Glover and Imogene Triplett - “Creating a Legacy”
Glover and Imogene Triplett
When faculty member Glover Triplett and his wife Imogene began talking about options for their estate, setting up an endowed position at Mississippi State was a perfect fit for them.
The Starkville couple donated a 1,063-acre tract of timberland in Noxubee County for the creation of an endowment. Proceeds from the sale of the property will fund the Dr. Glover B. Triplett Endowed Chair in Agronomy within the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. The position, which is the first fully endowed in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, will provide leadership in agronomy education and research, as well as outreach to agronomy-based industry.
Triplett certainly understands the importance of research conducted at universities. A pioneer of zero tillage or "no-till farming," he has been credited with helping revolutionize farming in the United States by assisting in the development of the environmentally friendly method of farming that aids erosion control. Today, no-tillage and minimum tillage farming, often referred to as "ugly farming," are globally accepted production practices, with more than 100 million acres planted worldwide.
Since 1983, Triplett has continued his ground-breaking research at Mississippi State. Prior to joining MSU, Triplett enjoyed a distinguished career at the Ohio State's Agricultural Research and Development Center. The Ohio research plots began by Triplett and a research partner are the longest continuous "no-till" research plots in the world.
The Tripletts supported Mississippi State for a number of years when they agreed it was time to focus their support in another direction – one that would specifically continue Glover's life's work of research and development.
"We are getting older and decided it was time to make these plans," Imogene said. "I told Glover he would enjoy meeting the first holder of the chair and exchanging ideas with him, so it needed to be done in our lifetime," she recalled.
Triplett, who holds bachelors and masters degrees from MSU, agreed wholeheartedly. Simply put, he said, "I chose an endowed position because I wanted to help someone else do what they love."
"The climate for research today appears to me to be largely driven by grants which often mandate a faculty member's research direction," Triplett observed. "This way, the chair will give someone the latitude to research as they deem beneficial," he explained.
Available funds from the Triplett endowment may be used to supplement the university salary and research expenditures of the chair holder, as well as provide for graduate research assistants.
For more information on giving in support of agriculture and life sciences, contact Jud Skelton, development director for the college, at 662.325.0643 or email jskelton@foundation.msstate.edu. Find out more about the need for endowed positions at Mississippi State through our Impact of Giving section.
