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| For Immediate Release | Contact: Frances Squire |
| April 24 , 2009 | Phone: (559) 934-2134 |
Phyliss Roberts with Dr. Frank Gornick and Dr. Willard Lewallen.
Phyllis Roberts hopes gifts to Coalinga education will inspire others
Retired elementary school teacher Phyllis Roberts spent a 40-year career in education and now she’s creating a legacy that will last for generations to come in the form of the Phyllis Roberts Endowed Scholarship at West Hills College Coalinga.
Long one of the district’s strongest supporters, Mrs. Roberts recently donated $25,000 to the West Hills Community College Foundation to establish an endowed scholarship for students at West Hills College Coalinga. The gift will be placed in a fund and a portion of the income earned from that fund will finance a scholarship each year for deserving students attending WHCC, now and in the future.
She previously donated $20,000 to the Rodney B. Fitch Library at West Hills College Coalinga and she has also put both her talent for gardening and thousands of dollars into the campus grounds.
Her contributions also fund two $1,000 scholarships each year at Coalinga High School.
She hopes her gifts will inspire others.
“When you think about doing something good for the school—just do it,” she says. “I use to think I should just donate quietly, but one of my reasons for giving is to lead by example. I hope to inspire others in the community to give and support."
“Don’t just think about it. Whatever your ability to give is, just don’t keep thinking about it,” she adds.
Mrs. Roberts came to Coalinga in 1950 to teach “a few years” before going back to college to earn a degree in child psychology but love got in the way. She married her husband, William (Bill), who was a member of one of Coalinga’s four pioneer families and decided to make Coalinga home. Bill passed away in 1967.
“Oil was going full blast then,” she says and the schools were flush with money. “There were bouquets of flowers on my desk from the school gardeners every morning from the beautiful flower gardens on campus.
Born in Fresno, Mrs. Roberts grew up on the west side of the county where her father, her uncle and her cousins worked in the pumping stations that helped control flow from the oil fields. She attended McCabe Elementary in Mendota for six years and then finished her junior high school and high school years in Kerman. She graduated from Fresno State with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology and education and a teaching credential.
“There is a strong tradition of education in my family,” she said “but I was the first on either side of my family to go to college. I got it started and a lot of family members followed after me.”
Mrs. Roberts hopes that her gifts will allow that tradition of education to spill over to other families.
“People who want to should have a right to go to school. Sometimes kids might not have all A’s but if they’re someone who has a burning desire, they should have the opportunity,” she concludes.
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West Hills Community College District serves the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and is part of the California Community College System. Its two colleges, West Hills College Coalinga, which includes North District Center, Firebaugh, and West Hills College Lemoore, serve more than 7,000 students on campus and online each semester.