General generosity.

• Author: Martin, Cathy
• Position: STATEWIDE: West

When Chip Singleton first heard General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt was stopping by for "a little meeting" in late April, the Pisgah High School teacher had no idea what was up. Immelt was in town for the Boston-based industrial manufacturer's annual meeting at the GE Aviation plant in nearby Asheville. Turns out the CEO was coming by to drop off a $100,000 check for the school's machining and metals department. It's a drop in the bucket for GE, which has a market cap of more than $250 billion, but a nice surprise for the school in Canton, a town of about 4,200 located 20 miles west of GE's plant. The school will use the money to replace older equipment.

A former employee of Smiths Aerospace --GE bought the United Kingdom-based company in 2007 for $4-8 billion--Singleton in 2005 helped a couple of his students get jobs at the local plant. Soon, the company called again asking for more. "To get them in early...