Fall-Winter 2002 Millsaps Magazine

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Fall-Winter 2002

A BETTER STATE OF HEALTH DOCTOR OF LETTERS

Literary specialist John Stone, M.D.

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM Baseball legend Claude Passeau

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Editor Jon Parrish Peede Director of Communications

Designer Lewis R. Lowe Associate Director of Publications

Contributing Editors Nicole Bradshaw Associate Director of Public Relations

John Webb Communications Writer

Major Notes Editor Tanya Newkirk Associate Director of Alumni Relations

Contributing Writers Nicole Bradshaw, Courtney Lange, J. D. Graffam, Jeff Mitchell, Tanya Newkirk, John Webb Contributing Photographers Nicole Bradshaw, Courtney Lange, Lewis R. Lowe, Tom Roster, The Sporting News, Hubert Worley

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Millsaps College President Frances Lucas-Tauchar Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College Richard A. Smith Vice President for Institutional Advancement Charles R. Lewis Vice President and Dean of Students Todd Rose

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Millsaps Magazine is published by Millsaps College, 1701 N. State St., Jackson, MS 39210-0001, for distribution to alumni, parents of students, and friends of the College. Please send alumni updates and address corrections to Millsaps Magazine, care of the above address. You can reach us by phone at (601) 974-1019, by fax at (601) 974-1456, or by e-mail at peedejp@millsaps.edu. Visit the web site www.millsaps.edu for the online magazine.

Periodical postage paid at Jackson, MS.

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THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM

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Claude Passeau (class of 1932) recalls his trajectory from small-town Mississippi to the pitcher’s mound of major league baseball, where he invented the “slider.”

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MEET MILLSAPS

Science professor Timothy Ward and his research assistant Stacy Ponder demonstrate the good chemistry that exists between faculty and students.

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A BETTER STATE OF HEALTH

A quarter century ago, Millsaps took part in a watershed premed program for disadvantaged students that helped establish a minority presence on campus, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and beyond.

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DOCTOR OF LETTERS

A professor of cardiology, physician, and writer, Dr. John Stone (B.A. 1958) sees medicine and literature as related “ways of knowing, of understanding the world.”

DEPARTMENTS Campus News Commencement

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Homecoming Faculty & Staff

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Major Notes Parting Word

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Mars and Venus at odds: Exploring the roots of gender inequality

CAMPUS NEWS Asbury Foundation donates $1 million to Millsaps scholarship fund The Asbury Foundation of Hattiesburg has committed $1 million to endow scholarships at Millsaps. The scholarships, available in the fall of 2003, will benefit students living in Forrest, Lamar, Jones, Marion, Covington, Jefferson Davis, and Perry counties. This gift is the Asbury Foundation’s largest donation to a private college or university.

“We are constantly striving to keep quality education within the financial reach of all students, regardless of income,” said Millsaps President Frances Lucas-Tauchar.

“The generosity of organizations such as the Asbury Foundation helps make our goal a reality. Their gift will make it possible for students from south Mississippi to study with other gifted students from across the nation.”

The Asbury Foundation, created in 1984, is a private grant-making organization serving Hattiesburg and

Asbury Foundation President Bill Ray and President Frances Lucas-Tauchar.

the surrounding region. The foundation provides financial resources and assistance in developing healthy communities and improving the physical, mental, and spiritual health of south Mississippi residents.

“We have a high regard for the national rankings and academic standards of Millsaps College,” said Bill Ray, president of the Asbury Foundation. “We thought that some

of the students from our area that are academically skilled enough to be admitted to the school might be prevented from attending for financial reasons, and we wanted to remove that obstacle.”

In the past two years, under Lucas-Tauchar’s presidency, Millsaps has attracted more than $3 million in endowed scholarship funds for students.

Leading scientists converged on campus in March for a conference that explored ideas put forth in Millsaps history professor Robert McElvaine’s book Eve’s Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History.

The conference brought together scholars from anthropology, archaeology, religious studies, feminist theory, zoology, primatology, and other fields.

Eve’s Seed has received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and was named one of the best nonfiction books of 2001 by The Los Angeles Times.

McElvaine investigates the origins of gender inequality, tracing man’s domination of woman to the advent of the Neolithic Age and the beginnings of agriculture.

He looks to genetics, evolutionary biological processes, the animal

$60,000 Merck grant puts students on the front lines of research Millsaps has received a $60,000 grant from Merck & Co. for a project that could lead to a breakthrough technique for identifying bacteria that cause infections.

“When you go to the doctor’s office with an infection and they take a sample, the microbes must be cultured, and you usually have to wait several days for the results,’’ said Dr. Timothy Ward, chairman of the chemistry department.

“The new method we are working on uses an electrical field to immediately separate, identify, quantify, and characterize a microorganism. The possibility arises that you could get your results in 10 minutes.’’

Ward said that it could be up to 10 years before this method of bacteri-

Jane Goodall, whose institute promotes conservation in 14 countries

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disciplinary project with faculty from the biology and chemistry departments over three summers.

“Student research brings the sciences to life in a tangible and real way,” Ward said.

Ward wrote the grant proposal with contributions from Dr. Sarah Lea McGuire, an associate professor of biology, and Dr. Kristina Stensaas, an assistant professor of chemistry.

As the nation’s colleges and universities have become more researchintensive, there has been an increasing emphasis on involvement among undergraduates, Ward said.

“It is being recognized that liberal arts colleges can provide research opportunities similar to what large universities have to offer,” he said.

Feminist Betty Friedan says that men should share the burden of rearing children.

of leadership. Candidates for public office need to know it’s not enough to kiss the little baby on the head to get elected. We need to ask how he is taking responsibility for his own family.”

The conference was sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council and Millsaps College.

Goodall, environmentalist and primate expert, to speak in April Dr. Jane Goodall, renowned for her groundbreaking study of chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, is scheduled to speak on April 8 at the College as part of the Millsaps Nova Series.

al analysis is introduced into laboratories, hospitals, and clinics.

The primary objective of the grant by the pharmaceuticals manufacturer, which was awarded by the Merck/American Association for the Advancement of Science, is to foster research experiences that can help enhance undergraduates’ understanding of the interdisciplinary relationship between biology and chemistry.

The award, one of 15 such grants made to colleges and universities nationwide, is $20,000 per year for three years, with $17,000 of the annual award going toward support of student research and $3,000 for ancillary programs and seminars.

The award provides for Millsaps undergraduates to work on the inter-

kingdom, and religion to test his theories.

McElvaine argues for a new approach to understanding human behavior, one that combines evolutionary biology and history.

Headlining the conference was the feminist Betty Friedan, a founding member and the first president of the National Organization for Women. Her pioneering research into the lives of homemakers and mothers formed the basis for her first book, The Feminine Mystique, which by 1966, when NOW was formed, had sold more than 3 million copies.

“In 50 percent of American families, women are carrying 50 percent of the wage-earning burden,” she said.

“Men must carry 50 percent of the burden for childbearing and childrearing. Society has to take the place of the extended family.

“I’m looking to a new generation

Goodall devotes much of her time to environmental activism. She promotes the work of the Jane Goodall Institute, an organization with operations in 14 countries, including Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Congo, China, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

The institute supports the continuing Gombe study and other research, education, and conservation programs. These include the Lake Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education Project, a sustainable development and conservation effort involving 33 villages around the lake, and the Congo Basin Project, which is working with other organizations to end the bush-meat trade that threatens to annihilate chimpanzees.

The institute’s Roots & Shoots program, which supports students from preschool through university in projects that benefit people, animals,

and the environment, hosts about 4,000 worldwide groups in more than 70 countries.

Goodall has received the Medal of Tanzania, the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal, and Japan’s prestigious Kyoto Prize.

She received the third Gandhi/ King Award for Nonviolence, presented in 2001 at the United Nations by the World Movement for Nonviolence.

She has also been designated a Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. Her list of publications is extensive, including two overviews of her work at Gombe, In the Shadow of Man and Through a Window, as well as the spiritual autobiography Reason for Hope and many children’s books.

The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior is recognized as the definitive work on chimpanzees and is the culmination of Goodall’s scientific career.

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campus news Student investment fund ranks second at symposium Millsaps business students managing the General Louis Wilson Fund placed second nationally at the University of Dayton’s student investment symposium held in Ohio in 2002. The eight-member team presented a portfolio with a 10.5 percent growth rate, outperforming the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index for the same time period.

Student portfolios were judged on their risk-adjusted performance rank for a 12-month period. Rank composed 50 percent of a team’s final score, with student presentations determining the remaining 50 percent.

