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The Vasilyev siblings have established the
first endowment for the UM Department of Nutrition and Hospitality
Management. Pictured are (from left) Wendell Weakley, president of
UM Foundation; Velmer Burton, dean of School of Applied Sciences;
Kathy Knight, interim chair of nutrition and hospitality
management; Bob Vasilyev; Rita Vasilyev; Scott Vasilyev and his
wife, Candace; Renee Sholtis and her husband, Jonny; and Joey
Vasilyev. UM photo by Kevin Bain.

“I won’t say I’m not proud of them, because I am,” Rita
Vasilyev said. “And, I won’t say I’m surprised they thought to
establish this endowment, because I’m not. They’ve always been very
generous children, especially to the Lafayette-Oxford-University
community.” ; Bob Vasilyev agreed and added, “They saw a
need and acted on their desire to help future students in the
hospitality management field. Both Scott and Joey are graduates of
the program. I am so proud of their generosity and dedication to
the University of Mississippi.” ; The Vasilyev siblings
created the Vasilyev Family Scholarship Endowment with a $25,000
gift and an additional $5,000 to award the scholarship right away.
The family also has committed to adding $10,000 – $5,000 for the
endowment and $5,000 for immediate awards – every year for up to 10
years. ; The scholarship is intended for junior and senior
nutrition and hospitality management majors, with preference given
to students from Lafayette, Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Panola and Tate
counties, where the family operates its six Taco Bell restaurants.
; Although the scholarship endowment is a first for the
Department of Nutrition and Hospitality Management, the gift is not
a first for the family. In fact, the Vasilyevs are widely respected
for their philanthropic endeavors, including being lifelong
supporters of Ole Miss athletics. ; “I would love to say
they got their generous hearts from me, but they got that from
their mom, who got it from her mom and dad,” Bob Vasilyev said
; Rita Vasilyev is the daughter of the late J.C. and Nina
Goolsby, co-owners of The Oxford Eagle. Nina Goolsby was editor of
the 6,000-circulation daily from 1961 to 2006. ; Joey
Vasilyev, director of marketing for Vasco Properties Inc., credits
the entire family for making them who they are today. ;
“Our grandparents were longtime supporters of this community and
they taught our mom early on how important it is to give back,” he
said. “But our dad is equally culpable. He’s a strong leader who
believes in investing for immediate impact.” ; From 1968
to 1972, Bob Vasilyev served in the U.S. Air Force. He later worked
as assistant publisher at The Oxford Eagle for 15 years before
leaving to found Vasco Properties in 1987. ; “Investing in
the education of a student has an immediate impact on that
individual, but also it’s a long-term investment,” said Scott
Vasilyev, director of human resources at Vasco Properties. “Some
day that student will be in the position to give back to Ole Miss
and the cycle continues.” ; Scott Vasilyev and his wife,
Candace, a UM pharmacy graduate (BSPh ’01, PharmD ’03), live in
Oxford with their children, Vivian and Alexander. ; Velmer
Burton, dean of the School of Applied Sciences, said the Vasilyev
Family Scholarship Endowment is “indeed a wise investment with
immediate impact.” ; “This type of support directly
impacts the lives of upperclassmen that have proven to be serious
about the field of nutrition and hospitality management,” Burton
said. “The generosity of the Vasilyev siblings will make a lifetime
difference in the lives of these students and improve the quality
of life for all.” ; The Vasilyev brothers said they opted
to establish an endowment for hospitality management because the
field is one of the nation’s fastest growing as well as one of the
fastest growing academic programs at Ole Miss, with more than 400
students pursing degrees. ; “Hospitality management is a
consumer-driven field, and Ole Miss has a great group of dedicated,
student-oriented faculty preparing students to become professionals
in this exciting field,” Scott Vasilyev said. ; Joey
Vasilyev said the Ole Miss program also provides a “competitive
edge.” ; “The faculty is top-notch, and I left with more
than just knowledge,” he said. “I left with real-world experience
in food preparation, service management, marketing and much more.”
; Sholtis, an English and journalism graduate, wholly
supports her brothers’ decision to establish the endowment.
; “Ole Miss obviously prepared Joey and Scott for the
challenges of the food service field,” she said. “That’s the reason
they wanted to give back to the program. They received a great
education and excellent experience, and they simply want to give
back to students in the department that nurtured and prepared them
for success.” ; Sholtis lives in Fairhope, Ala., with her
husband, Jonny, a UM law school graduate (JD ’97), and their two
children, Sophie and Oliver. ; Gifts like these allow the
department to continue providing outstanding opportunities for
students, said Kathy Knight, interim chair of nutrition and
hospitality management. ; “I was flattered and so grateful
when I heard that two of our graduates were establishing an
endowment,” Knight said. “It’s also exciting that the scholarship
is for juniors and seniors because there are very few scholarships
for this group of serious students.” ; For the two proud
parents, the newly established endowment is a legacy that can live
on for many years into the future. ; “It’s a way to always
tie me to my university and my hometown, and that’s worth it for
me,” Rita Vasilyev said. Individuals and organizations interested
in contributing to the Vasilyev Endowment can send checks to the
University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University,
Miss. 38677 with the endowment noted in the memo line. Gifts also
can be made by contacting Gloria Kellum, development consultant to
the School of Applied Sciences, at 662-915-1081 or
gkellum@olemiss.edu, or by visiting href="http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift."
target="_blank">http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift.

OXFORD, Miss. – A 60-year friendship between attorney James P. “Butch” Cothren of Jackson and journalist and author Curtis Wilkie of Oxford has influenced both men’s lives in immeasurable ways. Now the legacy of that friendship will expand through the lives of University of Mississippi students who will benefit from a scholarship endowment created in Wilkie’s name.

Cothren and his wife, Peggy T. “Pat” Cothren – both major supporters of their alma mater – have presented a new gift of $125,000 to honor Wilkie through scholarships in the university’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media.

“We’ve been great friends all our lives and we think of our friendship as being authentic,” said Butch Cothren, a McComb native who earned undergraduate and Juris Doctor degrees from Ole Miss before going on to build a successful law practice. “Pat and I wanted to do something more to support the university, and we decided to make a gift to honor Curtis, who has done so much for Ole Miss from teaching to hosting visitors on the campus and in his home.”

The Cothrens are credited with reconnecting Wilkie to Ole Miss and Oxford, which ultimately brought the acclaimed journalist back to teach and mentor journalism students.

“Butch is my oldest, closest friend,” Wilkie said. “We’ve been pals since he was shortstop and I third baseman for the mighty McComb Manufacturing Tigers in Little League. Although we attended different high schools, joined different fraternities at Ole Miss and have always lived in different cities, Butch and I stayed in touch. It was Butch and Pat who introduced me to the Grove in 1993 after I had been away from Oxford for more than 25 years, and their friendship played a role in my decision to move back to the South.”

Butch Cothren, an American Board of Trial Advocates and American College of Trial Lawyers member who has been listed in the Best Lawyers in America publication every year since 1991, said the impetus behind the scholarship gift was the loss of another close friend and UM alumnus, Franklin Holmes of Raleigh, N.C.

“Pat and I decided one of us in our circle of friends needed to have a legacy at Ole Miss and there is no better way to impact a university than through scholarships,” he said. “Ole Miss offers a great atmosphere and opportunities to learn, and we have been impressed with the growth of the journalism school.”

Wilkie recalled the evening he learned of the scholarship. “My wife Nancy and I were at dinner at Butch and Pat’s Oxford home when he somberly said he had an announcement. I braced for bad news. When Butch said he wanted to establish a scholarship in my name, I was flabbergasted. ‘Touched’ may be a corny word, but I was very touched.

“I’m delighted to think that this will help our students and the Ole Miss journalism program, where I’ve been teaching for 11 years. It’s a grand gesture by Butch.”

Since 2004, Wilkie has held the Kelly G. Cook Chair of Journalism at UM, where he was also named the first Overby Fellow in the university’s Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics.

The journalist enjoyed a 25-year career with the Boston Globe as a national and foreign correspondent until the end of the 2000 presidential campaign. He covered eight president campaigns and served as chief of the Globe’s Washington bureau. Among his work covering wars and conflicts overseas, Wilkie established the Globe’s Middle East bureau and lived in Jerusalem in the mid-1980s.

Wilkie is also the author of many national magazine articles and the author or co-author of several books, including the “Fall of the House of Zeus” and “Dixie: A Personal Odyssey through Events that Shaped the Modern South.”

UM Chancellor Dan Jones applauded the Cothrens’ thoughtful generosity.

“A hallmark of the Ole Miss experience is the close friendships our students develop and nurture throughout their lives,” Jones said. “Pat and Butch Cothren have taken this a step further by recognizing their talented friend, Curtis Wilkie, through the establishment of a scholarship endowment that will help many promising students achieve rewarding journalism careers. We are deeply grateful for the support of the Cothrens, who obviously gave a great deal of thought to identifying a meaningful way to celebrate a friendship and their relationship with Ole Miss. Their generosity and vision are inspiring.”

Pat Cothren, a native of Dublin, Miss., who earned a degree in education and with her husband is a benefactor of the School of Law and Ole Miss athletics, has been a part of the Cothren-Wilkie friendship for 45 years.

“There is nothing in life more important than friendship, and Butch and Curtis are blessed to have one of those friendships which time and distance have never affected,” she said.

The majority of the funds provided by the Cothrens will be held in a permanent endowment with the annual income providing academic scholarships awarded to full-time students who are journalism majors. The other part of the gift will be used to award the scholarship beginning fall 2013. Selection of scholarship recipients will be directed by a committee of the Meek School faculty.

The Curtis C. Wilkie Scholarship Endowment is open to receive gifts from individuals and organizations. Checks with the scholarship name noted in the memo line can be mailed to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, Miss. 38677. Gifts can also be made by contacting John Festervand, development officer for the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at 662-915-1757 or jfesterv@olemiss.edu; or visiting online at http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift.

OXFORD, Miss. – Since 24 families from eight states founded the Ole Miss Parents Council in 2012, the organization’s work and support has already enhanced five areas at the University of Mississippi through gifts totaling $25,000.

Initiatives receiving contributions from the Parents Council were the new Ole Miss Food Pantry, $5,000 in startup funds; the military student support specialist to support veterans enrolling at the university, $7,000 for furniture and technology; Southeastern Conference annual recruitment tour scheduled this spring in the Northeast, $2,700; Student Affairs marketing materials, $4,000; and a new motorcycle for the University Police Department, $6,300.

“We are very blessed to be a part of the Parents Council,” said Karen Goodall of Gallatin, Tenn. “It has been a wonderful first year for (my husband) Bob and me. As a group, we were able to give funds to many worthy causes, including a motorcycle for the University Police Department.“I encourage all Ole Miss parents to get involved with this organization. It is a great way to meet other parents, faculty and staff, as well as be able to contribute to such an outstanding university.”

