The James R. Stokely Institute for Liberal Arts Education was established in 1982. The idea of Wilma Dykeman Stokely, it commemorated her late husband, James R. Stokely Jr. The first (of nine) Stokely Fellows summer programs for K–12 teachers—a five-week, on-campus graduate program—was held in 1983 with 20 participants from a 35-county area of Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. In 1984 the first Stokely Scholars—rising high school seniors—were named and participated in summer on-campus experiences. The institute was designed to further the liberal arts among high school students and teachers in 39 counties of Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The institute received six years of funding from the Andrew Mellon Foundation ($280,000 in 1982; $250,000 in 1985), and then three years of funding from the Lyndhurst Foundation. A campaign to raise an endowment sufficient to support the program was unsuccessful, although a few private gifts were collected and placed into a small fund that bears the name Stokely Institute and which is used to fund small community outreach initiatives.