WATERVILLE — Thomas College announced a $1.2 million gift from the estate of Susan C. Jacques to establish a scholarship fund in her name.

“Susan was a very intentional person, and she was a very frugal person,” said Jacques’ cousin Laurah Brown, who presented the check to the college. “She wanted other people to have the opportunity of education.”

Jacques graduated from Thomas College in 1947 with a two-year diploma in secretarial studies and worked in the purchasing department of Central Maine Power after graduating. She was one of the first women to serve in that capacity.

Brown, who graduated from Thomas College in 1993, said Jacques paid her way through Thomas by working in an Oakland toothpick factory, walking to work from Waterville. Had she had access to a scholarship like the soon-to-be established Susan C. Jacques Scholarship Fund, Brown said Jacques would have gone on to get a masters degree.

“Susan didn’t spend money on herself,” Brown said. “She was extremely frugal. She could have had anything in the world she wanted, but that wasn’t her mission in life. Her mission was to do good with the money that she made.”

Jacques died Dec. 7, 2024, in Pompano Beach, Florida, at the age of 97.

Thomas College President Jeannine Diddle Uzzi said Jacques’ donation to the college’s endowment will support students for generations.

“A donation like this to a college literally can make the difference between a student being able to attend college and not being able to attend college,” Uzzi said.

She said the scholarship could enable Thomas students to go into lower-paying fields that Maine relies on, like teaching, without college loans to pay off.

Seventy-three percent of Thomas students stay in Maine after they graduate, so Uzzi said Jacques’ donation will help Thomas invest in Maine’s economy, and help students in Maine “design the kinds of lives that they want to live.”

Jacques was proud of her education, and believed it brought her more opportunities in life — the same reason Brown said she went back to school at Thomas in her thirties, when she had two children. Brown said Jacques always wanted the opportunities her education provided to be accessible for other hard-working people.

“I hope people will look at a person like Susan, who you’d never know had a dime, and look at all their money and wealth and try to help others,” Brown said. “Education is the basis to all our starts in life.”