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Thursday, when he handed Morris College a check for $10 million during a jubilant midday program on campus, students, faculty and staff learned they were that collective somebody.
"This is one of the four greatest milestones in the 100 years of existence for Morris College," said Luns C. Richardson, who has served as Morris' president since 1972.
Richardson put Jackson's gift -- which will be used in a variety of areas, including scholarship endowment and dormitory construction and repair -- on par with the college's founding in 1908, its accreditation in 1978 and its membership four years later in the United Negro College Fund, a national fundraising organization that assists students attending historically black colleges and universities.
Jackson himself seemed as pleased to be giving the money as Morris officials were to be receiving it.
"I thank God for this day," he said to a packed auditorium crowd. "This is a day that the Lord has made, and I'm going to rejoice and be glad in it."
The $10 million is not only the largest individual donation in Morris College history, it is, in another sense, one of the most noteworthy in state history as well, given the size of Jackson's fortune and the manner of the gift.
If school officials follow through on their promise to use the money as Jackson has directed, Morris College -- a cash-strapped, historically black college in Sumter affiliated with the Baptist Church -- would be transformed.
The school would get scholarship money, a boost to its endowment, a new roof for one dorm, the construction of another and new buildings for administration and maintenance.
Jackson's attorney, former state legislator I.S. Leevy Johnson, said his client did not choose the option of receiving $259.9 million over many years.
If Jackson took the one-time payment, his winning ticket would have brought him $129 million, an estimated $88 million after taxes. A gift of $10 million in that case would mean Jackson would have given Morris about a ninth of his winnings.
For his part, Jackson said he feels more blessed with each passing day.
"It's like a snowball rolling down a snow-covered hill," he said.
Many large-scale benefactors do not write checks to the organizations to which they are donating money. Instead, they pledge to donate the money over a period of time.
But Jackson gave Morris a check for $10 million.
"I've never seen a check for $10 million," Richardson said, joking to a local banker that he would have to accompany the banker to make sure the check makes it to the school's account in one piece.
Since claiming his winnings in August, Jackson, a retired state employee, has been careful to maintain some level of privacy.
He has not revealed his age. He would not say which other organizations he has given money to, though Johnson said other groups have received gifts and that Jackson has established the Solomon Jackson Jr. Scholarship Foundation to assist students.
Education, Jackson said, was the first thing that came to his mind after he learned he had won the lottery.
Johnson recalled the telephone call when Jackson, a longtime friend, told him he thought he had won the lottery.
"He said, 'Do you handle lottery cases?'" Johnson said. "I said, 'Yeah, man, I'm the best in the world!' I couldn't even spell lottery."
Johnson said he had his receptionist set up an appointment for his friend so they could look over the numbers and see if Jackson really was a winner.
"Before it was confirmed that he was the winner, he said, 'If I am the winner, I want to do something special for Morris College,'" Johnson said.
Jackson attended Morris College in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he said, at the suggestion of his church pastor, William McKinley Bowman Sr., who had attended Morris years before.
Now, Morris officials are getting set to cross a variety of items off the college's long-standing wish list, to be paid for with money from Jackson's gift.
When students, many of whom are sleeping three-to-a-room in existing dorms, learned the money would be used to build a new dormitory, they erupted with cheers and applause.
"This is a wonderful day for Morris College," said Melvin Howard III, a senior who is student government president. "He has opened a whole new way of life for Morris College."
