Contact: Harriet Laird
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A newly created endowed position will enhance the work of the College of Business Department of Finance and Economics at Mississippi State University and honor the memory of former Jackson area resident Jack R. Lee.
The Jack R. Lee Endowed Chair in Financial Institutions and Consumer Finance is the result of a $1.5 million anonymous gift and named for the late business executive who died in 2008. The chair will be supported by an endowment from which earnings will provide a salary supplement and additional financial support for activities of the chair holder.
"The Jack R. Lee Chair in Financial Institutions and Consumer Finance is a very important addition to the Mississippi State University faculty," said MSU President Mark E. Keenum.
"Endowed positions such as this allow us to attract distinguished faculty from across the nation to Mississippi State and provide excellence in education through the activities of the chair."
This is one of five newly endowed positions created through the university's StatePride initiative. The initiative, which continues through December 2012, has raised more than $44 million toward a $100 million goal for student scholarships and faculty development.
"The Jack R. Lee Chair will provide an extraordinary opportunity for Mississippi State students to gain real world insights from a nationally recognized professor, and it will serve as a significant resource for the state of Mississippi and nation regarding research, consultation, and outreach in the increasingly complicated financial sector," said Mike Highfield, associate professor and head of finance and economics.
Lee concluded a successful career in finance when he retired in 1998 as president, chairman and CEO of Tower Loan. During his tenure, he oversaw the development of the first stand-alone/online consumer loan computer system in the nation, the establishment of two credit insurance companies, and the company's expansion from 13 to 77 branch offices. He began his career with Aetna Finance in 1962 and held a number of leadership roles.
He also owned American Silver Dollars and assembled high ranking collections in Morgan Silver dollars, Peace dollars, Walking Liberty half dollars and Lincoln pennies. He was a past president of the Mississippi Consumer Finance Association and a member of the board of directors for the American Financial Services Association.
After beginning his college education at then-Hinds Junior College, Lee attended Mississippi State. He earlier attended Jefferson Military School and was a graduate of Forest Hill High School.
"My dad had many noteworthy accomplishments over the course of his life, among them playing an instrumental role in crafting the law whereby the industry converted from broker-based to a direct lender-based industry," recalls son Francis Lee, a Rankin County resident. "We are exceptionally pleased an endowed chair at Mississippi State honors his memory and his outstanding contributions to industry."
Jack R. Lee and his wife Mary Katherine Lewis married in 1965. In addition to Francis Lee, the family patriarch had two other sons, David Ray Lee and John Russell Lee. Mary Katherine Lee also resides in Rankin County.
The College of Business, established in 1915, is the oldest business school in Mississippi and one of the South's oldest. Fully accredited by AACSB, the college has an enrollment of more than 2,400 undergraduate and 300 graduate students.
For more information on the chair, contact Highfield at (662) 325-1984 or e-mail m.highfield@msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.