Else School students in Dayton.

“Our team was invited to compete because our fund had experienced great returns during the competition period,” said Millsaps team member Ben Bjornerud of Saskatchewan, Canada. “I was surprised, though, when I heard about who was to be competing with us, schools like Michigan Tech, Purdue, and the University of Oregon. I had no idea of the prestige carried by the symposium.”

Millsaps students have been investing in the stock market since 1989, thanks to a gift of $87,500 from Merrill Lynch and other investors. The fund is named for General Louis Wilson, a Millsaps alumnus and life trustee who received the Congressional Medal of Honor during a 38-year Marine Corps career and also served as a Merrill Lynch director.

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The original investment, which has grown to $170,000, is only a small portion of the College’s endowment. To manage the fund, students research companies they consider to be promising investment opportunities and then present their findings to fellow students in the program. After much deliberation, the students choose what investments they want to make. An investment policy board, made up of business leaders from across the nation, makes suggestions, offers advice, and provides data to the student group.

“I think it’s excellent practice for the students to have a real portfolio,” says advisory board member Doug Folk of Earnest Partners in Atlanta. “Professors can teach material out of a book, but nothing takes the place of experience. And as an advisory board member, I have the added pleasure of working with these students.”

“The students came away from this competition with real excitement about what they are doing and pride in what they’d accomplished,” said Dr. Walter Neely, faculty adviser for the fund.

Other members of the winning team included Brian Dixon, Aleksey Mashnitskiy, and Artem Mashnitskiy, all of Franklin, Tennessee; Elizabeth Bishara of Metairie, Louisiana; Jennifer Breazeale of Philadelphia; Marlana Evans of Bay St. Louis, and graduate student Jack Nichols of Germantown, Tennessee.

Beyond the pail: Salvaging leftovers from the garbage Student Robert Caskey was in the campus cafeteria kitchen, looking for a personal item he had left on his tray, when he noticed a nearby trash can filled with uneaten food. “I noticed all of these hash browns that had not been served at breakfast just thrown away,” Caskey said.

It was a signal that cafeteria waste was rampant. Environmental

Students salvaging food for the needy from leftovers at the campus cafeteria.

Activists Ready to Help, a campus environmental action group, had often considered the amount of food waste on campus. “We had talked about reducing food waste in the cafeteria, but we didn’t know how to do it,” said Jane Buck (B.S. 2002).

When Buck and several other students learned of the opportunity to attend a meeting of the Student Coalition against Hunger and Homelessness, they signed up. “The conference offered workshops on how to reduce and redirect food waste, ways to tailor these programs to your campus, and hot lines you could call to get information on how to implement and personalize the programs,” Buck said.

EARTH members then conducted a food-waste survey of the Millsaps cafeteria. The survey was held during lunch on an ordinary day in the dining hall. They scraped leftovers into trash bags and then measured the amount of wasted food. At least 140 pounds of food was wasted, which indicated that almost 1,000 pounds of food was wasted every week at lunch alone.

“It was amazing to me that we have thrown away food that could have been consumed by so many people in the Jackson area alone,” Buck said. “We realized that if we could just redirect that food, it would do so much good for so many people.”

After reviewing the results of the survey, EARTH members decid-

ed to take action. First, the group sent out campus-wide e-mails suggesting ways to avoid wasting food.

The students then teamed up with the Gleaners, a nonprofit organization that depends solely on volunteers to redistribute more than 400,000 pounds of food each year to more than 60 shelters in the Jackson area, including Gateway, Stewpot, Good Samaritan, Grace House, the Salvation Army, and the Harbor House. They conserved food that had never even made it to the serving stations in the Millsaps dining hall.

Twice a week, students repacked unserved food that would otherwise have been thrown away. The food was then transported to the Gleaners, where it was redistributed.

The Millsaps cafeteria workers have also played a role in the salvage program. EARTH members credit much of their success to Olivia White-Lowe, director of dining services; Stephen King, associate director of dining services, and Denise Gonsales, a Millsaps cafeteria worker.

Environmental emphasis makes it easier being green The new Millsaps environmental studies concentration is encouraging students to explore the relationship between people and their surroundings. The concentration requires students to complete seven courses focusing on environmental issues, natural sciences, and humanities, in addition to field work or internships.

“We have many students interested in careers in areas that involve the environment: wildlife and fisheries, environmental law, geology, medicine, and environmental policy and planning,” said Dr. Debora Mann, an assistant professor of biology. “When solving environmental problems, students need to acquire a broad background that includes critical-analysis abilities, communications skills, and a knowledge of the natural and social sciences. These are precisely the kinds of skills we offer as part of the liberal arts curriculum.”

We remember A student lighting a candle to honor the anniversary of September 11. A minute of silence was observed across campus, and a service of remembrance was conducted, featuring readings from Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Islamic texts.

The environmental studies concentration is open to students of any major, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary learning. Course work allows students to consider the relationship between people and the environment from social, political, ethical, economic, and scientific perspectives.

“The wonderful thing about it is that it spans every major on campus,” said Robert Caskey, who will graduate from the program this year.

“The classes are from many different disciplines. It’s important for a lot of people to be able to do this within their own major.”

Hands-on experience is also vital to the completion of the program, with field courses, research courses, and internships serving as the backbone of the curriculum. Students can fulfill these requirements with field work in Yellowstone National Park, the Yucatan, or the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Internships are also available in the offices of many Jackson-area environmental agencies, organizations, and firms.

The new concentration marks a continuation of other environmental efforts at Millsaps. Students have formed Environmental Activists Ready to Help, a group that has

enacted several projects to prevent waste and practice conservation on campus and in collaboration with area groups.

EARTH also hosts campus cleanups and aids in the recycling program. In addition, EarthFest, an annual informational celebration with food and music, is held in the Millsaps Bowl in April.

“It makes common sense not to be wasteful and selfish,” Caskey said.

“As I’m learning more about public health through the concentration, I see the effects of the relationship between the environment and health.

These concepts have really clicked with me.”

Saving lids to save lives through cancer research Taking part in Yoplait’s “Save Lids to Save Lives” campaign, Millsaps students and staff gathered more than 4,000 yogurt lids to benefit breast cancer research. The effort represented the second largest team donation nationwide in the annual campaign to raise both awareness and money.

For the past three years, Yoplait has supported the Susan G. Komen Breast Foundation through the program, which donates 10 cents to breast cancer research for each pink

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campus news Yoplait lid redeemed. When Ginger Gibson, then the Millsaps AmeriCorps volunteer coordinator, and her staff of Campus Link student workers heard of Yoplait’s program, they decided to participate.

With the help of the Millsaps team and others like it, Yoplait collected 5 million lids, worth $500,000 in breast cancer research. The company matched this donation with a $750,000 check to the 2001 Komen Race for the Cure, for a total of $1.2 million in donations to advance research, education, screening, and treatment for breast cancer.

Millsaps is again participating in the Yoplait drive this year.

Millsaps in the Delta: Education and service The sky opens up over the Mississippi Delta, silhouetting the few trees that have survived the ax, the floods, and the wind. This flat swathe of earth between Vicksburg and Memphis has intrigued and inspired for decades.

Last spring, 20 students and staff members took an educational mission trip to Indianola, Cleveland, Clarksdale, and Shaw. Sponsored by the Millsaps Campus Ministry Team, the trip was designed to provide aid to community-service efforts in the area and give students a deeper understanding of one of the state’s richest cultural treasures.

“The trip was a wonderful opportunity for us to get a sense of

what life in the Delta is like,” said Vice President for Administration John Pilgrim. “Every time I’d driven through the Delta before, I knew that I was only scratching the surface of what it had to offer. This trip allowed us to meet the people of the Delta and see the world through their eyes.”

The Delta has been largely passed over by American economic growth. Towns are shrinking, unemployment is high, and salaries are low.

Millsaps students visited the Clarksdale Blues Museum, Dockery Hall (home of blues legend Charley Patton), and Hopson Plantation, where they explored the history of farming in Mississippi.

They also prepared and served meals at Care Station in Clarksdale, worked with youth at Delta Missions in Indianola, pitched in with cleanup efforts at St. Gabriel Center in Mound Bayou, and learned more about the Delta AIDS crisis at a health clinic in Marks.

“We do so many mission trips far away from home,” said Katie Hardy, a junior from Brandon and one of the planners of the trip. “It’s true that other places need help, but I feel that we have been neglecting those closest to us who are also in great need of assistance.”