The purpose of the Parents Council is to encourage communication between the university and parents in order to improve the Ole Miss experience for students and their parents, said Elizabeth Milhous, director of parent development. Council members provide advice and guidance to the Division of Student Affairs and University Development on programs related to parents. The council members serve as liaisons between the university and parents as well as effective advocates for Ole Miss.

“Though these families are paying for their children’s tuition, books, housing and other needs, they give an additional $1,000 annual gift to serve on the Ole Miss Parents Council,” Milhous said. “Council members have expressed confidence that their investments in Ole Miss will bring great returns, and within it its first year, they have. The university community is deeply grateful for this wonderful support, input and involvement.”

The Parents Council raised $25,000 within its first six months of existence and met with Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Brandi Hephner LaBanc, who presented the Division of Student Affairs’ list of initiatives and needs for possible funding. Council members had an opportunity to ask questions and discuss each initiative.

The motorcycle, for example, will help UPD in its work across the Oxford campus. Ole Miss was ranked the safest university in the Southeastern Conference and in the top 10 nationally by CollegeSafe.com in 2012.

“While there were several worthwhile causes to choose from, the Parents Council was able to cordially collaborate to successfully accomplish our difficult task of selecting which initiatives to fund at this time,” said Dr. Valerie Short of Ridgeland. “Indeed it was a pleasure to fully participate in such a momentous occasion.”

The Parents Council’s first gift to the university came from membership fees and other donations. This spring, the Parents Council will meet to distribute money raised from a Parents Campaign phonathon.

To learn more information about the Ole Miss Parents Council or to receive a brochure, contact Elizabeth Milhous, director of parent development, at milhous@olemiss.edu or 662-915-3181.

OXFORD, Miss. – University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones has made service to others an integral part of everything he does, starting as a medical missionary in South Korea and continuing through his tenure at the UM Medical Center. And since becoming chancellor in 2009, he has worked to make service part of the “Ole Miss DNA.”

In honor of his efforts, representatives of the university’s Class of 2013 surprised Jones Wednesday (Feb. 20) in Jackson with an announcement of a new scholarship fund paying tribute to his leadership in encouraging service activities.

The Daniel W. Jones, M.D. Service Before Self Scholarship Fund will be the living legacy of students who were incoming freshmen when he began his tenure, said class president Jon Daniel McKiever of Jonesboro, Ark., a public policy leadership major. McKiever delivered the news at an Ole Miss alumni luncheon hosted at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

“I will always remember Chancellor Jones as a man who continuously committed himself to serve the university that I love and inspire students to serve both within the university and their own communities,” McKiever said.

Jones said he was “overwhelmed, surprised and happy” when the students announced the gift to establish the fund.

“Anything that further embeds the commitment to service for the university moves us forward, and it makes me very happy that there will be a scholarship, not because it bears my name but because it is going to be a scholarship focused on service,” he said.

“Service is a privilege. Those of us who have been blessed in many ways have an opportunity to serve, and it’s a part of my life because I’ve been so blessed. I’m not conscious of talking about it so much, but apparently I do. It’s very heartwarming to know there are students wanting to share the same heart.”

A longstanding tradition is for the graduating class to leave a permanent gift to the university.

“The senior class took a significant amount of time in deciding what gift we desired to present,” McKiever said. “We wanted a gift that would be both sustainable and meaningful. We decided to enact a scholarship endowment to benefit students for years to come and to honor Chancellor Jones for a variety of reasons. While it is true we were the first freshmen under Chancellor Jones, what made him a perfect candidate for the naming of our scholarships is his great passion for serving both the students and the university.”

Class vice president Tyler McBeth of Biloxi, a psychology major, quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson: “‘What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.’ This is a perfect quote to describe the dedication to service that Ole Miss students possess. There are many students who have committed themselves to the service of others and to the university, enhancing their college experience. Those students who demonstrate ‘service to others over self’ are recognized through this scholarship as well as the priority Chancellor Jones places on service.

“Prior to his tenure here, he served as vice chancellor of health affair and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Previous to that, he was a medical missionary in South Korea. Our chancellor has brought his personal love for service learning into the university community, with an emphasis that has increased service learning in the classroom and far beyond.”

That emphasis on service as part of the overall Ole Miss experience has been life-changing for David Horton, a Jackson native who serves as class treasurer.

“In my past four years at this university, I’ve definitely learned what it means to serve with sacrifice,” Horton said. “I remember having many long days but not ever being tired because I knew that my service to the community and students at Ole Miss was benefiting someone else, and that’s a legacy I would like to continue with the establishment of this scholarship. Charles Dickens said, ‘No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another,’ and I live by this quote in every aspect of my life.”

The scholarship is a fitting tribute to a chancellor who has made service the focus of his leadership, said Dean of Students Thomas “Sparky” Reardon.

“I am proud that our seniors have chosen to honor Chancellor Jones with this scholarship,” Reardon said. “They realized his leadership has played an important part in the positive experiences they have enjoyed here. This class gift will have an impact on the university for years to come and will also recognize the progress Ole Miss has made under Chancellor Jones’ leadership.”

The chancellor – who has long made service part of his own life – initiated the online service directory “Service DNA: Transformation is at our core” as part of his inauguration activities in 2010.

At that time, Jones said, “At the University of Mississippi, we have the opportunity and responsibility to move beyond the transformation of individual lives. We must purposefully participate in transforming our community, state, nation and world.”

In addition, the university is just days away from hosting The Big Event, a campuswide day of service for the Oxford-Lafayette County community. In 2012, more than 3,000 Ole Miss students participated in service projects that enabled them to give back to the local community and residents and build relationships that might not ordinarily occur.

The March 2 event is expected to be the largest community project in Ole Miss history and further instill the value of service. “Not only does this event support the chancellor’s goal of service for the university community, it will also create well-rounded and humble students,” according to the website volunteers use to register for projects.

“I have had the good fortune to hear about Chancellor Jones’ experiences with medical missions,” McKiever said. “His conviction for service learning is inspiring, and I have since been a part of a service learning project in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The project was located at a home for children with AIDS. I traveled to The Haven to deliver the proceeds from a fundraiser that Ole Miss students had sponsored earlier in the academic year. While we were there, we built a garden to ensure a continuing supply of fresh food for the children. That experience has significantly impacted my life for the better and I will continue to seek new ways to serve others.”

Members of the Class of 2013 have been working on various projects to raise funds for the scholarship endowment. Individuals and organizations interested in contributing can mail contributions by check with the Daniel W. Jones, M.D. Service Before Self Scholarship Fund noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677 or online at http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift.

OXFORD, Miss. – Gifts to a new University of Mississippi fund are being used to honor the life of the late James L. “Buddy” Bynum, a leading journalist, and his enthusiasm for communication, learning and the university.

The Buddy Bynum Speaker Series Endowment was established with an initial donation by Dr. Richard B. and Nancy Harrelson Akin of Hazlehurst and is open to contributions from others.“He was my best friend, my mentor, my inspiration and loved Ole Miss better than anything,” Nancy Akin said of the couple’s decision to honor Bynum.

Earnings from the endowment will be used by the university’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media to invite media leaders to meet with students and enhance their learning experiences.

“Buddy had great jobs and a great career; journalism was in his blood,” she said, pointing out that the fund may inspire others.

Bynum was born and reared in Meridian. He started reporting for The Meridian Star after he contacted the community newspaper and told them box scores should be included with their baseball coverage of his school, Nancy Akin said. It became Bynum’s job, she said.

Bynum was also Mr. Meridian High School and president of the student body. Then his early interest in journalism continued at Ole Miss, where he served a term as editor of The Daily Mississippian. He was also an initiate of Sigma Chi fraternity.

He later returned to Meridian as editor of the Meridian Star newspaper, a title he also held at other publications, including the Mississippi Business Journal and the Oxford Enterprise.

Bynum also served as communications director for Gov. Haley Barbour and for former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott when Lott was a member of the U.S. House. While in Washington, he also served as deputy secretary for congressional relations of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and, in March 1988, was named an honorary citizen of New Orleans and presented a key to the city.

After his work for Barbour and the Oxford Enterprise, Bynum chose to enroll at the Meek School in 2009 to complete the few courses needed for his Ole Miss degree.

“Going back to school took amazing courage, but I’ve never seen anyone enjoy anything more,” Nancy Akin said. “The best year of his life may have been back in that academic environment. There wasn’t a class he didn’t like.”

During the summer of 2011, however, Bynum was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died on Sept. 3 at his home in Ridgeland at age 59.

Will Norton Jr., UM journalism dean, said he counted Bynum as a friend and especially admired his determination and cheerful manner in working with and encouraging “classmates” who had so little experience in journalism compared to his. The endowment, Norton said, will “in perpetuity enhance the education of students, faculty and the community through visits from media practitioners who, like Buddy, are of the highest quality.”

Donations may be sent to the Buddy Bynum Speaker Series, University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677-0249. Online gifts can be made at here

OXFORD, Miss. – In the mid-1930s when money was tight and few part-time jobs were available, Lucian Minor struggled financially as a University of Mississippi student. The Ole Miss cafeteria had to rearrange its food line, in fact, because the creative young student would choose a 5-cent bowl of soup and load it up with vegetables before he reached the cashier.

Minor’s $12-a-month meal ticket lasted longer with the addition of the hearty vegetables. Cafeteria workers finally caught on and moved the soup by the cashier. Today, that frugal 1937 graduate is one of the major benefactors of UM’s Patterson School of Accountancy and has committed a new gift.Minor and his wife, Mary, recently provided more than $5 million in gift annuities to the Patterson School, further defining their dedication to the school and university. Minor’s support over three decades has included a trust to establish the Lucian S. Minor Endowment for the accountancy school in 1996 and a trust of $1 million in 2007 as well as generous contributions to other initiatives across the Oxford campus.

“I’ve enjoyed my relationship with Ole Miss for many, many years,” said Minor, retired from a stellar career in accounting and investments. “Many of the courses I took at Ole Miss contributed to my success in the business world, particularly the accounting field. I’m glad to share some of my success. Hopefully some needy students will benefit from our gifts.”

Minor’s family was able to provide only $600 a year for his freshman and sophomore years on the Oxford campus. He ultimately used a personal loan to finance his last two years at Ole Miss, and his dedication to his alma mater has been evident.

“Lucian’s loyalty to Ole Miss has not been equaled by anything else in his life,” Mary Minor said. “Lucian and I wanted to set up this new fund during our lifetimes to ensure it would benefit Ole Miss.”

Mark Wilder, dean of the Patterson School of Accountancy, called the Minors “cornerstones” of the school, with their gifts impacting generations of accountancy students. When the Minors’ trust and annuities are eventually brought into their endowment, the school plans to expand the Minor scholarship program to include a named faculty position in their honor.

“Mary and Lucian Minor have been some of our most faithful supporters,” Wilder said. “We are humbled by their generosity. We appreciate so much the vision that the Minors have for our accountancy school and for their great interest and concern for our students. Their support will help further strengthen the Patterson School continue building on our strong teaching and mentoring tradition, a trademark of our program and a vital reason for the successes we enjoy. Generation upon generation of future accountancy students will benefit from their generosity.”

