“It was unreal. I just opened the door and water came rushing out.” –Barry Bays, Delta Music Institute instructor on the flooding of the DMI building after a pipe burst.
“I thank God for the opportunity to represent Delta State University in the Miss Mississippi Pageant.” –Briana Sturgis, Miss DSU
“President LaForge, once again I extend a heartfelt welcome to you, Mrs. LaForge, and your family. It is with warmth and gratitude that I say ‘Welcome home’ to your University, the home of the famous ‘fighting okra’, to the ‘green and white’, to our Delta State University. We are grateful that you chose now to come home.” –Sydney Hodnett, SGA President
“If I could leave anything with you, I urge you to try to live in the present moment, because this could happen to any one of us. And we all take these lives, these precious lives, for granted, and they could end very abruptly. So learn from your past, plan for the future, but live in the present.” –Jim Morhard, survivor of the 2010 plane crash in Alaska that claimed the lives of Senator Ted Stevens and four others.
“My husband and I treasure the years we spent at Delta State College during the early 1960’s. James particularly treasures the classes with Dr. LaForge, father of the present president. I am forever thankful for teachers Dr. Ralph Hitt and Dr. Butler from the English Department. They were demanding, fair, entertaining, and unforgettable teachers.” –Joyce Montgomery Miller ’63
22 • Delta State Magazine • Winter 2014
“We are united by our desire for knowledge of the truth, united by our desire for the experience of authentic beauty, united by our hunger for relationships in which we can give and receive respect and love, and united by our hope of making a difference, even if small, by our having lived on this earth” –Fr. Kent Bowlds, at the Inauguration of President William N. LaForge