Mississippi State University’s Army Reserve Officer Training Corps program is celebrating the memory of Cadet Colby Marlow through the creation of an endowed scholarship.

Cadet Joseph Adams, a senior kinesiology major from Jackson, received the inaugural $1,000 scholarship, which will be awarded annually to an Army ROTC cadet in honor of Marlow, a distinguished 4.0 student from Carrollton who died in 2021. Marlow, a senior at the time of his death, was a Mississippi Army National Guard staff sergeant; Distinguished Military Graduate in the top 10 percent in the nation; member of Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Theta Kappa honor societies and Student Veterans Association; and an ROTC co-commander.

“Every time I interacted with Colby, he would always motivate me to be the best I could be,” Adams said. “It didn’t matter if it was fitness or just doing something in the Bulldog Battalion.”

Adams serves as treasurer of the Cadet’s Military Science Club, leader in the Bulldog Battalion and as part of the Ranger Challenge Team and Bulldog Battery. He received the award at a ceremony attended by Marlow’s twin brother, Cade, and their mother, Christy. Cade Marlow is a second lieutenant in the Army recently stationed at Ft. Benning, Georgia, where he enrolled in the Army’s Infantry Officer Basic Course.

“This scholarship is a great way to honor Cadet Colby Marlow and is a way for the family to remember his service and the example Colby set for others. It also is a great way to help a cadet stay on path to commission as an officer in the United States Army,” said Lt. Col. Jason R. Posey, head of MSU’s Army ROTC. “The Marlow brothers understood the why—the end goal of being in the Army ROTC program. They wanted to join, commission, and serve in the infantry. Cade is continuing the path they laid out when they first got to MSU.”