The Public Accounting Report has ranked the Patterson School’s undergraduate program No. 9 in the nation and the only Southeastern Conference school in the top 10. The master’s and doctoral programs are ranked No. 9 and 8 respectively in their categories.

UM Chancellor Dan Jones praised the Minors for their support.

“We are profoundly grateful to Mary and Lucian Minor for entrusting us with these gift annuities as well as their other generous contributions. When I think of the School of Accountancy’s rise in national prominence, I see the Minors and other alumni and friends who have made such tremendous investments of their time and resources to see this academic program excel and serve our students and university so well. The school’s success is a testament to strong alumni and friend involvement.”

Indeed, alumni strengthen the school not only through their financial resources but also through helping younger alumni find success. Larry Hardy, an alumnus who credits Minor, his longtime friend, for giving him his first job, spoke of Minor’s mentoring of graduates.

“Over the past 15 years, Lucian’s monetary contributions to the School of Accountancy have provided resources for scholarships for many deserving students as well as funds for the dean to use in faculty recruitment and retention,” said Hardy, who is also a major supporter of the school. “His contributions to the endowment will allow these programs to continue into the future for many years to come.

“Before Lucian’s retirement from Ernst & Young in 1978, his most significant impact on the lives of accounting graduates came from his offering them employment. I can’t tell you how many Ole Miss graduates Lucian hired over the years, but the number is substantial. Many of us owe our entire careers to Lucian; he taught us valuable lessons, in both our personal and professional lives.

“Future generations of accountancy students should follow Lucian’s philosophy of client service. If you take care of the clients and put their interests first, positive financial results will follow. We should also follow his example in returning to the school a portion of the monetary rewards we have received from having excellent educational foundations obtained at Ole Miss.”

A native of Macon, Minor was recruited by General Mills Inc. in Minneapolis upon his Ole Miss graduation. He joined the company’s internal audit staff, where he was employed until his service in the U.S. Navy in 1942. He was placed with Douglas Aircraft Co. in Los Angeles as a cost inspector and passed the CPA exam during his enlistment.

Minor, a lieutenant commander in the Navy, was discharged in 1946 and soon resigned from General Mills to open his own accounting firm in Memphis. By 1967, his operation had grown to some 40 employees, large enough to interest the then-Big Eight firms. He merged with Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst & Young) and became partner in charge of the Memphis office, a position he held until he retired in 1978.

Minor was inducted into the Ole Miss Alumni Association’s Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Patterson School of Accountancy’s Hall of Fame in 1997.

Dear Alumni and Friends of the university,

To accommodate the extraordinary growth at Ole Miss, the university is implementing a new guest-parking policy that will take effect July 1. Parking changes are intended to be as convenient as possible, even as demand for parking increases. The ultimate goal of the parking plan is to improve parking infrastructure, alleviate traffic congestion on campus, improve pedestrian safety and increase parking accessibility.

• Beginning July 1, visitors intending to park on campus will need a $1 hangtag. This hangtag will allow for parking in central campus areas including the Circle and is valid for one day.

• There are likely to be four ways to purchase this tag, and we’ll keep information up to date on the website:

1. You can purchase a hangtag online prior to your visit through a secure payment portal at olemiss.edu/parking.
2. You may be able to purchase a hangtag over the phone once you’ve arrived on campus. Details are still being worked out. (Clearly marked signs with payment information will be posted at the entrance of visitor parking lots.)
3. You can also purchase a hangtag in the Department of Parking and Transportation offices located in Lester Hall. Parking spots for visitors who are purchasing hangtags will be located in front of Lester Hall for their convenience.
4. You can purchase a hangtag at a welcome booth to be constructed at the entrance to the Lyceum circle.

• A limited number of short-term (30 minutes or less), free parking is available for visitors in areas where tickets are purchased or donations are made, including the UM Foundation, Ole Miss Athletics Foundation and the Union. These spots will be clearly marked as short-term parking.

Changes to the parking system are the result of a yearlong review by the Parking and Traffic Committee, which made its recommendations following a series of surveys, monthly meetings and studies of other area university parking programs. All of the other SEC universities had already implemented paid visitor parking and designated visitor parking areas.

For more details and a visitor-parking map, visit olemiss.edu/parking.

OXFORD, Miss. – When Lucian Minor graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1937, the student body included some 3,000 students – all on the Oxford campus – and residence halls were spartan, compared to modern accommodations.

Minor, who earned an accounting degree at Ole Miss, has returned to campus frequently over the years, helping mentor many UM accountancy students and hiring dozens of them at his Memphis accounting firm. He and his wife, Mary, came back Thursday (April 25) to watch as one of the university’s three newest residence halls was named for them.

“Since I graduated here, the campus has changed tremendously – for the better,” Minor said. “This is a beautiful building, and it’s a great honor to have it named for us.

Minor Hall is one of three residence halls – the others being Ridge North and Ridge South – that opened in August on the former site of Miller Hall. With space for 250 students, Minor Hall provides many of the amenities requested by students, including private bathrooms, microwaves and refrigerators in each room, study rooms, community kitchens and lounges with TVs on each floor.

Nearly 100 people, including a handful of Minor’s former employees and several UM accountancy students, gathered outside on the sunny afternoon for a brief ceremony honoring the couple.

“They have been generous supporters of the university, the Patterson School in particular, for a number of years,” Chancellor Dan Jones said. “It is appropriate that the Minor name will be linked to this campus in perpetuity through this building.”

The Minors recently provided more than $5 million in gift annuities to the university’s Patterson School of Accountancy. Their support over three decades has included a trust to establish the Lucian S. Minor Endowment for the accountancy school in 1996 and a trust of $1 million in 2007, as well as major contributions to other initiatives across the Oxford campus.

“Lucian and Mary Minor have lived lives guided by generosity,” Provost Morris Stocks said. “Their generosity will likely change the future of many faculty and students at the University of Mississippi and will positively affect the quality of future accounting professionals who will be educated in the Patterson School of Accountancy. For that, we are very grateful.”

Naming one of the new residence halls in honor of the Minors is appropriate, given Lucian Minor’s dedication to helping students, Stocks said.

“Residence halls are not what they used to be,” he said. “They’re more than just a place to live and sleep; they’re an extension of the academic classroom now.

“About half the students living in this residence hall are members of LLCs, which stand for living-learning communities, where they can get to know other students and faculty in their academic areas. Those communities help them enhance their educational activities as well as build relationships and teams. And that’s the way that Mr. Minor led Ernst & Young when he was managing partner there.”

Recruited by General Mills Inc. in Minneapolis upon his graduation from Ole Miss, Minor joined the company’s internal audit staff, where he was employed until his service in the U.S. Navy in 1942. He was discharged as a lieutenant commander in 1946 and soon resigned from General Mills to open his own accounting firm in Memphis.

By 1967, his operation had grown large enough to interest the Big Eight firms. He merged with Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst & Young) and became partner in charge of the Memphis office, a position he held until his retirement in 1978. Minor was inducted into the Ole Miss Alumni Association’s Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Patterson School of Accountancy’s Hall of Fame in 1997.

OXFORD, Miss. – Chancellor Dan Jones and a passionate group of supporters are advancing the reputation of the University of Mississippi as a cultural arts hub with consultation from one of the nation’s leading figures in contemporary music.

Through a series of salons and special events, the university is raising private support for the new Chancellor’s Fund for the Arts. To spearhead the effort, acclaimed pianist Bruce Levingston has been appointed special adviser on the arts to Jones.

Alumni and friends have responded with $50,000 in initial gifts to build an endowment for an artist-in-residence program, much like the existing John and Renée Grisham Writers-in-Residence program. Just as prominent writers like Tom Franklin, Jack Pendarvis and National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward have enriched the Ole Miss-Oxford community with their presence, mentored promising students and elevated the national profile of the creative writing program, stewards of the Chancellor’s Fund for the Arts envision visiting artists and musicians achieving notoriety for all UM arts.

Levingston, a native of Cleveland, Miss., is directing his energies to the initiative.

“In addition to establishing artists-in-residence, the goal is to reach out in a truly interdisciplinary way,” he said. “We want to establish a pattern of bringing interesting and relevant artists and thinkers to Ole Miss, but also to send a little bit of Ole Miss and Oxford back with them – to share with the rest of the world what’s happening here, cultivated by Oxford’s enterprising arts community.”

The effort comes a year after the Mississippi Development Authority and the Mississippi Arts Commission released a joint study on the economic impact of artists and creative enterprises. The report attributes more than 60,000 Mississippi jobs to the creative economy and concludes that the arts increase productivity, stimulate innovation and growth, improve learning and generate wealth across sectors.

“You can look around our campus and Oxford and visibly see the impact that our decades-long cadre of writers have had on education and our economy,” Jones said. “We are known throughout the world for William Faulkner, Willie Morris, Ellen Douglas, Barry Hannah and Larry Brown. Scholars come to Ole Miss from Japan, Germany and elsewhere to study our writers – we can make that true of all our artistic disciplines, and benefit our students magnificently in the process.”

Levingston brings a wealth of experience to his role at UM. As founding chair and artistic director of the nonprofit foundation Premiere Commission Inc., he commissions and premieres new works by young artists and composers, helping to promote burgeoning talent to the national stage. Many of the world’s most important composers have written works for him, and his Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center performances have won notable critical praise.

Levingston is helping the university prepare, raise money and heighten awareness of its artists. Thus far, he has coordinated several events, such as a lecture by Robert Storr, renowned art historian and dean of the Yale School of Art, as well as a performance by the popular string quartet Brooklyn Rider. He also facilitated the Honors College and the Department of History’s recent hosting of Ron Chernow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and commentator on American politics, business and finance, to interact with students and community members.

“It means a great deal to me to be here,” Chernow said while visiting campus. “I have found this not only an extremely enlightening visit but also very moving. History is the oxygen that’s in the air here – how could any historian not be stimulated?”

Philip Jackson, an acclaimed contemporary realist painter and a UM assistant professor of art, emphasized the impact of private support.

“If not for an Ole Miss alumnus’ generous lending of his private collection, we would not be bringing renowned American realist painter Bo Bartlett to campus,” Jackson said. Bartlett’s upcoming exhibition, curated by Jackson, will be at the University Museum through July 13, and Bartlett will lecture at 3 p.m. April 25 and lead a panel discussion at noon April 26, both at the museum.

Jackson is inspired by the new energy the initiative brings.

“Our visual arts tradition – artists like Glennray Tutor, Jere Allen and others – is not yet as strongly received as our literary tradition,” he said. “We have also recruited highly celebrated artists to our faculty: Matt Long is a potter known all over the country, Durant Thompson’s sculptures have been commissioned by several famous Americans, photographer Brooke White recently returned from a Fulbright Fellowship to India, I could keep going. When people make these connections, the reverence and support will be there.”

