Mr. Charles A. Townsend was vitally interested in the education and career opportunities available to young people in our community. He was the founder of the Paideia Educational Foundation, Inc., which he viewed as a vehicle to promote better education in better lives in West Virginia and beyond. Paideia is an educational reform movement based on student-centered learning. Paideia principles prescribe a school culture that challenges and nurtures all students in an open and democratic way. The mission of the Paideia Educational Foundation, Inc., was to "Promote and build a superior educational and workforce skills system for all members of our society."
At the time of Mr. Townsend's passing, family and friends decided that they could best honor Mr. Townsend's lifelong interest in education and the betterment of society by establishing a fund to benefit students in need of financial assistance in order to pursue a career in teaching, so they created the Charles A. Townsend Scholarship Fund to provide scholarship support to area students pursuing teaching careers.
