Davidson College said Tuesday it will use a $1.7 million bequest from a longtime trustee and his wife to create a new pre-tenure professorship and an endowed scholarship.

The gift came from the late Mason Wallace, a 1942 Davidson graduate and a longtime Davidson trustee as well as a Mecklenburg County commissioner, and his late wife Nancy. He died in 2008, she died in 2006. Their family has designed the funds to create the new J. Mason and Nancy Wallace Professorship and Wallace Family Scholarship.

Mr. Wallace was a lifelong college supporter, serving as a trustee, a member of the college’s Board of Visitors, and a volunteer fund-raiser for Davidson Friends of the Arts, the Campaign for Davidson, the Visual Arts Center and the Ne Ultra Society.

In Charlotte, besides serving on the county commission, he also was a trustee of the Charlotte Symphony, Charlotte Country Day School, and Sharon Towers. He was president of the East Mecklenburg Corp. and president of the J.M. Wallace Land Co.

He was a lifelong member of Sardis Presbyterian Church, where he served as Deacon and Elder.

The Wallaces had four children: Kay Hodges, Sally Wallace, John M. Wallace III, and Trudy Morgan, and the family has many ties to Davidson.

Davidson said it will use the new professorship to attract talented new tenure-track faculty members. Once the Wallace Professor receives tenure, usually after 7 years, the professorship will be offered to another beginning faculty member. “That rotation will allow the Dean of the Faculty to name, over time, Wallace Professors in a variety of fields,” the college said in a press release.

Davidson President Tom Ross said the professorship could help the college lure top early-career faculty who may have competing job offers from other top schools.

The new scholarship will be part of the Davidson Trust, the college’s financial aid program that helps students graduate without loans. The college said it has raised more than $56 million for the program since 2007. College officials have said in the past that they eventually hope to raise $70 million to fund the program.

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