Dr. Richard E. Holmes, center, with Black Alumni Society President Ernie Hughes, left, and President Donald Zacharias at the recent campus ceremony.

University names scholarship for first black student

The Dr. Richard E. Holmes Endowed Scholarship Fund recently was announced by university President Donald Zacharias. Established in the early 1980s by the Mississippi State Alumni Association's Black Alumni Society, the endowment initially was known as the Black Student Scholarship Fund.

Holmes, who was reared in Starkville and now is an emergency room physician based in Birmingham, Ala., enrolled in the university in 1965. He completed a bachelor's degree in 1969 and a master's in 1972. (His daughter Rikeeda is a Mississippi State freshman.)

"Dr. Holmes' vision and accomplishments are setting an example for all alumni of this university, especially our African-American graduates," Zacharias said. "It is only fitting that this scholarship supporting our African-American students be named for someone who is such a tremendous role model."

Catina L. Essix, a senior social work major at the Meridian campus, is receiving the $1,000 Holmes Scholarship for the 1994-95 school year.

Holmes and his wife, Judy, have pledged $10,000 to the university. The gift supports the scholarship fund and the Richard Holmes Cultural Diversity Center, which the university named in his honor in 1991.

"Because of Dr. Holmes' continued dedication to his alma mater and his generous financial support to the scholarship fund, we felt the scholarship should bear his name," said Ernie T. Hughes of Baton Rouge, La., Black Alumni Society president.

Hughes said more than $4,000 was pledged by alumni to the scholarship fund during the fall Homecoming celebration. The Holmes Endowment goal is $30,000, he added.