Contact: Bill Wagnon
A Starkville couple who are retired Mississippi State faculty members are making an additional $10,000 contribution to a university scholarship program they have supported for more than a decade.
The latest gift from Woodrow and Mary L. Hare of Starkville adds to the Hare Fellowships in Plant Pathology and Weed Science. Mr. Hare is the former head of the department of plant pathology and weed science, where he also held the rank of professor.
Mrs. Hare was a botany professor. Both retired in 1980.
Mr. Hare established the fellowships in 1984 as a memorial to his parents, William Henry and Madie Daws Hare, both Mississippi State alumni. Since then, the Hares have contributed more than $100,000 to the fund, making them members of the university's Eugene Butler Fellows major donor group.
The Hare Fellowships annually support selected graduate students with demonstrated academic achievements who are training for professions in plant pathology or weed science.
This year's selections include Michael D. Tagert of Starkville, a graduate student in plant pathology, and Shani L. File of Pocahontas, Ill., a graduate student in weed science.
As department head, Woodrow Hare led his department in adding graduate programs and strengthening undergraduate programs. A Kemper County native, he holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and science and a master's degree in botany, both from Mississippi State. He completed a doctorate in plant pathology from the University of Wisconsin.
He joined the Mississippi State faculty in 1948 and is credited with beginning the major in plant protection--one of the first such programs in the country. Hare also was nationally recognized for his work on vegetable diseases and the development of disease resistant varieties.
In 1976, the American Phytopathological Society presented Woodrow Hare with its Ciba-Geigy Research Award.
Mary Hare received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Mississippi State College for Women (now Mississippi University for Women) and a master's in botany from Mississippi State. A Sardis native, who joined the Mississippi State faculty in 1959, she holds a doctorate in botany from the University of Wisconsin.