The Developer

A native of Florence, F. Howard DeBerry, businessman and realtor, developed several residential areas of the city. As a civic leader, he served on numerous local endeavors including the committee which identified a land tract for the establishment of the USC-Florence campus which became today’s Francis Marion University. That feat became a reality in 1960 when 100 acres of farmland in Mars Bluff were donated for the school. Today, the School of Business at FMU will continue to grow in this developer’s name, thanks to a generous donation from his wife, Kathleen, and their children.

Kathleen Lazar Baskin, now 104 years young, recently established the F. Howard DeBerry Business Endowed Scholarship. With the assistance of their three daughters: Kathleen Brungard of Charlotte, N.C., Dr. Jacquelyn Odell of Chapin, S.C., and Maria Clayton of Springfield, VA, $100,000 was pledged to the FMU Education Foundation to provide annual support for students majoring in business who demonstrate financial need.

“I’ve done some other [philanthropic] things. I decided, in talking with the girls, that we certainly needed to honor my first husband and their father, Howard,” Ms. Baskin said. “We decided the most appropriate would be a scholarship fund at FMU within the School of Business, as his professional interest had been in that field.”

After Howard DeBerry’s sudden death in 1965, Kathleen carried on the residential development business they had built together.

“I worked with him,” she said. “I was his wife, the mother of his children, his secretary, his treasurer, his partner, and so when he passed away, I just continued on with the business.”

In 1967, Kathleen married Ed Baskin and moved to Bishopville, S.C., while managing her real estate interests in Florence. In 2009, she returned to Florence, residing at The Manor and focusing on her philanthropic interests.

Among a long list of philanthropic efforts, Ms. Baskin established “Rick’s House” on the grounds of The Manor. It provides round-the-clock care for four men with special needs. Rick (Frederick Howard DeBerry, Jr.) was her eldest child, a son with special needs, who died at the age of 31.

Due to her life’s work in real estate development, Ms. Baskin has been privileged to have a front row seat to history and events that very well could have changed the landscape of both Francis Marion University and the City of Florence. She remembers that the search committee on which Howard DeBerry served initially looked at land on the southwest side of Florence near South Cashua Road for the USC-Florence campus. Today, the campus sits on land generously donated by the families of Walter G. and J.W. Wallace.

According to Ms. Baskin, the area where FMU resides became the best place for the institution. Its current location aside, she said the impact FMU has had on the Pee Dee cannot be underestimated.

“It’s one of the best things that’s happened around this area,” she said. “Look at all these people. They had no chance of getting an advanced education in this whole Pee Dee area. Just think of all the people that have graduated from college because of FMU.”

She loves the reasonable tuition, the growth of the campus and programs, and the university’s mission to educate first-generation college students. And now, she, along with her daughters, is thankful to play a part in the education of students studying in FMU’s School of Business through this endowment in memory of her late husband.

“I’m very proud of it,” she said.

Note: The family is grateful for any and all continued donations made to the F. Howard DeBerry Business Endowed Scholarship.