Education and hard work, family devotion and faith. Maude Hobgood embodied these values, as taught by her mother.

Born in 1914 in Grundy, Virginia, Maude studied at West Virginia Business College, after which she applied her education and strong work ethic at Flat Top Coal Company. She married Averett Hobgood, whom she met at church, and they later welcomed their only child, Barbara Louise. Maude sought every opportunity to enhance her daughter’s life, including a strong focus on education.

Over the decades, Maude served her church, humbly brown bagged at lunch and worked as a secretary at the Virginia Baptist Mission Board (now the Baptist General Association of Virginia). She guided her family, nurtured them during illness and buried her beloved daughter and husband before she was 73 years of age.

Alone, but comforted by faith, Maude used her will to create a Bluefield College scholarship in Barbara’s name. Through frugal saving and wise financial planning, Maude’s legacy lives on.