a 3.5 grade-point average. The first scholarships will be awarded during the 2008-09 academic year.

The scholarships are funded by a gift from Frank and Ava Werner, both of whom are Guilford College graduates and long-time Greensboro residents.

Frank Werner, a native of Hammonton, N.J., graduated from Guilford in 1934 with a bachelor's degree in economics. He worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 34 years. When he retired in 1970, he was superintendent of mails for the personnel division of the Regional Section Center in Greensboro. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

Ava Werner, a native of Floydale, S.C., earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1933 and was employed for 17 years as a credit analyst with Blue Bell Inc.

The two met in college and were married in 1937 at New Garden Friends Meeting by Guilford's president at the time, Clyde Milner. The couple lived for years on West Friendly Avenue in Greensboro. Later in life, they lived in Myrtle Beach and Little River, S.C., where Frank Werner was a licensed Coast Guard captain and operated a charter boat. Ava died in 2003. Frank passed away in July 2007.