Campaign for Mississippi State tops $76 million with three years left

James K. Ashford, national general chairman of the campaign, announced the updated total at a Friday luncheon of campaign contributors and volunteers.

"Even though we are approaching the campaign goal, much more can be accomplished," Ashford said. "Many hundreds of people across our state and country still are contemplating their commitments. The amount in potential contributions still to come from prospective donors is astounding."

The Campaign for Mississippi State: To Serve Mississippi . . . and Beyond, seeks private support for scholarships and financial aid, faculty development, educational program enhancement, the library, buildings and classrooms, and the university's unrestricted endowment.

Commitments totaling $76.1 million have been received since the campaign officially began on July 1, 1992, Ashford said Friday. About $21 million of that amount is in cash already received, about $23 million is pledged over the next five years, and about $32 million is in the form of deferred gifts, such as bequests. The campaign is scheduled to continue to mid-1997.

Also announced Friday were the initial results of the on-campus part of the campaign. Ashford said university faculty and staff have committed about $300,000 to the effort since the University Phase got under way in April, and a majority of faculty and staff responses have yet to be collected.

"We're immensely proud of what our faculty and staff are doing," said President Donald Zacharias. "They are demonstrating with their own hard-earned money that they believe in what this university stands for and what it is accomplishing for Mississippi and the country."

One individual donor honored on Friday was Mrs. Jane Perry of Spanish Fort, Ala. Mrs. Perry last year established a $1.5 million gift annuity that will be used to help renovate and preserve the historic 1921 university cafeteria, now renamed Perry Hall Cafeteria. Mrs. Perry's late husband, George D. Perry, was a 1919 graduate of Mississippi A&M College and a former president of the university's alumni association and the Mississippi State University Foundation.

Friday also marked the official opening of the Walk of Honor on the Drill Field in the center of the Mississippi State campus. Individual bricks that make up the walk are inscribed with the names of donors who have contributed at least $500 to the campaign.

The walk opened with more than 1,900 bricks in place, representing contributions of the required amount received by Jan. 1, 1994. Hundreds more have since qualified for inclusion, and bricks will be added throughout the campaign. The walk was constructed with a gift from campaign chairman Ashford, a 1958 Mississippi State graduate and retired president of J.I. Case Inc.