Historic preservation projects to benefit from new grant funding honoring Audrey L. Driver
Audrey Driver lived most of her adult life away from her childhood home in northern Rockingham County, but she never forgot about her Shenandoah Valley roots.
Audrey L. Driver on the family farm north of Timberville with her pet skunks. She would go on to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and a distinguished career in psychiatric social services. Despite living most of her life in northern Virginia, she always retained strong ties to her Valley home and family history. (Photo courtesy of the family)
They were strong and grounded, woven from fond memories and family history. Don Driver, her nephew, and Becky Driver, her niece, recall their aunt’s stories of climbing the hill as a youngster, finding just the right apple in the orchard, and enjoying it while watching cows graze in the pasture.
Audrey too was fascinated by how Anabaptists in the Valley, some of them her ancestors, steered a careful course between incursions of Union and Confederate troops.
“Every family with a barn still intact from ‘The Burning’ has a story to tell about how that happened, Audrey included,” Don said. “She really enjoyed learning about that history and that family history.”
View the Driver home and barn on the National Historic Register’s website.
After Audrey Driver’s death at age 101 in 2024, the siblings were entrusted with a tall task. The result is of historic proportion itself. The recently established Historic Preservation Fund at The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham (TCFHR) honors her love of local history, genealogy, and education.
Executive Director Revlan Hill says the fund is the first among more than 350 managed by the foundation to specifically support historic preservation. “Working with Don and Becky as they described their aunt’s wishes and interests was a really wonderful process. They were thoughtful and careful but also creative in their approach, as they knew she would want them to be.”
Organizations can apply starting July 1; the application closes Sept. 1. The grant is open to nonprofits working in historic preservation with a focus upon the history of the Shenandoah Valley.
Learn more about TCFHR grants.
The first award will total about $20,000. Subsequent years, as much as $60,000 will be available.
The grants committee, which includes members of the Driver family and other community residents knowledgeable about local history, will review applications in the fall and make a decision by November.
“I know this particular committee is looking forward to seeing this first round of applicants,” said Ann Siciliano, senior director of scholarships and grants. “The Driver fund has the potential to make a significant difference in local projects devoted to preserving and sharing our Valley history.”
The foundation manages an annual application process for several other community grants, each with a specific restriction on the area of the support as prescribed by the donor.
The Driver barn, circa 1839, still stands on family property, a rare survivor of Union General Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864. (National Historic Register)
Audrey Driver would be “so pleased” by how her bequest turned out, Becky said. “She told us generally what she wanted but really left the specifics to us.”
“The what was never an issue. The how was the challenge,” Don added. “Working with the Community Foundation became a logical and clear option, in part because of their connections already established with local organizations. Funding an endowment there all from which different nonprofit organizations supporting history and culture could be supported. She would be tickled, I’m sure.”
Audrey Driver was one of six siblings, the oldest daughter with a streak of independence from an early age. One family photograph shows the young Audrey posing nonchalantly with three pets, skunks Mertie, Gertie, and Squirty. So bright that she graduated from high school early, Audrey joined the Marines during World War II, serving in California. The GI Bill helped her graduate from Bridgewater College, and she went on to a long career as a psychiatric social worker, starting in Charlottesville but eventually making her home in northern Virginia.
She lived for 56 years in an apartment in Fairfax, packed with books. A lifelong reader with eclectic taste, she devoured academic treatises on the theory of psychology along with murder mysteries and narratives of history.
Don and Becky say that their aunt would be especially pleased that the fund is endowed. That means a distribution from the invested funds can support organizations this year — and for years in the future.
“We think she’d be very happy with this, to know that this support could go on forever and impact future generations,” Don said.
