The John M. Belk Education Endowment has given Davidson College $7 million to help support the Belk Scholarship Program, which the college says its its most prestigious scholarship program.

Since the program started in 1994, 60 students have graduated Davidson as Belk Scholars. The scholarships cover tuition, fees, room and board, plus two summer stipends of $3,000 each to support students’ “intellectual, personal, and leadership development”

The recently arrived class of 2014 has four Belk Scholars. The $7 million gift will allow the college to fund eight Belk Scholars per year beginning with the Class of 2015. That restores the program to where it was before the economic downturn took a bite out of endowment values, the college said.

Davidson said the Belk Endowment gift will be paid over seven years beginning in December.

The late John M. Belk graduated from Davidson in 1943, and went on to become a business and civic leader in Charlotte. He died in 2007. Claudia Watkins Belk, his wife, said in an announcement Tuesday: “We are proud to be able to provide this additional support for the John M. Belk Scholarships at Davidson College. This program was always very important to John and to me, and my family wants to bring more of the nation’s most accomplished students to Davidson.”

See the official announcement and read more about the scholarship program and Belk Scholars on the college website.