Retired educators, alumni couple endow multiple ¶à¶àÖ±²¥ scholarships
Contact: Gina Garner
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Three separate endowments created by Larry and Florence Box of Starkville will benefit undergraduate majors in Mississippi State’s colleges of Education and Agriculture and Life Sciences.Â
Longtime residents and retired public school educators, the couple recently established the Larry and Florence Box Endowed Scholarship in the College of Education, along with the F. Warren and Mary Cowsert Oakley Endowed Scholarship in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The latter honors Florence Box’s parents, both ¶à¶àÖ±²¥ alumni who operated a dairy and beef cattle farm in the Oktoc community of southern Oktibbeha County.
Additionally, their gift fully endows the Barry F. and Mary H. Box Endowed Scholarship established earlier in memory of Larry Box’s parents.
Barry Box, who led ¶à¶àÖ±²¥â€™s educational psychology department before becoming associate dean of the college, has a campus building on Morrill Road named in his honor. Mary Box received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from ¶à¶àÖ±²¥.
Beyond Larry and Florence Box’s recent outright gift, all three of their endowments will receive proceeds from a gift annuity they created.
The scholarships will assist full-time students maintaining minimum 3.0 grade-point averages (based on a 4.0 scale) and displaying leadership abilities, who also demonstrate financial need.
Larry Box holds three degrees from the education college, including a 1966 bachelor’s, 1968 master’s and 1985 doctorate. In 2014, he received the lifelong designation as an Alumni Fellow of the college, and also has served on the Dean’s Advisory Board.
Before serving as Starkville School District superintendent from 1991-2002, the former mathematics teacher was assistant district superintendent and, prior to that, principal at both Henderson Junior High and Sudduth Elementary schools.
Florence Box holds a 1975 ¶à¶àÖ±²¥ master’s degree in library science. A career librarian with the Starkville district, she also received a 1966 bachelor’s degree in library science from then-Mississippi State College for Women, now Mississippi University for Women.
Over the years, the Boxes have provided support for other areas at ¶à¶àÖ±²¥, including Mitchell Memorial Library, Starkville-¶à¶àÖ±²¥ Symphony and additional scholarship programs.
For more information about ¶à¶àÖ±²¥ endowed scholarships, contact Jack McCarty, ¶à¶àÖ±²¥ Foundation’s executive director of development, at 662-325-9580 or jmccarty@foundation.msstate.edu.
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