Madeleine McMullan improved the lives of countless people from the time she was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1928, until she died on Oct. 1, 2021, surrounded by her family at her home in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Many of those she touched lived in Mississippi, specifically in Newton, where she and her husband, James “Jim” McMullan, who passed away in 2012, are buried.
During the past 30 years, the couple with their daughters Carlette and Margaret and the James and Madeleine McMullan Family Foundation have given generously to the University of Mississippi to provide transformative opportunities for future generations of Mississippians and UM students.
“The University of Mississippi is incredibly grateful for the steadfast support of Madeleine, her late husband, Jim, and the entire McMullan family,” Chancellor Glenn Boyce said. “They have provided us with extraordinary resources that benefit our students and strengthen our academic programs. Their generous commitments are an essential part of how our standard of sustained excellence moves higher and higher.”
While the McMullan family has supported several UM academic areas, including the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, most recently their philanthropy has focused on helping students. Their gifts provide students with the financial resources needed to attend the university as well as a community of support to ease their transition from high school.
To date, the James and Madeleine McMullan Family Foundation has provided over $1.25 million in scholarships, including those to graduating seniors in Newton and Pass Christian, Mississippi.
Its most recent gifts to the university support the Foundations for Academic Success Track (FASTrack) program. FASTrack helps first-year students become successful members of the university community by offering them smaller and enhanced classes, one-on-one mentoring and student leadership opportunities.
The McMullans’ gifts totaling $500,000 to the program in fall 2021 supplied additional resources to the Fund for Student Success, which supports the academic mentor position in the FASTrack program, and established the Fund for Student Leadership, which finances new student leadership positions and/or peer mentors for the FASTrack program.
From Austria to Mississippi
Madeleine McMullan’s personal interest in – and support of – the lives of many others is inspiring, as is her extraordinary journey through life.
Born Madeleine Monica Engel de Jánosi in Austria, she grew up as Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in neighboring Germany. Much of her youth was swept up in the tumultuous and often terrifying years surrounding World War II. In 1939, the Nazis took possession of her family’s home in Vienna, causing them to flee to Lyons, France, where relatives hid them until they could make their way to England.
McMullan had to travel through England by herself. Because she could not speak English, her father gave her an English dictionary so she could teach herself the language. She was 11.
She and her parents were reunited in Cambridge, England, and eventually immigrated to the United States, where McMullan graduated from Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Washington, D.C. She earned a
bachelor’s degree in English from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., and a master’s degree in history from Johns Hopkins University in 1952.
After working as a journalist for the Washington Evening Star, McMullan became an intelligence officer for the CIA.
Originally from Lake, Mississippi, Jim McMullan had recently graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1956 with a degree in finance when he went to Washington to visit his sister. There, he met his future wife at a party in 1957 and proposed to her within days. After marrying, they moved to Newton, where their daughters Carlette and Margaret were born.
Madeleine McMullan taught European history at East Central Junior College (now East Central Community College) in Newton County. Later, they moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where she worked as a professor at Millsaps College and volunteered in the community, serving as president of the Mississippi Art Association and on the Opera Guild board.
The family relocated to Lake Forest in 1969 when Jim McMullan began his career in the securities business with William Blair & Co. in Chicago. His wife devoted much of her time to philanthropic efforts by supporting Holy Family Church in Chicago, the Women’s Board of Lake Forest Hospital, the Chicago Botanic Garden and the Chicago Historical Society. She was also a founding member of the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago, where she helped immigrants fill the gap in their health care coverage.
The couple created the James and Madeleine McMullan Family Foundation in 1987. Their daughters, Carlette McMullan of Lake Forest and Margaret McMullan of Pass Christian, now manage the foundation.
In addition to gifts to the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, the McMullans’ longtime support of the university includes the Hardin Future of the South Endowment, Friends of the Library, Thelma Boozer McMullan Memorial Library Endowment, Ann Abadie Fund for the Oxford Conference for the Book and scholarships on the Oxford campus, as well as the Dr. Guy Gillespie Jr. Endowment on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus in Jackson.
The sisters overseeing their family’s foundation say they incorporate their parents’ primary philanthropic concerns and goals into every decision they make.
“Our parents were both keen on education, community work, health care, and organizations that help the underserved,” Margaret McMullan said. “My sister and I always consider them when we make foundation decisions. We are so proud of the faculty, staff and students at the University of Mississippi for sharing our parents’ vision.”
“Our Mississippi-born and raised father was deeply interested in and passionate about Southern history and supporting research and learning,” Carlette McMullan said. “Our parents’ shared passion for helping those less fortunate and their confidence in the benefits of education, inspired much of their philanthropy. Margaret and I are blessed to be guided by their vision.
“We are excited to continue our family foundation’s partnership with the University of Mississippi and the FASTrack initiative.”
Center for the Study of Southern Culture’s ‘Guardian Angel’
The McMullans were instrumental in enhancing the Center for the Study of Southern Culture’s resources, helping it attain national recognition, said William “Bill” Ferris, who was named the center’s first director in 1978 and served in that position for 20 years.
“Madeleine McMullan was quite simply the center’s guardian angel,” Ferris said. “Our friendship began when Madeleine and her beloved husband, Jim, appeared on the doorstep of Barnard Observatory in the 1990s and asked to speak with Ann Abadie, the associate director of the center, and me.
