Judith Goodwin Blackburn Scholarship Announced at MC School of Business

Mississippi School of Business Dean Marcelo Eduardo and assistant dean Michele Ricker announce a new scholarship.

Judith Goodwin Blackburn served with excellence for 37 years at the Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company in Mississippi.

A Mississippi College accounting graduate, Blackburn worked as the company’s senior vice president and chief financial officer at the time of her passing in Jackson in July 2018.

This Fall, the company’s generous gift to the MC School of Business establishes the Judith Goodwin Blackburn Scholarship. The award going to accounting students on the Clinton campus memorializes the CPA’s dedicated service to the insurance company.

“We are honored by this gift from the Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company,” says School of Business Dean Marcelo Eduardo.

Founded in Jackson in September 1947, the company spans Mississippi, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina.

“Judy” Goodwin Blackburn considered the insurance company to be part of her family. She joined the company in 1981 as its cash fund account controller.

Following a series of promotions to accounting manager, and vice president/controller, she rose up the ranks once again. Blackburn was named the company’s senior vice president and chief financial officer in 2016. She was responsible for the company’s day-to-day financial operations, including accounting and investments, in that capacity.

The Mississippian served as a member of the Mississippi Society of CPAs, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

In 1998, Blackburn was recognized by the “Mississippi Business Journal” as one of the state’s top 50 business women.

The first preference for the new Mississippi College scholarship is for a Farm Bureau member classified as a junior or senior accounting major. The scholarship can be renewed for MC students to include another year for the master of accountancy or MBA-accounting concentration program.

Born in Clarksdale in 1955, Judith Goodwin Blackburn graduated from Delta Academy in Marks before studying accounting at Mississippi College’s School of Business.

She and her husband, Jack Blackburn, raised two sons, Joshua Blackburn of Denver, Colorado, and Jordan Blackburn of Huntsville, Alabama. The Blackburns attended St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Jackson.