Millsaps Chaplain Don Fortenberry served as a staff organizer and chaperone. “The program was enthusiastically received by the participants,” Fortenberry said. “We thought this immersion experience was important because it not only celebrates the wonderful and unique contributions of the Delta, but it also makes us aware of the critical issues facing that area.”

Hendrick is named dean of admissions and financial aid

Students were immersed in Delta culture as they worked with youth and assisted in cleanup efforts.

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Ann Hendrick has been promoted to dean of admissions and financial aid.

Hendrick joined the office of financial aid in 1988. The office annually distributes approximately $18 million in scholarships and aid.

Ann Hendrick welcomes her new role at Millsaps.

“I always enjoyed my work in financial aid as a part of the Millsaps enrollment management team,” said Hendrick. “I’m delighted to be able to see the bigger picture now that I work in admissions. It’s exciting to share our excellent academic product with our constituencies.”

A native of Jackson, Hendrick received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Millsaps in 1975 and her master’s degree in higher education administration from Indiana University in 1978. She was the 1975 Millsaps Founders’ Medalist.

Her professional background includes extensive work in student affairs and financial aid.

Else School scholarship honors businesswoman Lois Reed was a woman who made unexpected decisions. In 1957, at the age of 24, she left a secretarial job in Chicago to move to San Francisco.

She didn’t know anyone in the city, nor did she have a job waiting for her. She moved there because “it sounded interesting.”

Reed loved the West Coast, but returned to Chicago to put her business education to better use. She found her calling as an investment analyst and trust officer in Chicago and later in Boston. Her business acumen and unassuming manner won her the respect of clients and colleagues alike.

In honor of Reed and like-minded business students, her brother, Dr.

John Pilgrim, vice president for administration at Millsaps, and his wife, Anne, have endowed a $100,000 scholarship at the Else School of Management.

The Lois P. Reed Endowed MBA Scholarship, available to fulltime female MBA students from outside the state, will be awarded on the basis of merit to students preparing for careers in financial services. “I realized that the Renaissance MBA program at Millsaps is something that my sister would have loved,” said Pilgrim, an Else School professor. “She loved business, literature, and ideas. This program would have been a marvelous magnet for her because she believed that business is not about numbers, but rather about people.”

Reed graduated summa cum laude from Indiana University in 1956 with a business administration degree. However, the primary business occupation for women in the 1950s was that of secretary. Reed sought a more fulfilling occupation and was eventually hired as a portfolio manager in 1963, making her one of the first female trust officers at a major bank in Chicago. In 1969, she was hired as a trust officer at State Street Bank and Trust Co. in Boston, which is now State Street Global Advisors, one of the world’s largest investment managers.

Reed stayed with the company from 1969 until her death in January 2002. Her clients regarded her as a model of the ideal trust officer. She had a strong sense of personal and business ethics, distinct expertise in investments, and genuine sensitivity to the needs of her clients.

But Reed’s life was never just business as usual. She had a curiosity and a thirst for adventure that encompassed both her private and professional life. “Lois was a quiet pioneer,” Pilgrim said. “She was assertive, but never in an aggressive way. She didn’t call attention to herself, but she did what she wanted to do in life. She had the courage to go after what she wanted. I want this scholarship to honor that.”

“We are proud to offer this scholarship in honor of a remarkable businesswoman,” said Millsaps President Frances Lucas-Tauchar.

“This gift is made even more meaningful because of the donor’s relationship with the College. John Pilgrim’s service to Millsaps as a sen-

ior administrator and Else School faculty member has been exemplary.

I am humbled by his generosity and moved by his commitment to education, through his teaching at Millsaps and in local literacy programs. Truly, this gift is a tribute to two great business leaders.”

Hall is named chairman of the Board of Trustees Maurice Hall Jr. of Meridian has been named chairman of the Millsaps Board of Trustees.

“Maurice Hall brings to the position a keen knowledge of business, contagious enthusiasm, and a love of Millsaps College,” said Millsaps President Frances LucasMaurice Hall Jr. has served on Tauchar. “We could not have asked for a betthe Millsaps Board since 1984. ter board chairman.”

Hall graduated from Millsaps in 1967 with honors in English, and he received his J.D. degree from Duke University Law School in 1970. Hall, an attorney who also works in timberland management, has served on the Millsaps Board of Trustees since 1984. He has chaired numerous board committees, including student affairs, development, and strategic planning.

Hall is also a Center for Ministry board member and a past president of the Millsaps Alumni Council.

“I will support Millsaps College in the Methodist way — with my prayers, my presence, my gifts and my service,” Hall told the board at his appointment. “With the guidance of the board, Dr. Lucas-Tauchar’s leadership, the dedication of our faculty and staff, and the wonderful students for whom we do it all, the future of Millsaps is bright.”

Hall is a member of several professional societies, including the American Bar Association, the Mississippi Bar Association, the Mississippi Forestry Association, and the Forest Landowners Association. He has served on the boards of the Meridian Rotary Club, the Meridian Museum of Art, the Meridian Little Theater, the Meridian Arts Council and the Lauderdale County Tourism Commission. Hall has held leadership positions with the Choctaw Area Council Boy Scouts of America, the Wesley House Community Center, United Methodist Senior Services of Mississippi, and the United Way of Lauderdale County.

A devoted Methodist, he is a member of Central United Methodist Church in Meridian, where he has been a lay delegate to the annual conference since 1998. Additionally, he will continue to serve as a lay delegate to the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference until 2003.

Hall follows E. B. “Bud” Robinson Jr. of Jackson as board chairman.

Robinson served as chairman from 1992 to 2002 and continues to serve on the board. Under Robinson’s board leadership, Millsaps launched and completed the New Century of Light campaign, which raised $94 million.

The next issue of Millsaps Magazine will profile both Hall and Robinson.

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116TH

COMMENCEMENT Millsaps held its annual Commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 11, 2002.

Mississippi Supreme Court Justice James E. Graves Jr., a Millsaps alumnus, served as the keynote speaker and was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree.

Graves was appointed to the Mississippi Supreme Court by Governor Ronnie Musgrove in 2001. He has served as a staff attorney at Central Mississippi Legal Services and as a special assistant attorney general. Attorney General Mike Moore appointed him to head the Human Services Division of the Attorney General’s Office, where he served as chief legal counsel to the Mississippi Department of Human Services. Just prior to being appointed circuit court judge, a position in which he served for 10 years, Graves was director of the Division of Child Support Enforcement of the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

Honorary degree recipients also included the Rev. Will D. Campbell, activist and author; Phillip Martin, chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians; and jazz singer Cassandra Wilson. United Nations representative and Millsaps alumna Mia Adjali gave the address at baccalaureate services, held at Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church.

FOUNDERS’ MEDALIST PHI BETA KAPPA GRADUATES

Elizabeth Anne Bishara Teresa Randelle Camp Amanda Leigh Coody Colleen Susan Fagan Grady Jonathan Flattman Christopher Jay Hedglin Molly Elizabeth Jeffcoat

At Millsaps commencement ceremonies in May 2002, Elizabeth Anne Bishara, of Metairie, Louisiana, was awarded the College’s highest honor, the Millsaps Founders’ Medal. The Founders Medal is given each year to the graduating senior with the highest quality index for the entire college course who also achieves a grade of “excellent” on comprehensive examinations.

President Frances Lucas-Tauchar, center, and, from left, honorary degree recipients Will D. Campbell, Cassandra Wilson, Phillip Martin, and James E. Graves Jr.

Vaughan Hampton Jinks Elizabeth Ann Lasoski Erica Noelle Marks Anna Catesby McGehee Jess Clifton Roberts Sarah Lauren Segrest Laura Leigh Smith Rachel Nicole Spear Veronika Grace Viner Virginia Kay Walker Mandi Faye Wallis

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Dean of the College Richard A. Smith congratulates Founders’ Medalist Elizabeth Bishara.

Photos: Hubert Worley

The Man with the

GoldenArm Recruitment for college athletics in the late 1920s bore little resemblance to the way it is practiced today. Formal time lines and guidelines had yet to be established, and there was no framework for official campus visits by prospective students. Colleges and universities deployed scouts to find a few bright kids who could play sports, but rarely did more than one school compete for a single recruit.

For 18-year-old Claude Passeau — a tall, slim boy from a poor family in Waynesboro who longed to play major league baseball — the situation was different. Both Millsaps and Louisiana State University were making efforts to land the athletically gifted young man who not only could outrun, out-throw, out-hit and outscore his peers, but who also had an impeccable academic record.

As far as Passeau was concerned, the schools were equal. Both had an athletic program that offered him a future, and when LSU offered him a steady job as part of a recruitment package, he packed his bags for Baton Rouge.

