Contact: Joe Farris
Best-selling novelist John Grisham has made another major contribution to his alma mater by endowing new teaching awards and scholarships at Mississippi State University.
Grisham and his wife, Renee, donated $1.5 million to the university. The gift is divided into equal endowments supporting faculty awards for undergraduate teaching and scholarships for academically talented students.
"We're obviously delighted that John and Renee Grisham have chosen to make a major new investment in the quality of teaching and learning at Mississippi State," said Interim President J. Charles Lee. "High quality undergraduate instruction is at the heart of what this institution is all about, and the Grishams have demonstrated time and again that they are committed to helping raise aspirations and opportunities for Mississippi students."
Starting during the coming academic year, faculty members will be honored for outstanding teaching at the undergraduate level with $10,000 Grisham Teaching Excellence Awards. Plans call for two awards from endowment earnings during the first year and three per year thereafter.
Half of the Grisham gift will help support the university's Presidential Endowed Scholarship program, which provides four-year scholarships and special learning opportunities to some of the university's most academically promising freshmen.
Presidential scholarships awarded this year are valued at $34,000 over four years, which approximates MSU's cost of tuition and fees and room and board. The amount can change from year to year to reflect increases in the cost of attendance.
Two Grisham Presidential Scholarships will be awarded to students entering the university in fall 2003, and the number available will grow along with endowment earnings. Recipients of the Grisham Presidential Scholarships and those endowed by other donors may major in any field of study and are selected by the university's Competitive Scholarships Committee.
The new Grisham Teaching Excellence Awards will renew and expand a faculty recognition program that Grisham started in 1993. Since then, more than 50 faculty members have been honored with teaching awards supported by previous gifts.
Recipients of the new Grisham Teaching Excellence Awards may come from any academic department and will be chosen annually by the provost and a committee of faculty, administrators, and students. Winners will become eligible for the award again after eight years.
John and Renee Grisham also have supported writing scholarships, a writer-in-residence program, business scholarships, and the baseball team at the university over the past decade.
The John Grisham Room in the university library houses the author's papers and other memorabilia related to his career as one of the best-selling authors in history. Grisham, who received a bachelor's degree in accounting at MSU in 1977, has written a novel per year since 1988. More than 60 million copies of his legal thrillers and other works are in print in 29 languages and several have been made into major motion pictures.