Major gift by emeritus professor supports scholarships

Professor and emeritus head Al Peyman (right) with current Psychology Department head Stephen Klein.

A $100,000 contribution from a retired university administrator is supporting graduate students in the department he once led.

The gift from Douglas A.R. "Al" Peyman of Starkville has established the Peyman Psychology Graduate Student Scholarship Fund. Peyman headed the Psychology Department 1975-90.

The scholarships are awarded annually to full-time graduate students who have a grade-point average of 3.0 or above. Peyman's friends and colleagues originally set up the scholarship fund last year.

Peyman's personal contribution is a memorial to his wife Anne, a retired Mississippi University for Women nursing professor who died last year.

A native of Canada, Al Peyman received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a master's in psychology, both from the University of British Columbia. He earned a doctorate in psychology and taught at the University of Washington before moving South to join the faculty at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

He went on to head the Psychology Departments of Alabama's state hospitals, then came to Mississippi State as head of the university's counseling center. In 1975, he was named head of the Psychology Department, a post he held until his retirement.

Now professor and emeritus head of the department, Peyman still teaches part time.