Multi-generation Bobcat family shares OHIO tradition through new Appalachian Scholarship

From holiday dinners to annual vacations, each family has its traditions. For the Lykins family, Ohio University is a tradition, too – one that stretches back five generations and includes 26 Bobcats.

Today, Ronald Lykins, MBA ’67, PHD ’71, is sharing his family’s tradition with the OHIO community and Appalachia through a generous gift in honor of his late wife Ruth Wilson Lykins, BSHSS ’69. The Ron and Ruth Wilson Lykins Family Scholarship will support high school graduates in Adams County, Ohio, who qualify for OHIO’s Appalachian Scholars Program so that they can start or continue their own connections to Ohio University.

“I’ve been connected with OU since I first came to work on my MBA degree in 1964,” Lykins says. “I feel like I’ve never left the University.”

An Adams County native, Lykins lived with his grandparents in the house he was born in, which had no running water or electricity. Yet, with his family’s encouragement, Lykins was able to pursue a higher education that would transform his life forever.

“My brother and I were the very first to graduate from high school, let alone college – just to simply graduate from high school,” Lykins says. “My grandfather only went to the fourth grade, and my grandmother went to the seventh grade. Although they didn’t have any formal education, they did a lot of reading and promoted education.”

After completing his undergraduate degree, Lykins arrived in Athens for his MBA and met his future wife, Ruth, whose great-grandparents were among the first settlers of Athens County and whose grandfather, Olan Euzeda Fri, BSED 1920, began her family’s Bobcat tradition generations earlier.

Lykins remained connected to OHIO through his doctoral studies, and later, after he founded his financial advising firm, he returned to educate his fellow Bobcats, eventually teaching as an adjunct in the MBA program for 13 years. Throughout it all, the couple never forgot the role the education they received at OHIO played in their success – a gift Lykins wants to now share with deserving students from Appalachia.

“I got that from my grandparents growing up, because even though they were extremely poor, they were always helping everyone that they could,” he explains. “So, that’s where I got the urge, and my wife Ruth and I, we both wanted to help other people.”

When introduced to OHIO’s Appalachian Scholars Program, Lykins says he was impressed with both the program's benefits, like the LINKS First Year program, and the community engagement and study abroad opportunities. What sealed the deal was his gift’s eligibility for The OHIO Match, an undergraduate scholarship investment program through which Ohio University has pledged up to $25 million to strengthen its endowed scholarship program. Through The OHIO Match, the University will provide $0.50 for every dollar committed to eligible scholarship endowments. The program runs through June 30, 2024.

The Lykinses’ Bobcat tradition passed down to their three children – Kurt, Kristi, and Lisa – and oldest grandchild, Alex Mielke, who graduated from OHIO in 2017. Today, grandchildren Mia Citino and Nick Citino are keeping it alive as current OHIO students, walking the same brick paths as two dozen of their family members across the generations.

Looking back, Lykins says his OHIO experience is “like a fairytale.”

“My OU experience has helped enhance the quality of my life enormously, and to know that so many of the members from my wife’s family who have attended Ohio University, now going on five generations, and on the Lykins side, three generations – it just has meant the world to me to have established all those friends and opportunities that it’s given me,” Lykins says. “It’s just a dream, it really is.”