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Foundation to reward 'Mills River Scholars'

MILLS RIVER — Vaughan Fitzpatrick, the developer of Ferncliff Industrial Park, has established three scholarships at Blue Ridge Community College in the hopes that recipients will stay in the community.


The Fitzpatrick Foundation grants, which will start in the 2015-16 academic year, are worth $3,250 each and will go to "Mills River Scholars." The Mills River Town Board agreed in a resolution to honor the recipients once they're selected. Scholarship recipients must be residents of Mills River and "must intend to stay and work in Henderson County."
"That's quite a gift from the Fitzpatrick family that's been so generous time after time," Mayor Larry Freeman said.
Vaughan FitzpatrickVaughan FitzpatrickFitzpatrick, a retired attorney for the oil industry, lives part of the year in New Orleans and part in Hendersonville. He is a fifth generation descendant of George Westfeldt, a New Orleans coffee broker who settled with his family at the Rugby Grange in 1870. Fitzpatrick created the industrial park on property west of the Asheville Regional Airport that contained a summer residence the Westfeldts called the Green house. The Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. was the first industry to buy land in the business park.