A Century of Service

Reverend Mildred Board Grubbs turned 104 years old in November, making her UPIKE’s oldest living donor. Her tie to the university goes back decades. As a member of the Board of Christian Education, Grubbs was invited to then Pikeville College in 1961 to help lay the cornerstone for what is now the Record Memorial Building. Grubbs fondly recalls the fanfare of the day.

“The band, basketball team and organizations of students led a community-wide parade through the city streets up to campus where the program began,” Grubbs recalled. Pikeville College President A.A. Page introduced her, giving her the opportunity to speak to the crowd. “I spoke of the importance of education in a church-related setting and of the opportunities to prepare for a vocation while remaining close to their mountain homes.”

Mildred (third from right) was invited to then Pikeville College in 1961 to help lay the cornerstone for what is now the Record Memorial Building.

Grubbs has led a remarkable life and is no stranger to setting records. After dreaming of becoming a Presbyterian minister in an era when seminary doors were closed to females, Grubbs became the first woman to be ordained and installed as a pastor in the East Iowa Presbytery in the early 1960s. She served the First Presbyterian Church (FPC) of Blairstown, Iowa, for 10 years before returning to FPC Tupelo in Mississippi, the very place she married her husband Bill in 1945.

Today, Grubbs continues her service to the FPC of Tupelo by leading the Mary and Martha Bible Study and Quest Sunday School classes. She continues to read, study and expand her deep knowledge of theology and religion, all while writing a book, The Light that Shines in Darkness – 150 years of FPC Tupelo, a chronology of the church’s history and influential members.

After all these years, Grubbs still keeps up with the advancements of the university.

By Amy Charles