UNCG alumna Harriet Evenson gives $14 million legacy gift

A $14 million legacy gift from Harriet Shain Evenson is set to reshape UNC Greensboro’s School of Education, with money earmarked for scholarships, faculty support and a building name that will put her and her husband’s legacy on campus for years. UNCG said the estate gift totaled more than $13 million and called it the largest gift in university history.

The first dollars are aimed at students. The gift will strengthen the Harriet Shain and Jerome Evenson Endowed Scholarship in Education, which had already supported 49 students, and will establish the Jerome Evenson Distinguished Professorship in Artificial Intelligence in Education. UNCG also said the School of Education building will be named the Harriet Shain and Jerome Evenson School of Education Building, giving the donation a permanent physical presence in Greensboro.

The timing matters for a school that is trying to keep up with teacher shortages in North Carolina. UNCG said the gift will help it attract and retain strong students and respond to shortages in STEM fields and special education. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction said teacher attrition increased by less than a quarter percentage point in 2024-25, a small change that still underscores the pressure on teacher preparation programs and the districts that rely on them.

Evenson graduated from Woman’s College in 1953 with a degree in history and later taught in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband, Jerome Jack Evenson. UNCG said she kept her 1952 student ID in her wallet for more than 70 years, a detail the university used to show how closely she stayed connected to the school after leaving Greensboro. Her attorney found original stock certificates in her safety deposit box after her death, helping explain how her estate gift became so large.

Evenson died in Fairfax, Virginia, on Jan. 29, 2025. She was born Oct. 18, 1930, and was raised in Wilmington. Her legacy gift arrives just weeks after UNCG finished its Light the Way campaign on March 26, 2026, with more than $266 million raised. The campaign created 236 new scholarship funds and has supported 1,091 students so far, placing Evenson’s donation inside a broader fundraising run that has already changed the university’s financial base.

For Greensboro, the gift strengthens one of the city’s most visible institutions at a moment when private philanthropy is helping determine how much the university can spend on students, faculty and academic programs.