Contact: Maridith Geuder
A Mississippi State alumnus and fund-raising veteran is the university's new executive director of development.
Richard Armstrong of Starkville, formerly the MSU Foundation's director of planned giving, will now lead the institution's efforts in obtaining non-public funds, including constituency-based major fund raising, planned giving and corporate and foundation support. He also becomes an officer of the foundation's board of directors.
Established in 1962, the MSU Foundation solicits supplemental funding from private sources. The public land-grant university's endowment currently is valued at more than $153 million.
Armstrong officially assumes his new duties July 30, pending approval by the state Board of Trustees, Institutions of Higher Learning. He replaces Frank A. Shannon, who has accepted a position at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C.
Armstrong and his wife, the former Charlotte Ann Burns, are Meridian natives.
In his eight years as an MSU fund-raising professional, Armstrong also has served as director of development for the College of Business and Industry and the School of Architecture. In 1999, he was named to head fund-raising efforts in the area of charitable estate planning.
"I have great confidence in Richard Armstrong's ability to lead our fund-raising staff at the MSU Foundation," said Dennis A. Prescott, vice president for external affairs. "He has established a great relationship both with donors and with board members."
A 1968 general business administration graduate, Armstrong retired as a colonel in 1993 after 25 years active duty in the United States Marine Corps. While in service, he was president of the alumni association's Montgomery, Ala., chapter. For his alumni work, he was awarded the association's Distinguished Service and J.E. "Red" Ruffin Annual Fund awards.