Jerry McDowell II Memorial Scholarship Endowed At Southeast
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Aug. 5, 2008 – The Jerry McDowell II Memorial Scholarship has been endowed through the Southeast Missouri University Foundation.
The scholarship was established by Jerry’s parents, Maxine and Jerry McDowell, along with many other friends and family members in the Charleston area as a result of fund-raising efforts during the past four years. It is available to students from Mississippi, New Madrid and Scott counties in Missouri.
Jerry David McDowell, II, was born to Jerry and Maxine McDowell on Feb. 6, 1967, in Jackson, Miss. After graduating in 1985 from Charleston R-1 schools in Charleston, Mo., he entered Harvard University as an English major.
Jerry was a well-known regional leader in the Missouri Bootheel. He was active in Southeast Missouri Weed and Seed, the Mississippi County Nutrition Center, the Southeast Missouri Workforce Investment Board and the Charleston Boys and Girls Club. Other memberships included the Southeast Missouri State University Presidential Commission on Minority Affairs, Bootheel Healthy Start Fathers First Consortium and the Southeast Missouri Interagency Committee. In addition, he served as a consultant to Mission Missouri, the Pemiscot Initiative Network, Caruthersville Boys and Girls Club, and Kids Beat.
One of Jerry’s greatest joys was his employment as a grant writer with the Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center under the directorship of Dr. Martha Ellen Black.
Family and co-workers of McDowell have been collecting funds for a scholarship in his memory since his death on July 4, 2004. Additional gifts may be made to Southeast Missouri University Foundation, One University Plaza, MS 7300, Cape Girardeau, MO, 63701, designated for the Jerry McDowell II Memorial Scholarship.