But at the last minute, Heber Ladner, a Millsaps alumnus and representative (who in 1948 would become Mississippi’s secretary of state) made a final attempt to recruit Passeau. And in an action that would be considered illegal today, Ladner offered him a $20 bill, telling him to use half of the money for a train ticket to Jackson. If Passeau did not like Millsaps, Ladner said, he could take the rest of the money and go to LSU. Passeau grabbed the money, picked up his suitcase, and never looked back.

It was a choice that would take him from those humble Mississippi beginnings to a legendary 13-year career in major league baseball that included a 1941 All-Star face-off against the “Splendid Splinter” Ted Williams and a 1945 World Series one-hitter.

Passeau, who at 93 is the oldest living member of The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, liked Millsaps from the moment he stepped on campus. And while he went to classes and worked serving meals in the school cafeteria, Passeau earned an astounding 12 athletic letters as a standout mem-

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Millsaps alumnus Claude Passeau is a major league legend of the mound

by Jeff Mitchell

ber of the Millsaps baseball, basketball, football, and track teams during the 1928-32 seasons.

On campus, Passeau was known as the cafeteria boy and the four-sport all-star. But in the baseball world, he was noticed for his 95-mph fastball. “I could throw my fastball so good that some players and coaches thought I cheated, but I could not have thrown a spitball if I had to,” recalls Passeau, who graduated in 1932 and is a member of the Millsaps Sports Hall of Fame. “My fastball just moved, especially in to left-handed hitters. I threw different speeds and sunk the ball.” That pitch is known today as a slider — and nobody in baseball had seen such a thing until Passeau took the mound as a major league player in the mid-1930s.

At six-foot-three and 200 pounds in college, Passeau was feared as a pitcher, and professional scouts paid close attention. But there was a catch. Collegiate baseball had been his first opportunity to play the sport in an organized manner, and he was encouraged to acquire more experience before trying for the major leagues.

So Passeau stayed at Millsaps. But he also found a crafty way of entering the professional circuit, playing summer ball under an assortment of assumed names. “I played under 12 different names in places like Montreal, Hutchinson (Kansas), and Mexico,” says Passeau. “I would play two or three weeks in one place under one name, then go over yonder 500 miles looking for somebody who needed a pitcher. I

had to travel a lot, but I got paid, which was the main thing in a young ballplayer’s mind. Playing professional ball while in college was a blessing. I gained invaluable experience while pitching professionally.”

In what was perhaps his most famous incarnation, Passeau crossed the border to Mexico and changed his name to John McGrew. “And that John McGrew was one of the best pitchers I have ever seen,” he says, chuckling.

Nobody ever found out.

In 1935, three years after graduation, Passeau got his first big break as a pitcher in the Detroit Tigers farm system in Des Moines. He won 20 games that year and was headed for stardom. “I was a grade-school kid in the ’30s when I FALL-WINTER

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The Golden Arm: Claude Passeau

Passeau was throwing the pitch known today as the slider. Nobody in baseball had seen that pitch until Passeau stepped on the mound.

saw Passeau pitch for the Des Moines Demons,” says Harold Yeglin, a veteran sportswriter formerly of the Des Moines Register. Larger than life and a genuine American good ol’ boy, “Passeau was my hero,’’ says Yeglin. “He was simply fascinating.”

Nevertheless, the Detroit organization released Passeau at the end of the 1935 season. The Pittsburgh Pirates quickly signed him, and Passeau made one big-league start before the end of the 1935 campaign. During the off-season that year, the Pirates traded Passeau to Philadelphia, where he pitched for three seasons for the hapless Phillies. A competitive right-hander, Passeau longed to be part of a winning team.

After three seasons with the Philadelphia club, he was traded to the Cubs in mid-1939, the year in which he led the National League with 137 strikeouts. He was 20-13 for Chicago in 1940 with a 2.50 ERA, and in 1942 he held a 1914 record with a 2.68 ERA. In 1945, Passeau posted a 17-9 mark in tandem with a 2.46 ERA as he led the Cubs to the World Series. Over the span of his career, Passeau pitched in 444 games and started in 331. Of those started, he threw 188 complete games, a feat unheard of today. Passeau won 162 games and lost 150, with a 3.32 ERA. Passeau’s best major league performance came during game three of the 1945 World Series. He faced 28 batters, just one over the minimum, allowed only one hit, and propelled his team to a 3-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Not until Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series had a pitcher ever turned out a performance of that magnitude on such a grand stage. “I really enjoyed that game,” says Passeau. “Not only because it was the World Series, but also because the Tigers said that I would never make it to the big leagues when they released me in 1935.”

Passeau’s performance on the mound remains a legendary chapter in the lexicon of baseball. According to Jimmie McDowell, the longtime sportswriter and Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame member, Passeau has always been a winner. “Passeau never disappointed,” says MILLSAPS MAGAZINE

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McDowell. “He was a big-game type of player. He was a competitor to the end.”

Yeglin agrees. “Passeau was fierce,” he says. “I will never forget listening to the radio broadcast of the 1945 World Series when Passeau faced Detroit.’’ Yeglin was in Japan, in the countryside 50 miles northwest of Tokyo during the first months of occupation by his outfit, listening to a U.S. Army Command radio carried in the back seat of his Jeep. Recalls Yeglin: “We sat outside there in the Jeep listening in stunned and excited silence as Passeau retired the Tigers one by one.”

Passeau credits his endurance to staying healthy and maintaining a positive outlook. His advice to young players today? “Prepare the body, prepare the mind, and give it 100 percent,” he says.

Claude Passeau Born: April 9, 1909 Hometown: Waynesboro, Mississippi College Career • Millsaps (1928-32) Baseball Basketball Football Track

Professional Career • Pittsburgh Pirates (1935) • Philadelphia Phillies (1936-39) • Chicago Cubs (1939-47) • Cubs minor league manager (1948-49)

Highlights • Threw one-hitter in 1945 World Series • MLB All-Star (1941, 1942, 1945, 1946) • Inducted into Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame (1964)

Passeau versus Ted Williams in the 1941 All-Star Game Days before the 2002 All-Star Game, one of baseball’s brightest stars faded at the age of 83. Ted Williams, known as the “Splendid Splinter,” was a man of special vision and extraordinary talent, considered by many baseball historians as the best hitter of all time. To many, Williams’ most famous baseball feat was the .406 batting average that he posted in a heralded 1941 campaign. However, “Teddy Ballgame” considered his happiest baseball moment a game-winning home run off the right-handed flamethrower Claude Passeau in the 1941 All-Star Game.

With the National Leaguers leading 5-2 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Passeau retired the first American Leaguer on an infield pop-up, but two singles and a walk later the bases were loaded. That brought to the plate the great Joe DiMaggio, who was in the midst of his celebrated 56-game hitting streak and MVP season.

DiMaggio’s sharp grounder to the shortstop should have ended the game. Eddie Miller tossed the ball to second baseman Billy Herman for the second out, but Herman’s wide relay to first spoiled the double play. The error also enabled the American Leaguers’ fourth scoring run and put runners at the corners.

Next up was Williams, who had ripped an RBI double earlier in the game and who was leading the baseball world with a .405 batting average. Despite having been struck out by Passeau in his previous at-bat, Williams blasted a towering shot off the right field roof amid a thunderous roar from the partisan crowd. The American League had turned near defeat into a rousing 7-5 celebration.

“Well, it was the kind of thing a kid dreams about and imagines himself doing when he’s playing those little playground games,” Williams said.

“Passeau was tough. He worked the count to 2 and 1, then he came in with his trademark sliding fastball around my belt, and I swung. It was no cutdown protection swing; it was an allout home run swing. I’ve never been so happy, and I’ve never seen so many happy guys. It was a wonderful, wonderful day for me.”

— Jeff Mitchell

Passeau was tough. “ He worked the count to 2 and 1, then he came in with his trademark sliding fastball around my belt, and I swung.

”

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Meet Millsaps Stacy Ponder and Timothy Ward Good chemistry between a student and her mentor

by John Webb photo by Tom Roster

W

hen Hattiesburg native Stacy Ponder was considering pre-dental programs, Millsaps was not even on her short list.

“Millsaps had been writing to me,” she said, “but I disregarded it because I wanted to go to a big school.”

But when Ponder was sifting through the college literature in her high school counselor’s office, a Millsaps brochure caught her eye. “Then I had a friend tell me how well they prepared medical students,” she said, “and how it was a small school where you could get to know the professors and you weren’t just a number.”

