When the Pitts family invests in Hampden-Sydney, they aren’t just writing checks—they are writing a legacy. A love affair that began when Carson Pitts ’15 was a senior at Virginia Episcopal School searching for the perfect college has blossomed into a full-family relationship between the Pitts and Hampden-Sydney. Carson’s father, Rodney Pitts, is a member of the Board of Trustees and a tireless advocate for and benefactor of the work being done at the College to educate young men. Together, Rodney and Carson have established the Rodney Carson Pitts ’15 Scholarship to enable qualified students from the eastern North Carolina counties of Brunswick, Carteret, New Hanover, and Onslow to experience the same high-quality education that Carson says he received at “the best college in the country.” Carson has also given a gift to name a room in the newly renovated Venable Hall, where he lived junior year, leaving his mark on the college he credits with so much of his personal and professional success.
Members of the Pitts family have long been steadfast supporters of small-school education. Both Rodney and Carson as well as their wives Elizabeth and Katherine, respectively, attended small boarding schools for high school. “The intimate relationships between students and faculty members at smaller schools is very compelling,” explains Rodney, owner and chairman of Southern Elevator Group. “Students are able to get more out of their educational experience when they have that access. It is that kind of relationship that fostered the desire for learning in Carson. That and the school’s mission to train good men and good citizens is the hallmark of everything that we do.”
“Our lives have been changed by attending smaller schools,” adds Katherine, who is also experienced in higher education advocacy as a former director of major gifts and then director of communications and engagement at Virginia Episcopal School, where she and Carson met. “Knowing that you can have an impact on a place that means a lot to you, whether you are working with a donor who is able to make a gift to the school or you make a gift yourself that is going to impact the school for the rest of its history has been really transformational for me.”
Being philanthropic and involved community members is a habit that dates back to Rodney’s grandfather and father. “You saw it in their lives every day,” Rodney says. An entrepreneur from Glen Alpine, North Carolina, Rodney’s grandfather only had the opportunity to attend formal school through the eighth grade. His keen mind for math and problem solving and a predilection for giving back, though, helped him become a successful entrepreneur in the lumber industry, a respected member of his community, and a role model to young Rodney. “When my parents would go on summer vacations, I would spend two weeks with my grandparents and just go wherever my grandfather went,” Rodney says. “He would go to a bank board meeting, and I would go along and sit in the corner and observe what he was doing. Through those experiences, I had a great example of how to conduct myself in professional settings.”
His grandfather’s belief in the importance of education passed to his son, Rodney’s father, who became the second neurosurgeon in North Carolina and founded Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine, now the largest practice of its kind in the country. A graduate of Charlotte Country Day just like Rodney, his father became a lifetime trustee at Country Day, helping the small, struggling school to eventually flourish. He later became active at his alma mater, Duke University, establishing the William R. Pitts Scholarship, which provides funds for students from Burke and Mecklenburg counties in North Carolina to attend Duke. This was the inspiration for the Rodney Carson Pitts ’15 Scholarship established by Rodney and Carson at Hampden-Sydney.
