Contact: Bill Wagnon
The estate of a late Mississippi State administrator will significantly increase support for graduate students in the university's academic area he once led.
Marion T. "Red" Loftin of Starkville was retired vice president of graduate studies and research and professor emeritus of sociology when he died July 14 at age 81. Mississippi State is the beneficiary of a life insurance policy and the bulk of Loftin's estate, together valued at nearly $700,000.
The money will be added to the existing Marion T. Loftin Graduate Assistantships for the Social Science Research Center, a fund established in 1990 with a gift from Loftin. The assistantships provide stipends for sociology graduate students who conduct research in the university's Social Science Research Center that Loftin helped to establish almost half a century ago.
The announcement of Loftin's gift coincides with the 50th anniversary of Mississippi State's department of sociology, anthropology and social work. Anniversary ceremonies are scheduled this weekend [Oct. 24-26] as part of 1997 Homecoming activities.
The SSRC will match the annual stipends from the Loftin Assistantships to create "one of the most competitive graduate awards in the country," said Martin L. Levin, head of the department of sociology, anthropology and social work.
"The Loftin gift and the additional SSRC funding will allow us to compete at the top level nationally in attracting graduate students to study sociology," Levin said.
For nearly five decades, SSRC researchers have analyzed economic and social issues in Mississippi, the Southeast and the nation. The center annually conducts around 25 sponsored and numerous other research projects.
"Dr. Loftin's professional life was dedicated to research, graduate education and the social sciences," said SSRC director Arthur G. Cosby, a former Loftin student. "For many years, he provided guidance and oversight to the SSRC, as well as serving as an eminent sociologist who was instrumental in developing the sociology graduate program at Mississippi State.
"It is gratifying that the Social Science Research Center will now have one of the larger endowed student support programs for sociology graduate students in the nation," Cosby added.
"Red" Loftin came to Mississippi State in 1949 as an assistant professor. He was named vice president of graduate studies and research in 1979, serving in that post until retirement in 1985. During his tenure, he also was a Thomas L. Bailey Professor of Sociology and Rural Life, head of the sociology department and dean of the Graduate School.
A World War II Army veteran, he held a doctorate from Vanderbilt University, as well as bachelor's and master's degrees from Northwestern Louisiana State and Louisiana State universities.
Loftin was a past president of the university's Association of Retired Faculty, the Starkville Rotary Club and the Starkville-MSU Symphony Association. He also was an active supporter of Friends of the MSU Libraries.