Carrie Kilgore Endowed/Annual Scholarship

Greg Garvan and Priscilla Quirk have endowed this scholarship in honor of Carrie Kilgore. Carrie was an African American woman who helped raise Greg Garvan and his siblings in Spartanburg, SC. Carrie Trapp Kilgore is one of the most beloved people in Greg’s life. Carrie had an almost perpetual smile, and more love in her heart then anyone he knows. She also had a very strong clear moral compass, and a belief that ‘God doesn’t love ugly’, as a rebuke to keep us from being mean. Carrie’s sense of justice was crystal clear, at a time when our country and the Garvan family struggled with what was fair. Carrie was a ‘nanny’ in title only; she was a third parent in the Garvan house during Greg’s formative years. She even taught Greg how to do the “twist” in his kitchen, does it get any better than that? Carrie and her husband, John Kilgore, welcomed the Garvans into their lives and their home when they had no need to be so expansive. She was a SC native, from near Columbia, and was a born leader. Her ability to smile as she set you right was an amazing sight to see, and Greg never doubted the love in her heart when she taught us right from wrong. Her love for the Garvans, while being treated as the ‘help’, helped Greg grow a social consciousness as a teenager that not only questioned much but also lives on throughout his life. Greg states, “I may not always know what to do about injustice, but Carrie’s eyes help me see it, and try to help where I can. Her love for me taught me that I’d do best to try and love others, even those that I strongly disagreed with. God bless her, and her presence in our lives.” Greg and Priscilla are long time supporters of the Avery Research Center, where they originally established the Carrie Kilgore Scholarship in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Greg and Priscilla are proud parents of Brady Quirk-Garvan ’08.