Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--The late Eugene Tarsi of Cleveland is being memorialized with a new scholarship established at Mississippi State.
The university endowment was created by fellow members of Bolivar County's MSU alumni chapter. The Eugene Tarsi Memorial Scholarship is designed to assist high school graduates throughout the Central Delta county who will be entering freshmen at the 128-year-old land-grant institution.
Tarsi was a Shelby native and 1958 MSU agribusiness graduate who died in 2000. He was a retired member of the United States Air Force who went on to become a senior salesman with West Implement Co. in Cleveland.
Constantly involved in the daily life of his community, Tarsi was an active member of Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church and its parish council. He also was a former grand knight of the Knights of Columbus chapter, and president of both the Shaw School Board and Bayou Academy Colts Booster Club.
Additionally, he had served as an appointed member of the Selective Service Commission for Mississippi.
For his alma mater, Tarsi had served as president of the county chapter of the Bulldog Club, the MSU athletic department's fund-raising arm. He also was a former Bulldog Club regional director.
"He was a strong believer in the value of education," said son Jeffrey M. "Jeff" Tarsi of Collierville, Tenn., a 1984 MSU agricultural economics graduate. "He always was diligent in his efforts to create funding for education for his area and his alma mater."
The scholarship endowment "will provide young people from Bolivar County the opportunity to further their education in dad's name at the university that he loved," Tarsi added.
In addition to being county residents, scholarship applicants must have a minimum American College Test composite score of 18 and a record of demonstrated leadership.
The Tarsi Scholarship Fund may be increased through additional contributions. For more information, contact Cathy Lammons of the MSU Foundation at 662-325-7000 or clammons@advservices.msstate.edu.