Inaugural events to undergird the Chancellor’s Fund for the Arts have been held, with additional events and salons slated for Oxford, Jackson, New York, Houston and Boston. A recent event at the home of Ambassador John Palmer in Jackson featured Levingston showcasing selections from Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Schubert. Guests enjoyed dinner prepared by James Beard-nominated chef and Ole Miss alumnus Taylor Bowen-Ricketts of the Delta Bistro in Greenwood.

Palmer was inspired to support arts education, and especially to support Levingston and his new program at Ole Miss.

“Over the years, I have developed friends who are alumni of Princeton and other top schools,” Palmer said. “Their knowledge of works by great composers and artists always impressed me – and they learned it during their general undergraduate studies, not as arts majors. A vibrant arts community is a must for good quality of life. This is especially true for our students who will have this as part of their foundation.”

Donors and university leaders believe the initiative will help showcase talented UM students and highlight the cultural activities of the Ole Miss community.

“We always come to Oxford for the annual Pride of the South Benefit Concert at the Ford Center and bring friends,” said one of the fund’s donors, who wished to remain anonymous. “I want my friends across Mississippi to know about the musical and artistic talent our young students have. They work hard to cultivate their talents, and I want to encourage them and establish more opportunities for learning and apprenticeship. This effort has a lot of potential if we all support it.”

Levingston has other collaborations in the works with UM faculty and departments: a film project with screenwriter Chris Offutt, a commissioned work on civil rights with the Southern Foodways Alliance at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and a partnership with the schools of Law and Business Administration.

“These interdisciplinary collaborations will raise arts and humanities awareness not only in the university community but also around the state and the nation,” Levingston said.

The Chancellor’s Fund for the Arts is open for contributions from individuals and organizations. Contributions can be made by mailing a check with the fund noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, Miss. 38677-0249; visiting online at www.umfoundation.com/makeagift/; or contacting Sarah Hollis, associate director of university development, at 662-915-1584 or shollis@olemiss.edu.

OXFORD, Miss. – After 28 years of stewardship, University of Mississippi School of Law alumnus and 1848 Society member William H. McMullen of Charlotte, N.C., finally got to see his labor of love come to fruition. Recently, McMullen had the chance to meet the first recipients of the Everett-Williams Memorial Scholarships, products of the fund he helped his uncle initiate in 1984.

Thomas Marshall Everett of Meridian, McMullen’s uncle, seeded the fund with an initial gift of $90,000 to help deserving students pursue a college education. It was to be managed by an out-of-state foundation, initially the Southern Baptist Foundation of Tennessee. In 2008, McMullen coordinated the transfer of the fund to the University of Mississippi Foundation, creating two four-year scholarships that total $13,000 annually: one for the Sally McDonnell-Barksdale Honors College, the other for Ole Miss First, a scholarship program that rewards scholastic achievement and leadership. OMF offers mentoring opportunities to recipients in addition to a financial award.

Everett’s one condition of the fund was that the total endowment had to reach $1 million before any distribution was allowed. Slowed but undeterred by the economic recession, the operations committee of the Everett-Williams Memorial Scholarship announced its first scholarship awards almost three decades after Everett’s first contribution. The deserving recipients were incoming honors students Logan Wilson and Davelin Woodard, also an Ole Miss First Scholar, in 2012.

Wilson came to UM from Hattiesburg, where he graduated second in his class at North Forrest High School in 2012 and was chosen for the school’s Hall of Fame. He was class president all four years and president of the Student Council. Named a Mississippi Rural Medical Scholar, he also won awards in English, anatomy and physiology, and trigonometry/pre-calculus.

After arriving at UM, Wilson made an almost immediate impression at the Honors College. Wilson is “electric,” said Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, UM Honors College dean. “Logan is so engaging. Everyone just melts around him, and his grades are stellar to boot. He maintained a 4.0 GPA all year in an honors pre-professional health track.”

Receiving the Everett-Williams Memorial Honors Scholarship helped Wilson decide among his college options.

“I was unsure about where to go until I got the offer,” he said. “I considered going out-of-state, but this scholarship, coupled with everything the honors college offers, was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

A rising sophomore bio-chemistry major with plans to pursue orthopedic surgery, Wilson also joined UM’s Increasing Minority Access to Graduate Education program. IMAGE is funded by the National Science Foundation and strives to increase minority entrance in graduate school in the fields of science, engineering and mathematics.

When asked if the Honors College surprised him in anyway, Wilson said it did not.

“I was coming because I expected to be challenged,” he said. “I like that our professors expect more from us; not only do they want us to grasp the material, they want us to master it. Dean Sullivan-Gonzalez and other administrators have a true open-door policy. They set high standards and expect us to achieve them but are willing to help in any way to get you there.”

Woodard, of Oxford, the Everett-Williams Memorial OMF Scholarship recipient, is a rising sophomore and Honors College student.

“I am very grateful for this scholarship,” Woodard said. “Receiving it has enabled me to pursue my dreams.”

Woodard graduated top of her class from Water Valley High School where her mother, also an Ole Miss graduate, teaches.

“Since I was old enough to think about college, Ole Miss has been my preference,” she said. “Although I probably should have, I didn’t even apply to any other universities. I knew in my heart that this was the right college for me. Every time I visited the campus I knew I wanted to be part of this family.”

During her freshman year at Ole Miss, Woodard volunteered as a tutor for elementary school students and worked in the UM Writing Center. She made the Chancellor’s Honor Roll and was inducted into Phi Eta Sigma honor society. Woodard was also accepted into the Early Entry Nursing Program at the UM Medical Center. She will transfer to the Jackson campus after her sophomore year with hopes of becoming a nurse anesthetist.

“These scholarships give our program the opportunity to engage high-performing students like Davelin and Logan as citizen scholars,” Sullivan-Gonzalez said. “Not only can we attract students of their caliber, we can also offer them a quality honors education without accumulating debt – which is worth its weight in gold.”

“It was an honor to meet Mr. McMullen,” Wilson said. “I was glad to have the opportunity to shake his hand and hear the history of his family, and how they came to dedicate this scholarship which has helped me and will help others.”

One of 13 children born to James Sellers Everett and Minine Lee Fanning Everett of Hickory, Thomas Everett wished to name the scholarship in memory of his parents as well as the parents of his wife, Jane Williams Everett.  Elias George Williams, Sarah Elizabeth Harris Williams, and Mr. and Mrs. Everett all were born, lived and died in Newton County.

“Many of the Everett children, especially the women, went to college which was rare in the ’10s and ’20s,” McMullen said. “The story goes, at least for my mother, that the experience of farming cotton was enough to drive anyone elsewhere to look for work. About half of them ended up in Washington, D.C., including my uncle.”

McMullen’s mother, Angie Everett McMullen, finished at Clarke Junior College in Newton in the late 1920s.

Tom and Jane Everett moved to Washington, D.C., as a young couple. Tom worked in retail and sales, while Jane worked at AT&T as a long-distance telephone operator. They eventually settled on Cathedral Avenue, where McMullen and his parents visited frequently.

After retiring, the Everetts moved back to Meridian to be help care for brothers and sisters during illnesses. Tom Everett also traveled to Virginia to help care for his sister, McMullen’s mother, during her recovery from cancer in 1978 to 1979.

It was later in 1984 when Everett asked his nephew to help him establish the endowment.

“I visited Uncle Tom after Aunt Jane’s death and we would talk about their dreams and desires,” McMullen said. “Over several years, we finally prepared an agreement acceptable to Uncle Tom.”

Upon Thomas Everett’s death in 1997 at age 93, the majority of the Everett estate was transferred to the fund.

“Uncle Tom was a product of the depression era,” McMullen said. “His primary interest was the preservation of the corpus of money. He followed the stock market and was dedicated to being a good financial steward. But he was also a steward of our family, always caring for others in times of illness or hardship.”

McMullen was eager to help his uncle navigate leaving this legacy, as McMullen also came to Ole Miss to focus on studies, not to worry about how to pay his tuition.

“I was lucky to be able to complete law school in 1969 by just taking out a few manageable loans and working on the law journal for a small stipend. Back in those days, the cost of law school was not what it is now. For today’s students, to borrow to go to school can be in the six-digit figures.”

McMullen and his wife, Kaye, are philanthropically active in their home city of Charlotte, N.C., as well. In 1979, the couple established the Children’s Medical Fund through the Foundation for the Carolinas in honor of their daughter, Amy McIntyre. This fund has awarded more than $500,000 to provide medical treatment and vaccinations for hundreds of children, as well as funding pediatric cancer research. McMullen is of counsel with Cranford, Buckley, Schultze, Tomchin, Allen and Buie P.A.

“I greatly admire the vision that Bill McMullen has shown in positioning this fund for growth and making it available for so many students now and for decades to come,” said Wendell Weakley, president and CEO of the UM Foundation. “He has worked dilligently to get us to this point and put this remarkable gift in a position to pay educational dividends.”

The Everett-Williams Memorial Scholarship Fund is open to receive gifts from individuals and organizations by sending a check with the fund noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, Miss. 38677; or by visiting http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift.  For more information call 662-915-5945.

OXFORD, Miss. – Private support for the University of Mississippi remained strong in fiscal year 2013, with overall fundraising topping $100 million for the second straight year and cash gifts surpassing the $90 million mark.

“Realized” gifts, including private contributions, non-cash gifts and other outright donations, surged more than 18 percent to $95.2 million. When combined with new pledges to be paid in future years and with deferred and planned gifts committed in FY 2013, which ended June 30, total private support for the state’s flagship university was $114.6 million.

“Our alumni and friends remain committed to helping us reach our goals and offer new opportunities for students,” Chancellor Dan Jones said. “Through their generosity, we are able to upgrade our facilities, provide scholarships and attract and retain top-notch faculty. All these things are critical as we work to educate tomorrow’s innovators, boost the economy and improve the quality of life for all our state’s residents.”

The university’s enrollment has grown dramatically in recent years, stretching resources and making private support even more critical, Jones said. Last fall, Ole Miss enrolled 21,528 students across all its campuses – the most of any Mississippi university – but a recent study by The Chronicle of Higher Education ranked the university first among the state’s public colleges and universities in terms of student completion, measured by four- and six-year graduation rates.

A significant portion of the money raised funds student scholarships and faculty development, as well as provides operating capital for cornerstone programs such as the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College and the Croft Institute for International Studies.

“Our alumni and friends continue to demonstrate their belief in the mission of this great university,” said Wendell Weakley, president and CEO of the University of Mississippi Foundation. “Their investments continue to show exceptional returns, and we are very thankful for their trust in our university and foundation.”

Other programs that have earned national accolades over the past year include the university’s Patterson School of Accountancy, which has all its programs ranking in the Top 10 nationally; the School of Pharmacy, which was awarded a 2013 Script Your Future Medication Adherence Team Challenge award for its work focusing on medication adherence in populations with cardiovascular disease; and the UM Forensics Team, which had two members – Isaac Lichlyter and Austin Wood – defeat teams from 109 other schools to win first place at the fourth annual China Open at Xi’an International Studies University.

