Honoring Excellence: New Accounting Scholarship Celebrates Deborah Hooper’s GTCC Roots

“Deborah Hooper’s path began at GTCC — and now her legacy will uplift generations of accounting students through a new scholarship established in her memory by her husband, Jim.”

Jim and Deborah Hooper’s first conversation lasted 90 minutes. Their love lasted a lifetime.

“I was in awe,” Jim said of that first conversation with his future wife in the mid-1980s. That awe, he said “grew — and not just a little bit.”

Deborah, a Guilford Technical Community College graduate, passed away in January after a battle with cancer. Jim has honored her with the Deborah Lynn Hooper Accounting Scholarship which will provide financial assistance to GTCC accounting students annually.

“Her path — the foundation for it — was laid at GTCC,” said Jim. “The fondness and the reverence she had for GTCC’s mission to enable people to either be educated for the first time or get re-educated for another profession was remarkable.”

Deborah enrolled in GTCC’s accounting program in 1975 and graduated in 1977. She had a long and successful career in the Triad and spent more than 25 years with WFMY-TV, first as controller and the final 16 years as the station’s president. After leaving WFMY, she served as the chief operating officer of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce until she stepped down for health reasons in 2023.

“To see everything come together in her career, and in her last career, to see her pursue her passions for community and interact with GTCC, she helped me with my awareness of GTCC,” said Jim.

Deborah and Jim, also a Certified Public Accountant, were married in 1988, shortly after she began work at WFMY. The couple have two children, Lauren, born in 1992, and Adrienne, born in 1995. They have one grandchild, Lauren’s son Leland, who was born in 2024.

To be eligible for the Deborah Lynn Hooper Accounting Scholarship, a student must have a GPA of at least 2.0 and be enrolled part time or full time in the accounting program at GTCC, working toward either a diploma or degree program.

“This is the best thing, in my mind, how to honor this life that was gone too soon,” Jim said of the scholarship. “Deborah was so sincere about the meaning in her work and wanted to do anything and everything she could do to help people — not only to find their purpose, but to find their path. I think this is perfect for that.”

The first Deborah Lynn Hooper Accounting Scholarship will be awarded in fall 2026. Contributions to the scholarship fund may be made by visiting: gtcc.edu/give.