The Children of J.D. Grant Endowment for Excellence in Business Quasi-Endowment was established by a generous estate gift to Murray State University from Mrs. Virginia Barfield. Virginia was the fourth of eight children born to James David Grant and Ina Malone Grant of Farmington, Kentucky. Virginia graduated from Murray State in 1941. For the next nine years, she continued her teaching in Paducah, Kentucky, and in Columbus, Georgia. Having married William H. Barfield, a pharmacist, in 1945, she and her husband moved to Richland, Georgia in 1950. Mr. Barfield had purchased the Little's Drug Store in Richland. During the next fifteen years, she worked about sixty hours a week in the drug store. In 1965, Mrs. Barfield was appointed as Executive Director of the Enrichment Services Program, Inc., a community action agency. This agency served low income residents within an eight county area of the lower Chattahoochee Valley. The agency tries to help the poor and disadvantaged to get on their feet and learn to help themselves. Mrs. Barfield gave untiringly of herself as the Executive Director until 2003. The agency started the Stewart County Rural Health Center, and initiated and funded the establishment of Westville. Mrs. Barfield made a significant contribution by serving on national committees, such as OEO, the Poverty, and the Integration committees. She received national recognition for her community action. Mrs. Barfield established trust funds to Murray State University, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Georgia. She found great satisfaction in supporting institutions of higher education. Her family remembers her especially for her personal sacrifice to get an education, her love of family, her hard work, her generous spirit, her appreciation of antiques, her loving concern for the poor, and her faithful stewardship of her total life and resources. Her well-spent life will continue to inspire and encourage the poor and disenfranchised for many years to come.
Scholarship quick facts:
- The scholarship shall be known as the Children of J.D. Grant Endowment for Excellence in Business
- Recipients shall be full-time or part-time students at Murray State University.
- Recipients shall be freshman, sophomore, juniors, seniors, or graduate students.
- Recipients shall be majoring in a degree within the Arthur J. Bauernfeind College of Business or its successor.