MSU Foundation announces $3M in donations in 30th year

To commemorate its 30th year, the Missouri State University Foundation, the fundraising arm of the university, has announced a yearlong anniversary campaign, which includes its current $125 million push, significant gifts totaling nearly $3 million and the introduction of 30 new scholarships.

A naming-level donation from the McQueary Family will go toward the expansion of the Physical Therapy Building at Kimbrough Avenue and Cherry Street. The gift will go toward a 5,000-square-foot second wing for the building, according to a news release.

The building will be renamed McQueary Family Health Sciences Hall, pending MSU Board of Governors approval. The donation amount was not disclosed.

The McQueary family founded the McQueary Brothers Drug Co. in 1924.

A gift of more than $1 million from the estate of Mildred Wilcox, who died in 2010, will fund endowed scholarships for juniors, seniors and graduate students in several academic areas:

• the Roy T. And Mildred Durr Wilcox Endowed Scholarship in the College of Business Administration;
• the Roy T. and Mildred Durr Wilcox Endowed Scholarship in the College of Health and Human Services;
• the Roy T. and Mildred Durr Wilcox Endowed Scholarship in Communications;
• the Dr. Robert K. Gilmore Graduate Scholarship in Communications; and
• the Dr. Duane G. Meyer Graduate Scholarship in History.

Wilcox worked for 40 years at MSU as a secretary, the dean of faculties and provost.

"On behalf of the faculty, staff and students, I want to thank the Missouri State Foundation and the donors who have supported it for three decades,” MSU President James Cofer said in the release. “These generous donations have meant increased access for students, enhanced excellence for our faculty, a campus with outstanding facilities and so much more."

The 30 scholarships announced by the foundation can be viewed here.

The Missouri secretary of state issued a certificate of incorporation for the then-Southwest Missouri State University Foundation on Jan. 13, 1981.[[In-content Ad]]