Planned Giving

Cassandra McCleod

Bequest

The Wofford football game was always on when John Guyton McLeod Jr. ‘66 and his wife, Cassandra Baker McLeod, drove from Madison, Ga., to Dewees Island, S.C., on Saturdays in the fall.

“He would get so excited listening to the game on the radio that he would practically jump up and down in his seat yelling, ‘Go, mighty Terriers.’ I’d say, ‘Are they really mighty, John?’ and he’d always say, ‘Yes, ma’am, they are!’ He loved Wofford,” says Cassandra. She has only the fondest memories of the four years that they were married before John’s untimely death from pancreatic cancer in 2005. “That’s when I decided I wanted to establish a scholarship at Wofford in John’s memory.”

Cassandra has included a significant bequest to Wofford in her will, but decided to go ahead and establish the John Guyton McLeod Jr. Endowed Scholarship with a gift in 2017 when she received a second breast cancer diagnosis. The scholarship will be fully funded by the bequest.

“Cancer was the determining factor for starting the scholarship now,” she says. “I wanted to be able to honor John and his family during my lifetime. Knowing that the money will go ahead and benefit Wofford students also makes me happy.” 

John Guyton McLeod, John’s father, was a 1931 graduate of Wofford, and his grandfather, Daniel Melvin McLeod, graduated in 1890. The McLeod legacy that started with William James McLeod, who didn’t graduate from Wofford but was on an early college board of advisors in 1888, has extended to more than 40 McLeod graduates. The William James McLeod Award is given each year during the college’s Honors Convocation to the senior who has demonstrated potential for future dedicated and selfless service to the church, the state, the nation and Wofford.

Preference for the John Guyton McLeod Jr. Endowed Scholarship goes to a student with outstanding character, academic promise and demonstrated financial need who is also a resident of South Carolina. Further preference is given to biology majors or members of a Wofford tennis team.

“John and I were together such a short time, but that time was filled with a lifetime of love,” says Cassandra, who hopes that family and friends also will honor John’s memory by adding to the scholarship. “People give for so many different reasons. My reason isn’t lofty. I just did it from the heart.”

Click here to learn more about bequests.