Support for athletics also has increased significantly, with the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation taking in a record $26 million in cash donations for FY 2013. This total represents a 33 percent increase over fiscal 2012 cash donations and a 49 percent increase over fiscal 2011.

A large portion of the increase in athletics fundraising is connected to the continued success of the Forward Together campaign, which has surpassed the $80 million mark on its way to a goal of $150 million, raising close to $20 million in new pledges over the past year. Improvement projects tied to the campaign have begun on Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and the Indoor Practice Facility, and an architect has been hired to begin designing the new basketball arena.

“We are so thankful for the support of the Ole Miss family,” said Ross Bjork, Ole Miss athletics director. “This achievement is a true testament to the passion and enthusiasm of Rebel Nation. Their support will continue to allow us to provide a world class experience for our student-athletes, and compete for and win championships in the future.”

Strong private support has enabled the university to make a positive impact across the state, Jones said.

“Whether supporting a research program at our health science center in Jackson, a scholarship for a public policy student in Oxford, support for our dedicated faculty or our nationally competitive athletics programs, our donors are moving us forward,” he said. “On behalf of our students, faculty, and staff, I am happy to express our deepest gratitude for remarkable support.”

OXFORD, Miss – A full-page photo in a September 1960 issue of Sports Illustrated – accompanying an article on the University of Mississippi and its upcoming football season – captured a beautiful Kay Swayze and the handsome Warner Alford walking hand-in-hand as students. It turned out to be a magical year, as Alford co-captained that SEC and national championship football team.

The couple went on to marry, raise a family and weave their lives into the tapestry of Ole Miss. Alford served in two high-profile leadership positions at his alma mater: athletics director and executive director of alumni affairs. He continues to propel the university forward by helping attract private gifts for academic programs and scholarships, with wife Kay sharing his commitment.

To honor the Alfords’ longtime service and lasting contributions, the University of Mississippi Foundation has created the Warner and Kay Alford Ole Miss Opportunity Endowment with a $50,000 gift and invites alumni and friends to help build the fund. Annual income from the endowment will provide Ole Miss Opportunity scholarships to academically deserving students from lower income families in Mississippi.

Chancellor Dan Jones said the Alfords have opened many doors for the university.

“Warner and Kay Alford have made it their life’s work to help strengthen the University of Mississippi through academic, athletics and alumni programs,” Jones said. “We are deeply grateful that these two extraordinary individuals have chosen to invest so much of their time, talents and energy into Ole Miss. Just as this scholarship endowment will honor them in perpetuity, the impact of the Alfords’ contributions will be felt for generations.”

Chancellor Emeritus Robert Khayat, who was Alford’s college roommate and teammate for four years as well as friend of more than five decades, echoed that sentiment.

“Kay and Warner are in a group of Ole Miss people who are inseparable from the University of Mississippi,” he said. “One of the most challenging jobs on campus is serving as athletics director because athletics is the most emotionally charged activity associated with the university. While Warner was serving as athletics director and then later as the alumni affairs director, he and Kay constantly built relationships to keep alumni and friends engaged with their alma mater and graciously opened their home on many occasions. Their friendship has been life-enriching.”

Kay Alford grew up in the Oxford community with her father, the iconic Tom Swayze, as head baseball coach and football recruiter. Warner Alford hailed from McComb, playing football for the McComb High School Tigers and planning to continue his collegiate career at Louisiana State University. Swayze persuaded the young man to choose Ole Miss instead. On Alford’s first Sunday in Oxford, the Swayze family hosted Alford, Khayat and another player, the late Ken Kirk, for lunch.

“I remember turning to Robert and saying, ‘If I had known Coach Swayze had a daughter, I would have committed to Ole Miss earlier,’” Alford said, smiling. “The only time I could see Kay was in church on Sundays because she was a high school senior. Finally, in the spring of my freshman year, I got up the courage to ask her out.

“Ole Miss is home – some of our best memories are here. We have very emotional ties to this university. We’ve always truly felt that our friends and colleagues are family. Being here has never been a ‘job.’ It is something we dearly love. We are overwhelmed and deeply honored by this scholarship.”

Kay Alford said she is pleased the scholarship will give young people the opportunity to enroll at Ole Miss. “I hope that they will take advantage of all the opportunities here. They will reap the results of this experience the rest of their lives, and they will be attaching themselves to a great group of people. It’s a wonderful feeling to gather into the fold of Ole Miss. This is a great university whose continued excellence has been stunning.”

David McCormick of Pascagoula, an attorney with Cumbest Cumbest Hunter & McCormick PA, is familiar with the Alfords’ influence.

“As a fan of Ole Miss football, I have known of Warner Alford’s contributions to the Ole Miss family since grade school, but my wife, Susan, and I really got to ‘know’ Warner and Kay when we served as president of the national Ole Miss Alumni Association,” he said. “Susan and I can truly attest to the character and generosity of Warner and his family not only to Ole Miss but also the Oxford community.”

Jon Turner of Jackson, a partner in the accounting firm BKD LLP, has collaborated with Alford for decades – first when Turner was a student and then when he and other young alums formed the Rebel Club of Jackson, and Warner was the athletics director. Their work together continued.

“The year I served as national alumni president was Warner’s first year as executive director of alumni affairs, and we worked together on the Ole Miss First scholarship initiative and The Inn at Ole Miss building campaign,” Turner said. “The alumni director role was a great fit for Warner and Ole Miss. “Warner loves people, and he knows almost everybody in the Ole Miss family. His leadership and relationship-building skills are the reason many private contributions have made their way to Oxford.

Dr. Chance Laws of Columbus, a physician who also served as president of the national Ole Miss Alumni Association, recalls the high points of working with Alford. “When we worked together, it took forever to walk across campus with him, as he had to stop and talk with genuine interest to everyone we saw. He could have taught Dale Carnegie much about people skills.”

Alford’s experience at Ole Miss was marked early by earning three letters as a guard on the football team from 1958 to1960. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees in business, while Kay Alford pursued a liberal arts degree. They married in 1961 and joined the Alford family retail business in McComb.

They returned to Ole Miss for Warner to serve as a graduate assistant under Coach John Vaught. A 1966 move took them to Laurel, where he coached at R.H. Watkins High School before becoming the defensive coach a year later at Davidson College. He served as assistant coach and linebacker coach of Georgia Tech from 1968 through 1970, when the team won the Sun Bowl.

Alford returned to Ole Miss in 1971 as the defensive line coach of Coach Billy Kinard’s staff. His leadership as athletics director from 1978 through 1994 contributed to Ole Miss’ tremendous growth in facilities and private funding, an increased emphasis on the graduation rate of student-athletes and the expansion of varsity sports from eight to 15. Alford was inducted into the M-Club Alumni Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.

After a few years pursuing other interests, Alford returned to Ole Miss and held positions with the UM Foundation, Lott Leadership Institute and Ole Miss First, before being tapped to serve as executive director of alumni affairs. His leadership from 2004 through 2008 provided oversight for the $21-million The Inn at Ole Miss. He continues as a consultant with the UM Foundation and University Development.

The Alfords are the parents of three grown children, all of Oxford and all Ole Miss graduates: Swayze (Melinda) Alford, Phyllis (Darrell) Daniels, and John (Michelle) Alford III. They enjoy their seven grandchildren: Lilli and Grace Alford; Grant, Clayton and John Swayze Daniels; and John Warner IV and Jude Alford.

Anyone interested in making a gift to the Warner and Kay Alford Ole Miss Opportunity Endowment can send a check with the fund noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677; contact Debbie Vaughn at 662-915-1687 or dvaughn@olemiss.edu; or visit http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift.

OXFORD, Miss. – A college campus can sometimes seem like an untenable environment for those students enrolling or returning to classes after treatment for alcohol or substance abuse. Thanks to an initiative to expand support services for such students, the Collegiate Recovery Community at the University of Mississippi has received new private support and is planning a Sept. 21 public program.

The 6 p.m. event at The Inn at Ole Miss will feature Ray, Kathy and Nick Hayes, a family who has made contributions to the programming of the University of Alabama’s Collegiate Recovery Community, or CRC. Ray Hayes serves as the executive vice chancellor of finance and operations of the UA system.

The Ole Miss CRC has been in existence since 2010, but efforts are under way to attract private funding to expand services to students and raise awareness of programming. Dr. Glenn and Sharon Hunt of Oxford have stepped forward with a lead gift to establish an endowment for the program and are encouraging others to join them. In addition, the UM CRC has received a grant from the Stacie Mathewson Foundation.

“Sharon and I decided to become involved in the Collegiate Recovery Community because of the great need we saw among young people,” said Dr. Hunt, who is a longtime physician specialist in Oxford. “Our son Clark was attending law school at another university and came across a support group that was extremely important to him throughout his successful completion of a juris doctor degree. We recognized how key that support can be for individuals.”

To date, the nonprofit Stacie Mathewson Foundation in Reno, Nev., has helped to fight one of the nation’s fastest-growing epidemics by educating lawmakers, building awareness and funding community capacity-building efforts for youth and young adults in recovery. The foundation awarded 100 grants, and the UM CRC was among the recipients.

Approximately 80 CRCs are beginning or are operating across the nation, and many are following a model developed by Texas Tech University. According to Texas Tech data from 28 programs that implemented the model, students involved in a CRC have a lower relapse rate, a mean grade-point average of 3.34 and a graduation rate that exceeds 80 percent.

“Collegiate recovery programs are proving to be an effective way of supporting students who are in recovery from alcohol and drug use or addressing other issues,” said Brandi Hephner LaBanc, UM vice chancellor for student affairs. “We are deeply grateful for Sharon and Glenn Hunt’s generous private gift to support Ole Miss’ efforts in this critical area, as well as for the grant from the Stacie Mathews Foundation. We encourage others to join the Ole Miss family in our efforts to support the needs of students in recovery who are actively pursuing academic goals. We want these students to know they are not alone.”

According to the Association of Recovery in Higher Education, approximately 21 percent of the young adult population between 18 and 21 meet the criteria for substance abuse disorders, making a college campus a “fertile ground for supporting students in recovery and positively impacting the stigma associated with addiction. A collegiate recovery program … is designed to provide an educational opportunity alongside recovery support to ensure that students do not have to sacrifice one for the other.”

Dr. Hunt agrees with this description.

“Collegiate recovery communities are having a huge impact on individual lives,” he said. “With support, students can finish their college degrees, pursue meaningful careers and adopt healthy lifestyles. My family and I want to be part of a support system that helps students meet the challenges of returning to campus after treatment. We feel there is an obvious need for this program and want to see students have a safe place where there is a circle of support and services to help them navigate through their remaining college years.”

Clark Hunt echoes that sentiment. “Only because of sobriety am I able to further my education by pursuing a master’s in professional counseling at the University of Mississippi. My hope is that every student in recovery receives the same opportunity and support I have received in order for them to achieve their academic goals.”

