Photo: A&M-Central Texas Foundation President Ronald E. Stepp, Karola Anthony, and University President Dr. Marc Nigliazzo.

Like so many others of “the greatest generation,” Karola Anthony, 93, knows what it means to have made a life for herself and her family despite the difficulties that she might have been presented with.

Born less than a decade after the conclusion of WWI, Anthony’s mother passed away a month before her first birthday. Her father, who needed to work, relied on relatives to care for her before he remarried five years later.

And she knows what it means to have worked hard throughout her life, employed as an office worker, a cleaning lady, a warehouse clerk, and eventually, a stock record clerk.

As it often did in those days, her hard working nature led her to her husband, then SGT Henry F. Anthony. A war bride in the early 1950s, they found themselves with orders to Killeen/Ft. Hood where they would live and raise their family.

And so this woman – this remarkable woman – who educated herself in accounting by attending LaSalle Extension University before the existence of online degrees, who gave birth to her second daughter on the way to the hospital on Nolanville Hill, who taught herself English by listening and reading the encyclopedia, who became a naturalized citizen in 1955, and who would eventually become the first woman auditor with the firm now Lott, Vernon and Company, P.C., CPAs, less than a decade away from 100 years old and still working, decided the time was right to use her own funds to establish an endowed scholarship at A&M-Central Texas.

A&M-Central Texas Foundation Board Chair, Ronald E. Stepp, also President at Lott, Vernon & Company, P.C., CPAs, praised Anthony’s generosity and her long history of supporting charitable giving.

“She’s legendary to the Globe Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association,” he said. “She was blazing a trail in the mid-1960’s when women in business were unheard of, and she was holding office and winning national awards for her leadership. And she never stopped. She just kept on going.”

Anthony became an enrolled agent with the U.S. Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service in the late 1980s, joining the Capital of Texas Enrolled Agents’ Chapter. More than two decades later, she still attends their meetings.

Wanonna Stallings, a long-time friend and Killeen resident, praised Anthony for her many service and leadership awards, also noting her strong character and a desire to help others.

“Karola is not only an outstanding professional woman, but a model citizen who gives to the community, family, friends, and does it with all the warmth and love any one person could possibly have. She is admired by her peers and definitely stands tall in any crowd.”

Kay Carey, A&M-Central Texas Development Officer, praised the local Globe Chapter for its role in community service and leadership and praised Ms. Anthony for her many years of service to that group. She joined in March 1965, served as treasurer, ways and means chairman, vice president, and president. She was elected the chapter’s woman of the year in 1970 and named by the national conference in 1971. She was also inducted into the Central Texas American Business Women’s Area Council’s Hall of Fame in the career field of business.

As an endowed gift, the Globe Chapter-Karola Anthony Scholarship perpetually funding, creating a $1,000 annual scholarship to an A&M-Central Texas student every year beginning the Fall 2019.

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