Wes­ley Col­lege Receives $50,000 Gift from Bellmeyer Family

BY AMANDA KINKADE

Nancy and Wal­ter Everett, the daugh­ter and son-in-law of the late Dr. Joseph and Mary Bellmeyer of Dover, present Wes­ley Col­lege Vice Pres­i­dent for Insti­tu­tional Advance­ment Chris Wood with a check for $50,000.

The Wes­ley Col­lege Office of Insti­tu­tional Advance­ment received a $50,000 gift from Nancy and Wal­ter Everett, the daugh­ter and son-in-law of the late Dr. Joseph and Mary Bellmeyer of Dover. Dr. Bellmeyer was the vice pres­i­dent of Play­tex Dover for 25 years, served as a Wes­ley Col­lege trustee for more than 20 years, and was a fac­ulty mem­ber in the Eng­lish depart­ment. He passed away in Jan­u­ary 2010 at the age of 98. Bellmeyer is fondly remem­bered for his gen­er­ous spirit and vol­un­teerism. He was an active mem­ber of Wes­ley United Methodist Church and led var­i­ous fundrais­ing efforts at Wes­ley College.

Work­ing in con­junc­tion with the Col­lege, the Everetts decided to use pro­ceeds from the Bellmeyer estate to pro­vide a $50,000 chal­lenge grant for the annual Wes­ley Fund. Dur­ing a fundrais­ing drive con­ducted in the fall, 321 Wes­ley alumni and friends con­tributed more than $85,000 toward the Bellmeyer Chal­lenge. 32 new donors stepped for­ward to have their gifts counted as well. With the addi­tion of the Everetts’ gift, the total amount raised for the Bellmeyer Chal­lenge was $135,664.

“As we dis­cussed the pos­si­bil­ity of a chal­lenge grant, Joe’s daugh­ter, Nancy, stated that she knew her dad would be smil­ing down upon us with the thought of his money being used to encour­age phil­an­thropy of oth­ers to ben­e­fit his beloved Wes­ley Col­lege,” said Chris Wood, vice pres­i­dent for insti­tu­tional advance­ment. “Walt and Nancy Everett have hon­ored Dr. and Mrs. Bellmeyer’s legacy at Wes­ley with this gift and ben­e­fit­ted our stu­dents in the process.” Money con­tributed to the Wes­ley Fund is used to sup­port stu­dent finan­cial aid and schol­ar­ships at the College.

“Dr. Bellmeyer was famous for reg­u­larly chal­leng­ing the Col­lege to seek higher goals, thus he would have been thrilled with the suc­cess of the Bellmeyer Chal­lenge,” said Pres­i­dent Bill Johnston.