In the late 1970s, Paul Erwin, C’79, and Terri Taylor, C’79, were part of a close-knit group who performed folk songs at the Outside Inn and launched a lifetime of friendship. In 2005, that friendship was cut tragically short when Taylor died suddenly. Now Erwin has established the Terri Taylor Cornerstone Scholarship to remember his friend, who was “always thinking to do for others.” Read more at the link to learn more about a powerful Sewanee friendship.
In 2020, Paul Erwin, C’79, and his wife Renée Hyatt, made a gift to establish the Terri Taylor Cornerstone Scholarship in memory of his classmate and in honor of Reuben Brigety, who had just assumed the role of vice-chancellor. “Terri was a sweet, giving person who was always doing for others, and it is a blessing to me to be able to support a Sewanee student through a Cornerstone Scholarship and do so while honoring her memory.”
Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Erwin has kept close with Sewanee over the years, in large part because of a circle of friends that included Taylor. “In fact, the last time I saw Terri was when our group rented a house for reunion several years ago,” he says. “She was a wonderful human being who died after a tragic and sudden onset of lung cancer in 2005. She never smoked, but the cancer was extremely aggressive.”
At Sewanee, Erwin and Taylor were frequent contributors to music nights at the Outside Inn, a venue down the hill from McCrady Hall, at the site of the current Ayres Multicultural Center. “She had an incredible voice,” says Erwin. “It took a little while for us to convince her to perform, but we blended well together, and that was a very meaningful time for me.” Terri’s older twin sisters, Carol (Worsham) and Janette (Wojciak), both C’78, were also part of the gang of friends that included Erwin and Taylor. At least a subset of this circle of friends named themselves “The Cumberland Nine.” These friends remember a wonderful woman with a kind and generous heart who is deeply missed.
A natural resources major at Sewanee, Taylor worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after graduation, a job that put her on a ship in the Northern Pacific. She settled in Seattle, marrying Marshall Peabody and working as a landscape architect for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Cornerstone Scholarships are a way for alumni and other friends to have an immediate impact on the education of Sewanee students. With a commitment to a Cornerstone Scholarship for four years, donors are matched with a particular student and can follow their progress from admission to graduation. As the University embraces the strategic goal of meeting 100% need for every admitted student, such scholarships become more and more important to help all students.
Erwin’s gift, also made in honor of 17th Vice-Chancellor Reuben Brigety aligns with Sewanee’s strategic emphasis on increasing access to a Sewanee education. “I have been fortunate to meet (virtually) and work with VC Brigety and other leaders at Sewanee on COVID-related issues, and I am so impressed with his insights, energy, and commitment,” says Erwin. “Sewanee is in great hands!”
To make a gift to the Terri Taylor Cornerstone Scholarship or for more information about Cornerstone Scholarships, contact Terri Griggs Williams, C’81, at this link.
