A college education was a little more accessible back in the late 1960s, when Daniel and Nancy Prickett attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“It was surprisingly inexpensive, even for an out-of-state student,” says Dan, ’68 MEDIA. “For an in-state student, it was terrific. Those days are gone.”

The increasing hardship on students and their families to afford a college education prompted the Pricketts to make a generous gift to the College of Education to go into its unrestricted scholarship fund.

“Too many people are opting not to even get an education,” says Nancy, ’69 ED. “They think they can find a more lucrative job without a degree. But it’s much more than just the education. It’s a growing experience, a learning experience too.”

“Anything that we can do to help somebody who doesn’t have to go into a lot of debt to go to Illinois would be great,” says Dan. “That’s our goal here.”

Shaping Her Journey

Two critical factors helped to shape Nancy’s life while she was in high school. First, she decided she wanted to be a teacher.

“I love kids, particularly young children,” she explains. “It was something I had decided in high school that I was going to pursue. I never really considered anything else. I was even president of our Future Teachers of America group in my high school.”

The second factor was having a sister who was social chair of her sorority on campus at Illinois. “It was Little Sisters weekend,” Nancy recalls. “My sister was in charge of getting dates for the visiting high school girls, and Dan, as social chair of his fraternity, was in charge of finding the guys. My sister was one short, and Mr. Magnanimous here said, ‘I’ll break my date and go with your sister.’ That’s how we met.”

Though it was a blind date, Dan apparently saw plenty that he liked, because he asked Nancy to go to a fraternity dance the next weekend. Once she arrived on campus that fall, the two started dating regularly. After her graduation, they got married at The Chapel of Saint John the Divine, on campus. They recently celebrated their 55^th wedding anniversary.

Seeing the Country

Nancy grew up in Urbana, but once she was married, she got to see plenty of the country, as Dan served in the military and later in civilian life carved out a highly successful business career that necessitated several moves. Those moves resulted in Nancy teaching within grades K-2 in four different locations in the first five years of their marriage: Missouri (the state where Dan earned his MBA), Arizona (Army deployment), Washington, DC (where Dan worked as a finance officer for Research Analysis Corporation), and Illinois (where Dan headed up marketing for First Chicago Corporation—then the First National Bank of Chicago). Additional opportunities took the Pricketts to Kansas City, San Francisco, Boston, New York, and finally to Charlotte, where Dan worked and retired as EVP of wealth management for Wachovia.

“That’s how we ended up in Charlotte and discovered Kiawah Island, where we now live,” says Dan, who is an avid—and talented—painter.

A Passion to Serve and Help

The Pricketts are socially and civically active. Dan is co-chair of the Art Guild, was on the island’s planning commission for six years, and served two terms on the town council. Nancy volunteered at the schools and at the Barrier Islands Free Medical Clinic for 17 years.

“I was a classroom volunteer, doing individual tutoring in the local schools,” Nancy says. “Unfortunately, I had to stop that when COVID struck, because I have health issues that make that risky.”

Nancy’s passion for helping both teachers and students hasn’t waned. If she’s no longer directly in the classroom, helping students, she can help prepare tomorrow’s teachers to do just that.

“I don’t think there’s anything better you can do for a child than give them a good education. And you have to have good teachers to do that,” she says. “Hopefully this gift will help someone, or several people, to cross that bridge and become a great teacher.”

If you want to support this scholarship or create similar opportunities for students, faculty, research, and programs, please email the College's Office of Advancement or visit our Giving page.