October 14, 2002
BOLIVAR – Southwest Baptist University recently received two donations totaling $160,449.
The Mossolene (Davis) Drake Estate donated $110,449 to SBU’s endowment fund. The donation will be used to complete the language and literature portion of the Jester Learning and Performance Center on the Bolivar campus.
A 1932 graduate of SWBC, Drake was an elementary school teacher in Bolivar for many years. She and her late husband, Paul, a 1933 graduate of SWBC, were owners of the Bolivar Telephone Company, later selling it to Missouri Telephone Company, which eventually became Alltel.
Drake was a resident of Citizens Memorial Hospital Healthcare Facility until her death in December 2001.
Orval Jones and his wife, Helen, recently donated $50,000 and established a scholarship for education majors at SBU.
The couple has been married for 58 years and they reside in Mountain View, Calif. After earning her associate of education from SWBC in 1937, Helen Jones earned a bachelor of science degree from Southwest Missouri State University. She taught school for four years and eventually earned a master of library science. After her six children were grown, Jones became an elementary school librarian for 10 years.
According to Jones, now in her retirement, she wanted to help others at her alma mater who want to pursue a similar life of service.