September 30, 2002

Engineering a Fascination for NC State Donor Wardlaw

Wardlaw

Craig Wardlaw’s fascination with engineering began many years ago, when he was a high school student at Christ School in Arden, near Asheville. His mentor, headmaster David Page Harris, who had attended NC State, was a civil engineer. Harris instilled in his students a respect for the power of engineering by involving them in construction projects around the school. For Wardlaw that early exposure developed into a lifelong interest in engineering as an avocation. His vocation was banking, a profession he learned from his mother.

Philanthropy was another value instilled early in Wardlaw. “I’ve always been taught through both my mother and my headmaster that when you have good fortune you want to return parts of it to other, less fortunate people,” he said. Much of Wardlaw’s philanthropy has been focused toward education, and NC State has been a recipient because of his engineering interest. For Wardlaw, “There’s nothing more exciting than to see young people earn a scholarship and go to school, when they might not be able to attain an education otherwise,” he said. “For those students who work really hard and deserve it to be able to have some help, succeed and acquire a great education like you can find at NC State is so important.”

To honor his mentor and help deserving students, Wardlaw established the David Page Harris Sr. Scholarship, a general scholarship for the College, in 1997. “Headmaster Harris was such a wonderful man, and he gave me such good guidance. For this reason I wanted to establish a scholarship in his name,” said Wardlaw.

Craig Wardlaw worked with Bank of America in Charlotte for 30 years. In retirement, along with his partners, he manages Rice Hope Plantation in South Carolina, where he experiments with historical engineering irrigation techniques.

— rudd —

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