TWC ARCHES Fall 2012

M
ay 2013 one Sweetwater High School student will receive
scholarship funding for Tennessee Wesleyan College thanks
to the generous donation of Pamela Clark of State Farm Insurance
Agency in Sweetwater, Tenn. The Goldie Barefield Annual Scholarship
will honor Clark’s late father, Goldman “Goldie” Barefield, a native of
Etowah who served in the U.S. Army National Guard.
“I want to honor my father’s legacy with this scholarship,” said Clark,
who graduated from Tennessee Wesleyan in 1988 with a bachelor’s
in business management and accounting. “Although my father
didn’t have the opportunity to pursue an education of his own, he
always encouraged and supported my sisters and I to complete our
college degrees.”
Clark’s donation to the college will annually help fund a Sweetwater
High student’s first year at Tennessee Wesleyan.
“Scholarships helped me attend Tennessee Wesleyan and having the
opportunity to honor my father’s memory with a scholarship for a
student to attend my alma mater means the world to me,” said Clark.
A review committee established by Clark will annually review
applicants for the scholarship. The award criteria for an applicant to be
considered include academic excellence, leadership and service within
the school and the community.
“It’s always great when a community leader or business leader steps up to
the plate and provides a scholarship award, especially to an institution
like Tennessee Wesleyan, which Sweetwater High School has always
28 ARCHES | Fall 2012
TENNESSEE WESLEYAN SCHOLARSHIP
TO HONOR DONOR’S FATHER
had a good relationship
with,” said David
Watts, Sweetwater High
School principal.
“Scholarships like this
one could help students
who academically meet
the criteria and need
an avenue like this to
help them get a college
education. It’s a win-win
for the community and
it’s a win-win for Pamela Clark who gets
to honor her father with generosity and
charity in his name.”
Barefield’s reputation for caring and
kindness, which inspired Clark’s
decision to fund a Tennessee Wesleyan
scholarship, is well-known throughout
the local community.
“Goldie encouraged his daughters and cared deeply for all his children
and his wife Joretta,” said Paul Willson, chairman and CEO of
Citizen’s National Bank and a family friend of Clark’s who will be on
the scholarship’s inaugural selection committee. “To remember his
kindness through a Tennessee Wesleyan scholarship is monumental
for Pamela and her family.”