Register, who now lives in Pinehurst, grew up on her family’s dairy farm north of Denton in Davidson County. She says the scholarship is “a fitting memorial to my parents, because they did their 4-H work in the Northwest District, and they would be supportive of helping 4-H’ers go to college. My mother and daddy were so supportive of the 4-H activities that my sister, Nancy, and I took part in — and everyone else’s, too! They were volunteer leaders and had their own club, even after I’d gone away to school.”

Register’s own 4-H experience likewise influenced her decision to create the scholarship.

“I was a 4-H’er always,” she says. “4-H expanded my horizons beyond Denton Elementary School and kept me in touch with 4-H’ers in the whole county. My husband, Roy, was also a 4-H’er as a child and has fond memories of 4-H camp.”

Register attended Women’s College, which became UNC-Greensboro, where she got her bachelor’s degree in home economics. Then, through intra-institutional studies, she got her master’s in adult education from N.C. State University, with a minor from UNC-G in housing. “I became a 4-H agent in Guilford County the day I graduated from college in 1955,” she says.

She served as assistant agent in Guilford for four years and then home economics agent in Forsyth County for seven and a half years. Following that, she was based at N.C. State University as a district home economics agent and then was district program leader, until she retired in 1988.

The establishment of the Crouse scholarship is now the latest among continued activities in support of 4-H.

The first Crouse Scholarship recipient is Laura Pugh, a Northwest District 4-H member from Alleghany County. That award, Register reports, is just the beginning: “I recently heard from the district that more 4-H’ers had applied for the scholarship than usually apply, so I’m glad to say it has increased interest.”