Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A 1949 Mississippi State graduate and continuing benefactor from Texas is the university's newest national alumnus of the year.
Louis A. Hurst Jr. received the honor Friday night [Jan. 26] during a campus awards ceremony held as part of the MSU Alumni Association's annual leadership conference.
A Houston resident, he retired in the 1980s after more than three decades as assistant director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Memphis Region.
A Poplarville [Miss.] native and accounting graduate, Hurst already was a longtime contributor to the College of Business and Industry when he made a major gift in July to the MSU Promise Program.
Created by Robert H. "Doc" Foglesong shortly after he became MSU's 18th president last year, the Promise program provides tuition support for Mississippi freshmen and community college transfers who meet academic qualifications and whose family incomes fall below $30,000 annually.
"He is providing a lifetime legacy to students who otherwise might be squeezed out because of rising tuition," Foglesong said at the time of Hurst's generosity.
Hurst previously had established an endowment fund in the business college, where he serves as a member of its senior executive advisory board. Additionally, he is a member of the MSU Foundation's prestigious Old Main Society and has been designated as a Dean W. Colvard Founder because of lifetime gifts to his alma mater.
An earlier tribute to Hurst's generosity took place in late October when MSU's newest residence hall was named in his honor. A part of the Northeast Village complex, the 82,000-square-foot facility is a 250-bed, co-residential facility filled with the latest in student-centered amenities.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.