Contact: Sammy McDavid
Mississippi State is announcing the creation of a scholarship in the name of the university's longtime student health center director.
Administered by the MSU Foundation, the John C. Longest Pre-Medical Scholarship Fund is designed to be a living memorial to the MSU alumnus, physician and director of the health center that has borne his name since 1988.
Longest, who died last December at age 75, was the university's award-winning chief medical officer and football team doctor for more than 40 years.
The scholarship will be awarded each spring to eligible juniors or seniors in the pre-medical curriculum. Selection will be made by the university's Pre-Medical Scholarship Committee.
Longest was a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and American College Health Association, and was past president of the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians. In 1993, he received the academy's Country Doctor of the Year Award.
He earlier had been named Sports Medicine Man of the Year by the National Athletic Trainers Association and had received the MSU Alumni Association's Service Achievement Award.
Longest held bachelor's and master's degrees from MSU and the University of Mississippi, respectively. He also was a graduate of the Louisiana State University School of Medicine.
For more information on the Longest Memorial Scholarship, telephone the biological sciences department at (662) 325-3120 or write in care of P.O. Box GY, Mississippi State, MS 39762-5759.