Former Bank of America senior VP honored with Trust Education Foundation scholarship

PINEHURST — Becky T. Kelly and her family were honored with a $50,000 gift to Campbell University from the Trust Education Foundation to establish the Becky T. Kelly Family School of Business Trust Endowed Scholarship Fund on Monday at the 31st annual Trust Advisors Forum at Pinehurst Resort. 

The scholarship will benefit students of the trust and wealth management program, the nation’s first and only undergraduate degree program of its kind.

Kelly enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a senior trust officer and senior vice president with Bank of America. She has served the students of Campbell in several capacities, including director of career placement, member of the Trust Education Foundation Board of Directors and, most recently, as its executive director. Kelly is retiring from this post and will continue to serve on the Board. She and her husband, Patrick, and son, Michael, live in Staunton, VA. 

“My family and I are extremely honored,” Kelly said. “There is nothing like coming to the Trust Advisors Forum and seeing all the successful graduates and Trust colleagues in addition to their willingness to help the new students coming along. That, to me, is what the Trust Education Foundation is all about.”

Kelly was recognized at Monday’s Forum event, one of the largest trust conferences in the nation with more than 265 attendees from 28 states.

Jimmy Witherspoon, chairman of the Department of Trust and Wealth Management, called it an honor to present the scholarship to Kelly on Monday.

“Becky Kelly has literally been the ‘heart and soul’ of Campbell’s trust program for decades,” Witherspoon said. “She has served in so many capacities but always with two goals in mind … to ‘spread the word’ about Campbell’s trust program and, far more importantly, to help our students.

“So many of our graduates are now enjoying enormously successful careers thanks in no small part to the placement connections Becky worked so hard to develop and nurture. It is only fitting we choose her retirement as the most appropriate moment to wish her only the best and to honor our dear friend, Becky.”