The Jim Hart Scholarship Fund
The NC Governor’s School community has been greatly diminished by the death in 2018 of Jim Hart (GSW ‘79). In more than 20 years of service to the Alumni Association, and for six years on the board of the North Carolina Governor’s School Foundation, Jim’s love for the Governor’s School inspired everyone with whom he came into contact. Jim is legendary for personally collecting over 34,000 alumni names that form the database used today for alumni to communicate with each other and raise funds for the Governor’s School.
During the funding crisis in 2011, even as the Foundation frantically raised private funds to pay for the program in 2012, Jim realized that the recently implemented $500 per student tuition was a huge problem for many students. Jim stepped up and created, from scratch, what is now the Foundation’s scholarship program, chairing the Scholarship Committee for its first three years, using funds donated by concerned alumni.
Jim often said that had the tuition been in place in his day, he would not have been able to attend because his family could not have afforded to send him. Jim believed that every student accepted into the prestigious program should be able to attend regardless of economic circumstance. He worked tirelessly to create a scholarship program that would accomplish that goal, and he was successful. At the time of his passing, the Foundation had awarded $500 tuition scholarships to over 220 students in need.
For this reason, the Foundation has created the Jim Hart Memorial Scholarship Fund, in his honor, to provide even more scholarships for qualified students in the future. Over $2500 has already been donated by alumni and friends in Jim’s name to help students attend GS 2019, and with future gifts, for years to come. The Foundation’s Board of Directors, in conjunction with Jim’s loving wife, Nancy, hope that Jim’s life will inspire alumni of all ages to support the Governor’s School, in any way that they can.