New scholarship seeks to assist math, statistics students

Marvin Jackson and his late wife, Ruth, attended multiple colleges and universities throughout their lifetimes, but their fondest memories at Northwest Missouri State University inspired them to create a scholarship that supports students in their final year at the institution.

“I’ve never forgotten Maryville,” said Marvin, who has made his home in Dallas for more than three decades. “I’ve been gone well over 50 years now, but it’s always had a soft spot.”

Marvin recently pledged $25,000 through the Northwest Foundation to create the Marvin and Ruth Jackson Mathematics Scholarship, which will be awarded for the first time during the 2025-26 academic year.

The scholarship is available to full-time students at Northwest who are in their senior year and studying a major in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. The recipient must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25.

“It has been an absolute pleasure to help Marvin establish this scholarship,” Sam Mason, a major gift officer at Northwest, said. “We have talked many times over the years about what might be the best way for Marv and Ruth to commemorate their time at Northwest, and this scholarship is a perfect fit. Ruth had a soft spot in her heart for Northwest, so I’m sure she would feel very honored to know that generations of Northwest students will benefit from her generosity.”

Marvin was born and raised in Maryville, living with his family in a home just a few blocks from the Northwest campus. His mother worked for many years at JCPenney in Maryville, before going to work for Textbook Services at Northwest. His father owned and operated a trucking business.

One of the most vivid memories of Marvin’s early connection with the college occurred in 1951 when he was around 9 years old and a gasoline storage tank exploded, causing a fire at the residence hall now known as Roberta Hall in honor of Roberta Steel, a student who later died from the injuries she suffered that night. The force of the explosion blew Marvin and his brother out of their beds onto the floor of their bedroom.

Shortly after, Marvin’s parents rented the second floor of their home to women displaced by the tragedy, and they continued renting the space to students through the 1960s.

“So I guess you might say from the time I was 9 years old, I was associated with the college,” said Marvin, who also attended summer school at Horace Mann Laboratory School on the campus. “I heard a lot of good things. The girls that lived at our house were talking a lot about it. I guess it was just always assumed that that’s where I was going to go.”

Marvin took an interest in studying math and science, completing his bachelor’s degree at Northwest in 1964. Outside of his coursework, he participated in forensics under the coaching of Dr. George Hinshaw, an associate professor of speech and theatre, as well as the marching band and Phi Lambda Chi, a short-lived fraternity at Northwest from 1961 to 1965. He worked on campus, too, doing custodial working in the J.W. Jones Student Union.

He began his career as a junior high math teacher in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Simultaneously, he earned a master’s degree in education administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia through a cooperative program with Northwest and, in 1968, Marvin was named the assistant principal at another junior high school in Council Bluffs.

A few months later, however, Marvin was called to the Army and reported for duty after the school year ended in June 1969. He spent the next two years in Vietnam before returning to school administration, serving as an assistant principal at yet another Council Bluffs junior high school for the next six years. He participated in a research assistantship at the University of Iowa and then became assistant principal at a high school in Wyoming before retiring from education in 1978.

As a second career, Marvin became a computing consultant for an Iowa-based education agency. Eventually, he found employment as a programing analyst with Texas Utilities in Dallas, working there from 1982 until retiring in 2013.

On Christmas Eve in 1992, Marvin and Ruth wed in Maryville and enjoyed 30 years of marriage before Ruth passed away in 2022. A native of Oklahoma, she had retired as a paralegal with the Environmental Protection Agency in Dallas.

Through their shared affection for education, the couple often talked about ways they could invest in the institutions that prepared them for success in their careers and assist future generations. 

“Education was important to both of us,” Marvin said. “She had kind of a rough time financially and every other which way getting through college, and I had it really pretty easy, but I learned what it was like.”

Understanding the burdens that many college students carry as they near the finish line of their degree programs, the Jacksons saw an opportunity to assist those undergraduates.

“We were able to get along fine for a while, but that last year was always a killer for both of us because you were trying to get a job, maybe just getting married, going to make a move somewhere, and it got to be kind of rough financially,” Marvin said. “That’s why we decided to do something for a college student in their final year.”

Because the couple’s visits to Maryville and the Northwest campus through the years made such an impression on Ruth, she directed Marvin during her final months of life to create a scholarship that could assist Northwest students.

“She said, ‘I sure wish I could’ve gone to a school like this,’” Marvin recounted her saying during one of their last visits to the campus.

Reflecting on his careers in education and computing, Marvin added, “I always felt that the math degree opened up so many more doors for me.”

The Marvin and Ruth Jackson Mathematics Scholarship fund remains open and capable of receiving additional contributions at any time. For more information or to make a gift to support Northwest, contact the Northwest Foundation at 660.562.1248 or visit www.nwmissouri.edu/GiveOnline.