Wesson Native Gives Back with New STEM Scholarship at Co-Lin

Special to Wesson News

The Dr. William R. and Camille B. Smith STEM Scholarship was recently established with the Co-Lin College Foundation. On hand for the presentation were (from left) Camille Smith, Dr. William Smith, and Co-Lin Foundation Executive Director Angela Furr.

Dr. William R. and Camille B. Smith have endowed a STEM Scholarship in their with the Co-Lin College Foundation to benefit a student who is majoring in pre-med or a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) related field, with priority given to a student with financial need.

Smith, a Wesson native, attended both Co-Lin High School and the college, where he was named to the student Hall of Fame in 1974. He attended Millsaps College and graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in 1979. He had a brief stint in private practice in Texas, but returned to Mississippi to join the internal medicine staff at the Jackson Veterans Administration Medical Center in 1983, where he was awarded the title of Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He was promoted to assistant professor of medicine at UMMC, and went on to practice Nephrology at Central Nephrology Clinic, serving St. Dominic Memorial Hospital until his retirement in 2016.

Smith is married to Camille Brock Nelson and they have four children -- Mark, Desiree, Diana, and Mary-Emma.  He also has three stepchildren, Benjamin, AnnaLyn and Leslie, and 11 grandchildren.

Contributions to the Dr. William R. and Camille B. Smith STEM Scholarship, or any other scholarship, can be mailed to the Co-Lin Foundation at P.O. Box 649, Wesson, MS 39191, or made online at https://www.colin.edu/alumni-foundation/give-now/.