“As we sat in the center board room, Jim said that he and Madeleine wanted to support our programs on the American South, and they had considered endowing a professorship with $500,000. Ann and I were speechless. Then, with a twinkle in her eye, Madeleine said, ‘Jim, don’t beat around the bush. Round it off to a million dollars.’ “
Over the years, the McMullans hosted the Center for the Study of Southern Culture’s faculty and students at their homes in Lake Forest and Pass Christian. Their generosity and hospitality were crucial to building and supporting the center, which the McMullan daughters and their families continue, said Ferris.
The James M. and Madeleine M. McMullan Faculty Endowment, the McMullans’ first major gift to the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, came at a critical time in the center’s progress and helped the university secure its Phi Beta Kappa chapter, said Abadie, now the emeritus associate director.
“Madeleine was brilliant, well-read and devoted to literary, musical and visual arts,” Abadie said. “She was kind, gracious and hospitable. She loved her family, friends and people of the world — especially those in Mississippi. She was lively, joyful and tenacious in her determination to make the world a better place for all.”
The McMullan Faculty Endowment funded the hiring of two new professors that were joint appointments in literature and anthropology, Abadie recalled. The anthropology professorship has been held by different people over the years, but the literature professorship funded by the McMullan Faculty Endowment has only been held by Kathryn McKee. She is now the McMullan Professor of Southern Studies, an English professor and director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture.
“Without the gift they made to the center in the late-1990s, I quite literally might never have come to the University of Mississippi, and because of them, I have a career on this campus,” McKee said. “We became friends over the years and Madeleine never failed to ask me what I was working on or how my classes were going.
“She enjoyed talking about ideas, music, art, history and literature. Her own keen intellect modeled exactly what we strive for in interdisciplinary study — a sense that all things are interconnected and better understood as pieces of a larger puzzle. I am proud to have her name attached to my position.”
The anthropology position is held by Simone Delerme, who is the McMullan Associate Professor of Southern Studies and Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
“I am forever grateful to the McMullan family for enabling my dreams to become a reality by making a professorship in both Southern studies and anthropology — a unique combination,” Delerme said. “I chose to join UM in 2013 because I could work at a center that focuses on the history and culture of the South. The family created an opportunity where academics like me can document and analyze the changing American South, share our love of Southern culture with our students and address inequalities so we can work toward positive changes through community-engaged research.”
Supporting Student Success
McMullan and her family expanded their involvement with the university by investing in the FASTrack program in the College of Liberal Arts.
“We are so grateful to be able to do the work we do here in the FASTrack program because of the resources that Madeleine and her family have provided to us,” said Suzanne Wilkin, interim director of FASTrack and one of the program’s academic mentors.
“Thanks to Madeleine and her daughters, Margaret and Carlette, I have the privilege of working with these students every day and watching them blossom,” she said. “Because of their generous support, FASTrack students have the opportunity to be introduced to new experiences and gain the confidence to be leaders in our campus community. When they go out into the world, they can be leaders in their workplaces and careers as well as in their communities.”
Trynica Wash of Newton, one of the most recent McMullan Scholars, said McMullan and her family made it possible for her to achieve her dream of attending college.
“Because of the opportunities they have given me, I continue to be motivated to work hard and get the best grades possible so I can graduate as a member of the Class of 2023,” Wash said. “Their contributions to scholarships and FASTrack are helping so many students succeed.”
‘Philanthropy Begets Philanthropy’
“Madeleine and Jim’s philanthropy has opened doors for so many people, including me,” said Bruce Ware, a board member of both the UM Foundation and the Alumni Association. He is a corporate vice president with DaVita Inc., a Denver-based Fortune 500 health care company, and on the boards of Blackhawk Bank in Beloit, Wisconsin, and AAON Inc. of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“They not only gave generously of their financial resources, but they also gave of their time, wisdom and kindness,” he said. “Just look at the magical things that have happened in the lives of young people from Newton, like Trynica, who was recently inducted into Mortar Board and is on track to graduate with honors because of Madeleine and her family.”
Ware knows personally what the McMullans have done to create opportunities for others. He himself was offered a McMullan Scholarship upon graduating from Newton High School.
As a freshman at UM, Ware reached out to Jim McMullan, who hired him to intern at William Blair and Co. He went on to graduate with a BBA in banking and finance from the School of Business Administration, where he served as student body president and accomplished his goals of being inducted into Mortar Board and Omicron Delta Kappa.
Ware credits interning under McMullan as a defining moment. It set the stage for him to start his career on Wall Street upon graduating from UM and subsequently earning an MBA from Harvard Business School and a master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
After Jim McMullan passed away, Ware and Madeleine McMullan stayed in touch.
“She continued to influence my thinking on philanthropy and service to the university,” Ware said. “I would not be where I am today without Madeleine and Jim. While I could say so many wonderful things about my
appreciation of the McMullans, I believe that the best way to thank them for the doors they opened for me is to open doors for others.”
With the McMullans in mind, a few years ago, Ware and his wife, Rhondalynne, established the Annette Ware Fund, which supports students from Newton considering enrolling at UM by providing them with the resources to visit campus. This fund also helps the FASTrack program, the McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement and the Department of African American Studies.
“The memory of my dear friends and mentors, Madeleine and Jim McMullan, continues to inspire me. We are investing in the educational opportunities of current and future UM students because the McMullans invested in me and so many other young people in Mississippi,” Ware said.
“Rhondalynne and I believe that philanthropy begets philanthropy. So we are doing our best to give to others the way we observed and experienced the impact of Madeleine and Jim’s transformational giving.”
For more information about supporting the FASTrack program or the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, contact Nikki Neely Davis, executive director of development, at nlneely@olemiss.edu or 662-915-6678.
By Jonathan Scott, UM Development