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By Larry B. Dendy
The university has received a bequest of about $1.3 million from the estate of the late Reginald and Edna Katherine Kicklighter, a couple whose ties to the university spanned more than half a century. The bequest will support academic scholarships and fellowships for students, and a portion of the gift will help finance the visit of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on Dec. 3.
Kicklighter, a Georgia native and UGA graduate, and his wife made scholarship gifts for students in the years before their deaths. Their bequest, which the university received this month, will continue their support for students who are studying chemistry, international relations and Russian and German languages.
Kicklighter had a special interest in the Soviet Union stemming from his lengthy service there while in the U.S. Army at the end of World War II and his later work in the U.S. Department of Defense. When UGA officials learned his bequest was imminent, they received permission from the executors of his estate to use $100,000 to underwrite the visit by Gorbachev, who will give a public speech in Stegeman Coliseum Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m. The money will cover Gorbachev’s $75,000 speaker’s fee and associated expenses.
“Nothing would have pleased Reginald and Edna Katherine more than to know they were helping promote international understanding by supporting Mr. Gorbachev’s visit,” says Charlotte Vedeler, co-executor of the estate and a long-time friend of the couple. “It’s a wonderful coincidence of timing that their bequest and Mr. Gorbachev’s visit coincide, and it’s a perfect way to honor their legacy of friendship and support for the University of Georgia.”
The remainder of the bequest will create an endowment for the Reginald C. and Edna Katherine Reynolds Kicklighter Fellowship Fund. The fund will assist students with the cost of tuition, laboratory and student fees, textbooks and other educational expenses.
Kicklighter, who died in 1998, was a native of Hagan, in Tattnall County. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from UGA in 1938 and a master of science degree in 1939. Edna Katherine Reynolds Kicklighter, who died in 1995, did not attend UGA but shared her husband’s interest in the university.
Kicklighter also studied at Columbia University for a doctorate in chemistry. His career included work as an industrial research chemist; service in the U.S. Army, including an assignment as a translator and intelligence officer on the staff of the U.S. military attaché in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow; and an appointment as a research management specialist in the U.S. Department of Defense. He also taught chemistry at UGA for a short time.
Fluent in Russian, German and French, he was a specialist in East European military and political affairs and prepared and edited publications dealing with defense matters.
UGA President Michael F. Adams expressed his appreciation to the Kicklighters for their strong affection for the university.
“I know how determined Mr. and Mrs. Kicklighter were to help strengthen our academic programs, especially those in which they had a strong interest, and I’m deeply grateful for their extraordinary loyalty and assistance,” says Adams.
Kicklighter’s attachment to UGA began when he was a student in the 1930s. In his senior year he was faced with having to quit school when his family had to choose between paying his educational fees or meeting the tax payment on the family farm.
Thomas Whitehead, who was on the chemistry faculty, learned of Kicklighter’s plight and arranged for him to receive a special fellowship that enabled him to graduate. He was a dean’s list student and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi and several other scholastic and professional honor societies.
A number of his family members are also university graduates, including his late aunt, Cora Lee Harvey Fanning, wife of J.W. Fanning, and his brother, two cousins, several nieces and nephews and three grand-nieces.
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