A Legacy Is Taking Shape
One student’s CA story began more than 70 years ago. Its impact is still unfolding today.
Don Auter walked the halls of Collegedale Academy more than 70 years ago.
He was a student here from 1952 to 1955. He learned here. He built relationships here. And then, like generations of students after him, he left CA and stepped into whatever came next.
But he never forgot this place.
More than six decades later, Don made a decision that would connect his CA story to students he would never meet.
He included Collegedale Academy in his will.
The resulting $1.3 million estate gift was extraordinary in size, but perhaps even more meaningful was what Don hoped it would accomplish. He was clear: he wanted his gift to create something lasting. Something permanent. Something that would continue serving students for generations.
Today, that legacy is beginning to take shape.
You Asked. We Listened.
For years, CA had been hearing a consistent message from parents and volunteers: portions of the high school gym, locker room and restroom facilities needed attention.
These spaces serve students every day, but their reach extends much further. Visiting schools come through them. Alumni return to them. Families gather around them. The gym hosts athletics, graduation, Alumni Weekend, music events and other moments that bring the CA community together.
And CA wanted the spaces welcoming those people to reflect the same care and excellence it strives to provide everywhere else.
“We want to have excellence here,” Head of School Brent Baldwin shared. “Not just academic and spiritual excellence…we also take pride in how we care for our things.”
Listening mattered. But responding to a need of this size required an opportunity, and Don’s generosity helped create one.
Some Places Become Part of Your Story.
Ask CA alumni what they remember about these spaces, and chances are they won’t begin by talking about the building.
They’ll tell you what happened there.
For Nora Moody, whose four daughters’ years at CA spanned more than two decades, there were music performances, games, tournaments, school plays, the Sandy Erickson race, graduation and countless hours volunteering alongside other families.
Eventually, CA became something more.
“CA became our family, became our home,” she remembers.
For alumni Joby Nash, home games meant playing in front of classmates, friends and family. Some of the relationships formed through athletics remain among his closest friendships today.
For Mattie Sue Nafie, there are memories of basketball and tennis, teammates braiding one another’s hair before games, teachers and coaches who cared deeply, and a community that still feels like home when she returns today.
The details are different, but the thread is the same: Places matter because of the people and experiences we attach to them.
Making Room for What’s Next
Those memories also make the opportunity ahead meaningful.
Joby remembers learning as a student that an upcoming tournament wouldn’t be held at CA because the school didn’t have the capacity to host it well.
His immediate reaction: Why not here?
“This is my home gym.”
Today, he’s excited to see that changing.
And he’s not simply watching from a distance. Joby has returned to help with CA basketball, investing in current students through the same program that helped shape him.
Mattie Sue has done something similar, returning as an assistant tennis coach because, as she puts it, she wants “to invest in the kids the way that I felt invested in.”
That’s legacy, too.
One generation receiving something meaningful and choosing to carry it forward.
And now, because Don Auter remembered what CA meant to him more than six decades later, another generation is about to experience these familiar spaces in an entirely new way.
Construction is underway on improvements to the locker rooms and restrooms, creating spaces designed to better welcome and serve students, families, alumni, visiting schools and the broader CA community.
The finished spaces aren’t quite ready to show you yet, but they will be soon.
In many ways, this is what it means to be Rooted. Ready. Reaching.
Rooted in the people, faith and experiences that have shaped generations of CA students.
Ready to care well for the opportunities and resources entrusted to us.
And Reaching forward to the students and families who will write the next chapter.
One extraordinary legacy is helping shape what’s next at Collegedale Academy.
Come see what it’s making possible.
Reveal & Dedication
October 8 | 3:30–5:00 PM