Three-Generation ODU Family Grateful For Education

For the past 20 years, Sally Davidson Duke ’73, of Suffolk, has faithfully made an annual donation to Old Dominion University’s Dominion Fund, and in return received a note of thanks for her gift from the Office of Development.

In June, however, something on the office’s latest card of thanks caught her eye. It featured a collage of pictures of last year’s graduates, one of whom was her granddaughter, Jessica Davidson ’05.

Duke, a retired teacher from Nansemond-Suffolk Academy, wrote back to request additional copies of the card for family keepsakes. “How excited I was to see her smiling face on your thank you card,” she said.

In her letter, she alluded to a phenomenon that is starting to occur more and more often at the university: ODU legacies. “Actually, we (our family) owe you a ‘thank you’ – for ODU has graduated three generations from our family,” Duke wrote. “At age 40, I went to ODU and graduated in 1973; my daughter, Lovie Davidson, graduated in 1979; and, my granddaughter on the front of your Thank You note, Jessica Davidson, graduated last year in 2005. ODU is very important in our lives.”