Germanna Community College recently honored a Culpeper couple for their long-term support of the school and giving of more than $1 million. Below are the details released by the college.

CULPEPER PHILANTHROPISTS JOE AND LINDA DANIEL HONORED BY GERMANNA 

Philanthropists Joe and Linda Daniel were inducted into the Germanna President’s Circle Legacy Level Friday at the GCC Joseph R. Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper as hundreds of GCC faculty and staff members looked on.The Culpeper couple has donated a total of $1.8 million to the college.

During GCC’s professional development College Learning Day, Germanna President David A. Sam announced the Daniels were receiving the honor, awarded for cumulative lifetime giving in excess of $1 million. They are only the second and third persons to receive the honor. The first was Rose Bente’ Lee Ostapenko, who donated the land for the Daniel Center, which opened in 2006.

Joe Daniel has served as a Germanna Community College Foundation Board member for more than 20 years. The couple has been a driving force behind GCC’s Monte Carlo Casino Night scholarship fundraiser event for 18 years.  It has raised over $1 million for Germanna Guarantee Program scholarships.

Joe and Linda Daniel have been leaders in the “Drop It ! Healthy Living Weight Loss Challenge,” developing the vision for the program in partnership with Culpeper Regional Health System and the Powell Wellness Center, and contributing $50 per pound for every pound lost during the challenge.  They have given nearly $160,000 thus far to the GCC Educational Foundation for GCC Nursing and Allied Health Program development and scholarships.

“Joe and Linda Daniel have been extremely generous with their donations for many, many years,” Dr. Sam said. “But beyond that, they have given much of their time and energy recruiting other donors, helping with events and rolling up their sleeves to make things happen. Without their money and time, our technology center could not have been built. We will be eternally grateful.”

Joe Daniel’s personal story explains his dedication to the community college.

He said he was a mediocre student in high school, then had a hard time when he started college.

“I was not what you would call a stellar student by any stretch of the imagination,” Daniel said. “In 1962, I struggled at East Carolina College. So I began attending a University of Virginia Extension School in Madison County. It was the equivalent of what today would be called a community college.”

For Daniel, it was a bridge to the McIntyre School of Business at UVa, which prepared him to succeed with his business, Jefferson Homebuilders Inc.

That led to his decision to become involved with Germanna in the 1980s.

“I understood the mission; I understood the importance,” Daniel said.” My initial intent was to create a Germanna scholarship for a student who may have a financial challenge or another issue we don’t even dream of. When I realized the Foundation then had no endowment and no employees, my wife Linda and I became involved.”