ICC Newsroom

Love for Itawamba County leads to Collum Scholarship endowment

June 9, 2021 By Thomas, Donna S. General 0

Dr. Billy T. Collum earned his medical degree from Harvard University in 1955. One of the youngest members of his class, upon graduation, he could have practiced medicine anywhere in the United States. However, his goal was to receive the very best education in medicine and bring that knowledge back to heal and serve the people of Itawamba County.

That knowledge and affinity for his roots and the life that he and his wife, Barbara, built in Itawamba County will enable full-time sophomores in ICC’s Associate Degree Nursing program to have an opportunity to benefit from a fully-endowed scholarship. The Dr. Billy T. and Barbara Collum Endowed Nursing Scholarship will provide opportunities, especially for students who need financial assistance to achieve their goals of becoming medical professionals.

Collum was born and raised in the Fairview Community, where he lived with his parents and 12 siblings. In 1949, he graduated from Itawamba Agricultural High School as class president. At the age of 16, he continued his education at the University of Mississippi, where he earned the Bachelor of Arts degree at age 19.

The following year, he taught at IAHS/ICC before being accepted into medical school at Harvard. During his medical internship, Collum met and married Barbara Jean Starcevic of Lincoln, Ill. “We met in the operating room where I was a scrub nurse next to him on a surgery he was performing,” Barbara said. “He scratched his nose on my back, and that’s how we met. That night he called me and asked if the procedure was carried out in a sterile technique, and I said yes, to the best of my knowledge. I got nervous thinking something went wrong! He said if you think everything went good, could I ask you out for a cup of coffee. I was so relieved that I wasn’t going to be written up for something!”

His family said that he was drafted for the Korean War, but was deferred due to a shortage of physicians and the need “back home.” The Collums, who moved back to his home county, eventually had 10 children.

“When we first married, we followed Bud Davis to every ICC basketball game carrying a newborn baby, less than a year old that went with us,” Barbara said.

Collum opened his own clinic in Fulton in 1955. “He was a one-stop shop,” said daughter Billye Jean Stroud. “He did his own x-rays, delivered babies, did bloodwork, he did it all. They built their house with an examining room/office so he could see patients at all hours. He was always teaching and encouraging.”

Barbara Collum said that when her husband was out on baby delivery calls, she treated IJC football player injuries. “I loved nursing. Three of my daughters are in nursing.”

After raising their children, she went back to work for her husband running the front and the office. “I helped run his office and was there until it ended. We had fun and a good time working together, but I’d much rather be a nurse than a secretary. I did a little nursing when I worked for him, but what I really loved was the hospital more than the doctor’s office.”

When it closed its doors three decades later, Collum took a position at the North Mississippi Medical Center’s Fulton Clinic where he worked for an additional 19 years.

Following Collum’s death in 2019 at the age of 89, alumni and friends established an annual scholarship in his memory, but recently his family made the scholarship permanent by endowing it and securing financial support for future nurses for years to come, according to Michael Upton, director of advancement.

“This (scholarship endowment) was really Billy’s dream,” Barbara said. “He kept putting it on the back burner. This was his idea that we are carrying on for him. He loved his nurses and respected them. The only thing was he didn’t think they got paid enough.”

Son Mark said that his dad wanted to establish a scholarship so “that kids could go without the burdens on the financial side because he had to borrow money from his brothers and sisters to attend Harvard.”

“And he had to pay them back so he was sensitive to kids not having enough funding,” Stroud said. “He loved ICC. He thought it was a great facility.”

Applicants must have and maintain a 2.5 grade point average to receive and for the duration of the scholarship.

For more information on the Collum scholarship or endowment opportunities, contact Upton at (662) 862-8035 or email maupton@iccms.edu.

Newsroom

Featured

Most Popular

Love for Itawamba County leads to Collum Scholarship endowment

Newsroom

Featured

Most Popular

ICC Newsroom

Love for Itawamba County leads to Collum Scholarship endowment

Related Articles