Local dentist honors late wife with scholarships for Midlands Technical College dental students
April 17, 2017
“My wife said, ‘Don’t forget me,’” said Coogler. “With an endowed scholarship like this, she cannot be forgotten. This will help people indefinitely in the program.”
In 2015 the Midlands Technical College Foundation received $50,000 to establish the Patricia Mogel Coogler Dental Sciences Endowed Scholarship. This month, the Midlands Technical College Foundation awarded Coogler scholarships to two students in the college’s Dental Hygiene and Expanded Duty Dental Assisting programs.
Photo left to right: Coogler children Chuck Huntley and Shawn Huntley, dental hygiene student Laci Hulon, Dr. Art Coogler, expanded duty dental assisting student Amanda Hagood, and Coogler daughter Debbie Fitzmaurice.
Laci Hulon and Amanda Hagood each received $1,000 scholarships from the Foundation. The $50,000 Coogler endowment was one of the top-five one-time gifts ever received from an individual in the college’s history. Dr. Arthur C. Coogler established the endowment in memory of his late wife, Patricia. She was a certified dental assistant for more than 40 years and provided dental treatment to thousands of people from all branches of the military.
“My wife said, ‘Don’t forget me,’” said Coogler. “With an endowed scholarship like this, she cannot be forgotten. This will help people indefinitely in the program.”
The Cooglers had a connection with the Midlands Technical College dental training programs, with Patricia spending years mentoring dental assistants.
“I wanted her memory to be preserved,” said Coogler. “She spent so many years mentoring both dental assistants and dental officers. The scholarship just seemed like a perfect fit to me. We’re a dental family and an Army family. MTC is right here, and I can’t think of anything more worthy than trying to help young dental assisting students and dental hygiene students.”
For more information on MTC’s dental program visit MIDLANDSTECH.EDU/learn/academics/healthcare/dental-hygiene
About Midlands Technical College
Midlands Technical College (MTC) is a comprehensive, multi-campus, public, two-year college serving Richland, Lexington and Fairfield counties of South Carolina. The fifth-largest provider of higher education in South Carolina and the largest provider of transfer students to four-year colleges and universities in the state, MTC enrolls approximately 15,000 credit students annually. The college’s Corporate and Continuing Education program, one of the largest and most comprehensive in the Southeast, annually has 15,000 and provides continuing education to hundreds of area businesses each year. MIDLANDSTECH.EDU
