George Haymans IV spent his childhood in the backseat of his father’s Ford Bronco, parked on muddy oil fields where fortunes teetered on the edge of a drill bit. Weekends weren’t for rest — they were for watching men chase the earth’s hidden promise.
“They would drill for two days straight and would start getting antsy looking at the readings,” said Haymans of Oxford, Mississippi. “You could feel the excitement. I’ve also seen them tuck their heads and drive off exhausted and depleted when they would work so hard only to hit a dry hole — big gamble.”
Those early experiences shaped an appreciation for geology, curiosity risk and discovery — one the Haymans family now hopes to pass on to future generations.
To encourage young people to pursue degrees in geology and geological engineering at the University of Mississippi, Haymans and his family have established a scholarship in his late father’s name, George Haymans III, with a $50,000 gift. They have also donated part of Haymans III’s rock and mineral collection, valued at nearly $185,000, along with a display case to house it in the new Jim and Thomas Duff Center for Science and Technology Innovation to encourage curiosity into the field of geology.
The gifts reflect both the professional legacy and personal passions of the donor’s father.
After earning an undergraduate degree in geology at Millsaps College and attending graduate school at Ole Miss, Haymans III trained as an engineer with Schlumberger Well Services in Ventura, California, in 1973. His career took him across the South where he built a reputation for technical excellence, guiding oil drilling decisions in an era before advanced digital modeling.
After working for several oil and gas companies in Natchez, Mississippi, he founded Petrovest Inc., serving as president and achieving successful production in six states. In 1988, he continued his leadership in the field as vice president of exploration for Tri-Quest Resources.
Yet his fascination with the earth extended well beyond oil.
A self-proclaimed “rock hound,” Haymans III assembled one of the finest private collections of rocks, minerals and fossils in Mississippi. His passion began early — he won a first-grade science fair with a collection that would foreshadow a lifelong pursuit. As a graduate student at Ole Miss, Haymans was featured in the Jackson Daily News in 1973 for piecing together a fossilized crab discovered by another student, lending additional evidence to the belief that northeast Mississippi was at one time under Gulf of Mexico waters.
From copper mines in Michigan and diamond fields in Arkansas to salt mines in Louisiana, he was always searching for his next discovery, often turning his finds into handcrafted jewelry.
“He panned and mined for gold from Dahlonega, Georgia, to Nome, Alaska, and had a great time doing so,” said his wife, Shirley Haymans of Cordell, Oklahoma. “George could talk for hours about his rocks, and the only thing talked about more was his grandchildren. He once took a whitewater rafting trip in Chile and combined that with collecting lapis, which he brought home and had made into bracelets, necklaces and beautiful boxes.”
The collection to be housed at Ole Miss serves as both a tribute and an invitation — offering students a tangible connection to geology and the excitement of discovery.
Viola L. Acoff, dean of the School of Engineering, expressed gratitude for the family’s gifts.
“We are deeply grateful to the Haymans family for this new scholarship endowment and for this exquisite rock and mineral collection,” she said. “The scholarship will permanently honor George Haymans III and will be used to recruit students. Hopefully, the rock and mineral collection will inspire students to consider pursuing geology or geological engineering degrees. Both are exceptional gifts that will strengthen the School of Engineering.”
For Haymans IV, the decision to give back is deeply personal.
He earned his undergraduate degree in English from Ole Miss in 2001 and his Juris Doctor in 2006. Between degrees, he worked in Washington, D.C., as an agriculture intern for the late U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran.
Drawn by a passion for land and conservation, he later joined Ducks Unlimited’s Governmental Affairs team, where he worked as a lobbyist and helped secure the signatures of 500 members of Congress for a public-private partnership initiative to restore wetlands nationwide.
Today, Haymans practices law in Oxford, focusing on commercial and residential real estate transactions while advising developers and contractors. He also is serving his second term on the Real Estate Advisory Board at the UM School of Business Administration and teaches as an adjunct professor.
“I just really enjoy giving back, and Ole Miss is a tremendous part of who I am,” Haymans said. “I enjoy working with young people and trying to get them to see the great opportunities available. I want to open their curiosity to new areas and expose them to something they may not have learned about before; we try to do that with our own children. The world is bigger than Oxford, Mississippi, and Ole Miss provides opportunities to experience it.
“I really hope that between this scholarship and the rock and mineral collection, students will become more curious and more aware of geology and geological engineering,” he continued. “Ole Miss is close to my family and me. We wanted to provide something that would build a legacy and help keep my dad’s passions and memory alive.”
To make a gift to the George S. Haymans III Memorial Scholarship Endowment, send a check to the University of Mississippi Foundation, with the fund’s name noted in the memo line, at 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655; or online here.
For more information on supporting UM’s School of Engineering, contact Madi Thorp, associate director of development, at mlthorp@olemiss.edu or 662-915-1122.
By Tina H. Hahn/UM Development