Brewton-Parker receives $100,000 from Resseau estate for
student loan fund
By Terry Gaston
BPC Public Relations
MOUNT VERNON - An estate executor said his aunt was a firm believer in Christian
education, and of Baptist-affiliated academics in particular.
Before her death in February 2001, Ruth Harrison Resseau bequeathed $100,000 to
Brewton-Parker College for establishing a loan pool for students.
On Jan. 7, Douglas real estate developer Bill Elliott fulfilled his aunt's
bequest by presenting a check for the Ruth Harrison Resseau Loan Fund to
Brewton-Parker. Jay Orr, vice president for college advancement, accepted the
donation on behalf of the college and its president, Dr. David Smith.
Resseau was born and raised in Kite in Johnson County, one of eight children of
the late Jim Lewis Harrison and Inez Wheeler Harrison. Elliott said upon
Resseau's graduation from the University of Georgia with a degree in home
economics, she worked for the government and visited rural areas.
Elliott said Resseau always had a fondness for small-town living, an element
that led to her desire to assist such rural-based institutions as Brewton-Parker
and the rural areas from which most of its students come.
"Living in a small town, she was a dedicated Baptist and she believed in the
Christian education program offered in Georgia," Elliott said. "She felt very
strongly about supporting students from rural areas."
Resseau had no children of her own but raised the four children of Tom Resseau,
a real estate developer and farmer whom she married and then relocated to
Eatonton, about 80 miles northwest of her life-long home.
Elliott said he recalls spending time on the Resseaus' dairy farm in Putnam
County and helping round up the dairy cattle from the pasture for milking.
After Tom Resseau's death in the early 1960s, Ruth Resseau decided to purchase a
diner in Eatonton she called the Uncle Remus Restaurant, named for the folk
character popularized along with Brer Rabbit by author and Georgia native Joel
Chandler Harris.
While in her 70s, Resseau sold her rental property, timberland and restaurant
and returned to Kite, where she purchased a house which "she was told needed to
be burned," Elliott said, but he added that she accepted and completed the
dutiful remodeling challenge.
Until her death in 2001, Resseau was an active member of the Kite Baptist Church
and the Kite Homemakers Club and was a judge for the Camellia Society of
Georgia.
Resseau previously had donated $31,000 to Brewton-Parker, and she was the
benefactor for the Harrison Scholarship Fund she founded in 1970 to assist
family members' educational needs, and she made donations to Mercer University
for its College of Medicine.
"I am delighted to receive this wonderful gift on behalf of Brewton-Parker
College and our students," Orr said. "This grand lady has touched so many lives
with her caring heart and her generosity. Students for years to come will be
able to secure their college educations because of Ruth Resseau."
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Bill Elliott (left), a real estate developer from Douglas, presents a check for
establishing the Ruth Harrison Resseau Loan Fund for students at Brewton-Parker
College during his Jan. 7 visit to the campus in Mount Vernon. Elliott, the
nephew and executor of the estate of the benefactor, presents the check to Jay
Orr, Brewton-Parker's vice president for college advancement. Resseau , was born
and raised in Kite and also lived in Eatonton.
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