Edgar and Clara Coryell spent the majority of their married life in Benson, MN. Clara was a teacher and the couple instilled the value of education in their three daughters, Grace Coryell Walls, Edith Coryell Erdman, and Alice Coryell Lee Nelson. All three daughters graduated from Benson High School and all three became teachers just as their mother had been.
Grace met Richard Walls during World War Il through her uncle in Seattle, Washington. They were married in the Little Brown Church on August 22, 1947. Richard, who was born in Frankfort, Kansas in 1923, served in the army during the War stationed in France and was a part of the Normandy Invasion. Both he and Grace proudly attended the 50-year commemoration of that battle in France.
A few years after the war ended, he and Grace moved to Seattle, Washington, and ended up spending the rest of their lives there. Grace taught school at the elementary level, attained her master’s degree in elementary education, and taught teaching method courses at a local college. Richard worked as a foreman in a fiberboard company. Their great love was travel, both nationally and internationally.
Grace and Richard were generous in the disposition of their estates, establishing endowed scholarships in both of their hometowns, named for their respective parents and themselves. Perhaps it was their way of leaving a legacy for the children that they never had.
The Edgar Coryell, Clara Coryell, Grace Walls and Richard Walls Fund was established by the family of Coryell and Walls to help graduates of Benson High School pursue post-secondary education at an accredited four-year college or university, vocational or trade school.