A lasting legacy

Mamie Jolley Bruce and Tobi Kinsell

The Greenville community recently lost a philanthropist and community leader, Mamie Jolley Bruce, whose lasting legacy has and will continue to make a difference in Greenville. Her generous gift created Furman’s Bridges to a Brighter Future, a nationally recognized program that strives to end the cycle of poverty for Greenville County high school students whose potential outdistances their circumstances. Since its inception in 1997, Bridges students have graduated from colleges all over the country, including Furman, Harvard, Duke and most of the schools in South Carolina. Tobi Kinsell, director of the Bridges program at Furman, wrote an op-ed for the Greenville Journal about the amazing legacy Bruce left behind.