Mississippi
The Jim Warren Scholarship: A perfect way to honor this guy
Sometimes, however not almost typically sufficient, an merchandise crosses your desk that appears completely acceptable.
Right here’s one: America Tennis Affiliation (USTA) and Southern Tennis Basis (STF) have seen match to create an annual school scholarship to honor the late Jim Warren, former president of USTA-Mississippi.
It’s troublesome to think about a extra acceptable strategy to honor Warren, a Ripley native and long-time Jackson resident. Warren, a graduate of Southern Miss and Ole Miss legislation, devoted a lot of his grownup life to tennis and better training.
“That’s simply good,” Southern Miss President Joe Paul, a detailed good friend of Warren’s, stated. “Jim donated a lot of his grownup life to the game of tennis and in assist of upper training. Jim could be tickled about this scholarship.”
Malinda Warren definitely is. Malinda and Jim Warren married in Could of 2004 after a one-year courtship. Malinda was a faithful, aggressive tennis participant. Jim had by no means performed. He took up the sport at age 41.
“As a result of I used to be obsessive about tennis, Jim needed to study to play,” Malinda Warren says. “So he took up the sport, took a variety of classes and have become expert sufficient to take pleasure in enjoying. We performed a variety of blended doubles collectively. However he typically joked that his ability set was such that he was way more adept on the administrative a part of the game than the precise enjoying.”
So, as Jim Warren was wont to do when he turned concerned with any pursuit, he dove head-first into the governance of the game.
“Somebody requested Jim to be on some committee and fairly quickly he was working the committee,” Malinda Warren stated. “He simply saved shifting on up.”
Boy, did he. When Jim Warren died instantly at his residence in August of 2021, he was serving on the USTA’s Southern Board of Administrators. In 2015 and 2016, he served as president of USTA-Mississippi. He was a member of the USTA’s nationwide Structure and Guidelines Committee. He chaired the USTA Southern Structure and Guidelines Committee. No telling how excessive he may need risen up the USTA’s administrative ladder. And all that’s simply touching the floor. He additionally served as a tennis official at numerous competitions.
The USTA additionally has honored Warren with a plaque on the Avenue of Aces, the walkway simply in entrance of Louis Armstrong Stadium on the Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart, the place the U.S. Open is contested. The totally endowed Jim Warren Scholarship, price $1,000 a 12 months, will go to worthy college students who’ve been concerned in tennis throughout their highschool years. Main standards can be educational achievement and promise, civic involvement and character. Choice can be made by the STF’s Faculty Scholarships Committee.
Jim Warren’s pals – and this author is one – are by no means shocked that he would take up a sport so late in life after which develop into a driving drive inside it. That was Jim.
One spring day as a highschool senior at Ripley, he determined to go to Southern Miss, the place he had by no means been. That’s a 550-mile spherical journey from the highest finish of the state to just about the underside. He glided by himself, driving his little Toyota pickup truck. As soon as in Hattiesburg, he met a co-ed who confirmed him across the campus and he instantly took a liking to the place. Certainly, he favored it a lot that he determined to go meet the president, who was then Aubrey Lucas. Warren had no appointment.
However Warren walked into Lucas’s workplace, launched himself, shared his highschool credentials and his imaginative and prescient for his future. He left Lucas’s workplace with a USM Presidential Scholarship, and, Lucas will inform you, “a good friend for all times.”
Warren turned president of the scholar physique and president of his fraternity (Kappa Sigma). He later would serve on the USM Basis’s Board of Administrators and as president of the Southern Miss Alumni Affiliation.
He was a do-er and a pacesetter, Jim Warren was. Apart from his legislation agency, he additionally held management positions within the Mississippi Bar Affiliation, River Hills Membership and his church and Sunday college. You see, if Jim Warren was going to be concerned in something, he was going to have a say and an affect.
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