Gift Supports Great Teachers Who Inspire

The Atkinson Family Endowment for STEM Teaching will provide salary supplements, teaching support, and research and creative activity support.

"Scholarships are great, but without excellent professors to teach the scholarship recipients, what's the point?" said Atkinson, a retired anesthesiologist. "Great teachers inspire students to learn, and this is the real key to education.

"At Ole Miss I had a lot of excellent, caring teachers who encouraged learning and inspired me to do my best."

Atkinson earned bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from Ole Miss in 1970 and 1972 and graduated from the UM School of Medicine in 1979.

Chancellor Glenn Boyce thanked the couple for recognizing the critical importance of faculty support.

"We are extremely grateful to Elaine and Rhett Atkinson for their investment in the people who make academic excellence possible – top-tier faculty who prepare and mentor our students to lead rewarding lives," he said. "Through their generosity, the Atkinsons are supporting dedicated teachers who will shape future leaders and our university's national academic reputation."

This new gift is eligible for $500,000 in matching funds, resulting in a total endowment of $2 million. This builds on another fund the Atkinsons created in 2019 with a $1.5 million gift, the Doctors Andrew Stefani and Eldon Miller Memorial Chair for STEM Teaching and Research Endowment.

The new fund provides income to the College of Liberal Arts and the School of Engineering to support the recruitment and retention of a top-tier scholar who demonstrates outstanding teaching in STEM and is also a productive researcher. The fund creates a merit-based award and promises to have a powerful impact, said Lee Cohen, liberal arts dean.

"This type of support remains one of our most urgent priorities, especially given the intense competition across higher education for world-class faculty," Cohen said. "We are deeply grateful for this generous gift, which will complement the transformational impact of the new Jim and Thomas Duff Center for Science and Technology Innovation."

Viola L. Acoff, Ole Miss engineering dean, agreed.

"The Atkinsons' generosity will allow us to recruit and retain exceptionally highly qualified faculty," she said. "I am exceedingly grateful to them for their vision for the University of Mississippi and the School of Engineering."

Atkinson shared the inspiration behind his new gift.

"My wife and I have been truly blessed and part of that blessing is due to the quality education I received at the University of Mississippi," he said. "I also want to set an example to my children and grandchildren on the importance of giving and sharing success."

To make a gift to the Atkinson Family Endowment for STEM Teaching, send a check with the fund's name noted on the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655, or give online here. To learn more about providing faculty support, contact Nikki Neely Davis, assistant vice chancellor for development, at nlneely@olemiss.edu or 662-915-6678.

Top: Elaine (left) and Dr. Rhett Atkinson visit the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. The Sedona, Arizona, couple has given a second $1.5 million gift to support STEM education at the university, where Dr. Atkinson earned three degrees. Submitted photo