The UM CRC is open to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in a minimum of three credit hours. Other criteria for participation in the program include a minimum of six months of continuous sobriety, submission of a biographical or recovery statement, abstinence from use of alcohol and/or drugs at all times, completion of academic advising requirements, attendance at weekly seminars focused on recovery topics, participation in weekly Recovery Night and compliance with other university-related obligations.

Susan Nicholas – who heads the advisory committee overseeing the UM CRC, as well as serving as an academic mentor in the College of Liberal Arts and program coordinator of the North Mississippi VISTA Project – said there is an array of goals for the program.

“We are grateful to the Hunt family for their gift and hope many others will be inspired to make a similar investment in our young people,” Nicholas said. “Increased funding will allow us to reach more students and offer more and improved services. As a result of the support they have received, many students in recovery are committed to outreach and community service, contributing to a vibrant recovery community and improved public health for our entire university.”

The Sept. 21 program is free and open to the public. Appetizers will be served. Those wishing to participate in, or learn more about, the UM CRC can email recovery@olemiss.edu or call 662-426-1714.

Individuals and organizations interested in supporting the UM CRC can mail a check with the fund noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677; contact Sarah Hollis, associate director of development, at shollis@olemiss.edu or 662-915-1584; or visit http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift.

OXFORD, Miss. — Honors students in one of the leading academic programs at the University of Mississippi no longer have the opportunity to enroll in a class led by the famed and now retired Jere Hoar — but they may have the opportunity to be at Ole Miss due to the journalism professor’s legacy.

Inspired by his teaching, Hoar’s former students created a scholarship in his honor a few years ago. This fall, they are launching an initiative that will both record history and make history.

Alumni and friends are invited to log onto a dedicated link on the University of Mississippi Foundation website to share their memories of the professor so that the stories are not lost to time. Also, if the goal of increasing the existing endowment by $100,000 is met, an anonymous donor has pledged another $100,000 donation to make the fund among the largest available to students in UM’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media.

Journalism at Ole Miss began in the years immediately after World War II. Since then, dozens of the students have become leading national and international practitioners in newspapers and broadcasting.

One of them is Curtis Wilkie, now a senior fellow at the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics (named in honor of a Pulitzer Prize winner and fellow alumnus, Charles Overby) on UM’s Oxford campus. Wilkie’s career culminated with many years covering presidential politics and the Middle East for The Boston Globe, but it began in the presence of Jere Hoar.

“I was a callow high school senior considering journalism at Ole Miss, and he was a young professor willing to spend time advising me,” Wilkie said. He shares a confession about arriving late for a class during his senior year: “As I handed over my papers, Dr. Hoar had the look of a man confronted with an unpleasant odor.”

Wilkie failed the class, the same class he now teaches in the Meek School — and he tells students about it on their first day every semester. “The story demonstrates Jere Hoar’s strong commitment to the highest standards” and “it taught me a valuable lesson about meeting deadlines as a newspaper reporter.”

Greg Brock, now senior editor for standards at The New York Times, came to UM from Crystal Springs a generation after Wilkie. A leader in the effort to honor Hoar and preserve his legacy, Brock says his take on Hoar was that he was “demanding, overbearing and totally unreasonable.” The editor’s viewpoint has moderated. “I understand why he pushed us so hard to do our best. He is the professor I remember most fondly and appreciate the most.”

Students who receive the Jere Hoar Scholarship in Journalism will be selected from journalism majors who are also members of UM’s Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. As a perpetual endowment, the scholarships will be based on the fund’s annual earnings.

Hoar is a native of Tennessee who continues to live and work on his farm in Oxford. Before and after graduating from Auburn University, he worked in weekly and daily journalism and for trade publications. He is a veteran, having served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean Conflict. Later, Hoar earned a master’s at Ole Miss and a doctorate from the University of Iowa. He also completed a preceptor program, passed the legal licensing examination and became an attorney.

Hoar also continued to write short stories and novels, but says teaching was his passion and he is as happy about students who “chose to do good work in small places” as he is those who have had more notable careers.

The “tell your story” portal can be found at www.umfoundation.com/jerehoar, where contributions can also be made online. Individuals and organizations wishing to make gifts to the scholarship fund also can mail a check with the fund noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677; or contact John Festervand, director of development for the Meek School, at 662-915-1757 or jfesterv@olemiss.edu.

The Meek School of Journalism and New Media is the newest academic unit at Ole Miss. It offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and in integrated marketing communications. The school’s website is www.meek.olemiss.edu.

OXFORD, Miss. – An anonymous gift of $100,000 has been presented to the University of Mississippi Pride of the South Marching Band in honor of Chris Presley, the band’s drum major in 2010-2012. A Batesville native, Presley graduated in 2012.

Besides his leadership and service through music, Presley was an Ole Miss Women’s Council Scholar, a 2011-2012 Campus Favorite, recipient of the Marcus Guinn Spirit Award, on Chancellor’s Honor Roll and participated in groups including Gamma Beta Phi, the Academic Affairs Committee of the Associated Student Body, Omicron Delta Kappa, Mortar Board and Increasing Minority Access to Graduate Education.

“I am grateful for being a member of the Pride of the South Marching Band, as it gave me the opportunity to develop as a true leader on campus,” said Presley, who is completing his master’s in higher education and student affairs administration at the University of South Carolina.

“At Ole Miss, I was part of a family of 300 who shared our love for playing music. I was also blessed to establish lifelong relationships with both the staff and band members from different backgrounds. As drum major for the Pride of the South, I was able to achieve my goal of bringing more positive recognition and respect to our band from students, faculty, administrators and alumni.”

This new Polished Brass Band Scholarship Fund creates eight $3,000 scholarships to be awarded for four years beginning in the 2013-14 academic year. It has allowed David Willson, director of bands, to recruit incoming freshmen or community college transfer students from Mississippi who excel at the trumpet, trombone, baritone or tuba and who exhibit strong leadership qualities.

“We are thrilled about this generous gift to the Ole Miss Band,” Willson said. “The donor family has been supportive for many years, coming to fundraisers and concerts. They are big fans.

“We hope this interest will motivate others to help us endow scholarship funds to maintain a strong margin of excellence against our peer institutions.”

Also being honored by these scholarships are Betsy and Wade Creekmore and Jan and Lawrence Farrington of Jackson, Mary Sharp and Jim Rayner of Oxford and Amanda and Edward Wilson of Birmingham. These alumni are also longtime supporters of the Pride of the South Marching Band, enjoy friendships with Chris Presley and appreciate the work of Willson and William DeJournett, director of the marching band.

The 2013 edition of the band is the largest in its history. Founded in 1928, the initial marching band used instruments, uniforms and equipment donated by the National Guard. Not until 1934 did the Rebel Band own full dress uniforms, purchased by funds solicited by the general student body.

“The normal fan does not realize how much a band student has to give of themselves,” Willson said. “Ninety-five percent provide their own instrument, have spent years getting the skills they need to serve the university and work many hours in all kind of weather to show up and work on game day. Fans’ recognition of our students is the best feedback we get, and a good scholarship is key in recruiting and retaining band students for Ole Miss.”

Presley echoed Willson’s statement and agreed that this recognition has reciprocal benefit.

“Being honored by this large contribution to the band helps me realize the impact I made on the Ole Miss community at large,” he said. “It lets me know that someone was watching and noticed my passion for the Pride of the South. … I will forever be indebted to Ole Miss and the band for the amazing experience and will cherish the memories for a lifetime.

“Now as an Ole Miss alumnus, I have seen the positive impact alumni have made on our institution, and I have made it my goal to continue to recruit students, donate and raise money for the band as I did while at Ole Miss.”

The 2013 Polished Brass Band Scholarship recipients are Brandon Boyd of McComb; David Cuevas, Pass Christian; Charles Keveryn, Ridgeland; Donnie McGee, Oxford; Matthew Moore, Fulton; Sarah Nichols, Amory; Matthew Recker, Olive Branch; and Kejair Sparks, Southaven.

Ron Wilson, director of development for liberal arts, conveyed the need for such scholarships.

“As costs for college attendance rise, students are sometimes forced to choose between participating in enriching activities such as band or taking on additional employment,” he said. “Scholarship support makes it possible for students to fully realize their potential, earn degrees and participate in programs that augment the Ole Miss experience for us all.”

Besides  scholarships, the donation also creates the Band Faculty Support Fund, which will provide support for faculty development at the director’s discretion.

“This gift will enable Director Willson to provide his faculty needed support and attract the best student-musicians to our supremely talented Pride of the South Marching Band,” Chancellor Dan Jones said. “We have done an excellent job showing our band’s strength on the football field this year, but more importantly, sending the message of what it means to truly be an Ole Miss Rebel. This gift will make that message louder and clearer.”

The Polished Brass Band Scholarship Fund and the Band Faculty Support Fund are open to receive gifts from individuals and organizations. Anyone can contribute by sending a check with the fund noted to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677; contacting Ron Wilson at 662-915-1755 or jrwilso3@olemiss.edu; or visiting http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift.

OXFORD, Miss. – Winston “Cape” and Barbara Caperton of Warrenton, Va., attended a recent Ole Miss football game as guests of Chancellor Dan Jones, in gratitude for their longtime support and for the establishment of the Barbara Caperton Ole Miss Women’s Council Scholarship Endowment.

A native of Noxapater, Cape Caperton is a University of Mississippi alumnus and supporter, both financially and spiritually.

“I’ve said many prayers for you, Chancellor, because you have had trying times in the past during your leadership and I’ve admired how you’ve handled them,” he told Jones.

“I appreciate that,” Jones said. “I knew when I took this job we would have some trying moments, but they are also teachable moments. That’s part of life for a university. Thank you for your prayers – and please don’t stop.”

The Capertons, accompanied by their son and daughter-in-law, Chris and Rebecca Caperton, also of Warrenton, assured Jones that their thoughts would continue for his administration.

The Capertons’ visit came as they were dedicating additional funds to the scholarship endowment they first pledged back in 2007. As part of the Ole Miss Women’s Council, the Caperton scholarship helps provide tuition and books for young men and women, as well as guidance and training in leadership skills, career development and personal growth throughout the student’s tenure at the university.

As part of their visit, the Capertons took Chris and Rebecca to see the plaque in the OMWC Rose Garden that bears his mother’s name. Jones and the Capertons enjoyed visiting and swapping stories about their shared experiences as Baptist missionaries, raising families and the importance of scholarship opportunities.

“When you give to scholarships, you’re really giving to us two ways: You’re helping us recruit and bring fine students to the University of Mississippi, and then those funds also help support our academic programs and faculty as well,” Jones said. “It moves us forward.”

“I realize working your way through school is not like it was when I did it,” Caperton said. “Our scholarship was intended for a Noxapater graduate because I have a particular affinity for my hometown. When the time came to award the scholarship, there wasn’t a viable candidate from Noxapater. So we had a backup plan, and as the scholarship is in honor of my wife, we indicated that we’d like it to go to a nursing student.”

The Capertons were pleased to have met the first recipient, Mia Kloth of Greenville. “She’s a lovely young lady and an excellent student,” Barbara Caperton said. “It’s so nice to put a person’s face to something you believe in and have worked hard to do.”

