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A tragic California car wreck last April killed a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. As a memorial to him, hundreds of the brightest young people in America will come to teach the children of the Delta.

The author who died was New York-based David Halberstam. His posthumously-released book about the Korean War “The Coldest Winter” joins his 20 other books on subjects ranging from baseball to his neighborhood firefighters who died in the World Trade Center attacks.

Little known to the literary world was the fact that this Boston native began his writing career after his Harvard graduation in north Mississippi—in West Point--at the smallest daily newspaper in the nation. A few years later at the still tender age of 30, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Vietnam reporting from Vietnam for the New York Times.

He apparently passed along his values to his daughter Julia. After completing her Ivy League education, she also came to Mississippi, but not as a journalist. She came as a kindergarten teacher in a Greenville public school. She was part of Teach For America--one of the bright young people who were recruited and trained by Teach For America for two-year teaching stints in the Delta.

When her father died, his friends wanted to know how they could perpetuate his legacy. Julia and her lovely mother Jean thought for awhile and selected one charity—Teach For America’s Delta region—for a permanent Endowment to bear his famous name. His widow said it is the only memorial that they will approve.

Teach For America-Delta region director Ron Nurnberg presented a check for $182,000 at this year’s Crystal Ball to start the Endowment.

“We are humbled by the decision that Jean and Julia made in naming Teach For America-Delta as a way for friends, family and admirers of David’s work to honor his memory and to perpetuate his passions for equity and education,” Nurnberg said. “Mississippi as a whole and the schoolchildren of the Delta in particular will benefit immensely from the establishment of this endowment.”

When it reaches $500,000, the Phil Hardin Foundation of Meridian will add $250,000. The Community Foundation will provide a 25% matching grant to these and all other contributions up to $2 million.

The Community Foundation’s directors said they could think of no better use for their funds than bringing some of America’s brightest young college graduates to Northwest Mississippi to teach our region’s children. It’s a wonderful way to serve the Foundation’s eight counties.

Teach For America-Delta currently has 158 first- and second-year teachers in partnering K-12 Delta schools plus 65 alumni in the region who are involved in educational leadership roles. Another 20 alumni are at regional universities completing advanced degrees or working in related educational leadership or advocacy occupations.

An independent research firm in 2005 found that Delta principals who manage Teach For America teachers overwhelmingly report that they have a significant and positive impact on their schools and student achievement. A unanimous 100% of the principals report that if they had a teaching vacancy, they would try to hire a Teach For America teacher. More than 60 percent of the principals said their Teach For America teachers, in regard to impact on student achievement, were more effective than their current teaching faculty.

More Delta school districts are asking for Teach For America teachers to fill teacher shortages and improve student achievement. The organization reports that each year more than 20 Mississippi school districts’ requests for Teach For America teachers must go unfulfilled due to a lack of funding. Nationally, Teach For America is stepping up its recruiting process to increase the supply of teachers. In the Delta, we must be prepared to fund these additional teachers and meet the demand of local school districts—now and into the future.

When fully funded at $2 million, the Endowment’s annual disbursements will provide funds to recruit, select, train and provide on-going professional development for an additional 10 or more Teach For America teachers in the Delta every year. These teachers will impact the achievement of 850-1,000 students annually, in memory of David Halberstam.