Thus was her mind opened to the possibility of choosing Millsaps, with its excellent record in seeing medical and dental students through a demanding curriculum. Millsaps, she learned, has an intimate environment where personal attention and accessible faculty could fortify her for graduate school. That Millsaps would cost thousands more than state universities was a concern, at first. “But my mother told me if Millsaps was where I wanted to go, then we’d make the sacrifices,” Ponder said.

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So she applied, was offered a scholarship, and chose to attend Millsaps, where Ponder, now a junior, says she has benefited from the rapport between students and faculty members.

Dr. Timothy Ward, chair of the chemistry department, has been an invaluable mentor, she said. “When I decided to be a chemistry major, I went to Dr. Ward, who advised me about my requirements,” she said. “I told him I was interested in research, and he immediately signed me up.” Ponder went on to assist Ward in a project pioneering the separation and identification of bacteria that cause infections. That project was awarded a $60,000 grant from the Merck/American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Beyond the lab, Ward remains sensitive to students’ academic needs, Ponder said. “He always has time for me,” she said.

“I was doing some qualitative analysis homework, and he asked me if I understood it,” Ponder recalled. “I said no.” Although Ward was busy preparing

for a presentation at the time, she said, “he took time out to help me.”

“One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is having the opportunity to develop students scholastically and as individuals, and to have the enjoyment of observing their confidence in themselves grow through the mentoring process,” Ward said. “The educational advantage to Millsaps is the one-on-one relationship between students and teachers.”

Ward’s commitment to involving students in research has not gone unnoticed beyond the walls of Millsaps. In what is considered an extraordinary achievement for a professor in an undergraduate program, Ward received the 2002 Outstanding Contributions to Science Award from the Mississippi Academy of Sciences. This award is a testament

not only to the excellence of Ward’s teaching methods and contributions to research, but also to the scope of Millsaps’ undergraduate research program.

“Dr. Ward has distinguished himself not only with a commitment to research but also by involving undergraduate students in that research,” said Dr. Richard A. Smith, vice president and dean of the College. “He is giving them a level of experience usually found in graduate programs.”

Ward has published more than 20 papers, many of which were cowritten by undergraduate students.

He is also the recipient of the 2001 Chemist of the Year Award for Mississippi from the American Chemical Society and has established a national reputation for research into the use of antibiotics to purify

drugs so that they produce fewer side effects.

Meanwhile, following Ward’s example of helping others, Ponder plans to use her knowledge to give back to the people of Mississippi.

Ponder said she hoped to take advantage of a University of Mississippi Medical Center program that reimburses expenses in exchange for a two-year commitment by graduates to serving an underprivileged area of the state.

“I want to focus on minorities and oral health-care because there is such a lack of awareness and resources in that community,” she said. “I want to stay close to home and serve my community in Mississippi.”

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A Better State of Health The legacy of a landmark initiative to educate minority doctors in Mississippi

A

by

John Webb

s an African-American coming of age in the Mississippi Delta in the 1960s, Eddie Greene was not the most likely candidate for medical school. Minorities were largely underrepresented at the nation’s top teaching hospitals. And racial tensions in Mississippi — and across the nation — were high.

Had Greene listened to them, the negative voices could have drowned out hope. But thanks to a progressive partnership that existed in the 1970s between Millsaps and the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the Belzoni native conquered the odds and graduated from medical school. A nephrologist who graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1982, Greene has gone on to become a member of the faculty of the worldrenowned Mayo Medical School and Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Greene (class of 1978) was among 35 Millsaps alumni who participated in a stirring celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Millsaps/UMC PreMedical Training Co-Operative in April 2002. Through the PMTC program, funded by a U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare initiative to increase minority enrollment in medical schools across the nation, 15

top students from disadvantaged areas of the state were selected each year to earn a Millsaps premed degree. Federal funds were used to create additional spots for those students at UMC, although participants were free to attend other graduate schools.

A landmark experiment, the intensive three-year curriculum at Millsaps was designed to instill in students the qualities they would need to succeed in medical school, fostering a sense of solidarity and camaraderie among the participants, training them in test-taking skills, and helping them to focus on academic areas where they most needed improvement.

“It gave us not only peer support but we also had support from Millsaps and those professors who were dedicated to proving that disadvantaged students from Mississippi, given the right tools, could develop into highly qualified students and professionals,” Greene said, at the reunion on the Millsaps campus.

“It gave me a solid education both in liberal arts and the sciences, which prepared me not only for medical school but also for life beyond.”

The PMTC reunion, which featured Mississippi Supreme Court

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“They took 15 black students from all over Mississippi with the common goal of becoming a doctor. You had a family around you to learn with, laugh with, and play with.”

Justice James E. Graves Jr. as the keynote speaker, was “an opportunity to reconnect with those who were around us when we were trying to make our vision become a reality,” said the coordinator, Dr. Renita Cotton-Johnson (class of 1978).

Complementing the inspirational spirit of the event was a performance at the banquet by the Millsaps Gospel Choir.

Cotton-Johnson said that the reunion was also held to “honor the vision’’ of those who initiated and implemented the PMTC program. To show their gratitude, PMTC alumni have contributed money toward an endowed scholarship for premed students, named for Millsaps chemistry professor Eugene Cain, who was an adviser, mentor, and friend to many PMTC students.

Alumni say that Cain was more than a good teacher; he was a guide who helped them navigate challenging curricula and challenging lives as minority premed students in the 1970s. “I have very fond memories of Dr. Cain,” said Perry Wallace (class of 1979), a Meridian internist. “He was not only a teacher but a father figure and an adviser. He helped us integrate into the Millsaps community and college life in general.”

The PMTC faculty “were outstanding role models in their professionalism and their ability to inspire students,” Greene said. “They nurtured in us a sense of well-being in a very tough environment.”

The PMTC program served as a watershed for Millsaps — creating a fresh sense of diversity among the students that continues to this day.

“The other Millsaps students were lucky to have this group on campus,’’ said Chrissy Wilson, who worked as a PMTC instructor and is now editor of the Journal of Mississippi History. “They were fresh, eager, hardworking. It just doesn’t make sense to go to an integrated high school and then to a — seemingly — segregated college. Even though Millsaps was the most liberal college in the state, it was white. The students were lucky then to be going to a strong liberal arts college and to have black students as peers and friends.”

Meanwhile, Cain so believed in the program that he went to Washington to argue for its extenMILLSAPS MAGAZINE

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sion. “Millsaps and the prestigious medical center across the street created a vehicle for students from almost anywhere in Mississippi to become physicians,” Cain said. “It opened a door.

Millsaps gained minority students, boosted enrollment, and kept bright students in Mississippi — many of whom had full scholarships to Ivy League schools across the country.’’

Not all of those students who entered Millsaps through the PMTC grant pursued careers in medicine. Some distinguished themselves in other ways. Wallace’s brother Terry (class of 1979) entered Millsaps as a PMTC student but thanks to Millsaps’ liberal arts environment was exposed to courses in politics and the law.

“Millsaps College offered me a broad range of academic experiences, and through the elective curriculum I found myself interested in political science and government,” said Terry Wallace, an alumnus of the University of Mississippi School of Law and a Jackson city attorney.

The Wallace brothers said that the Millsaps initiative was the key to a future beyond Hollandale, their Delta home, and indeed most PMTC students would have lacked the resources or direction needed to pursue medical careers without the program. It sought not only to educate students from rural areas, but also to produce doctors who would ultimately return to medically underserved parts of the state.

A dentist in Merriam, Kansas, Tommy Rose (class of 1978) praised the initiative for “making a difference in the ratio of minority physicians, dentists and lawyers available to the community at large.”

“It was the finest opportunity of its kind in the country,” he said.

Minority communities in other states have benefited, as well. Before assuming a family practice in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Cotton-Johnson, who graduated from University Medical Center in 1982, was the medical director for a Choctaw clinic in Poteau, Oklahoma.

On the other hand, Dr. Janice Bacon (class of 1979), who graduated from UMC in 1983, is one of those alumni who stayed in rural Mississippi.

She is the director of the G.A. Carmichael Family Health Center in Canton, where 80 percent of the patients are either on Medicaid or uninsured.

Bacon had initially resisted the PMTC program. “My parents were teachers and I had my sights set on that arena,” Bacon said. But at a high school career night, Bacon met Peter Steward, who spearheaded the program as then-director of

UMC’s minority student affairs office. “I wasn’t convinced at first, but he convinced my mother that it was worthwhile, and he, my mother, and my high school counselor cornered me, and . . . well, it was the best decision I ever made.”

