Aline & Alice Spell Scholarship in the Sciences

The following biography was written at the time of this scholarship establishment; some information may not be up to date:

Alice Spell Weinstein created this scholarship to honor her mother, Aline Hobbs Spell, a farm housewife whose Scottish forebearers date back to 18th century North Carolina. Her hard work and frugal management of family resources allowed her to realize her dream of sending her daughter off to college.

Alice Spell graduated from Woman’s College (now UNC Greensboro) in 1957 with a degree in chemistry. She moved to Durham with several friends after graduation to take a job at Duke University as a lab assistant. At the urging of some former classmates, Alice moved to New York City to find fame and fortune. She gained employment with Shell Chemical Corp. and worked as a technical librarian for five years. During her time in NYC, she met and married Elliott Weinstein, a native New Yorker. They celebrated their 46th anniversary in Feb 2007. Their children were all born in the 1960s. By the 1970s, Alice began seeking new challenges, and in the 1980s, she began her new career as an alcoholism counselor and worked in the field of substance abuse rehabilitation for five years. At age 55, she earned a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University and continued working in substance abuse and psychiatric counseling until she retired in 2001. Alice and her husband now spend time with their three children and four grandchildren between New York and Florida. They also travel the world and have visited every continent except Antarctica. She has wonderful memories of her time spent at Woman’s College and wants to encourage students to pursue the sciences with the same vigor she did as an undergraduate.