Judge declares Calverts dead

Family plans memorial -- and legacies

By JOSH McCANN - The (Hilton Head) Island Packet

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More than a year and half after John and Elizabeth Calvert disappeared, their family plans a public memorial service in Atlanta. The family also established scholarships in each of their names.

David White, Elizabeth's brother, said he hopes the service and scholarships will help the family and community honor the couple, who vanished March 3, 2008, after a meeting with a bookkeeper they suspected had stolen money from their businesses.

"Whatever has happened to them, you've got to put them to rest," White said. "We need to turn them over to God."

Images of John and Elizabeth Calvert.

- Beaufort County Sheriff’s Depart /AP

Dennis Gerwing

- File photograph /The (Hilton Head) Island Packet

CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS

The memorial service

A memorial service for John and Elizabeth Calvert will be at 2 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Northside United Methodist Church, 2799 Northside Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30305.

The scholarships

The Liz White Calvert '84 Spirit of Converse Scholarship will be awarded to full-time undergraduate students who have excelled academically; are recognized for their optimism, energy, caring, adventurous spirit, sense of fun, enthusiastic involvement in school life and the ability to motivate others; have a breadth of interests and display a strong entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen, as well as concern for the environment; and demonstrate a strong will to succeed. Preference will be given to young women who will be the first in their families to attend college and who demonstrate outstanding character, leadership potential and the promise of future contributions to society.
Donors should make checks payable to Converse College with a notation for The Liz White Calvert '84 Spirit of Converse Scholarship, or include a note containing that information and mail to:

Converse College
Office of Institutional Advancement
580 E. Main St.
Spartanburg, SC 29302-1931

Donors may also make a gift online at www.converse.edu/Giving/ecommerce_form.asp by completing the form and naming the scholarship in the Comment Section.
The John L. Calvert Memorial Scholarship will be administered by the Beta Theta Pi Foundation and awarded to Georgia Tech applicants who are in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. The scholarship is purely merit based and considers the applicant's academic achievement, chapter service and leadership, and campus service and leadership.
Donors should make checks payable and mail to:

Beta Theta Pi Foundation
c/o The John L. Calvert Memorial Scholarship
P.O. Box 6277
Oxford, OH 45056

Donors also may make a gift online at www.betathetapi.org/gift by completing the form and noting the scholarship name under "Dedication Name."

The Calverts owned the company that manages the Harbour Town Yacht Basin, two boating and water sports businesses and Harbour Town Resorts, which offers 125 villas for rent.

A judge declared them deceased Oct. 22 after a hearing in DeKalb County, Georgia, White said.

White said that day was one of the most difficult of his life.

He said he is looking forward to the service, planned for 2 p.m. Nov. 15 at Northside United Methodist Church in Atlanta. He hopes it will give the couple "some dignity they have not experienced for the last year and a half."

In lieu of flowers, the families are requesting contributions to the couple's scholarships.

One will help students at Converse College in Spartanburg, from which Liz graduated in 1984. The other will go to members of Beta Theta Pi, John's fraternity, at Georgia Tech where he was in the class of 1983.

The family decided to start the scholarships because both John and Elizabeth were committed to their alma maters and valued higher education, White said.

He said establishing the scholarships was the best way to honor the couple.

"When you know it's right, it's right," he said. "Both of those are the right things to do for them."

White said he is asking people who donated to a reward fund whether they would like their money returned or donated to the scholarship funds.

The fund of about $65,000 was created to encourage people to come forward with information about the couple's whereabouts. It was never tapped, White said.

White said the couple would be pleased the scholarships will help others.

"I think we will have done the best we can do with a terrible situation," he said.

Even though the couple has been declared deceased, Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said his investigation will continue.

Tanner said during a news conference in December that he believed Dennis Gerwing killed the missing couple. Gerwing was the chief financial officer for The Club Group, a property management and real estate firm that handled accounting for some of the Calverts' businesses. He committed suicide March 11, 2008, the day detectives publicly identified him as a "person of interest" in the case.

Gerwing is believed to be the last person to have seen the Calverts alive.

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