Nancy Kelty Stengel, a 1970 University of Mississippi pharmacy graduate, was heavily influenced by her maternal grandparents to stay in school, and she is expressing her gratitude by building a scholarship endowment in their names.
The Earnest Buford and Katherine Branch McDaniel Memorial Scholarship in the School of Pharmacy is nearing $380,000, thanks to continuing gifts from Stengel, retired manager of an outpatient pharmacy at the University of Kentucky Medical Center.
“Poor as they were, my grandparents were powerful inspirations for my life,” Stengel said about her grandfather, a sharecropper who finished fourth grade, and her grandmother, who finished eighth grade.
“My grandfather encouraged me from the time I was a young child to stay in school. He didn’t want me to have to work in the cotton fields as he had.”
Stengel was among the McDaniels’ more than 20 grandchildren.
“My grandfather had wanted to see all 10 of his children graduate from high school, so he was ecstatic when he learned his oldest grandchild was enrolling at Ole Miss,” she said. “The best way I could honor their memories and aid other students with such expensive education is to fund a scholarship endowment.
“For students who want to attend pharmacy school, my scholarship will help defray some major expenses.”
First, second and third preferences for the McDaniel Scholarship in Pharmacy will go to students from Holmes, Attala and Madison counties, all communities that Stengel’s grandparents called home. Fourth preference is designated for Mississippians.
“I hope the long-term impact of this scholarship will be that Mississippi will have outstanding young pharmacists who can impact the health and welfare of its citizens, and those who leave Mississippi will likewise have an impact wherever they go,” Stengel said.
Donna Strum, dean of the pharmacy school, expressed her appreciation to Stengel for the endowment.
“Nancy Stengel is the epitome of an outstanding graduate,” Strum said. “She built an impressive career, which brought her great enjoyment and to which she was deeply committed. Now, she has chosen to give back to her school to pave the way for others to benefit from the personally and professionally rewarding career of pharmacy.”
Besides her desire to pay tribute to her grandparents, Stengel said she’s supporting her alma mater because “the years I was at Ole Miss were the best years of my life and I have gratitude to the School of Pharmacy for what I learned and was able to use in my professional practice.”
Stengel described the career preparation she received from Ole Miss as “outstanding.”
“I spent most of my career at the University of Kentucky in an outpatient pharmacy,” she said. “I could see the knowledge I had from my school in comparison to those who had attended other schools.
“Ole Miss prepared me to serve patients better and helped me to deal with things such as the opioid crisis that started before I retired.”
Stengel’s family has had a strong health care tradition through the years. A paternal uncle finished pharmacy school. Her paternal grandfather, father and first cousin were all physicians.
After graduation, Stengel first worked at a pharmacy in Columbus and then in her hometown of Lexington, Kentucky. Her late husband, Don, was a manager of inpatient pharmacy at UK Medical Center. Their daughter, Mary, earned an accountancy degree from UK.
Nancy Stengel is an inaugural member of the School of Pharmacy’s 1908 Society. Named for the year the school was founded, the 1908 Society represents the philanthropic vision for major support directed to the school.
To make a gift to the Earnest Buford and Katherine Branch McDaniel Memorial Scholarship Endowment, send a check, with the fund noted in the memo line, to the University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655, or give online here.