Dr. R. Frank Saunders Jr. Memorial Scholarship

Until his retirement in 1996 from Georgia Southern’s Department of History, the late Dr. R. Frank Saunders, Jr. (‘57) always expected students to give their best. “My brother enjoyed sharing his deep love of history, but he also expected his students to excel,” said Betty Saunders Anderson (‘59).

Saunders also felt that it was important to help students struggling financially. “Frank wanted students to have the opportunity to finish college and his long-term goal was to provide a scholarship for future generations of Georgia Southern students,” explained Anderson, about the Dr. R. Frank Saunders Jr. Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to junior or senior level students majoring in history with a minimum 3.0 GPA.

Growing up on his family’s farm near Portal, Ga., Saunders devotion to history was also intertwined with his deep appreciation of the land. The second gift Saunders bequeathed to the University was the Garden of the Coastal Plain’s Smokehouse Garden, which memorializes him and his parents, R. Frank Saunders, Sr. and Mollie Lanier Saunders.

“Frank wanted the land preserved and made better for the next generation. He loved plants and spent a lot of time at the Garden,” said Anderson. “He enjoyed listening to our parents and grandparents tell stories about growing up on plantations,” she added.

Saunders is widely recognized for his significant contributions to local and regional history including the Bulloch County Bicentennial, conducting oral history projects and founding the Georgia History Quiz Bowl, for which he won the Governor’s Award in the Humanities. He also authored the play “Between Hopeulikit and Piddleville: Portal Celebrates 100” for Portal, Ga.’s, centennial celebration in 2008.

Saunders and his former professor Dr. George Rogers co-authored Swamp Water and Wiregrass: Historical Sketches of Coastal Georgia — about the history of Liberty County. The collaborators were also the pioneers of Georgia Southern’s Special Collections in the Zach S. Henderson Library, traveling many miles throughout South Georgia acquiring the papers and artifacts of prominent people and organizations, which formed the foundation of the historical collection.
Saunders cared very much about educating others on the region’s history, and the scholarship ensures that students will have the opportunity to continue his legacy.