If you don’t know much about Folds of Honor (or even if you do), you should probably listen to Wesley Bauguess’ story.
A Gold Star wife, Bauguess has been part of the organization’s Speakers Bureau for more than 15 years. She is grateful to Folds of Honor on several levels, including the support it provided for her children’s education. But perhaps most importantly, the organization gave her and her family hope after she lost her husband, Army Major Larry J. Bauguess Jr., in Pakistan in 2007.
“When I’m speaking, yes, the scholarships are tangible investments in the children and spouses, but secondary is they just gave me motivation to just keep going,” said Bauguess, who served as an Army officer herself, including five years on active duty and five years in the Reserve. “It’s always wonderful to have an organization think about our veterans and our first responders, who go out every day and serve our communities, and put themselves in harm’s way every single day.
“We still have people deployed far away from their families. I think people sometimes don’t realize that.”
Founded in 2007 by Lt Col Dan Rooney, an F-16 fighter pilot and PGA professional, Folds of Honor is a nonprofit organization that provides educational scholarships to the spouses and children of military members and first responders who have been killed or disabled in the line of duty. Since its founding, the organization has awarded nearly 86,000 scholarships, including nearly 13,000 scholarships and $60 million for 2026-27 academic year.
The organization’s connection to golf continues through partnerships with companies such as SuperStroke, the No. 1 putter grip in golf and a leader in innovative, Tour-proven grip technology. SuperStroke designed and sells a custom-designed Folds of Honor grip through its website, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting Folds of Honor.
Bauguess, who played three years of golf at Appalachian State University, where she also earned her Army commission through the ROTC program, sees the grip as a fitting tribute to patriotism and service.
“The grip is beautiful, and it’s got red, white and blue. It’s perfect,” said Bauguess, who also authored God, Country, Golf: Reflections of an Army Widow. “It's a perfect blend of patriotism and honoring the sacrifice of those willing to protect us and provide the freedoms that we have. And it pairs it with golf, which is just awesome. Everything I’m passionate about.”
To understand why Bauguess is so passionate about the organization, it helps to know her story.
Her husband, Larry, also came through the ROTC program at Appalachian State. He received his commission in July 1993. In 1997, he was deployed to Saudi Arabia and later served in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
On May 14, 2007, Major Bauguess, then serving with the 82nd Airborne Division, his commander and other members of his unit attended a peace meeting in a tribal region of Pakistan. Despite the meeting's success, as the group departed, a uniformed Pakistani Frontier Guardsman opened fire on them. Major Bauguess placed himself between the shooter and his men, saving their lives but giving his own.
Wesley Bauguess and the couple’s daughters, Ryann and Ellie, who were just 6 and 4 years old, respectively, were devastated. In the early days, she said, she could manage only five minutes at a time. Then an hour. Then a day, a week, until eventually she could begin thinking about the future.
“I wasn’t an Army spouse anymore,” said Bauguess, who had previously led the Family Readiness Group for her husband's unit. “I could sort of find a path to volunteering through a Wounded Warrior program at Walter Reed Hospital, but it was just very different. I won’t say it was equally painful, but it was that secondary pain of, like, now what am I? Now what can I do?”
Not long afterward, Bauguess attended a conference in Nashville. During a concert, Folds of Honor called the family onto the stage and presented the girls with scholarships to help fund their future college educations. It was there that she first met Rooney and began to understand the organization's mission.
“The early support from Folds of Honor helped immensely,” she said.
But the support didn't stop there. Folds of Honor also helped pay for the girls' private school education in the Raleigh, N.C., area when Ellie was in seventh grade and Ryann was in ninth grade.
“What that did for us is allow them to go to school in a safe environment. For us, I felt like that was even more important because these girls lost their dad at such a young age and had such a huge life change they shouldn’t have had.”
Ryann, now 26, went on to earn a fine arts degree from Belmont University in Nashville. She now travels the country working at film festivals and shooting films and photographs. Ellie, 24, graduated from Liberty University with a nursing degree and now works in cardiac/thoracic surgery. She is also married, and in a full-circle twist, her husband, Trevor Grimm, is an assistant coach for the boys golf team at North Raleigh Christian Academy in Raleigh.
And who is the head coach there? You guessed it: Wesley Bauguess.
She also teaches a leadership class and works as an assistant in the school's Admissions and Academic Advising office.
“Now I work at that school where they graduated from,” said Bauguess, noting that Folds of Honor also helped her land the position. “It’s really cool.”
In her leadership class, she talks about Larry every day. Her students, most of whom are 14 or 15 years old, never tire of hearing his story.
“It’s been nearly 20 years since we lost him, but we still talk about him and share his stories,” she said. “Larry was a warrior. He was a fighter, he was a protector, and at the same time, he was a tenderhearted father. He was an amazing dad, a Christian, a Southern gentleman. He set a great example for others to follow. The kind of leader who never asked his men to do anything he wouldn’t do.”
About Folds of Honor
Folds of Honor is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that provides educational scholarships to the spouses and children of US military service members and first responders who have fallen or been disabled while serving our country and communities.
Our educational scholarships support private school tuition or tutoring in grades K-12, tuition for college, technical or trade school and post-graduate work, including a master’s degree, doctorate, or professional program. Funds for a second bachelor’s degree or trade/technical program certification are also available. Since its inception in 2007, Folds of Honor has awarded nearly 86,000 scholarships totaling nearly $400 million in all 50 states. Among the students served, 44 percent are minorities and 59 percent female. A total of 91 percent of expenses fund our mission of providing educational scholarships to the families of our nation’s heroes. T
he foundation will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2027 and has established a goal of 100,000 total scholarships. It is rated a four-star charity by Charity Navigator and Platinum on Candid. It was founded by Lt Col Dan Rooney, the only-ever F-16 fighter pilot (with three combat tours in Iraq) and PGA Professional. He is serving as Commander of Recruiting for the Oklahoma Air Guard. For more information or to donate in support of a Folds of Honor scholarship visit foldsofhonor.org.