Bacon said that she especially appreciated PMTC’s year-round structure, which provided for summer sessions when the campus was quieter and less crowded. “After high school, while my friends were talking about their summer holidays, I was headed back to school,” she recalled. “But I was able to arrive on campus and begin to get acclimated and to feel at home.”

Of course, that didn’t forestall the shock of her first biology class. “I remember that first day — Dr. McKeown scared me to death!” said Bacon, who was a biology major.

“I remember his first question: ‘How many of you are biology majors and how many think you are going to graduate?’ But despite that tough facade, he always had our best interests at heart, and he was one who helped many of us make it through.”

She said that her botany teacher, Robert Nevins, made the Pearl River his classroom, its flora his textbook. “I remember us canoeing down the Pearl and wondering what that would have to do with learning botany,” Bacon said.

“Although he taught in an unusual way, we learned so much.”

Cotton-Johnson said that the program evolved from a faltering start to become a successful experiment in education. “In the first year there was a 50 percent attrition rate,” she said.

“But by the third year 75 percent of us went on to become doctors, dentists, and lawyers.”

“These were uncharted waters at the time,” said Dr. Johnnie Cummings (class of 1978), a Clarksdale internist who graduated from Meharry Medical College in Nashville in 1986. “When the program began, we were just bright young minds who were brought into this program not knowing where it was going to take us. Millsaps gave us a sense of what could be done. Now we come together after 25 years, with what we have learned and experienced, to see for ourselves what is and what can be. Now it is our responsibility to complete the cycle.”

Citing the biblical story of the blind man who was given sight, Cummings said that “those of us who couldn’t see at the time now have a clearer vision of the dream that could be made

Meet the Doctors A 25th anniversary gathering of PMTC alumni at their Millsaps reunion.

real. Now it’s our turn to apply that sight to our lives, our people, and our nation.”

PMTC brought together students who were bonded by their sense of purpose, said Dr. Cherese Ward-Washington (class of 1977), who graduated from UMC in 1981. “One thing that made a critical difference is that they took a group of 15 black students from all over the state of Mississippi with the common goal of becoming a doctor. You had a family around you to learn with, laugh with, and play with.”

At other schools, she surmised, you might have absorbed the negative sense that “you were fighting an uphill battle.” But at Millsaps, “you had the sense that you were going to make it.

That this was where we were all going and we were going to get there.”

“Millsaps contributed the largest number of African-American students to UMC of any undergraduate school during that period,” said Ruth Gordon of UMC, who was the coordinator of the program and helped write the PMTC grant proposal for UMC’s minority student affairs office.

And these students have been inspirational to other minority and disadvantaged youths, said Cotton-Johnson. “It is important for children who dream to see their dreams lived out in others like themselves,’’ she said.

“They say, ‘If they can do it, then I can do it, too.’”

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2002 Dr. Frances Lucas-Tauchar with Homecoming Queen Ashley Weitlauf and her father, Thomas Weitlauf, of Paducah, Kentucky.

Millsaps school spirit shone through the rain at Homecoming 2002 as alumni, students, faculty, and staff celebrated the College’s tradition of service with the theme “Millsaps and You . . . Making a Difference!” Indeed, Millsaps is making a difference that can be felt from midtown Jackson to the Yucatan. For instance, the College held a canned-food drive in conjunction with Homecoming to benefit the Good Samaritan Center, a nonprofit organization that helps Jackson families in emergency situations. Students could also browse information on social service organizations and volunteer opportunities, displayed over the weekend at the Boyd A. Campbell College Center. Weekend festivities included a 5K Run/Walk, faculty lectures and readings in the Kava House, and a family picnic in the Bowl. Sports, live music, class reunions, and performances by the Millsaps Players rounded out the schedule. In football, DePauw prevailed over the Majors, 28-7.

The members of the 2002 Millsaps Homecoming Court were, from left, Mary Catherine Crews, Laura Hastings, Laine Hendricks, Ashley Weitlauf, Leslie Smith, Sarah Babin, Mikaela Levy, and Anna Marsh.

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Photos: Courtney Lange

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by J. D. Graffam

What was your major as an undergraduate here at Millsaps?

In 1958, I received a B.A. degree with a major in chemistry. A B.A. degree (as opposed to a B.S.) required foreign-language credits, plus some philosophy, both of which I’d had. So I took all the premedical requirements and all the chemistry courses. But I spent a lot of time in Murrah Hall and the Christian Center, taking English courses (Shakespeare and Victorian poetry), German, and philosophy of religion.

Doctor

As an undergraduate, how did you handle the seemingly different ideals that your scientific studies and your literary studies represented?

of

Letters A cardiology professor at Emory University who served Poems, Essays, which is presented annually as a gift from the for nearly two decades as the medical school’s director of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to students entering admissions and associate dean, John Stone (B.A. 1958) is a medical school in the United States. consultant to the dean’s office of alumni and emeritus faculA gifted educator, Stone has been selected three times as ty relations. He also lectures in the English department and the Best Clinical Professor at Emory, has received Emory’s teaches a course in literature and medicine at the Emory Thomas Jefferson and University Scholar/Teacher awards, College British Summer Studies and was selected by Emory’s Medical Program in Oxford.

Alumni Association for the N AN INTERVIEW WITH The author of four books of Evangeline T. Papageorge Distinpoetry, Stone was awarded a second guished Faculty Award for excelTHE TYLUS EDITOR literary award from the Mississippi lence in teaching.

Institute of Arts and Letters in May His many other honors include 1999 for Where Water Begins. His the American College of Physicians’ R OHN TONE book of essays, In the Country of Nicholas E. Davies Memorial Scholar Hearts: Journeys in the Art of Award for work in the humanities; APPLIES HIS LITERARY Medicine, was recently reissued and Albany Medical College’s Theobald discusses how poetry and medicine Smith Award for distinguished servoften cross paths. ice to mankind in the fields of sciSTETHOSCOPE TO THE Stone is also the co-editor of an ence, medicine, and teaching; and the anthology of literature and medicine State of Georgia Governor’s Award HUMAN CONDITION entitled On Doctoring: Stories, in the Humanities.

I

S

D .J

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,

S

I’ve never thought that the two fields of study were that different from one another. Science and literature, after all, are both ways of knowing, of understanding the world. The word “science” reminds us of this fact in its etymology: “Scio” — (Latin) “I know.” But literature is also a way of knowing, of discovery, of asking and answering questions about this strange and marvelous world in which we all live. I once said (in a convocation address, where one is allowed a touch of high rhetoric): “All windows open to the same world.” Both science and the humanities explore that common world and both are shaped by it. I continue to believe strongly that humanities majors need to know more science — and science majors need to know more humanities. Scientists will unravel and display the human genome — but the accomplishment of that scientific feat brings with it parallel moral and philosophic questions that must be addressed by a different part of the intellect.

I have an excellent mentor on my side in this matter, notably Dr. William Carlos Williams, the New Jersey physician-poet who won the Pulitzer Prize and also managed to deliver 3,000 babies. This is what he said in his autobiography, in the chapter called “Of Medicine and Poetry”: “When they ask me, as of late they frequently do, how I have for so many years continued an equal interest in medicine and the poem, I reply that they amount for me to nearly the same thing.” Dr. Williams gives us a further clue to his feelings a couple of pages later when he writes, “I was permitted by my medical badge to follow the poor, defeated body into those gulfs and grottos.” His medicine and his poetry were deeply interconnected.

I would add only that medicine is the profession par excellence in terms of achieving this privileged union of science and the humanities. Medicine is not so much a science as it is the application of science to human beings.

There is a significant difference.

Going through medical school is obviously hard on a person, both emotionally and physically. Did you write during that time in your life, and if so, what role did it play in either easing or intensifying those stresses and anxieties of medical school?

Medical school was rigorous, from the first day, with little letup for the next nine years (11 years, counting military service). But it was an infinitely rewarding task, to see for ourselves how the body works, its anatomy and physiology: “Fitting the labels in our books to our own tense tendons slipping in their sheaths we memorized the body and the word. . . .”

“Cadaver,” page 4, The Smell of Matches, Louisiana State University Press “Cadaver” is basically the first poem I wrote after I was “medically educated.” It was written, though, about 10 years after I was in anatomy class. So my answer is no, I wasn’t writing poems, except for phrases and jottings on 3-by-5 cards, while I was in medical school. But the poems were being written — they were just not being written down. Leafing now through The Smell of Matches, my first book, I am struck by how many of the poems are medically based. My three subsequent books of poetry are less medically influenced, I’d wager.

