FOUNDATION NEWS
The William H. Graves ’65 Scholarship:
A Little Help From His Friends
BY TY DEMARTINO ’90
Bill Graves ’65 never met a stranger. When you were friends with Bill, you were friends for life.
During his 40-year career in education as a history teacher and guidance counselor, Bill helped countless students find their paths in life and pointed many of them toward his Frostburg State alma mater.
But Bill, a big man with an even bigger personality who played on Frostburg’s first football team and sang in the campus choir, ironically shied away from being in the spotlight. He was more comfortable behind the scenes. It wasn’t until a few years after his 2017 death that his Frostburg friends decided to celebrate and honor this generous giant and create the William H. Graves ’65 Scholarship.
Bill grew up in Washington, D.C., and later Maryland, before coming to Frostburg State Teachers College in 1961 to study history. It was at Frostburg that Bill met many of his lifelong friends through the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. It was also where he met a young Barbara Renick Graves ’66, who would become his wife of nearly 50 years.
“I thought he was absolutely obnoxious,” Barbara said with a laugh, noting that Bill asked her out five times before she eventually agreed. “Everyone knew him. He was such a presence on campus because of his stature.”
“He always said the three most important things in my life have been given to me by this University — my wife, my career and my friends.”
That stature cast a long and lasting shadow. And even though Bill physically left the campus when he graduated, he never left Frostburg in his heart.
“Bill recognized what Frostburg gave him,” Barbara recalled. “He always said the three most important things in my life have been given to me by this University — my wife, my career and my friends.”
According to Barbara, Bill was the glue that held many of his Frostburg friends together after graduations in the mid-60s. He stayed in touch with everyone and made it a priority for the Frostburg gang to get together. Regular events organized by Bill included “Pay Day Friday” gatherings, ocean cruises dubbed “Billy and the Cruisers,” card games, road trips (many to the colleges of their friends’ children), annual holiday parties, sleepovers and countless group and one-on-one dinners.
Bill was also one of the organizers of the annual summer crab feast for members of TKE and other Frostburg grads at the farm of the late Dennis ’65 and Dawn Thomas (honorary alumna) in Westminster, Md. It was at the crab feast, after Bill’s passing, that his long-time friend and TKE fraternity brother Quincy Crawford ’65 approached Barbara with the idea of creating a scholarship in her husband’s memory.
“Quincy came up to me and said, ‘There’s something I want to do, but I need your permission.’” Barbara put down her crab and listened. Crawford continued on. He and a group of friends wanted to start a scholarship in Bill’s name. Barbara immediately knew her husband’s response.
“Bill would not want anything in his name,” Barbara replied. As Crawford explained how the scholarship would benefit in-need students, a cause Bill held dear to his heart, Barbara gave her reluctant blessing.
“If this is going to help some student, how can I tell you guys ‘no’?” Barbara conceded, with a sarcastic afterthought: “Bill will probably come to me in my dreams tonight and give me a kick in the head.”
With or without a haunting, Crawford and his friends were determined to celebrate and memorialize Bill.
“Besides his family, Bill Graves had two great loves. First was Frostburg State University and the relationships he nurtured from his time there over a 50-year period. Secondly, he loved the relationships he developed with his students over the past 40 years as a guidance counselor,” Crawford said. “It is only appropriate that this scholarship benefits an education major at Frostburg.”
The William H. Graves ’65 Scholarship is now awarded to an FSU student with an overall GPA of 3.0 who is a participant in the University’s Sloop Institute for Excellence in Leadership. Bill helped create the institute in 1998, named for one of his dear friends, mentors and a former TKE advisor, the late Dr. Richard “Dick” Sloop. Bill was a regular participant and speaker at the institute.
This was par for the course, as Bill remained a Frostburg fixture for decades. He served more than 10 years on the Alumni Board and helped organize an annual golf tournament, which has raised more than $100,000 for the Weimer Scholarship, named in memory of another TKE friend, Robert Weimer ’64. Bill was honored with the FSU Alumni Achievement Award in 2000 and, in 2017, was given the Service to Alma Mater Award.
“Bill was all about making a difference,” Barbara said, noting that he had a special heart for those students who struggled when he worked in Prince George’s County and later Charles County schools. that was the problem or they wanted to throw out of school. He would go out on a limb for those kids.”
He would also go out on a limb for his friends. As members of their Frostburg group slowly fade away, Barbara is happy that the years of get-togethers, sharing and laughter have served as a model for their son, Kyle, and is being passed on to the next generation. “[Kyle] said, ‘What we learned from all of you is how to have friendships,’” Barbara shared. “That’s a powerful legacy.”
And the Graves scholarship is also a powerful legacy. It has now been two years since its creation, and Bill has yet to appear to his wife and “kick her in the head.” The big guy must approve.
“But I can see him there, shaking his head and rolling his eyes,” Barbara added.
To make a gift in support of the William H. Graves ’65 Scholarship, call the FSU Foundation at 301-687-4068 or visit online at the FSU Foundation web site.