New Scholarship Supports Nurses, Honors Family Ties to School

A new scholarship established with the Western Piedmont Foundation honors the lives and careers of a couple with ties to Western Piedmont Community College.

The Western Piedmont Foundation, Inc. encourages and develops public and private support for the college beyond that provided by county, state and federal funds. Donations support student scholarships, employee mini-grant projects, program/classroom enhancements, equipment needs and other special projects.

The Roy and Jan Walters Nursing Scholarship provides financial assistance to WPCC students enrolled at least part-time in the college’s nursing program. The scholarship honors the memory of the late Roy Walters Jr. and his wife, Jan.

Roy and Jan met while they attended Berea College in Berea, Kentucky and were married in 1951. Roy served in the U.S. Air Force for almost four years during the Korean War. Following his tour of duty, the couple moved to Morganton in 1959.

Roy remained in military service for 12 years in the US Army Reserves and six years in the NC Civil Air Patrol. He worked as the personnel finance director for the city of Morganton during the 1960s and was the first business manager to work at WPCC when the college was chartered in 1964. Roy left his position at the college to become a purchasing agent at Henredon Furniture Company, where he worked until his retirement in 1993. In his retirement, he volunteered in the community and briefly worked for Morganton Ace Hardware.

Jan stayed home and raised the couple’s children until the 1970s, when she earned a degree in nursing at WPCC. She worked as a nurse for more than 40 years at Grace Hospital and Broughton Hospital, retiring in the mid-1990s.

After touching the lives of many in the community, Roy died in 2020, and Jan died in 2024. Thanks to their family’s generous donation to the Western Piedmont Foundation to create the scholarship in their names, their legacy will live on and support future generations of nursing students.

“It was important to create this scholarship in their memory because they were the most giving people I’ve ever known,” said Dalton Walters, Roy and Jan’s grandson. “They always put everyone else ahead of themselves, and always believed in seeing the good on everyone and honoring them for it. They also recognized that sometimes, we all need a helping hand. They were big proponents of education and supporting businesses in the community.”