How does being a doctor affect your writing?

And vice versa?

One of the secrets of good doctoring and good writing is paying attention to the world around us. Garcia Lorca wrote, “The poet is the professor of the five bodily senses.” So, in the best of circumstances, is the physician. We look, we listen, touch, smell, taste the world. Such physical involvement in the world keeps us alert to its nuances, its epiphanies, its startlements (if that’s a neologism, I accept it). The poet’s duty is to be astonished. That is also the duty of the physician: to find each patient’s story “new,” no matter how many times he or she may have heard it before. A “listening” posture, a posture of expectation, not only produces better medical care, but it also renews the physician in the daily work of tending to the sick.

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Doctor of Letters I was influenced in this regard early on. In my poem “Cadaver,” quoted above, I discovered that the man on whose body we worked had had syphilis. The disease had attacked his heart and killed him. That discovery had the effect of humanizing our cadaver: This was not merely the study of anatomy. No. This was a man who taught us what it is to be human, to live, to make love, to contract and to die of syphilis. It was as if the woman from whom he’d contracted the disease was still there with him, on that granite dissection table, after all those years.

That discovery, in the first year of medical school, convinced me to expect interesting stories from people I meet (including patients). I have not been disappointed.

As far as you could tell, what was the Millsaps student body perception of Stylus when you were editor in the late 1950s?

I doubt that Stylus was considered the central aesthetic experience that all of us who worked on it hoped it was.

But a literary magazine was crucial in the maturation of those of us interested in putting the best words in their best order. There were strong experiences in the arts going on all over campus. For example, I played in the (quite small) Millsaps band: We played some big pieces!

The Millsaps Players were extremely active under Lance Goss, also staging big plays such as “Hamlet.” The Millsaps Singers held a great appeal for many of us — to this day I can’t hear Handel’s “Messiah” without being back in Jackson singing “Hallelujah.” These experiences were formative ones, crucial ones, for the majority of the student body in those days, I’d say.

What writers were an inspiration to you when you were younger and why? What about now?

Especially now that you have had a life full of your own achievements in writing?

While I was a student at Millsaps, a young assistant professor of biology, Miller Williams, and I got together often to talk poetry. I never took a class with Miller. But we were both writing and we learned from each other, reading poems to each other, each contributing, importantly, to the other’s work. The talk was the crucial part.

We talked at his faculty apartment (he was married and living next to the Lambda Chi House, in which I lived).

We talked about good writing. We submitted poems to be considered for publication — I’d published some “haiku” while in high school, but at Millsaps I began to read the “little magazines” — those were our tutors. As I

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matured through the years, a whole group of writers became personally important to me, including Miller Williams (who has published many books and directed the University of Arkansas Press). I went to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont (the oldest in the country) for three summers between 1969 and 1972. I served as physician (and psychiatrist!) for that conference. I met and was influenced by many writers there: John Ciardi, John Frederick Nims (who edited the superb anthology called Western Wind), Maxine Kumin (who won the Pulitzer Prize), William Meredith, Barry Hannah. It was an inspiration to see (and hear) so many writers talk about writing. I learned there to read critically, to discover other writers who were to become crucial in my own development: Richard Wilbur (one of our great “formalist” poets); Howard Nemerov; James Dickey; Derek Mahon; Seamus Heaney; Emily Dickinson; Frost, of course, and William Carlos Williams. My own “remedial education” in literature is ongoing and takes curious turns from time to time. I’m always discovering “new” voices, such as those of Billy Collins and Stanley Kunitz — but I also like to return often to old friends such as Emily Dickinson: I think she is America’s best poet at this point in our literary history.

Lewis Nordan says “all comedy is underpinned by loss.” Your poetry seems playful with its use of language, but your themes often center on tragedy or death or loss. How would you apply Nordan’s interpretation of comedy to your own experiences with reading and writing?

A theologian friend, Dr. Kathleen O’Connor, who teaches at Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, recently wrote a book called Lamentations and the Tears of the World. Her book deals with the book of Lamentations in the Bible. I was struck, in reading her work, that it

explores (in a much more rigorous way, of course) the same crucial questions students were asking in my philosophy of religion class back at Millsaps. What is the nature of God? Is God omnipotent? If God is omnipotent, why do such “bad things happen to good people”?

It’s the lamentations of the world that move us as human beings. Doctors are reminded daily of the fact (as my first publisher told me) that “we’re involved in the losingest game of all.” The poet’s writing often reflects that fact: The tears of the world get our attention.

Stanley Kunitz wrote “How scrawny is the language of joy.” But the world’s inevitable losses are leavened and tempered by humor — in the longer run, we have much to be thankful for. As I wrote in Canticles of Time (the choral symphony written for Millsaps’ centennial in 1990): Blake was right: within our days “Joy and Woe are woven fine.”

Yet, of the faces we put on the most enduring one is joy.

Even the plainest word is praise: I speak. Therefore I celebrate. . . .

I hope — I believe — that’s true.

Does that interpretation differ when it is applied to your own life, especially to your life as a doctor?

No, it’s fundamentally the same whether I’m talking as a poet, a physician, or a physician-poet.

Millsaps has named a building after you, John Stone Hall. How do you feel about this, and what do you hope other students can gain from seeing your name on this particular building?

I know of no other kind of building on which I’d rather have my name. The word “doctor” comes from the Latin, “docere,” which means “to teach.” I feel privileged that my name is on a building on a campus where scholarship, teaching, and truth are so prized, as they are at Millsaps. Having a building named after you is something you don’t or can’t earn: You fall into such an auspicious honor and hope somehow to deserve it in the future.

One thing I’m happiest about is that both the Women’s Studies Center and the Writing Center are in John Stone Hall. These are both first-rate and worthy

endeavors I’m happy to be associated with. Learning to communicate, to write and speak together, are among the most important things any humans do.

If you could give undergraduate students two pieces of advice regarding life and career, what would they be and why?

Identify those passions, those pursuits, that engage you as you go through life. In life, as in college, major in what you’re interested in! You’ll come out better in the long run. (The converse of this is also important: If you don’t like to eat broccoli, don’t eat it.)

And follow those passions expectantly: Allow your current passion to lead you to the next one. Expect joy and be prepared to celebrate.

My own passions have included music, which, after literature, is my chief intellectual passion (Shostakovich to Bach and all the composers I can manage in between); Emily Dickinson; Anton Chekhov; William Faulkner; John Keats; John Donne; contemporary Irish poetry; learning how to use the language better. My chief and most precious personal passions are my family.

How would you say your Millsaps liberal arts education prepared you for the “real world,” and more specifically your career as a successful doctor and published poet?

Millsaps was the perfect place for my education. There were bright, concerned faculty who loved to teach and were good at it. They allowed us students to think whatever we wanted, for as long as we wanted, whether it was demonstrably false or not; they predicted correctly that we would grow up at some point. They allowed us to use their words until we found our own. They granted us our passions; they revealed to us their own. And there were bright interesting classmates on the campus, many of them multidimensional human beings already. They might have gone anywhere, done anything in life. And, through the years, they have done just that. They have become professors of music and physics and surgery, deans of all sorts and persuasions, ministers, lawyers, accountants, high moguls, and the rest. Among the most fortunate of all these Millsaps graduates is one particular physician-writer.

(This interview originally appeared in the 2002 Stylus.)

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FACULTY & STAFF UMC turns to Professor Hopkins to help monitor research ethics Millsaps philosophy professor Patrick Hopkins occupies a place where science and the public interest intersect.

Twice a month, that intersection is a seat around the conference table where the University of Mississippi Medical Center Institutional Review Board meets.

The IRB regulates research involving human subjects to ensure that it is humane, necessary, and in compliance with all federal and institutional guidelines.

All members but Hopkins are UMC personnel: nurses, pharmacists, dentists, physicians, scientists, and others who have a vested interest in research.

Only Hopkins speaks for the person whose last encounter with science may have been in the ninth grade and who may not know a petri dish from a placebo.

And only Hopkins is indispensable. If he or his designated alternate, Millsaps Professor Ted Ammon, is not present, the board cannot meet.

According to the federal regulations that govern the board, no meeting can take place without the person who represents the public’s viewpoint.

Hopkins is hardly Everyman. He has edited two books and written numerous articles in scholarly journals. Among his topics: civil rights for cyborgs, custody battles over frozen embryos, biology and the Bible, artificial wombs, and pig parts. Hopkins is a scholar, perfectly at home with abstract concepts and the art of debate. But when he’s seated around the table with other IRB members, he assumes the posture of a layman.

