{"id":3502,"date":"2013-02-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/2013\/02\/12\/lifelong-friends-create-foundation-to-support-delta-state-university\/"},"modified":"2013-09-09T14:05:36","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T14:05:36","slug":"lifelong-friends-create-foundation-to-support-delta-state-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/2013\/02\/lifelong-friends-create-foundation-to-support-delta-state-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Lifelong friends create foundation to support Delta State University"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" alt=\"Photo: Anne Wynn Weissinger, President of the Delta State University Foundation Board of Directors, presents Delta Regional Foundation Board member, James Donald Cooper, with a Delta State University cap and logo golf balls in appreciation of grants from Delta Regional Foundation totaling $72,000 over the past two years. \" src=\"\/Images\/DSC_0163.jpg\" class=\"caption\" \/><\/p>\n<p>James Donald Cooper and Charlie McGuffee met as students in the Drew Public Schools in 1947. McGuffee&rsquo;s father was the horticulturist at the state penitentiary at Parchman, and Cooper&rsquo;s family owned the South Drew Grocery and farmed. They quickly became friends, and that friendship has resulted in a collaborative effort to financially support their alma mater, Delta State University. &ldquo;Charlie and I have been lifelong friends,&rdquo; said Cooper. &ldquo;I finished Drew High School in 1959 and he finished in 1960. Both of us enrolled at Delta State and our close friendship continued at Delta State Teachers College.&rdquo; Both Cooper and McGuffee were very involved as students. Cooper was a member of the band under Ralph Franklin, and McGuffee was a catcher on the baseball team coached by Dave &ldquo;Boo&rdquo; Ferriss. <br \/>&nbsp;<br \/>&ldquo;James Donald and I had a great experience as students at Delta State,&rdquo; said McGuffee. &ldquo;Several years ago we decided to establish a charitable foundation as a way to financial support Delta State and that is the reason the Delta Regional Foundation was created.&rdquo; <br \/>&nbsp;<br \/>The two remain close and often play as partners in the Delta Area Seniors Golf Association tournaments. &ldquo;Charlie and I could not think of a better way to show how much Delta State has meant to us than to financially support it in a significant way. Over the past two years our foundation has been able to make grants totaling $72,000 and we expect that amount to grow annually,&rdquo; said Cooper.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Charlie and James Donald have always been steadfast in their support of Delta State, and this latest effort further signifies their deep loyalty for their alma mater,&rdquo; said Gary Bouse, Chief Development Officer, Delta State University Foundation.<br \/>&nbsp;<br \/>Grants from the Delta Regional Foundation support such University priorities as scholarships for deserving students and faculty development and academic enrichment. &ldquo;Delta State has been great to me and to Charlie,&rdquo; said Cooper. &ldquo;I retired from there after almost a 40 year career serving as an Admissions Counselor under Dr. Mac McRaney and as Registrar and Director of Admissions. I invite everyone to join Charlie and me in supporting Delta State.&rdquo;&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The Delta State University Foundation is thankful to alumni like Charlie and James Donald for supporting the University through their charitable foundation,&rdquo; said Anne Wynn Weissinger, president of the Delta State University Foundation. &ldquo;We invite all alumni and friends to consider how they can financially support the University.&rdquo; To discuss a gift call 662-846-4709, send an e-mail to foundation@deltastate.edu, or make a gift online at www.deltastategiving.org. <br \/>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Donald Cooper and Charlie McGuffee met as students in the Drew Public Schools in 1947. McGuffee\u2019s father was the horticulturist at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3502"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40836,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3502\/revisions\/40836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}