The Perry and Brock families have been instrumental at Virginia Wesleyan University dating back to the opening of the current campus on the Virginia Beach/Norfolk city line in 1966. Kenneth R. Perry served on the Board of Trustees of the young college and later recruited his daughter, Joan Perry Brock, to join the board during a critical period in the University’s history. Joan and her late husband Macon have been among Virginia Wesleyan’s most generous contributors providing support to a wide variety of programs and facilities. Ironically, the original 1960 Virginia Wesleyan facility, the Royster Building in downtown Norfolk, was restored by the Perrys and is now the Glass Light Hotel and Gallery on Granby Street.
Kenneth R. Perry and Macon Brock
The philanthropic support of the family can be traced to the creativity of entrepreneurs Kenneth R. Perry and Macon Brock along with Doug Perry and Ray Compton.
In 1953, K. R. Perry opened a Ben Franklin variety store in Norfolk, Virginia, which later became known as K&K 5&10. In 1970, K. R. Perry, Doug Perry, and Macon Brock started K&K Toys in Norfolk, Virginia. This mall concept grew to over 130 stores on the East Coast. In 1986, Doug Perry, Macon Brock, and Ray Compton started another chain store called Only $1.00 with five stores, one in Georgia, one in Tennessee, and three in Virginia. The expansion of dollar stores was continued alongside K&K Toys stores, mostly in enclosed malls.
On April 27, 1989, the first “Dollar Tree”-branded store opened at the Jessamine Mall in Sumter, South Carolina. In a May 1989 advertisement in the Sun-News, the fledgling chain, apparently already planning 100 stores for the eastern United States, bills the dollar-pricing model as the “hottest new shopping concept in America”.
Macon Brock died after a lengthy illness on December 9, 2017.
Joan P. Brock
A native of Norfolk, Joan Perry Brock, is a community leader and philanthropist. She graduated from Longwood University with a Bachelor of Arts in secondary education and a minor in mathematics. Fascinated by the visual arts while volunteering as a museum docent, she chose to further her education with a Master of Arts in humanities. Steadfast in her community efforts, Brock dedicates her knowledge and skills to organizations and programs that benefit culture, education, and community.
Brock served on Â鶹¾«Æ·ÊÓƵ’s President’s Advisory Council from 1996-1999 before joining the Board of Trustees. She was Chair of the Board of Trustees from 2001-2004 and was named Trustee emeritus in 2015. The University awarded her with the Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, in 2010.
The strength of Â鶹¾«Æ·ÊÓƵ today can be traced in significant ways to the leadership and support of Joan Brock. Many different aspects of the University have benefited from her genuine interest in students, programs and facilities, and from her wise consideration of how to make the University stronger. Mr. and Mrs. Brock have been important and thoughtful benefactors of the University.
The Perry and Brock families endowed the Kenneth R. Perry Deanship with now oversees the Joan P. Brock School of Mathematics and Sciences, which was chartered in 2016. The Brocks co-founded the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, which included endowing the Joan and Macon Brock Directorship. They finished off endowing the Center in 2018 and providing donor designation of the renaming as the Robert Nusbaum Center.
In the early years they endowed numerous student scholarships, provided funds for residence hall improvements, vowing athletics programs, and new innovative initiatives. The university expressed appreciative for this generosity by naming the residence hall complex as the Joan and Macon Brock Village.
In 2015 they gifted the funds to renovate Marlins Baseball Field as Kenneth R. Perry Field. In 2017, the Brocks supported the construction of the Susan S. Goode Fine and Performing Arts Center, which includes the Joan and Macon Brock Theatre. In 2019, she provided the funds for Brock Commons, including the Boyd Dining Hall. In 2023, she teamed with Jane Batten and David and Susan Goode to fund the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art at Â鶹¾«Æ·ÊÓƵ building with construction concluding in late 2025.
Mrs. Brock’s service and commitment to Â鶹¾«Æ·ÊÓƵ continues a long family tradition. Her uncle, Douglas McIntyre, served as the College’s first registrar and was a member of the faculty for 25 years. Her father, Kenneth R. Perry, served on the Board of Trustees until his death in 2004 and was awarded the Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, in 2002.
Devoted to her Hampton Roads community, she and her husband, Macon, established the M. Foscue Brock Institute for Community and Global Health at Eastern Virginia Medical School and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Brock Environmental Center in Virginia Beach. The Brocks have received many commendations for their commitment to giving back. Most recently, they were recognized as 2014 Health Care Heroes for their participation in health-related philanthropy by Inside Business and were honored as Outstanding Philanthropists by the National Board of American Fundraising Professionals in 2015.
She has also chaired the Board of the ACCESS College Foundation and was the first woman to preside over the Chrysler Museum Board. She’s served on the Sentara Board of Directors since 2006 and has led the Sentara Foundation-Hampton Roads Committee since 2007. Mrs. Brock is also a member of the National Board of the United Way Women’s Leadership Council.
Joan Brock served for many years in an administrative role at Dollar Tree Stores, Inc. and K & K Toys. She and Macon were married for over 50 years before he passed away. They have three children and six grandchildren.