The Value of a Mentor
Endowment to benefit public policy leadership students

A woman recognized in the nation’s capital for her tireless political, educational and charitable fundraising efforts is being honored with a University of Mississippi scholarship endowment and is joining the Ole Miss Women’s Council for Philanthropy.

The Women’s Council scholarship, the first designated for students in the Department of Public Policy Leadership, honors Martha Dale Fritts of Washington, D.C. Her husband, Eddie Fritts (61), former president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Broadcasters, and the couple’s three children are establishing the endowment with a $105,000 gift.

Martha Dale Fritts is also becoming a member of the Ole Miss Women’s Council for Philanthropy, which has attracted more than $9 million in private gifts for scholarships since its inception in 2000. Council members provide valuable mentorship and leadership training for scholarship recipients.

Eddie and Martha Dale Fritts

“Martha Dale is really a teacher at heart, as she has been mentoring all her adult life,” Eddie Fritts said. “She has been the centerpiece of our family and deserves special recognition. I am so grateful she is willing to share additional time mentoring young people.”

The Fritts endowment is a welcome addition to the growing list of Women’s Council scholarships, said Jan Farrington, chair of the group.

“This scholarship is a wonderful example not only of this family’s generosity and support of Ole Miss but also of its desire to honor a very special woman,” Farrington said. “The Women’s Council is happy to welcome Martha Dale as our newest member. Her experience in philanthropic endeavors will be invaluable to the council, and we look forward to her active participation in our program.”

Martha Dale Fritts served 12 years on the board of the Wolf Trap Foundation, which oversees the nation’s only national park for the performing arts, and she has been involved in the Meridian House Foundation, which assists newly posted diplomatic families in Washington. She helped host UM galas in Washington honoring the late U.S. Rep. Jamie Whitten and U.S. Sens. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, and she attracted funds for UM initiatives. She is a board member for The University of Mississippi Foundation and the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts.

“The endowment of a scholarship in my name is a high honor,” Fritts said. “I look forward to mentoring recipients on our numerous trips to our second home in Oxford. Eddie and I plan to bring recipients to Washington as our guests to see firsthand how public policy is developed and implemented.”

Martha Dale and Eddie Fritts began their life journey together as high-school sweethearts in Union City, Tenn. After graduation, she enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Martin, while he enrolled at Ole Miss.

After college, the two married and moved to Indianola, where they owned and operated radio stations in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana for more than two decades.

In 1982, they moved to Washington, where Eddie Fritts led the NAB for 23 years. A member of the Ole Miss Alumni Hall of Fame, he now heads a political-affairs firm he founded, representing many of the nation’s most prominent telecommunications firms.

The gift is part of the university’s MomentUM Campaign, a four-year initiative to raise $200 million. The campaign, which ends in December 2008, has already raised more than $180 million for scholarships, graduate fellowships, faculty support, a basketball practice facility, residential colleges and a new law school on the Oxford campus. Also in the plans is a cancer center at The University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

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