An education for life
Alumna gives back to the college that gave her a start 
By Katy Ganz At a time when widows sometimes struggled to get by, June Quinn was able to make more than just a living; she was able to make a life. She credits Ohio University and the College of Education with her success.
June Quinn graduated in 1958 with her bachelor's degree in education. Her most vivid memories of her college years include countless hours spent working in the stacks of the library, then housed in Chubb Hall, and a long-distance relationship with her high school sweetheart.
It is in his name, David Rebbin, and the name of her mother, Stella Lane Cunningham, that June Quinn has decided to donate $350,000 to create a need-based scholarship for education majors.
June represents the second generation of Cunningham women to attend the College of Education. Her mother was the oldest of five children. When Stella's father died young, she had to make a living for herself and help support the family. Stella began teaching in a one-room schoolhouse while working toward her degree. She graduated in 1933.
"Back then, girls got married, and that was it," June explains. "But if something happened, they needed to support themselves."
Like her mother, June's education would soon prove invaluable, affording her self-sufficiency. Her major was in secondary education with specialties in social studies, history and economics. She also minored in her second love, library sciences.
 College life wasn't all hard work and studying. June continued dating David throughout college. The distance sometimes made things difficult. "He went to Wittenberg. I went to OU. There were 150 miles in between," she recalls. "We spent all our time on the weekends on the road."
June and David both graduated in the spring of 1958, and in August, they were married. The young couple decided children would have to wait. David went on to law school at Ohio State, while June worked at a branch of the Columbus Public Library.
When David completed his studies, the U.S. was deeply involved in Vietnam. He decided to join the Army and soon became a captain. Sadly, after only five years of marriage, David died from a brain aneurism while in the service.
Now alone, June decided to join the Women's Army Corps.
"I guess you could say that's how I coped with the loss," June says.
At the time, the Army was still gender segregated, but June worked her way up to the rank of captain. By the end of her three years of service, she was an executive officer for the women's detachment at Fort Gordon, overseeing other women working as technicians and secretaries.
The Army provided a way for June to work through her personal tragedy, but it was her degree that provided the foundation on which she built an accomplished career in library services. June only recently retired from her job as circulation supervisor at Augusta State University.
June, who lives in Augusta, Ga., now spends her time volunteering at the boyhood home of President Woodrow Wilson, giving tours and providing people with information on the president's early years.
"Because I had an education, I have the retirement money to volunteer and do these things," she says.
June is passionate about the work she does now. She also spends time at the local history museum, and her current husband volunteers at the nearby veterans hospital.
Once you retire, the world of volunteer opportunities opens up, says June: "There's so much to choose from. Get out there and find something you love to do!"
June doesn't have any children of her own, and being an only child herself, she hopes her bequest will allow students the ability to stand on their own two feet, no matter what may lie ahead.
The Geneva June Cunningham Rebbin Quinn Scholarship will be awarded to undergraduates in teacher education, based on merit and financial need. Preference will be given to students from June and Capt. Rebbin's own Clark County.
June's generosity underscores what she sees as the true value of education: "to know that you can talk to people intelligently, that you can watch the news and know what's going on -- for general enlightenment -- to be a more complete person."
It isn't just about the diploma; it is about the opportunities. June Quinn's time at Ohio University was the best four-year investment she could have made, with dividends continuing to pay out over the course of her lifetime.
Katy Ganz, BSJ '06 and BA '06, was a student writer for Atheneum, the alumni magazine of the College of Education, which originally published this article. She works at WRQK-FM ROCK 107 in Canton, Ohio, and is a freelance writer for The Canton Repository.
Posted 01-11-07 |
