University of Mississippi medical school graduate Dr. Bill Ashford and his wife, Leslie, of Madison, have made a $2 million donation to establish a named professorship in physics at Ole Miss.
With $1.5 million, the couple established the F. Douglas and Cora Beal Shields Chair in Physics Education Endowment, honoring Ashford’s former physics professor. The gift claimed a match by the UM Foundation of $500,000, elevating it to the chair level.
“Dr. Shields was an excellent physics teacher, my favorite teacher during my time at Ole Miss,” says Ashford, who grew up in Lambert. “He was always very well prepared with a demonstration illustrating the subject of the day, which made class very interesting.
“He involved the students in the learning process and had lots of interesting stories about the people who made the big advances in physics.”
The Ashfords also gave $500,000 to establish the Dr. William and Leslie Ashford Endowment in the College of Liberal Arts.