Nancy Britton Shelton ’68 spent four decades helping generations of Longwood alumni stay connected to their alma mater. But her own commitment to giving back began long before she had the means to do so herself.
When the longtime former alumni director graduated from Longwood and began her first job as a juvenile probation officer, her salary left little room for anything beyond the necessities.
“You couldn’t do much, even then, on $5,000 a year,” she recalled. “I don’t think social workers ate much.”
But Shelton’s parents, particularly her mother, Sue Yeaman Britton ’34, had instilled in her the importance of supporting the institutions and causes that mattered to her. And when Shelton was just starting out, her mother stepped in to ensure her daughter—the third generation in her family to earn a Longwood degree—remained connected to the university through philanthropy.
“My mother would contribute in my name every year until I could take it on myself, because she wanted me to have that record and get in the habit of giving,” Shelton recalled.
It was an early lesson in the power of connection—and one that would shape Shelton’s relationship with Longwood for decades to come. After all, giving back became both a personal commitment and professional calling. She spent 41 years as Longwood’s alumni director, helping generations of graduates maintain their connection to the university and encouraging them to invest in its future.
Now, Shelton is extending that legacy in a significant way by establishing the Nancy Britton Shelton ’68 Endowed Chair of History as part of Longwood’s university-wide endowed professorship initiative. The initiative brought together 10 donors and raised millions of dollars to support and strengthen the university’s faculty, including through a matching gift from Joan Perry Brock ’64.
Shelton’s gift will provide annual support for the scholarly work of the chair of Longwood’s Department of History, Political Science and Philosophy. It is an investment in a discipline that helped shape her own career and that she believes is essential to understanding the world today.
“History gave me my start, and I do love history,” she said.
Shelton graduated from Longwood as a history and social science major, though much of her coursework was in sociology, which was housed in the history department at the time. After working for a few years and earning a master’s degree, she returned to Longwood in 1972 to teach in the newly formed sociology department. Then, in 1974, she was named Longwood’s first full-time alumni director—a position she held until her retirement in 2015.
“When Henry Willett was president, he took a chance on me and hired me as alumni director,” she said. “I loved the job. It was the most wonderful job you could ever have.”
Over those four decades Shelton helped generations of graduates stay connected to their alma mater. She was involved in Longwood’s fundraising campaigns and regularly accompanied gift officers on visits with alumni and university supporters. Those experiences gave her a firsthand understanding of the many ways philanthropy can strengthen an institution—and of how a donor’s generosity can be amplified through a matching challenge.
“I probably have a better understanding than most alumni directors do because of that arrangement,” she said. “I was involved in all the campaigns that we did during my time. I understood giving—the ways of giving and the importance of challenges. I got to know Joan Brock through that process.”
Brock’s matching gift opportunity was particularly compelling to Shelton, whose decision to endow a professorship also came down to the reach of the investment. Scholarships, she knows firsthand, can change individual students’ lives. Her own family has a longstanding tradition of supporting one at Longwood. But investing in faculty can have an even broader impact.
“Giving toward a scholarship helps one or two students, which is great,” she said. “Giving to support and retain strong faculty members benefits a lot more students.”
The endowed professorship also appealed to Shelton because of her enduring belief in the value of a close-knit campus community—and in the caring faculty who make the Longwood experience distinctive.
At a smaller institution, you’re not a number. The professors know you. You really get to know people.
Nancy Britton Shelton '68
“At a smaller institution, you’re not a number. The professors know you,” she said. “You may go to their house and eat dinner. You may even get to know their families because you could babysit for them. You really get to know people.”
Shelton believes that kind of personal connection, combined with strong faculty, helps students develop skills and confidence that will serve them long after graduation. That is especially true in history, a subject Shelton believes has an urgent role to play in helping people make sense of the present.
“I think what we’re seeing in our world today is in no small part related to the fact that people don’t know or remember history. They haven’t learned from history,” she said. “There are so many things that are repeating themselves that should never repeat themselves. I think it’s important that people understand the lessons that history can teach us.”
An endowed chair, she hopes, will help ensure Longwood students continue to learn from accomplished faculty who bring both deep knowledge and a passion for their discipline into the classroom.
The gift also builds on a family tradition of giving that Shelton has worked to carry forward. Her parents established a scholarship at Longwood that remains active today, with financial support from Shelton and her daughters. They make their contributions each year on her mother's birthday, a meaningful way to honor the woman who first taught Shelton what it meant to give back.
That sense of legacy is woven throughout Shelton’s relationship with Longwood. She has spent much of her life strengthening the connections between the university and the people who believe in its mission. She is particularly known for her leadership in establishing the Maugans Alumni Center, a lasting home for the alumni community she spent her career cultivating.
Now, through the endowed chair bearing her name, Shelton is helping shape another part of Longwood’s future. She is grateful to Brock and to the other donors who embraced the endowed professorship initiative, recognizing the collective impact their generosity can have.
“It’s a multiplying effect,” she said. “The impact will have a ripple effect.”