OXFORD, Miss. — Ever since his father took him to visit a
branch of the New York Stock Exchange, Michael Strojny knew
he would grow up to be a businessman.
“I remember all the clack, clack, clacking,” Strojny said.
“It was very exciting, and I knew from then on that I
wanted to work in business. My father was an engineer, but
he was also a passionate investor, and I dreamed of the day
I would be, too.”
The University of Mississippi School of Business
Administration provided a solid background to help Strojny
make his dream a reality. He graduated in 1968 with a
bachelor’s of science in business administration and later
earned a master’s from the University of Southern
Mississippi and a specialist’s degree from William Carey
College.
While at Ole Miss, Strojny met his future wife, Jane, a
Pontotoc County native. They married in 1970 and would
later become business partners as well. She earned her
bachelor’s degree in education from UM and later completed
a master’s in education from USM..
In 1975, the couple opened Strojny and Strojny Financial
Services in Biloxi. The business started small, at their
kitchen table, where they prepared tax returns for friends
and neighbors. But it kept growing, and was moved from the
kitchen table to a spare bedroom, then to the current six
offices in and around the Gulf Coast. The business has
grown to include tax, accounting and investment services,
as well as business consultations.
Strojny credits much of his success to Ole Miss and his
mentors while in school. That’s the reason he and Jane have
given $100,000 to seed the Michael and Jane Strojny
Scholarship Endowment in Business.
“Ole Miss was such a good experience for me,” Strojny said.
“I would like this scholarship to help someone who might
not otherwise be able to stay in school. Plus, Ole Miss
business students will play a part in developing the future
leaders of our company. We recruit at least two or three
Ole Miss students to come work for us every year.”
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, already has raised more than
$160 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 plan is a cancer center at the UM
Medical Center in Jackson.
“We are so grateful for this generous gift from Michael and
Jane Strojny,” said Shannon Woodward, development officer
for the business school. “With scholarships like this one,
the School of Business Administration can compete for the
best and brightest students and continue to supply a
top-notch business education for Mississippians.”
Although Strojny grew up on the East Coast, just outside
the Washington, D.C., metro area, he’s a Southerner at
heart. His interest in history and studying the Civil War
brought him down South for college campus tours.
“I knew I wanted to go to school in the South, and I looked
at Emory, LSU and Auburn,” he said. “But when I came to Ole
Miss, I knew it felt right. It was small and homey. I knew
it would be a good educational environment.”
But he found that Ole Miss was more than history books and
term papers. It was home, full of good friends and warmth.
“When there wasn’t a home football game, there was no one
on campus on the weekends,” Strojny remembers. I didn’t
have a car, and people knew I didn’t really have anywhere
to go because I wasn’t from around here. So someone in my
dorm would always knock on my door and offer to take me
home with them for the weekend. It was such a kind and
considerate thing, and I quickly found out that’s the way
Mississippians are.”
It was also a place to grow his business.
“I felt the South would be the place to be in the future,”
Strojny said. “The economy was changing from an agrarian
economy to being more business-oriented, so I felt there
would be room for lots of jobs and room for growth.”
As the family business grew, so did the family itself. They
have a son, Michael. They also have a daughter, Jennifer,
who received an MBA from Ole Miss in 1999. Jennifer met her
husband, Kerry Milligan, in the Grove on campus. And so the
Ole Miss tradition continues.
For more information on giving to Ole Miss, go to