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Brothers Keith (left) and Joe Larkin (right) created the Larkin Family Scholarship, which reached a total endowment of over $100,000 last year.
Image by Courtesy Larkin Family
Larkin Family Scholarship, Begun by Two Brothers, Reaches Distinguished Status
| Each year, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Pharmacy awards more than a half million dollars in scholarships to qualified students, representing a significant and sustained show of support from alumni, faculty, and friends of the college.
A select few of these scholarships, built up over years or even decades, reach a total endowment of over $100,000, and are elevated to distinguished scholarships. This past year, the college recognized five such scholarships reaching that level. One of those is The Larkin Family Distinguished Scholarship.
Brianna Hice waves at the College of Pharmacy’s annual scholarship ceremony, held in September. Hice was one of three students to receive the Larkin scholarship.Evan Lewis
These awards are created with a specific purpose, such as memorializing a loved one. All of them, however, share the same pursuit of giving a financial hand up to students in need, to help educate and train the next generation of pharmacists.
Brothers Keith Larkin, Pharm.D., P.D., and Joe Larkin, Pharm.D., P.D., started their pharmacy careers as stock boys at Lyons Drug Store in Lonoke, obtained their Pharm.D. degrees together. Their family business included three pharmacies in the Fort Smith-Charleston area, as well as one medical equipment company. Joe, the older brother, set the example and Keith followed.
“When Joe went off to pharmacy school [at the UAMS College of Pharmacy], I came along and went to work in the drug store,” Keith Larkin said. “Then I went to pharmacy school [at the University of Oklahoma] and came back home. I thought I’d go to Lonoke, but I ended up working at Joe’s pharmacy in Charleston.”
Although Joe Larkin died in 2021, the Larkin family pharmacy legacy lives on in the form of a scholarship established by Keith Larkin, his wife Cindy and their son Blake of Fort Smith.
“Pharmacy gave a lot to us, and we saw it as an opportunity to give back to it,” Larkin said.
At the time it was established, scholarship endowments could receive matching funds. So, with the help of what is now the UAMS Office of Institutional Advancement, the Larkins created a scholarship aimed at students from Crawford, Franklin, Logan, Scott or Sebastian counties.
“We gave $5,000 and got $5,000 credit [in matching funds],” Larkin said. “Even as poor businessmen as we were, we understood that was a pretty good deal for us and the school.”
The brothers practiced pharmacy after obtaining their P.D. degrees, but eventually Pharm.D. degrees became the norm. That’s when the brothers came to the UAMS College of Pharmacy. Being much older, they were very nontraditional students. They graduated in 1996.
“Part of it was ego,” Larkin said, laughing. “We were P.D.s initially. Our egos were such that [Joe] didn’t want some young whippersnapper calling him a doctor when he had a better degree [than we did]. So we went back and got our Pharm.D.s.”
The scholarship remains a source of pride for the Larkin family, who have received contributions from their nieces as Christmas presents. There have been other full-circle moments, too.
“One of the things that occurred is, one of the pharmacists that worked for us, his daughter received the scholarship one year,” Larkin said. “So you know, when you have personal things occur like that, it really makes you feel good. We give yearly to keep the scholarship growing, and it’s something that we’d like to continue to do.”