MICHAEL BRADY MAKES PLANNED GIFT TO ENSURE BUSINESS SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIPS CONTINUE

The University of Mississippi issued the following news release:

Michael Brady of Atlanta has assisted 18 University of Mississippi students through an cheap jewelry business scholarship program he created in the late 1990s.

Now he's committed a testamentary gift of $136,000 to ensure his legacy continues.

"At some point in your life, you've got to lock yourself into something that's bigger than you are. In addition to God, of course, that something is my alma mater," said Brady, a 1969 UM business school alumnus. "When you're ready, you'll know it. When it's time to act, you'll act or you'll forever wish you would have. It's one of the things that sets you apart and gives your life meaning.

"In 1995 when I read of some of the scholarships in the business school's quarterly publication, I had a spark of an idea that I could fund such a scholarship myself. What struck me was a big company's gift of a few thousand to fund a scholarship. I thought you had to have cheap key rings to start a scholarship. I thought, 'I can do that!' and I started Focus initially with $5,000."

Ken Cyree, UM dean of business administration and holder of the Frank R. Day/Mississippi Bankers Association Chair of Banking, praised Brady for extending opportunities to business students.

"Michael Brady has been very involved with students who have received the Brady Scholarship, and his dedication to Ole Miss continues through this planned gift," Cyree said. "His generosity and passion for the School of Business Administration and the University of Mississippi are consistent with the commitment of this gift and his faith in our mission. I am grateful for his support and pleased Ole Miss students will benefit from his legacy."

The idea of the P.M. Brady "Focus" Scholarship in Business is to provide financial assistance to juniors, seniors and graduate students, with first preference given to those students "in the middle," Brady said. This could include a variety of life or financial challenges, such as being from a family hit by job downsizing, trying to attend college while raising children, transferring from a community college with fewer possibilities of other scholarships and more.

Bryan Jones, a second-year law student at Ole Miss, recalls the impact of receiving one of the cheap money clips as an undergraduate.