Brenna Lee LawrenceJuly 14, 1979 to April 14, 2004 Brenna was a 1997 Page HS graduate and 2002 graduate of Catawba College earning a Bachelor of Science degree in biology with minors in religion and philosophy. She graduated as a member of two honor societies: Beta Beta Beta (“Tri Beta”), a national honor and professional society for biology students, of which she was the 2000-2001 president of the Southeastern Region; and Phi Epsilon, an honorary scholastic society. She was listed in “Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges” in 2000. Brenna served as a valuable member of the College Honor Court and the History Department’s best all-time work study student. In 2001 she won an award for her senior research project, which she presented at the 62nd annual meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists. While attending Catawba College she was a member of the Omwake-Dearborn Chapel Choir and also served on the cheerleading squad. Everything Brenna accomplished was driven by her passion for achieving excellence. She had several auto-immune diseases, including: Polymyositis, Raynaud’s, Fibromyalgia, IBS, Mixed Connective Tissue Disorder and other ailments. She was taking autoimmune suppressive medications and steroids for almost 5 years. These were not life threatening diseases, but left her vunerable to other diseases. Brenna had a surgery to remove a pyonidal cyst. Evidence suggests and we believe that she contracted a surgical site infection (SSI) from that minor surgery and passed away on April 14th, 2004. Brenna was 24 years old. Her birthday is on July 14th. Catawba College in Salisbury, NC and all the staff went above and beyond ordinary measures to make Brenna’s life at Catawba easier and more comfortable. Without this extraordinary effort by Catawba, Brenna would not have been able to graduate. We would like to reward other deserving Catawba students by offering a scholarship fund to be administered by Catawba College. All of the proceeds of this benefit will go to Catawba College. Dr. Ken Clapp will be recording the proceeds and setting up the scholarship fund. click here to donate to the Brenna Lee Lawrence Catawba Scholarship Fund If you have photos that you wish to share, please forward them to Brent or Jackie. |