Jenny and Lee Atkins hope to help sustain the practice of independent, community pharmacy with a new scholarship at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy.
The two pharmacists of Madison, Mississippi, made a $100,000 gift to create the Burgess Lee and Jenny Fyke Atkins Independent Pharmacy Endowment “to honor their successful careers as independent pharmacists, recognizing their gratitude for the training they received as students” at the Ole Miss Pharmacy School.
“Independent pharmacy has been a dying art for the last few decades as big box retailers and pharmacy benefit managers have claimed a stranglehold on retail pharmacy practice,” said Lee Atkins, who owns HomeCare Plus in Ridgeland, Mississippi, which is a pharmacy and a medical supply and equipment company that sells, supplies, rents and repairs medical equipment.
“Independent pharmacists are incredible people. I think they should be a resource that’s never lost,” he said. “I hope independent, community pharmacy will flourish, and this scholarship will serve to generate some growth, some continuation, some succession in that art because it is an art. I hope this scholarship endowment helps in some small way to sustain the practice of independent pharmacy.”
Independent pharmacies are retail pharmacies that are not owned by a chain or publicly traded company but by a pharmacist or a group of individuals. According to the National Community Pharmacists Association, “Your local independent pharmacists are your most accessible health care professionals and take the time to truly connect and consult with each patient they serve. They work on the front lines as highly knowledgeable medication experts who are committed to and care about the local communities they serve.”
An independent pharmacist, Lee Atkins’ grandfather, John McElroy, inspired him to become a pharmacist. Atkins spent many hours in his grandfather’s Rexall pharmacy on the square in Fulton, Mississippi, where milkshakes and Coke floats were served and he recognized the community members’ dependence on their pharmacist.
“The thing that struck me was how everyone who came in the store sought out my grandfather as a resource. He was always helpful, kind, well-liked and a trusted source of information for the community on medications and health …. I, too, wanted to be a resource for people on their health care,” Lee Atkins said.
Jenny Atkins also had a health-related influence in her life. “My dad was an internal medicine doctor, and I always loved science, medicine and math. Pursuing a pharmacy degree was just kind of a great fit.”
The couple’s decision to establish the scholarship endowment is a way for them to pay tribute to the memory of Lee Atkins’ grandfather and to Jenny Atkins’ family who had a long relationship with Oxford, Mississippi, and Ole Miss.
“My grandparents were born in Taylor (Mississippi) and lived in Oxford their whole lives,” said Jenny Atkins. “My mother’s cousins were the Faulkner family, and my great-aunt Dolly Faulkner lived in Memory House (now home of the UM Foundation). My grandmother lived two houses down from her, and they were just the cutest sisters. I remember Oxford as a great small town where I could walk around as a child.
“As a student at the University of Mississippi, my grandmother played on the first women’s basketball team at Ole Miss, and later in her 80s, served as the house mother for the Alpha Delta Pi sorority.”
The endowment also stands as a monument to the blessings the couple has experienced in life.
“God has blessed us tremendously through our families, and in our education and our business,” Lee Atkins said. “We want to be stewards of the blessings we have.”
Donna Strum, dean of the School of Pharmacy, expressed appreciation for the Atkinses’ gift.
“Jenny and Lee Atkins stand as role models for our pharmacy students. They have worked hard in the pharmacy field and are investing their resources in future independent pharmacists educated at Ole Miss,” Strum said. “Their passion for independent, community pharmacies influenced this scholarship gift and ultimately will transform our students’ lives and careers. We are grateful for their generous support.”
Lee Atkins graduated from Ole Miss in 1984. The Memphis, Tennessee native’s father graduated from Ole Miss in 1959, and the two attended Ole Miss football games together while Lee was growing up.
A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Jenny Atkins transferred to Belhaven University after her freshman year at Ole Miss, graduated from there and then returned to Ole Miss, earning a pharmacy degree in 1989. Both of her parents are Ole Miss alumni.
First preference for the scholarship is directed to transfer students from Mississippi College. All three of the Atkinses’ sons earned degrees from Mississippi College before going on to pursue post-graduate medical degrees at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Son Daniel Atkins has been a dentist for more than two years, and son Stephen Atkins is a physician in residence in Temple, Texas completing his training to become a radiologist. Son Will Atkins is a first-year dental student.
Second preference for the scholarship goes to transfer students to Ole Miss from Belhaven because of Jenny Atkins’ positive experiences at the Jackson college, giving Belhaven students the opportunity to further their education at Ole Miss.
Gifts to the Burgess Lee and Jenny Fyke Atkins Independent Pharmacy Endowment can be made by sending a check with the fund’s name written on the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Ave., Oxford MS 38655 or online here.
For more information on supporting the School of Pharmacy, contact Laura Gullett, associate director of development, at laurahg@olemiss.edu or 662-915-2384.
By Tina H. Hahn/UM Development