“We never dreamed that we’d be able to do something like this, as we aren’t people of wealth,” Cape Caperton said. “We made a nice investment, and by selling some land this opportunity to give back was afforded to us. We had a good estate planner helping us through United Services Automobile Association, my former employer, and they’ve provided matching gifts to the endowment as well.”

Like many of his generation, Cape Caperton grew up on a farm and graduated from a small class of only 14 at Noxapater High School in 1946. After attending Hinds Community College for two years, Caperton transferred to UM and put himself through school, borrowing $1,000 to make it possible. Graduating with a business degree in 1950, he entered the Air Force and met Barbara, a nursing student at Trinity University from Mercedes, Texas, while teaching at the Officer Training School in San Antonio. The two married after Barbara completed her program.

Working hard to maintain careers and raise two children, the family moved frequently, living in Texas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Georgia and then back to San Antonio as Cape transitioned from Sentry Insurance to USAA. Barbara was a full-time mother and part-time nurse for many years, then became a full-time school nurse when her children were older. The Capertons then began planning the next stage in their lives: giving back.

After retiring in 1986, the Capertons each fought cancer. Finally healthy in 1990, they began the journey they had planned for so long. On behalf of the International Mission Board, they embarked on a lengthy mission to Israel, followed by several years of rewarding short-term mission travel.

During those 10 years, the Capertons saw their daughter and son marry in a double wedding and head to Washington, D.C., to pursue careers in public service. Wanting to be closer to family and grandchildren, the Capertons sold their retirement land near Jackson in favor of a place in Virginia.

Wise retirement investment and a little good fortune in real estate allowed for the additional opportunity to give back for the Capertons. Selling the land allowed them to make generous gifts to both the International Mission Board and their scholarship endowment at UM.

“I wanted the scholarship to be in Barbara’s name because she’s been so supportive of me and my interests in Ole Miss – the campus, football and the university,” Caperton said. “We like coming back here. The changes are amazing, but the people here don’t change – there’s always been a strong camaraderie. I like what Frank Everett once wrote – you graduate from the university but one never graduates from Ole Miss. That’s the heart of it.”

Debbie Vaughn, UM senior executive director of development, has forged a special relationship with the Capertons.

“Since our first meeting in 2007, Cape and Barbara have become close friends of mine, prayer warriors, even,” Vaughn said. “I am so honored and privileged to work with this special family who has not only committed so much of their time to helping people around the world, but also sacrificed much of their life savings in an effort to continue that commitment to service. They are truly two of the most giving people I’ve ever met.”

The Barbara Caperton OMWC Scholarship is open to receive gifts from individuals and organizations. To contribute, send a check with the fund noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677; or visit http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift. For more information on establishing an OMWC Scholarship, contact Sarah Hollis, associate director of University Development, at 662-915-1584 or shollis@olemiss.edu.

OXFORD, Miss. – Kevser Ermin, a doctoral student remembered for her tragic 2011 death while cycling one clear October morning between Oxford and Sardis Lake, left a lasting legacy at the University of Mississippi beyond simply a parable about transportation safety and sharing the road.

Thanks to husband Yavuz Ozeren’s recent gift to the UM Department of Health, Exercise Science and Recreation Management, Ermin will be known by future students for her many personal strengths and professional talents.

The Kevser Ermin Memorial Lecture in Health and Kinesiology will be an annual lecture series for faculty, students and area professionals to interact and learn from a leader in the field of health sciences. Ermin was an accomplished academic, athlete and volunteer, a daughter, sister, wife and aunt who cherished her family, both in Oxford and in her native Turkey.

“Kevser was always very inquisitive, one of the best graduate students that I have worked with over my career,” said Mark Loftin, associate dean of the School of Applied Sciences and professor of exercise science. “Kevser was a wonderful emerging scholar whose life was tragically cut short; this lecture series will honor her memory for many years.”

“We’ve done many things to keep her memory alive through memorials and events, but we wanted this gift to go toward a legacy for her that reflected her research and her work,” Ozeren said. “She wasn’t just studying to get a degree or finish school; she lived her life as a part of her work. She did all she could to learn more about obesity, health, exercise science, physiology – she liked it. Our hope is that this will keep her research going through future students.”

Ermin’s career in sports began early. She played for the Anadolu University Female Handball Club from 1995 to 2005 and for the Turkish National Female Youth Team from 2001 to 2004. In 2003, she became a certified referee in the local female handball league in Eskisehir, Turkey, and received her degree in physical education and sports from Anadolu University.

Ermin met Ozeren, a research scientist at the UM National Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering and visiting scientist at the USDA National Sedimentation Laboratory, in 2005 when she moved to Oxford to live with her sister, Nurhayat Tabanca, and study English so Ermin could continue her education.

In 2009, both Ermin’s and Ozeren’s families traveled from Turkey to Oxford to see Ermin receive her master’s degree, Ozeren earn his doctorate and the couple’s wedding in Johnson Commons Ballroom.

Ozeren said he was consistently amazed at Ermin’s determination and spirit.

“She made learning English look so easy,” he said. “She just did it and got it out of the way so she could continue her studies. In four years, she went from learning English, to getting her master’s to working on her Ph.D. – she excelled so quickly that she was invited to teach in the department. Meanwhile, she was always socially active and volunteering.”

Ermin was headstrong, meticulous and determined in all she did, Ozeren said. “She was getting ready for a poster competition during graduate school, and she told me that she was preparing to win. I tried to explain to her that this was the first time she was competing in something like this and tried to prepare her for disappointment. But she won in her first try – she always prepared for perfection.”

Scott Owens, associate professor of HESRM and Ermin’s thesis director, agreed.

“Kevser was very accomplished; her thesis, ’Bone Mineral Density of Adolescent Female Tennis Players and Nontennis Players,’ was published in the Journal of Osteoporosis, a prestigious journal,” Owens said. “She really enjoyed the research process. Kevser was well-liked as an instructor and enjoyed teaching.

“Having this lectureship in her honor will allow us to bring in nationally recognized speakers to serve as role models for our graduate students and help them get a feel for high-level research. We currently have a committee looking for our first lecturer, scheduled for April 2014.”

Although she was in Oxford only a few years, Ermin had a major impact on the community.

Cowboy Mouth, a rock band popular with the Ole Miss community, was one of Ermin’s favorites. When she met the band just months before her death, Ermin asked lead singer Fred LeBlanc if he would remember her when the band returned to Oxford, as she attended all their concerts. LeBlanc and his band came back and held a memorial concert for Ermin on Nov. 17, 2011.

Other memorials include:

• The 2011 Tupelo Shakerag Half Marathon, for which Ermin had been training, was dedicated to her.
• The 2012 and 2013 UM Rebel Man Sprint Triathlon was dedicated to her and the fund it supports was renamed the Kevser Ermin Professional Development Fund.
• The 2012 IV Area Special Olympics was dedicated to Ermin in honor of her many hours as a volunteer organizer.
• A HESRM laboratory was dedicated and renamed the Kevser Ermin Applied Physiology Laboratory.
• State Highway 314, known in Oxford as Old Sardis Road, was renamed Kevser Ermin Memorial Highway.
• In May 2013, the Kevser Ermin Library was established at the Cemal Mumtaz Anadolu Teacher High School in Eskisehir, Turkey, by family and friends in honor of her love of teaching and learning.
• Each year, a memorial ride following Ermin’s last route to Sardis Lake is convened by the Oxford cycling community, friends and family on the anniversary of her death.

The family is appreciative of efforts to share Ermin’s spirit and provide a legacy, said Nurhayat Tabanca, Ermin’s sister and a research scientist for the UM National Center for Natural Products Research.

“Kevser will forever be a symbol of love, beauty, health and fitness, fun and life,” Tabanca said. “She was a free, strong and brave spirit. Kevser was passionate about everything in her life: health and fitness, her studies and work, her family and friends. Kevser never stopped living, challenging and achieving her goals. She continually reached for new heights.”

Ozeren agreed. “Kevser exuded the ultimate qualities of an athlete; she lived the life of an athlete, both mentally and physically. She was disciplined in everything she did, never giving up. I learned so much from her. I recently competed in an athletic event, a triathlon, for the first time ever. I felt closer to her, because I finally understood that side of her – competition and athleticism – from firsthand experience. I was always inspired by her, and I try to continue to live and practice the things that she taught me.”

Individuals and organizations interested in providing private support to the Department of Health, Exercise Science and Recreation Management can contact Michael Upton, director of development, at 662-915-3027 or mupton@olemiss.edu.

Gifts can be made to the Kevser Ermin Memorial Lecture in Health and Kinesiology Endowment by sending a check with the fund noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677, or by visiting http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift.

OXFORD, Miss. – A stickler for grammar, a lover of clever songwriting and a “natural explainer,” Charles Walker has had a vast impact on the University of Mississippi, Oxford and Lafayette County.

Walker is known by many as one of two things: a favorite professor or the attorney and mediator to whom clients and real estate professionals go to when they have difficult problems – or perhaps both. Having taught business law and real estate law courses in the UM School of Business Administration and the Patterson School of Accountancy for 38 years while practicing law in Oxford, Walker has taught, mentored or worked alongside hundreds of real estate, business and law professionals.

Among them are George and Annie Haymans of Oxford, two Ole Miss alumni who have been influenced by Walker both personally and professionally. When they wanted to give back to their alma mater, they chose to establish the Charles H. Walker Real Estate Scholarship Endowment, honoring a man who played a big role in their happiness and success.

“This was the result of a conversation Annie and I had about our estate planning and charitable giving,” he said. “We wanted to give back to Ole Miss and honor the impact Charles had in our lives and show him how many people he has influenced in his life.”

George Haymans earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 2001 and met Walker in 2003 while purchasing his first house. He received a law degree from UM in 2006, the same year his future bride, Annie Powers, completed her undergraduate degree in psychology. They married in 2008 and George Haymans opened his practice in real estate law with guidance from Walker and local attorneys Cal Mayo and Lee Tyner. Annie Haymans earned another bachelor’s degree from UM in education in 2011.

“Students comment that Charles was one of their favorite instructors due to his enthusiasm and storytelling to illustrate a point,” said Ken Cyree, dean of the School of Business Administration. “A scholarship established by former students shows the depth of their connection to him as a professor.”

“Charles’ dedication to teaching and devotion to the university serve as an inspiration to us all,” agreed Bob Robinson, the Michael S. Starnes Professor of Management who began teaching at UM in 1990. “He has always been regarded as an exceptional teacher with his students’ interests at heart. This scholarship will be an incentive for recruiting bright young scholars to the real estate program. In this manner, Charles continues to bring excellence to the program long after he has left the classroom.”

Walker also encouraged others to devote time to teaching, including Arlen Coyle, a friend and law school classmate. Coyle continues to teach business law at UM, just as he did in the 1970s and ’80s during his career in U.S. Courts system.

