Alumna’s gift to provide student scholarships

Part of the alumna´s bequest will endow a special collection librarian position at CC. Here, Charles E. Shain Library at night.

A consistent, yet low-key supporter and alumna has donated the College’s third-largest individual gift — an $8 million bequest to support the College library and the financial aid program. Ruth Rusch Sheppe ’40, who was a retired attorney, volunteer tutor and a longtime alumni representative, lived in Chevy Chase, Md., and passed away in January 2005.

Sheppe, remembered by friends as astute, witty and intelligent, directed the funds to establish a Sheppe Scholar program. Initially four to six top students a year will receive scholarships to CC. The College has awarded approximately $17 million in need-based aid this year, which represents 18 percent of the College’s budget. At present, approximately 36 percent of students rely on financial aid from the College to fund their educations.

The donation will also be used to endow a special collection librarian position. The position would oversee the College’s special collections, which serve as the basis for scholarly work for many faculty and students. The special collections include the Chu-Griffis Asian Art collection of Chinese scrolls; original documents from former U.S. presidents, poets and authors; the Lear-Carson Collection from alumna Linda Lear’s award-winning biography of Rachel Carson, and the Sheaffer-O’Neill archives acquired from Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, Louis Sheaffer. Many of these collections are presented to the community through library exhibits.

“Ms. Sheppe’s gift was an unselfish and generous act that quietly affirmed her belief in Connecticut College and a liberal arts education,” said President Norman Fainstein. “The gift will strengthen the College’s ability to enroll the best possible students, regardless of their ability to pay, and will make our library and special collections even more available to students and the public.”

Sheppe was an economics major at Connecticut College for Women and subsequently received her law degree from George Washington University in 1943. She worked for the National Labor Relations Board as a review attorney and later as an adjudicator with the Veterans Administration. Sheppe was a consistent contributor to the Connecticut College Annual Fund and had served as a general representative for the College’s Washington, D.C. alumni club. She was married to Charles J. Sheppe, who was a lawyer with the Securities and Exchange Commission for 35 years. He passed away in 1978. They had two daughters.