A Legacy of Giving: Mary Virginia Terry

Mary Virginia Terry

Mary Virginia and her late husband C. Herman Terry are among the most generous donors in the history of the University of Georgia.

Its business school bears their name, as it has since 1991, but they have also supported faculty chairs, the general scholarship fund at the university and the College of Pharmacy. Their legacy continues through Mrs. Terry’s latest gift: 14 paintings and works on paper to the collection of the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia.

Throughout her life, Mrs. Terry has focused her philanthropy on three areas: education, children’s charities and the arts. She has been a trustee of Jacksonville University and served on the boards of the Wolfson Children’s Hospital, the Children’s Home Society, the Salvation Army, the Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless and the Jacksonville Symphony. Mr. Terry graduated from what was then UGA’s school of commerce in 1939, then became president of Dependable Insurance Co., which he built into a major corporation in Jacksonville, Florida, where the couple made their home. He passed away in 1998, but Mrs. Terry has continued the legacy of giving that they began together. She received an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Georgia in 2009 and served recently as honorary chair of the very successful Building Terry campaign at UGA’s Terry College of Business.

A native of Quitman, Georgia, and a graduate of Valdosta State University, Mary Virginia Terry understands the impact that art can make on children’s lives and the way that it can provide UGA students with a well-rounded experience. She and her husband built their collection of art together, and these 14 works greatly increase the museum’s holdings by the major artists who created them.

It would be rare and marvelous to receive a gift of a single work by Childe Hassam, John Henry Twachtman, Maurice Prendergast, Andrew Wyeth, Ernest Lawson, Winslow Homer, Gifford Beal or John Singer Sargent. To receive works by all of these artists at once, in a single gift, is extraordinary. Until Mrs. Terry made her gift, the museum did not own a painting by Sargent, only a drawing. Not only are the works beautiful and important, but they also fill some gaps in its collection, allowing UGA students and the wider Athens-area community to benefit from seeing these works in person. All 14 works will be on display at the museum this spring, in the exhibition “A Legacy of Giving: C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry,” on view May 12 through August 5.

William U. Eiland visited Mrs. Terry several times over the years of his tenure as director of the museum and said, of this extraordinary gift, “My reaction at hearing from Mrs. Terry that she was making this gift to the museum? Joy. Unaffected, pure joy. And gratefulness, on behalf of generations of students yet to enroll at the university.”

Mary Virginia Terry has said, “My husband and I just felt we wanted to give back because we had such good fortune.” They chose to focus on the arts, hospitals, education and children’s concerns because, “We felt those were important both for the future and for the needs we saw now.” Mrs. Terry is a modest person, who does not love the spotlight, but she accepts public recognition in the hope that her giving will serve as an example to others. For more than half a century, she has provided support to the University of Georgia that has helped it strengthen academic and research programs. The museum is proud and grateful to be among the beneficiaries of their kindness.