One good deed deserves another, goes the adage. One good deed can also inspire another.
That’s reportedly what happened at the University of Southern Mississippi, which recently received $2.9 million from the estate of a Mississippi native who did not even go to school there.
Lamar W. Powell, a career military man who invested well, was inspired to help out USM after learning about another benefactor, Oseola McCarty, the unassuming washerwoman who became famous in 1995 after giving the school $150,000 to use for scholarships.
Powell apparently was so moved by McCarty’s generosity and frugality that he cut a check soon after to the school for $30,000. Later, he put the school in his will.
That endowment will provide for 80 scholarships a year. These students will hopefully learn about the source of their good fortune and be inspired to pay it forward some day.
