Give to Appalachian | Appalachian Today | Appalachian Alumni

Give while family is here to enjoy it, she says

Dr. Cynthia Payne with her father, 1950 alumnus Tony Payne, inside the botany lab dedicated in his honor.

Dr. Cynthia Payne’s father made a huge sacrifice to provide for his family – he gave up a teaching career he enjoyed to make a better salary. That afforded Payne, a neuroradiologist in Raleigh, many opportunities she may not otherwise have had. To express her gratitude, she contributed a major gift to Appalachian State University honoring her dad and his first professional love: botany.

As a result, the Anthony Hendren Payne Dedicated Botany Lab in Rankin Science Building and its high-tech imaging equipment are providing opportunities for yet another generation of science lovers.

“Our family had a strong ethic that education was important for reaching your goals,” said Cynthia, who graduated from the University of Toledo Medical School, completed an internal medicine internship at Harvard and continued her residency training at Duke University. “I was so lucky I was able to do what I wanted to do in life and be successful, and I’m so appreciative of the sacrifices Dad made for us to have the standard of living we had.”

“About five years ago, sitting around with the family down at the coast, I said I wanted to do something in my parent’s honor. I had fulfilled my dream of becoming a doctor and I wanted to honor them while they were still here. I asked, What should it be? We all agreed it should be in education to help others reach their goals,” Cynthia said.

“It was a great honor to receive that recognition, because if I could do it all over I would have stayed in teaching,” said Tony Payne, who left a promising career after one year to sell insurance. He had studied biology at Appalachian after serving in the U.S. Navy, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1950 and his master’s degree in 1951. Despite an affinity for teaching, he switched careers because his teacher’s salary couldn’t support a family.

He retired from the insurance business in 1989 as vice president of Shenandoah Life Insurance Company in Roanoke, Va., where he and Cynthia’s mother, Lib, still reside.

When Cynthia approached Appalachian with her idea for a gift, University Advancement staff and Department of Biology faculty were happy to respond with a list of needs and work with Cynthia to find the best match to her family’s interests. The Paynes chose to support equipment needs in the department’s herbarium to honor Tony’s longtime interest in botany and his hobby collecting and tending bonsai trees.

“He was thrilled with the choice to support Appalachian,” Lib said. “The pleasure came with the choice of what Cynthia decided to do.”

Cynthia’s gift funded the purchase of a state-of-the-art image capture system comprised of a stereoscopic microscope, computer system and multimedia projector. It allows faculty and students to examine plant specimens at a magnification ranging from .6x to 56x power and project them onscreen for an entire class to view. The gift also supports the creation of an online herbarium resource so images of fragile specimens can be shared electronically with others across the Southeast.

Students, like graduate student Bal Nepal, are able to see tiny particles on leaves and flowers far beyond what they’d see with the naked eye. “You can see so many details,” he said.

Tony, originally from Rural Hall, has fond memories of his time at Appalachian, especially his classes with Dr. Ray Derrick and Dr. J.D. Rankin. “They helped me get into Appalachian and for that I’m so grateful. One of the greatest gifts we can give someone is education. There are so many people who can’t afford to be educated but have the potential to be great.”

Of his three daughters, only Cynthia’s younger sister Toinette ’78 listened to their dad and attended Appalachian, where she met her husband, Paul Staley ’77.

“I kept telling Cynthia she could get just as good an education at Appalachian, but she wanted to go to school outside of North Carolina,” Tony said with a teasing smile.

Honoring her parents while they’re healthy, active and able to see the impact Cynthia’s gift has on students has brought the family even closer than they were already – a life lesson Cynthia describes as “priceless.”

She encourages other donors to make contributions in honor of loved ones while the individuals are still alive, rather than waiting to make a memorial gift after death. “We’ve enjoyed this so much as a family, to be able to plan the gift together and see it come to be. It means so much more to people before they are gone,” she said.

Contact:
Johnny Burleson
Associate Vice Chancellor for Development
burlesonjd@appstate.edu
828-262-4973