“Charles is a natural explainer,” Coyle said. “He has the gift of being able to take complex subjects, break them down into their constituent elements and explain them to students. I cannot envision any other teacher accomplishing as much solid teaching as has Charles during his 38-year career at Ole Miss.

“Plus, Charles is the most honest man I have ever known. There are lawyers who give the legal profession a good name. Charles Walker is at the forefront of that group.”

Coyle appreciates Walker’s work-life balance and recollects Walker’s personal approach from the earliest days of their friendship.

“I first met Charles in 1969 in law school,” he said. “It was customary to wear dress trousers, dress shirts and ties. Charles dressed according to hunting seasons; when a season was open, Charles wore hunting trousers, boots, a dress shirt and tie. As soon as classes were over, the shirt and tie came off, a hunting shirt and jacket went on, and off he went. Charles also charmed the secretaries into going out to check on the hunting dogs in his car. Charles knows every bird hunting field in Lafayette, Yalobusha, Panola, Marshall and Union counties.”

Walker’s in-depth knowledge of the landscape of north Mississippi is well-known. Although Walker was born in Morganton, N.C., his roots and love for Mississippi run deep. His mother was born and reared in Kilmichael, where he visited with his parents most summers. He is also the great-nephew of the late Pat Harrison, former Mississippi congressman (1911-1919) and senator (1919-1941).

Walker was a struggling student at Lees-McRae Junior College in North Carolina when he met his future wife, Mary Mitchell, in 1964. Inspired to shape up academically, he made the dean’s list the following semester and transferred to Ole Miss in 1965. He married Mary in 1966 and earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration the next year. He earned his law degree from UM in 1970.

“There was a professor, W.W. Joor, from Rolling Fork in the Mississippi Delta, who taught business law then,” Walker said. “I took all three of his classes and got an ‘A’ in each. I realized I had finally found a subject I enjoyed and a field in which I could excel.”

He entered law school that fall. Mary quickly read the writing on the wall.

“We had just married and promised our families we’d move closer to North Carolina after Charles finished his undergraduate degree,” Mary said. “Then at Christmas, Charles said he thought he might want to go to law school. It wasn’t long before I realized we weren’t leaving.”

The draw to teaching was instilled early. While in law school, Walker was invited to sub for Joor.

“Mr. Joor and I got to be good buddies, and he would ask me to substitute teach for him,” Walker said. “I got to teach Archie Manning, Jim Poole and others (while) sitting in for Joor.”

By 1977, Walker was offered a full-time faculty position in the business school. Mary Walker referred to teaching as “his true gift.” She should know; beginning in 2000 when Walker’s vision began deteriorating, Mary would accompany him to class to help take roll and be his eyes in the classroom.

“I watched how the students responded to the way Charles brought real life into the classroom,” she recalled. “He even took them to the courthouse to teach them how to check titles.”

“I tried to teach practical information,” Walker explained. “For example, let’s say we hear a forest fire in California has burned 40,000 acres. To put this in perspective for the class, I’d explain that Lafayette County is roughly 20 miles square, or roughly 450,000 acres. I would draw Lafayette County up on the board and show them it is just below 9 percent of Lafayette County. It sounds terrible, but many people have no concept of how large or small an acre of land is.”

Walker was regarded as a talented and favorite teacher, earning high ratings from students during end-of-semester evaluations. He also directed the Professional Land Management (formerly Petroleum Land Management) program for 25 years, served as director of the long-range planning committee in the 1980s and was an affirmative action officer. In 1984, he was awarded tenure and served from 1987 to 1997 as the public address announcer for Ole Miss home football games.

The Walkers have three children, Caroline (Todd) Underwood and Mary Beth (John) Cantrell of Tupelo and Jonathan Walker (Sally Kate) of Oxford. They also enjoy their six grandchildren.

Haymans, who also teaches as an adjunct in the business school, encourages others to help grow the Charles H. Walker Real Estate Scholarship Endowment.

“I’m often in court when someone hears I practice in Oxford,” he said. “They’ll come tell me a story about having Charles in school or that he helped them attain their first job. He helped to train judges and attorneys around the state. He’s had a big impact.”

Mostly, Haymans wants Walker to know the weight of his influence. “He is one of the few lawyers who can relieve tensions among parties without threatening, without ego. There is no reason to go to court with Charles Walker involved. The biggest lessons I’ve learned from Charles are humility and the importance of living by my Christian values. He is very self-deprecating, even when it is not his obligation.”

Individuals and organizations interested in making a gift to the Charles H. Walker Real Estate Scholarship Endowment can send a check with the fund noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677; contact Tim Noss at 662-915-5932 or tlnoss@olemiss.edu; or visit http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift.

OXFORD, Miss. – Everyone can identify with a life-changing crisis of one kind or another: unexpected illness, death of a family member or loss of property due to natural disaster. These types of emergencies often put families on hard times, both financially and emotionally. For a University of Mississippi student, such an event could easily lead to a leave of absence or complete disenrollment.

Previously, if a costly emergency affected an Ole Miss student, no resources were available to the Division of Student Affairs to assist students with travel, temporary housing or other unexpected expenses. Brandi Hephner LaBanc, vice chancellor for student affairs, first recognized this need in 2012 and began working to establish the Ole Miss Family Fund Endowment with the help of Ole Miss parents, the UM Foundation and others.

“We had incidents in my first semester that alerted me to this need,” Hephner LaBanc said. “Most universities, including ours, used to have a budget line that allowed for this type of discretionary spending, but over time they disappeared due to increasing expenses. Establishing an endowment to address the issue creates a reliable fund to support our students indefinitely. To name it the Ole Miss Family Fund made perfect sense; Ole Miss is known for being a family.

“However, there are times now when our support can only go so far. This endowment will allow us to extend our abilities one step further and help tangibly apply our mission and the true Ole Miss family spirit.”

The Ole Miss Family Fund, or OMFF, will help cover costs when the Division of Student Affairs identifies a student in need. The emergency fund may purchase textbooks, help with rent or assist with other costs to enable a student with an immediate crisis to stay enrolled and in good standing.

“Our professors or staff members often become aware of a student who is suffering a personal crisis and want to know the appropriate way to reach out and help,” Hephner LaBanc said. “Right now, we do our best, but having the Family Fund to draw upon would be a game-changer.”

Recent generous gifts totaling more than $25,000 have endowed the OMFF. The first came from the Madison Charitable Foundation, an organization whose support of UM and the UM Medical Center’s Batson Hospital for Children fits well within the spirit of “family support.”

“The Madison Charitable Foundation has a tremendous passion for providing scholarship support for Ole Miss students who might not otherwise have been able to afford to attend college,” said Sarah Hollis, associate director of University Development. “Their gift to the OMFF will ensure funding is available to help students stay in school while they weather whatever storm they may be facing.”

Additionally, the UM Foundation chose to designate funds to the OMFF as its annual holiday gift.

“Each year the foundation designates funds toward one of the university’s goals as a holiday gift in honor of our board of directors and their dedication to our efforts,” said Wendell Weakley, president and CEO of the UM Foundation. “We could not have picked a more appropriate fund this year, as the Ole Miss Family Fund speaks directly to UM’s mission of accessibility to higher education and nurturing support from enrollment to graduation. We are pleased that Dr. Hephner LaBanc identified this need for Ole Miss and look forward to helping the Family Fund grow.”

Upon receiving the foundation’s holiday card, Louis and Lucia Brandt of Houston, Texas, sought more information on the OMFF. Hearing the fund’s mission, their gift immediately followed.

“When I realized that this fund existed, I was very touched and wanted to be a part of the effort,” Louis Brandt said. “Providing financial support for students in times of crisis is consistent with the caring culture of Ole Miss. I am blessed to able to share my good fortune, which in large part is a result of having graduated from Ole Miss and the friendships I developed during that time. I hope that my support of the Ole Miss Family Fund will provide others with the same opportunity.”

Ole Miss students’ parents and family members have been among the most responsive during fundraising efforts.

“We speak often of the support of the ‘Ole Miss family’ for academics, athletics and especially for our students,” said Brett Barefoot, director of development for Ole Miss Parents Leadership. “This fund will offer true reinforcement when a student finds him or herself in a bind. Our Ole Miss parents see this as an extension of our promise to support our students, and I hope more will join us as we build this fund.”

Future fundraising efforts will bolster the endowment as well as provide resources to activate the fund.

“The big impact here is that we could change a student’s mind about withdrawing from Ole Miss,” Hephner LaBanc said. “Whether they are faced with a $2,500 or a $200 issue, the student will know that Ole Miss is not just a place they go to class, but truly a community that will support them and help them succeed. We want to help them graduate and get that dream job.”

Individuals and organizations interested in supporting the Ole Miss Family Fund Endowment can mail a check with the fund noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677; contact Brett Barefoot, director of development for Parents Leadership at bmbarefo@olemiss.edu or 662-915-2711; or visit http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift.

OXFORD, Miss. – For the second consecutive year, the Ole Miss Hockey Program has qualified for the ACHA (American Collegiate Hockey Association) Division 3 National Tournament.

The Rebels defeated the University of Florida and the University of Alabama at the Regional Tournament in Irmo, S.C., to qualify for the national tournament in Coral Springs, Fla. (March 11 – 16). At the tournament, Ole Miss has been grouped with California University (Penn.), Davenport University (Mich.), and Aurora University (Ill.).

First-year coach Angelo Rosena, who previously served as an assistant captain and assumed the head coaching job during the fall of 2013, says the team will continue many of its routines as they prepare for this year’s tournament.

“Obviously, I didn’t think we would go to nationals my first year, but recruiting has helped with this. As we prepare, I want to keep the things the same that got us to this point this year. I am trying to get practices more fast-paced for the boys, though. And I’m also slightly changing one or two things from last year’s nationals that we have learned from.”

Formed during the 2009-2010 school year, the Ole Miss Hockey Program is in just its fifth year. By the 2011-2012 season, the team had improved enough to qualify for the regional tournament, which helped them prepare for berths to the national tournament in subsequent years. This year, the team has its eye on the ultimate prize.

“The ultimate goal is of course to win it all,” says Addison Oliver a sophomore from Raleigh, N.C., who played hockey before coming to Ole Miss. “If you don’t think that your team can win a championship, then you are playing for the wrong reason. With that said, I would really like to see us make it further this year by winning more than one game and advancing out of pool play. This year we won’t be able to sneak up on teams like last year so we have to bring our ‘A’ game.”

During the season, the team splits its home games between the Mid-South Ice House in Olive Branch, Miss., and the Bancorp South Arena in Tupelo. In the past, the Ole Miss Ice Hockey team has travelled as far as Orlando, Fla., Cincinnati, Ohio, and East Lansing, Mich., to play a wide variety of teams from the north, northeast and western United States. The typical season lasts from September to March.

There are 30 players on this year’s team which is mostly supported through donations, fundraisers and player dues. More information about the Ole Miss Ice Hockey team is available online.

Anyone interested in supporting the team on the road to the national tournament can do so here.