Gifts That Keep Growing

Ruby C. McSwain and Bobby Wilder, two longtime volunteers and dedicated friends of the JC Raulston Arboretum, expressed their love for nature’s beauty and the university with generous contributions of both time and money, helping raise the roof of the Arboretum’s fund-raising campaign.

The 6,000-square-foot Ruby C. McSwain Education Center was made possible through McSwain’s $1.2 million contribution. Known by many as “Ms. Ruby,” she is a noted philanthropist and one of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ most generous benefactors.

The $4.2 million Center is a state-of-the-art teaching, outreach and extension facility that houses classrooms and an auditorium. Students, Friends of the Arboretum, North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service field faculty, local garden clubs, green industry representatives, and other gardening-related groups benefit from this facility. McSwain also contributed a $232,000 gift of property and a $500,000 estate gift.

The Bobby Wilder Visitor Center, named in honor of Wilder’s 1,000-plus hours of volunteer service and deferred endowment gifts totaling more than $500,000, welcomes Arboretum visitors. Wilder’s contributions include two $50,000 endowments to support the JC Raulston Arboretum student internship program: the Jack R. Lamm JCRA Internship Endowment, in memory of Wilder’s life partner and dear friend of 43 years, and the Bobby G. Wilder JCRA Internship Endowment. His contributions also include a $200,000 gift for a scholarship endowment, the Bobby G. Wilder and Jack R. Lamm Horticultural Scholarship, and a $200,000 gift to the JCRA Endowment for Excellence.

Thanks to supporters and benefactors like Ms. Ruby and Wilder, the JC Raulston Arboretum remains a nationally acclaimed garden with one of the largest and most diverse collections of plants adapted for landscape use in the Southeast.