Seventy-five-year-old Regina Jennings of Westover, W.Va., a custodian at the College of Law from 1974-1982, said her recent $93,000 gift to the college expresses her appreciation of the people she worked with for more than eight years.
College of Law Dean John Fisher called Jennings's gift an "extraordinary" surprise. "I was astounded, to say the least," said Fisher, who remembers Jennings from his early days as a young law professor.
"Not only was her gift unexpected," Fisher said, "it was incredibly generous. We are deeply appreciative of Ms. Jennings's gift to the school she loved so much, and are simply stunned by her act of kindness."
Jennings—who said she amassed a sum of money through
careful savings and wise investments of her salary and other
funds—made the gift because of her fondness for the college's
professors and staff and for her deep appreciation of higher
education. 
Although she never got beyond high school, Jennings said she is aware of the value of a higher education, having worked among the law, creative arts, and engineering faculty, staff, and students until her retirement in 1988.
"The law school faculty and students were so incredibly nice and genuine," Jennings, a lifelong resident of the area, recalled. "I worked day shifts, so I had the chance to really get to know some folks. They always talked to me and asked me how I was doing. They treated me extremely well through the years."
Jennings became especially close to law professor and former state Supreme Court Justice Franklin Cleckley, whom she still considers to be a good friend.
"I sometimes would work into the evenings, and Mr. Cleckley would always be there working late, too," she explained. "He would talk to me and was always very kind."
Jennings said she was impressed with Cleckley not only for his kindness but also for his deep respect and love of law. "I respect Mr. Cleckley's education," she said, "but most of all, I just like him as a person."
Through the years, Jennings said she spent a great deal of time with the Cleckley family, including his wife and two children.
"He and his family came to my wedding 18 years ago, and I spent a lot of time with his kids," she recalled. "The family still remembers me at Christmas, but we don't see each other as much as we used to now that his kids have grown up and since I retired from WVU."
Dean Fisher said Jennings's gift will be used to renovate a room at the college. When completed, the facility—to be formally named in Jennings's behalf—will house a sophisticated teleconferencing system to allow for a distance education component. A portion of the funds also will be used to establish an endowment that will be used to "continuously keep the room's technology current," Fisher added.
News media around the country featured stories about Jennings's gift. From the Associated Press to the front page of USA Today and NBC's Today show, the story of her generosity made national news. Some 200 newspapers—among them the Washington Post and New York Times—and People magazine published her story.