Alice Burt Bruton Endowed Enrichment Fund in Biology
This fund was established in 1998 by Henrietta Bruton Huffines, Class of 1955, in memory of her mother, Alice Burt Bruton. The purpose of the fund is to enrich the undergraduate student experiences of students majoring in Biology.
Alice Burt Bruton grew up in Biscoe, NC, where she graduated from Biscoe High School. She attended North Carolina College for Women and received her degree in Romance Languages in 1928. She taught high school English and French in the North Carolina public school system until her marriage to Robert Bruton in 1932. The Brutons moved to Lexington, NC, where Mr. Bruton assumed duties as teacher and coach at the Junior Order of Children's Home (now American Children's Home). He became principal and then superintendent of the Children's Home and devoted the rest of his life to this service. Through the 38 years of their marriage, until Mr. Bruton's death in 1970, Alice Burt Bruton served as surrogate mother to hundreds of boys and girls at the Children's Home as well as maintaining a loving and secure home for her own five daughters. She was always available to children and young people who needed her, and many, in addition to her immediate family, remember her as "Mama B". Mrs. Bruton died in 1984 in Chapel Hill, NC.
Henrietta Bruton Huffines grew up in Davidson County, NC, and graduated from Lexington High School in 1951. She is Alice and Robert Bruton's eldest daughter. Following her graduation from the Woman's College of North Carolina, Henrietta was employed in pharmacology research at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine and at the UNC School of Medicine. In 1957 she married Dr. William D. Huffines, and they had four children. Dr. Huffines is Professor Emeritus of Pathology and former Associate Dean of the UNC School of Medicine.
Mrs. Huffines's interest in Biology stems from her own experiences as a student. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduated cum laude with an A.B. in Biology. She served as president of Beta Beta Beta, the Biology honor society, and was also managing editor of The Carolinian and a member of Golden Chain. As an upperclassman she worked as a lab assistant in freshman biology courses, one of several ways in which she earned spending money for college. Mrs. Huffines fondly recalls her experiences as a Biology major, which introduced her to research, the scientific literature, scientific meetings, leadership opportunities, and professional and personal interactions with faculty members. These are the kinds of opportunities that Mrs. Huffines seeks to perpetuate through the establishment of the Alice Burt Bruton Endowed Enrichment Fund in Biology.
This is an endowed fund; additional gifts may be added to the fund at any time by any interested party. Income from the fund will be spent at the discretion of the Head of the Department of Biology to enrich the undergraduate experience of Biology majors in ways not possible through the department's regular operating budget. Purposes for which the fund might be used include, but are not limited to, stipends for undergraduate research; travel by undergraduate students to scientific conferences; field trips and other out-of-class experiences that enhance in-class instruction, and the purchase of equipment for undergraduate research and use.
(The information on this page was obtained from the Statement of Establishment document for the Alice Burt Bruton Endowed Enrichment Fund in Biology, provided by the UNCG Development Office.)