FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – An alumnus of the University of Arkansas and his wife are contributing $212,000 to create two scholarships for electrical engineering students.

The two gifts — one for $112,000 and one for $100,000 — from Charles F. “Micky” Mayfield Jr. and his wife, Marybeth, will establish the Marybeth and Barbara Dunham Endowed Scholarship for Electrical Engineering and the Marybeth and Micky Mayfield Endowed Scholarship in Engineering.

“The Mayfields are wonderful friends of the College of Engineering, and their gifts will allow us to attract the best and the brightest to the university,” said John English, dean of the College of Engineering. “Scholarship support helps remove the financial barriers our students face while earning a college degree, assists with the improvement of our graduation rates and ultimately influences the number of Arkansans who hold bachelor’s degrees. We are very grateful Micky and Marybeth are investing in our students’ futures with their generous contributions.”

The Marybeth and Barbara Dunham Endowed Scholarship for Electrical Engineering will be established with a $112,000 gift from Marybeth Mayfield, and the Marybeth and Micky Mayfield Endowed Scholarship in Engineering will be established with a $100,000 gift from the couple. Both scholarships will be used to support undergraduates in the Department of Electrical Engineering, with preference given to students who graduated from El Dorado High School in Arkansas or any high school in Massachusetts.

A native of El Dorado, Micky Mayfield earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science in Mathematics from the University of Arkansas.

“I had an affinity for the university,” Micky said, noting that many of his lifelong friends from El Dorado also chose to attend the University of Arkansas and major in engineering.

“I had a great experience at the university,” he said. “People from all over the country have different attitudes about where to get a degree. However, I never felt disadvantaged coming from Arkansas. The U of A has great academics and great athletics.”

Following his graduation, Mayfield moved to Kansas City to work in engineering, but his career eventually took him to both coasts while he worked in econometrics and sales. The majority of his time was spent working for AT&T and later Lucent Technologies, where he led the highest revenue-generating sales team in the company’s history.

Today, Mayfield is vice president of sales for Coriant and serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Engineering.

“My mother was a lifelong schoolteacher and instilled the value of an education and an open mind,” said Mayfield. “The university had given me a lot more than I had given it, so I wanted to give back through scholarship support. It concerns me to see people try hard through college and then graduate with debt.”  

Marybeth Mayfield grew up in Massachusetts and earned degrees in English and education from Salem State University before completing coursework toward a master’s in psychology at Harvard University. Like Micky, she worked extensively in the telecommunications field and spent 25 years with AT&T and later Lucent. The majority of her career has centered on project management for data center relocations in New York and New Jersey, which became particularly critical after the attacks on Sept. 11. She now works as a private contractor for data center relocations.

Marybeth worked throughout her time as a college student and understands the challenges many students face to receiving their degrees today. For that reason, scholarship support was particularly appealing to her as well.

“Kids work really hard today to even make it to college,” she said. “It’s a competitive environment. Any bit of support makes it a little easier and adds to a more well-rounded college experience.”

“Overall, we are very impressed with how well Chancellor Gearhart and Chancellor emeritus John A. White are improving the academic quality of the university,” said Micky. “Today, the university is hiring better faculty and recruiting better students, and we’re happy to be a part of that.”

The Mayfields, who reside in Rogers, are life members of the Arkansas Alumni Association and will be inducted into the Towers of Old Main, a giving society honoring the university’s most generous benefactors.