The Pittsburgh Foundation

Erie Bailes Bredon Memorial Scholarship Fund

Established: 4/29/2014

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The Erie Bailes Bredon Scholarship Fund was established by Mrs. Bredon’s family to honor her 91 years of hard work, determination, and passion for education. 

Born June 26, 1901 on a farm in West Virginia, Erie worked her family’s fields from a young age. Her father died when Erie was six, leaving her mother to raise five children on a schoolteacher’s salary. 

With poverty came increased domestic responsibilities for Erie, and she was unable to attend high school. She studied on her own and passed a teaching exam at age seventeen. She taught in Calvin, West Virginia for the next several years and continued to pursue further education by taking classes at Glenville State Teacher’s College.

Erie married in 1924. Shortly afterwards, the difficult years of the Depression hit and her husband was forced to leave home to find work. They had six children and most of the family responsibility fell to Erie. Erie’s husband passed away at age 52, leaving her to raise the remaining younger children on her own. With her on-going efforts of teaching, taking care of their home, maintaining the garden, and tending the farm’s animals, Erie continued to value education. After many years of working hard to fit in classes with her other responsibilities, she received her bachelor’s degree in education at Glenville.

At the time she passed away in 1992, Erie had four children, 14 grandchildren, and 21 great-grandchildren. She had taught for 35 years, and had become principal of a small school in Dain, West Virginia.

Erie’s passions for family, hard-work, and education in her home state inspired her family to establish the Erie Bailes Bredon Memorial Scholarship Fund. This fund will provide academic scholarships to selected students graduating from Richwood High School in Richwood, West Virginia. Partial-tuition scholarships will be awarded annually to students  enrolling in any 2- or 4-year college or university, though preference will be given to students attending Erie’s alma mater—Glenville State College. 

Type of Fund

  • Scholarship