Women’s Council 2024 Legacy Award Honors Jim and Thomas Duff

Successful brothers have generously supported higher education, economic development

Jim and Thomas Duff, two of Mississippi‘s most successful businessmen and generous supporters of the state’s public universities, were honored at the University of Mississippi on Thursday, November 7, 2024, with the 2024 Legacy Award from the Ole Miss Women’s Council for Philanthropy.

The award is presented yearly to recipients whose lives exemplify the values and tenets of the Women’s Council: philanthropy, scholarship, leadership and mentorship, principles long practiced by the Duffs.

The brothers founded and own Duff Capital Investors, a holding company that comprises 22 separate business units. With revenues of $5.5 billion, DCI is the largest privately owned business in Mississippi.

In 2020, the Hattiesburg residents made a $26 million gift to Ole Miss to construct the Jim and Thomas Duff Center for Science and Technology Innovation.

“We believe higher education is one of the key factors, if not the key factor, that is vital to transforming our state and ensuring Mississippi has a successful future,” said Tom Duff, who previously served as the board president of the state Institutions of Higher Learning. “By becoming a better, more educated state, our state, in turn, will become more prosperous.”

“For us, providing financial resources to our state’s universities is a way to give students more opportunities for a better life,” Jim Duff said. “Essentially, by supporting our public higher education system, we want to try to help the students in our state help themselves and their communities. We want to help them get the exceptional education necessary to succeed.”

The Duffs’ philanthropic efforts will have a far-reaching impact, said Roane Grantham, chair of the Women’s Council.

“The Duff Center will ensure our students can have careers in medicine, chemical engineering, robotics and other growing fields anywhere in the world,” she said. “We are honored to be able to recognize and thank Tom and Jim Duff for their generous investment in our students, our university and our future.”

The Legacy Award ceremony followed a ribbon cutting for the Duff Center, which opened in August.

This 202,000-square-foot science, technology, engineering and mathematics facility is the largest academic project ever at Ole Miss. It will help the university prepare students for STEM-related jobs, which are expected to increase dramatically through 2031.

The Duffs also made a $1 million gift to Ole Miss in 2017 to create the Ernest R. Duff Flagship Constellation Fund to honor their father, a 1955 UM law graduate.

Their additional gifts include support for the Jim and Thomas Duff Athletic Center at the University of Southern Mississippi and the Jim and Thomas Duff Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities and Department of Kinesiology at Mississippi State University.

Thomas Duff earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Southern Mississippi; Jim Duff studied business at Utah Valley University.

“We are extremely honored to be recipients of the Legacy Award and we hope we measure up to the incredible mission of the Women’s Council,” said Jim Duff, whose wife, Sherry, earned a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and their daughters, Maggie Duff West and Caroline Duff, earned degrees at Ole Miss.

“What the Women’s Council has done and is doing is remarkable,” Thomas Duff said. “Not only do they offer one of the most generous academic scholarships available to Ole Miss students, but the members provide mentors and leadership training, introduce students to different cultures and provide resources for internships and study abroad opportunities.

“They do all that while encouraging the students to give back to their communities.”

Past Legacy Award honorees include Donna and Jim Barksdale, Jennifer Gillom and Peggie Gillom-Granderson, Ruth and Dr. Arthur C. Guyton, Dr. Gerald M. “Doc” Hollingsworth, Chancellor Emeritus Robert C. Khayat, Olivia Manning, Charles Overby, Ambassador John N. Palmer, Dolly Parton, Leigh Anne Tuohy, and Elise and Gov. William Winter.

For more information about the Legacy Award and the Ole Miss Women’s Council, contact Suzanne Helveston, program director, at shelveston@olemiss.edu or 662-915-2956.

By Jonathan Scott