A recent gift to the University of Mississippi School of Law serves as a perpetual tribute to a faculty member whose hospitality made the donor feel instantly welcomed.
Retired attorney Michael Keleher and his wife, Peggy, made a $56,540 gift to establish the John H. Fox, Jr. Scholarship Endowment. Recipients, who may retain the scholarship for six semesters, must be full-time law students with pre-law experience such as participants in advocacy programs or law-related internships.
The Albuquerque, New Mexico, couple’s gift is a tribute to the law school’s former assistant dean and director of admissions.
“When I arrived by bus at Ole Miss in September 1959 unannounced after the fall semester had started, I met with John H. Fox — the dean of admissions at the time — and was admitted within the same day,” Keleher recalled. “Dean Fox drove me to the airport and made sure I got on the next flight back to Albuquerque so I could drive back to the university a day or two later.”
As the young law student got to know Fox better, his admiration for the dean’s wisdom grew.
“He was a first-rate professor and human being who could recognize when somebody needed help,” Keleher said. “He gave me the chance there, and I just wanted to honor him as an educator and humanitarian.”
The endowment’s requirement that recipients must have pre-law experience honors Keleher’s granddaughter, Samantha, who had a strong passion for moot court before her untimely passing in March 2024. It’s also a nod to Keleher’s own experience.
After being released from Stanford Law School due to an academic misunderstanding, Keleher applied to Loyola Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana, among others. The dean at Loyola suggested he also try Ole Miss.
Though he had never heard of the Oxford, Mississippi, school, Keleher now credits his time at UM for much of his career and life success. If Fox hadn’t admitted him on the spot, Keleher might have missed crossing paths with Peggy Wills, a graduate student from Memphis, Tennessee, who would become his wife.
Peggy Keleher graduated from the university with a master’s degree in English in 1960; Michael Keleher earned his LLB two years later, passed the New Mexico bar and enjoyed a successful 56-year career practicing real estate, probate and trust law. The couple has six children and 17 grandchildren.
Law Dean Frederick G. Slabach expressed gratitude for the Kelehers’ gift.
“We are extremely grateful for the visionary support of alumni like Mike Keleher and his wife, Peggy,” he said. “Their provision of a scholarship will financially support students who might not otherwise be able to obtain a law degree.”
The late professor John Fox grew up in Clinton, Mississippi, earned his undergraduate degree at Mississippi College at the age of 17 and moved to Oxford to attend law school, receiving his LLB in 1920.
After law school, he furthered his education at Yale University before returning to Jackson, Mississippi, to practice law. While there, Fox was instrumental in starting a night school for professionals who wanted to study law. The Jackson School of Law began operating in 1930 and became the Mississippi College School of Law in 1975.
In 1932, Fox returned to Oxford to teach at the Ole Miss Law School before going back to Yale in 1937 on a Sterling Fellowship. He later returned to Oxford to pick back up his career in legal education, only interrupted by his service in the Navy during World War II.
Fox died in 1965, and his friends established the John H. Fox, Jr. Memorial Scholarship for upper-class law students to honor his life and work.
The John H. Fox, Jr. Scholarship Endowment is open to support from businesses and individuals. Gifts can be made by sending a check to the University of Mississippi Foundation, with the fund’s name noted on the memo line, to 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655, or by giving online here.
For more information about supporting the School of Law, contact Greg Carter, director of development, at gjcarter@olemiss.edu or 662-915-1849.
By Bill Dabney/UM Foundation