Featured Emeritus Profile - Jane Seddon Willson

Even though she graduated from Wellesley College, Foundation Trustee Jane S. Willson has bestowed many very generous gifts on the University of Georgia and has spent years in service to her home state's fagship institution. 2006 was no exception.

Building on her love of international travel, Jane made a gift that will provide funding for students to travel and study around the globe (with an emphasis on Africa) as part of the Willson International Honors Scholars Program. Her gift was one of the largest private contributions ever made to the Honors Program, which provides special study opportunities for high-achieving UGA students.

In honor of her late husband, Jane endowed the W. Harry Willson Distinguished Chair in Humanities in the Terry College of Business. Like his wife, Harry did not attend the University of Georgia, but shared her passion for giving generously to programs that enhance academics at the university.

"Georgia has been very good to us and we decided many years ago that one of the best ways we could give back to our state was to support higher education at the fagship university," Jane stated. "By endowing a chair in the Terry College, I could think of no more appropriate way to honor Harry's memory."

2006 was also the year in which Jane made a major gift to the university for construction of an addition to the Georgia Museum of Art.

As impressive as this philanthropy is, for Jane Willson, the gifts noted above represent but one year's worth of generosity. Collectively the gifts offered by Jane and Harry Willson over the decades are evident throughout the campus and across many different schools and colleges.

In a 2005 tribute to their long-time support of humanities and the arts, the university named the Jane and Harry Willson Center for Humanities and Arts in their honor. The center funds faculty research grants, lectures, publications, visiting artists, exhibitions and performances, and special professorships as a way to promote scholarship and creative activity.

Jane Willson is also an individual who gives so much more to the university beyond her fnancial support. She gives just as generously of her time, serving on the boards of several vital groups including:

  The University of Georgia Foundation Board of Trustees - Foundation Fellows Committee
  The Honors Program Advisory Board
  The Board of the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences
  The Board of Advisors of the University of Georgia Research Foundation

In May 2006, the University of Georgia awarded Jane a Doctor of Laws degree, considered one of the highest honors bestowed by the university. She is one of only 76 individuals in the institution's history to be so honored.

Jane is president and owner of Sunnyland Farms in Albany, which she founded with her late husband in 1948. The company is renowned for providing the highest quality pecans, candy and nuts.