Enthu­si­asm and Ded­i­ca­tion Drive Part­ner­ship for Success

As Pres­i­dent of one of Delaware’s largest inde­pen­dent insur­ance agen­cies, L & W Insur­ance, Board of Trustee mem­ber and ded­i­cated Wes­ley dad William J. Strick­land has already proven to be a nat­ural fit to lead Wesley’s most ded­i­cated con­stituents. He was recently appointed the first pres­i­dent of the Wes­ley Soci­ety, a cul­ti­va­tion group for annual donors of $1,000 or more who have pledged to become instru­men­tal part­ners in Wesley’s advance­ment efforts. The enthu­si­asm Strick­land has shown through his involve­ment with the local com­mu­nity and his ded­i­ca­tion to the Col­lege thus far have set the stage for a pros­per­ous new begin­ning for the Wes­ley Soci­ety under his leadership.

Strick­land first became involved with Wes­ley Col­lege through his son Justin, who earned both a bachelor’s degree and master’s in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion at Wes­ley. “While at Wes­ley, Justin gained a great edu­ca­tion, played foot­ball and base­ball and grew as a per­son. His Wes­ley expe­ri­ence was firstrate and as a par­ent, I am very appre­cia­tive of the sig­nif­i­cant role that Wes­ley played in his devel­op­ment,” said Strick­land. He and his wife Okemah have always felt a tremen­dous sense of grat­i­tude toward the Col­lege for the impact it has had on their son, and they see their con­tri­bu­tions as small tokens of their appreciation.

Strick­land expressed, “It is my desire to help Wes­ley Col­lege ascend to a higher level as an insti­tu­tion and frankly speak­ing, it takes money to do so.”

Strick­land is equally quick to point out a com­mu­nity per­spec­tive of why giv­ing to Wes­ley is so impor­tant. As a savvy busi­ness­man, he knows first­hand the pro­found eco­nomic impact that the Col­lege has on the greater Dover area, due to stu­dents and staff patron­iz­ing local busi­nesses, restau­rants and retail stores. “I feel Wes­ley is going to be a cat­a­lyst for the ongo­ing effort to revi­tal­ize the down­town Dover area,” he said.

As pres­i­dent of the Wes­ley Soci­ety, Strick­land sees his role as a facil­i­ta­tor in devel­op­ing and strength­en­ing the rela­tion­ships between Wes­ley and its donors, not only in the con­text of giv­ing, but in hav­ing a sense of own­er­ship in the future of the Col­lege. He will serve as an ambas­sador for Wes­ley and work closely with staff mem­ber Cathy Ander­son, hired in Decem­ber as direc­tor of the Wes­ley Soci­ety, in pro­vid­ing insight to cur­rent and poten­tial Soci­ety mem­bers on the great ini­tia­tives going on at the College.

Strick­land knows that Wes­ley can­not accom­plish sig­nif­i­cant cam­pus improve­ments with­out stronger finan­cial sup­port from alumni, par­ents, com­mu­nity mem­bers and other donors. He said, “Wes­ley Soci­ety mem­bers are part­ners who share a com­mon goal of help­ing the Col­lege max­i­mize its poten­tial to bet­ter serve our grow­ing stu­dent body.” He explained that there are many insti­tu­tional needs that will not be addressed with­out an ongo­ing strong finan­cial com­mit­ment, and he empha­sized that the Wes­ley Soci­ety is the vehi­cle that will pro­vide that commitment.

Strick­land encour­ages those who have not already done so to spend time with Pres­i­dent Bill John­ston. “Bill’s dynamic vision and ‘can do’ atti­tude are so inspir­ing and cre­ate a high level of con­fi­dence about our future,” he expressed.

“Becom­ing a Wes­ley Soci­ety mem­ber will allow alumni, par­ents and friends to sup­port Bill’s vision for our future. Over­all, your mem­ber­ship will solid­ify your rela­tion­ship with Wes­ley Col­lege and directly impact what is a most promis­ing future for this institution.”

For more infor­ma­tion on how to become a char­ter mem­ber of the Wes­ley Soci­ety, click here or con­tact Cathy Ander­son, direc­tor of the Wes­ley Soci­ety, at 302–736-2410 or andersca@wesley.edu