A new scholarship in the University of Mississippi School of Business Administration will provide support to students while honoring the memory of an Ole Miss alumnus.
Mildred Severance Stevenson of Ridgeland, Mississippi, made a gift of $100,000 to establish the William Cameron “Mouse” Stevenson, Jr. Risk Management and Insurance Scholarship Endowment as a tribute to her husband who died from lymphoma in 2016.
“I personally want the money to help the young people who need it,” said Mildred Stevenson, who believes her husband would be “very pleased” to know that the gift is a tribute to his chosen profession.
It’s also the profession that brought the couple together.
“We both worked in insurance at the Plaza Building in Jackson, Mississippi; I was on the second floor, and he was on the fifth,” Stevenson recalled, adding that her boss bought a life insurance policy from Bill Stevenson during an employee contest.
“Bill said to Mr. Hillsman, ‘If I win this contest, I’ll take you to dinner.’ Well, he won and told Mr. Hillsman he was ready to take him out to dinner. But Mr. Hillsman said, ‘Take Mildred.’”
The couple was married 43 years.
The Stevenson scholarship is open to full-time business students majoring in risk management and insurance. First preference will be given to freshmen who are Mississippi residents with second preference going to transfer students.
Andre Liebenberg, the Gwennette P. and Jack W. Robertson Chair of Insurance, professor of finance and director of the Center for Insurance Transformation in the School of Business Administration, expressed gratitude for Mildred Stevenson’s gift.
“A scholarship is a beautiful way for Mrs. Stevenson to pay tribute to her husband as the recipients will carry his name forward in perpetuity,” Liebenberg said. “On behalf of the generations of students who will benefit, I’m thankful for her vision and generosity.”
As a youth in Corinth, Mississippi, a fellow Boy Scout gave Stevenson the nickname “Mouse” and the moniker stuck. He was even Uncle Mouse to his nephew, nieces and great-nephews and great-nieces.
Stevenson was already a member of the U.S. Navy Reserve when he entered the university in 1950 but was called to active duty in 1951. He served aboard the U.S.S. Tarawa (CV-40) in the Mediterranean Sea during the Korean Conflict. After serving his country, he attended Northeast Mississippi Community College for a year before returning to Ole Miss, where he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity.
What did he love about Ole Miss? “Dating the girls and going to dances and football games,” his wife said. “And partying.”
Nevertheless, he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1956 and began his career in property and casualty insurance, first with the Mississippi Insurance Commission from 1956 to 1960 and then with Employers’ Group before joining Aetna Insurance Co. in Jackson in 1968.
He lived in Slidell, Louisiana, from 1971 to 1979 while serving as manager of the New Orleans region for Aetna and returned to Jackson in 1979 to serve as president of W.A. Sullivan General Agent until his retirement in 1999. After returning to Jackson, he served on the board of directors of the Mississippi State Rating Bureau and in all offices of the Pioneer Insurance Club, which is devoted to fostering social relationships among those in the insurance business.
“One of his friends observed that Uncle Mouse’s stock in trade is people,” said Steve Ray, Bill Stevenson’s nephew. “It was true. He loved people; he was an excellent listener. He loved conversing with people, knowing their life stories and their kinships and swapping stories.
“Perhaps more than some other fields, the insurance business is all about relationships and he made many of those relationships right there at Ole Miss.”
Ray said that even though his uncle attended college with support from the GI Bill, a scholarship like the one in his name would have benefited him and possibly more so his wife and women like her who wanted to attend college in the years following the Great Depression.
Mildred Stevenson attended Millsaps College, Belhaven University and the University of Southern Mississippi. She then spent most of her career in the insurance business as a bookkeeper, beginning in Gulfport with the Bob Burns Insurance Agency. In 1960, she moved to Jackson and worked until 1972 with Central Insurance Agency, Inc., assisting owner Frank J. Reilly, Jr., in all aspects of the agency’s work.
When the couple returned to Jackson from Slidell, she worked alongside her husband and kept the books of W.A. Sullivan General Agent until her retirement in 1999.
The Stevensons were active members of First Baptist Church of Jackson, where he served as a deacon and visited the homebound.
To make a gift to the UM School of Business Administration, click here, or for more information, contact Patrick Salter at psalter@olemiss.edu or 662-915-3181.
By Bill Dabney/UM Foundation