When Greg Coffman ’70 reflects on his time at Bridgewater College in the late 1960s, he remembers being part of a tight-knit community of hardworking students and faculty who truly cared about each other.
“Everybody knew everybody,” he says. “There was a real sense of community.”
Greg speaks especially warmly about one professor in particular—longtime biology professor and coach Dr. Harry G. “Doc” Jopson—and how Doc’s combination of support and “tough love” brought out the best in all his students. Greg shares a story about how he slacked off on his final exam for a class his senior year and Doc hauled him into his office to read him the riot act, even though the exam was for another professor’s class.
“If you were here [at BC], you had to learn. The faculty made you want to learn. It was part of the culture,” Greg remembers.
In 2018 Greg and his wife, Betty “Beeper” Coffman, established two endowed scholarships at BC—one for music and art students and one for biology students—to ensure that future generations of young people could take advantage of the same supportive educational community he had at Bridgewater.
This fall, as a result of conversations with President Dr. David Bushman and Vice President for Institutional Advancement Meg Flory Riner detailing the impact they could have on generations of students and faculty, the Coffmans made an even larger commitment to the future of BC by establishing the Greg L. and Betty P. Coffman School of Natural Sciences. They felt this would be an appropriate way to ensure their contribution has a positive, long-term effect on future BC students. Their gift will support expanded opportunities for student research in the natural sciences, faculty development, and classroom and laboratory improvements.
Greg and Beeper met when they were students at Bridgewater and James Madison University, respectively. They had a mutual friend who kept trying to set them up, but they didn’t connect until their sophomore year when Greg was hired to play folk guitar for an event at JMU. Beeper says that she had brought a date to the event, but Greg caught her eye and they managed to exchange phone numbers. Greg told a friend that night, “That’s the girl I’m going to marry.” Their first date was to Bridgewater’s Homecoming dance that fall. The couple celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary this year.
Greg majored in biology at BC and planned to be a wildlife biologist after graduation, but life moved him in another direction. He and Beeper taught in Culpeper (Va.) Public Schools for two years after graduation, then returned to Harrisonburg, Va., so that Greg could attend graduate school. Beeper continued teaching—elementary school music was her passion—and Greg worked for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for a few years before embarking on a decades-long career in the pharmaceutical sales industry. He also served on the Harrisonburg (Va.) City School Board for 20 years, where he led the establishment of the Massanutten Regional Governor’s School for Environmental Science and Technology and the Harrisonburg High School Fine Arts Academy.
Beeper taught elementary school music for four decades and was the first music teacher to receive the Virginia Governor’s Award for Excellence in Economic Education. She served as president of the Virginia Elementary Music Educators Association and chair of Virginia’s Music in our Schools Month. She was Virginia’s Elementary Music Teacher of the Year in 2001 and also authored a music teacher’s resource book for special needs and early childhood education.
Despite pursuing a career in the sciences, Greg is a fervent believer in the value of a liberal arts education. He says that the variety of classes he took at Bridgewater and the exposure he had to students from different backgrounds inspired a lifelong love of learning and prepared him for success in both his career and life. Beeper says that his time at BC also taught Greg how to “talk to anybody about anything,” a skill that helped him become one of the top pharmaceutical sales reps in the country.
“At Bridgewater you aren’t funneled into a channel and only take classes in that area,” Greg says. He rattles off the BC classes that he says expanded his world view: English, history, art appreciation, music appreciation, psychology and political science.
After retirement, Greg served as board chair of the Lifelong Learning Institute at JMU and taught classes in history, archaeology, astronomy and religion. Beeper dove into a second career in art, creating painted jewelry and cards that she sells under the name Beepers Keepers at the Virginia Quilt Museum located at Silver Lake Mill. Both keep busy reading, learning and giving back to their community.
While the couple are happy to talk about their love for Bridgewater, they deflect any questions about what their gift means for the future of the College or their legacy. They both came from working-class backgrounds and were the first in their families to graduate from college. They say they never thought they’d be able to give a gift like this and are just honored to be able to help future students.
“I’m looking forward to seeing a graduating class of students come out of the Coffman School. That’s going to feel really wonderful,” Beeper adds.
Learn more about their gift to establish the Coffman School here.
– Heather S. Cole
11/25/24
