PIQUA – Piqua accountant Rex Wilson (1913-84) was accepted as a student at Miami University after graduating from high school, but the timing just wasn’t right.
He lost his college fund savings with the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression. After high school graduation he sold shoes and worked with his father at a bookkeeping business. In 1943 he was off to World War II and did a stint as a Sea Bee in the U.S. Navy where his unit monitored naval contracts to build ships.
Encouraged by his commanding officer, he studied to be a certified public accountant on his own and passed the examination in 1954. It was with those credentials that he taught at Miami University. He also argued tax laws with the Internal Revenue Service. According to his daughter Anne Butler, with the scholarship her father “wanted to provide an aspiring future accountant the opportunity that eluded him.”
That day has come and Angel Turner, 49, a student at Edison State Community College, is the beneficiary of a renewable scholarship in accounting. The award was presented on Aug. 27 at the American Legion in Piqua by the Commander of the post, Steve Mullikins.
President of American Legion Unit 586 in Tipp City, Turner holds three part-time jobs without benefits while raising funds for military veterans via the poppy program, an annual dinner, garage sales and weekly cooking at the legion.
Now that Turner’s three sons are adults, employed and on their own, it is her turn for college, and she plans to become a tax accountant and then a tax attorney.
Those interested in paying it forward by providing scholarship dollars may contact American Legionnaire Chuck Morris at 937-214-4862 or Rick Hanes, vice president for business and community partnerships at Edison State Community College, at 937-778-7806. A book scholarship to a worthy student is $500, and a tuition scholarship is $1,500.
