Contact: Bill Wagnon
Contributions from family and friends of a longtime Leflore County couple are making possible an educational scholarship in their name at Mississippi State University.
The Dewey and Marie Malouf Educational Scholarship Fund will support students in the university's College of Education.
The fund was established originally by two of the Malouf's five children and their spouses: Martha Malouf Ueltschey and husband Watts of Jackson, and George Malouf and wife Kathy of Madison.
"When I came to campus in 1968, I dreamed of naming a building after Mom and Dad," said Martha Ueltschey.
"We now have an everlasting scholarship representing the inspiration, the guidance and the love that they instilled within their children and those with whom they came in contact," she added.
"The (senior) Maloufs were raised during the Depression and had no personal opportunity for higher education," explained education Dean William H. Graves. "Nevertheless, they always have been supporters of education and expected it of their children."
The Malouf Educational Scholarship Fund currently is valued at more than $25,000.
Dewey Malouf, a retired businessman, is known for his generosity. He often has chauffeured persons needing chemotherapy for treatments in Jackson.
Marie Malouf is a homemaker who was instrumental in starting the free lunch program at the Leflore County High School during the 1950s. For years, she invited disadvantaged youth to her home--usually without the knowledge of her family--for meals, clothes and other amenities.
The Maloufs, who are second generation Lebanese, also are known for providing Christmas stockings stuffed with food and toys for underprivileged youth in the area.
Four Malouf children attended Mississippi State, three receiving degrees. The couple currently have six grandchildren and three grand nieces and nephews enrolled at the Starkville institution.
Martha Ueltschey, who received bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Mississippi State in 1972, is a counselor at Jackson Academy. Her husband Watts, who received a bachelor's degree in accounting in 1972, is an attorney with Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes.
George Malouf, who completed an engineering degree in 1989, is president of Malouf Construction Corp. in Madison. His wife Kathy, a 1981 business graduate, is the corporation's vice president.