Introducing the Lettie Pate Evans Society

EMPOWERING LEADERS

In 1975, Washington and Lee’s first coeducational class graduated from the Law School. A decade later, we welcomed the first undergraduate class with women. These early W&L women proved themselves pioneers, inspiring many generations after them to not only attend Washington and Lee, but to thrive, thus changing history and unequivocally benefiting the university’s academic and alumni communities in perpetuity.

Today, women are leaders at W&L — taking on key volunteer roles, networking with and mentoring current students and supporting a liberal arts education unlike any other in the country. Now, women are earning recognition as philanthropic leaders, taking an active role in shaping Washington and Lee’s future.

WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN THE LETTIE PATE EVANS SOCIETY

The Lettie Pate Evans Society celebrates our university’s largest donor and encourages women to realize their potential as philanthropic leaders who will carry forward an impactful legacy at W&L.

Membership in the Lettie Pate Evans Society is available to any donor who commits $100,000 or more, payable over five years, during Leading Lives of Consequence: The Campaign for Washington and Lee. Those in their 20th reunion year and younger (or equivalent age) are eligible at $50,000.

Members will have special opportunities to convene — supporting one another, growing together and serving as role models for the next generation of W&L supporters.

Our goal is to welcome 309 members — one for every million the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation has contributed to W&L. Please join us today to leave a lasting impact at Washington and Lee.

To learn more about joining the Lettie Pate Evans Society, please contact Jocelyn Lewis at (540) 458-8165 or jlewis@wlu.edu.

HISTORY OF GENEROSITY

In 1934, Letitia Pate Whitehead Evans was named to the board of directors of Coca-Cola, becoming one of the first women to serve on the board of any major American corporation. She held that position for almost 20 years.

In the 1940s she established a close personal friendship with Washington and Lee University President Francis Pendelton Gaines and his wife Sadie. She made several gifts to W&L in her lifetime, and before she died in 1953, she named Washington and Lee University as a beneficiary of the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation in her estate plans. That first distribution came in 1955 in the amount of $23,786.

Distributions to W&L from the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation in fiscal year 2024 totaled $14.2 million, and the cumulative distributions to W&L total more than $309.2 million, making Evans the most generous benefactor in the university’s history.

Lettie Pate Evans Society Steering Committee

Amy McCauley Farnsworth ’97, co-chair

Mai Spurlock Sykes ’94, co-chair

Tasha Sedlock Blair ‘00

Jennifer Hawks Bland P’28

Julie Mayo Bradbury ‘97

Elizabeth Loyd Burdette ‘04

Josephine Schaeffer Covington ‘96

Ericka Shapard Croft ‘98

Anne Faircloth P’26

Valerie Widener Harper ‘99

Carrie Jennings Holloway ‘90

Sarah Ann Hardee Knier ‘01

Sam McLemore ‘02

Kimberly Mehendale P’28

Caroline Boone Mitchell ‘89

Melissa Foote New ’98

Betsy Berkheimer Pakenas ‘94

Laura Adelman Philipson ‘01

Kristin Ray ‘96L

Brodie Gregory Riordan ‘03

Helen Hughes Sanders ‘04

Susanna Johnson Shannon ‘06

Eileen Small Siebken ’15

Lily Webster ’22

Laura Pattillo Van Winkle ‘12

Jenny Stone Wolkind ‘99