“I try to put myself in the place of my niece, my 85-year-old grandmother, and the person who checks my groceries,” Hopkins said.

The board spends much of its time reviewing the forms that docu-

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ment informed consent from research subjects.

“I always think of a person, perhaps already sick, who may read at only an eighth-grade level and then try to determine if he can understand it,” Hopkins said. “We spend a lot of time translating doctor- and sciencespeak into eighth-grade-speak.” Even though Hopkins pursued a science career as an undergraduate and has worked in a research lab, he is not as familiar with medical terms as most of his IRB colleagues.

“It was a little difficult at first,” he said. “I didn’t want to be the only one around the table who didn’t understand something. But it’s not a problem at all now. Part of overcoming that was my own willpower. I refused to let my embarrassment stand in the way of what I needed to do. But the group also welcomed me.

They didn’t roll their eyes when I asked a question. It’s a very free environment in which I can express whatever concerns I have, and I’m grateful for that.”

Nancy Olson, the IRB administrator, estimates that IRB members spend six to eight weeks a year reviewing research, looking over as many as 78 separate proposals for one meeting. In that respect, Hopkins’ scholarly background and experience in reading esoteric manuscripts work to his advantage.

All of it is voluntary. No one on the board, including Hopkins, is paid.

“It does take a lot of time,” Hopkins agrees. “But I look at it as my tiny contribution to the community. At some point, some person lying in a hospital bed will be the beneficiary of a decision we made.”

And Hopkins likes being around scientists. “Academics like me don't often have the opportunity to talk to scientists,” he said. “It’s a good expe-

every proposal thoroughly,” Chapman said. “He knows exactly what his charge is on the board, and he takes it very seriously. He is absolutely essential to the board, and he makes my life much easier.”

Chapman credits Hopkins with the first use of the word “metaphysical” in the history of the board.

“I was looking at something in one of the proposals,” Hopkins said, “and I commented that whatever it said was ‘metaphysically impossible.’

Dr. Chapman said it was probably the first time that word had been used in that room.”

A native of Mississippi, Hopkins earned his B.A. at the University of Mississippi and his M.A. and Ph.D. at

Washington University. He did postdoctoral research at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

“I loved science in school and actually thought I would end up doing neuroscience,” Hopkins said.

“I still love science, but discovered that the day-to-day life of the scientist is not for me. I found I was more interested in the big implications of science and technology and for that I needed to study social theory and philosophy.”

In the classroom, he teaches courses in biomedical ethics, computer ethics, death and dying, and gender and technology. He once taught an introduction to philosophy course using some of the classics of science

fiction and “Star Trek.”

A veteran of 30 or 40 IRB meetings, Hopkins says his disappointment has been in seeing how little regard corporate enterprises have for human subjects. “I see how much information they obtain from the subjects and how little they give them in return,” he said.

On the other hand, he says that he has been very impressed by his fellow IRB members. “I’m amazed at how thoughtful and serious they are about protecting the rights of human subjects,” he said. “I come away from the meetings knowing that we’re really doing work here that helps people.”

Emeritus professors Cain and Bishop shaped generations of scientists

Dr. Patrick Hopkins represents a layman’s point of view on biotechnology.

rience for me. And I hope that once in a while I will bring a perspective to the table the others haven’t thought of.”

According to Dr. Richard Summers, an associate professor of emergency medicine and IRB member, Hopkins does that frequently.

“We tend to get wrapped up in the science of the thing,” he said.

“Patrick gives us a patient’s point of view, as well as an ethical perspective. He’ll ask us, ‘would we want this done to us?’ Or ‘is this ethical?’

He’s not afraid to speak up when he has a concern. And he reads each proposal in detail. I’m always amazed at how thoroughly he prepares for the meetings.”

Dr. Stan Chapman, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases and the IRB chairman, agrees. “I can always count on him to have read

Millsaps College has had 10 presidents in its history, and Dr. Allen Bishop and Dr. Eugene Cain taught under the leadership of five of them. Together, they taught chemistry at Millsaps for 77 years.

Their devotion to the College has shaped generations of doctors, scientists, and researchers. In recognition of their remarkable contributions, at the 2002 Commencement ceremonies Millsaps awarded Cain and Bishop each the title of emeritus professor of chemistry.

Bishop, professor of chemistry and director of academic computing, taught at Millsaps for 35 years with an energy in the classroom that was matched only by his dedication to providing the best computing technology to Millsaps faculty and students.

He served as the chair and acting chair of computer studies, physics, and biology and as acting associate dean of the sciences. He also co-founded Millsaps’ computer science program.

Millsaps honored Bishop in 1998 with the Distinguished Professor Award, the highest award the College can bestow upon its faculty members.

In nominating him, Bishop’s colleagues said that he solved problems and bro-

kered agreements with “wit, charm, and wisdom.”

In 1999, Bishop was named Outstanding Educator of the Year by the United Methodist Foundation for Christian Higher Education. He was selected from candidates at 123 Methodist institutions for his extraordinary impact upon his college, church, and community. “Bishop has shown how much a person can achieve, and how many lives a person can affect, with a lifetime of commitment,” said Richard A. Smith, vice president and dean of the College.

Cain, meanwhile, has “strengthened and uplifted” the Millsaps community for 42 years, Smith said. The former chair of the chemistry department, Cain has been “a teacher and mentor to countless students by helping them succeed not just in the classroom but also in life,” he added.

For instance, as an advocate of a minority premed program in the

From left, Dr. Eugene Cain, President Frances Lucas-Tauchar, Dean Richard A. Smith, and Dr. Allen Bishop at commencement.

1970s, Cain opened the door to medical school for disadvantaged students from across the state. And Cain has also helped make Millsaps a frontrunner in undergraduate research.

Chosen by the United Methodist Church’s Division of Higher Education for a 1992 Exemplary Teacher Award, Cain served as the first president of the Faculty Council, and he is a lifetime member of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences.

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faculty & staff Miller, English department chair, is named Distinguished Professor Dr. Greg Miller, associate professor of English, was presented with the 2002 Millsaps Distinguished Professor Award at commencement. The award is the highest honor that the College can bestow upon its faculty members.

“As chair of the English department, Dr. Miller has been a versatile member of our faculty, teaching creative writing, poetry, American literature, and Shakespeare with intelligence and enthusiasm,” said Dr. Richard A. Smith, vice president and dean of the College. “He is a caring but challenging professor who asks for the best from his students.”

The recipient of a Mississippi Humanities Teacher Award in 1998, Miller served as the president and driving force behind the 1999 Southern

Literary Festival, which brought poet laureate Robert Pinsky to Millsaps. He has also spent residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Yaddo Colony, and the Fine Arts Work Center.

His poems have appeared in such prestigious journals as The Paris Review, The Vanderbilt Poetry Review, and The Three- penny Review. He has been honored with the Academy of American Poets Prize.

Miller is the author of Iron Wheel (1998) and Rib Cage (2001), both published by the University of Chicago Press. Both volumes of poetry have received nominations for National Book Awards and Pulitzer Prizes.

“Being named distinguished professor at Millsaps College is a singular honor, particularly because of the

Dr. Greg Miller is a winner of the Academy of American Poets Prize.

excellence of my colleagues and the emphasis that our community places on innovative teaching and scholarship,” said Miller.

Professor Galaty searches for threatened Albanian culture Dr. Michael Galaty, assistant professor of anthropology, spent his summer exploring the northern highlands of Albania, searching for stories about a lost way of life. In this remote corner of the world, blood feuds sometimes still rage between embittered families and soaring mountains keep watch over stone houses dotting the valleys.

In 1921, a young writer named Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of author Laura Ingalls Wilder, also heard the beckoning call of the newly independent nation of Albania. She chronicled her travels in a book called Peaks of Shala (1923). As part of a documentary project sponsored by the Associated Colleges of the South, Galaty retraced Lane’s journeys to learn more about her intense selfexamination and to determine how much of the tribal system she described still exists.

“When Lane was living and working in Albania, a northern Albanian tribal system with ancient roots still functioned,” said Galaty.

“Oral law governed the social, economic, and political relationships that bound rival clans. Justice was swift

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and brutal. Lane, and the other female travelers to Albania, were fascinated by the tribal system and produced complex and detailed descriptions.

Eventually, the tribal system was destroyed by communism, though echoes of it still persist in remote regions, such as Shala.”

Traveling largely on gravel and dirt roads, Galaty, joined by novice filmmaker Robert Schon, retraced Lane’s footsteps, visiting the cities of Theth and Shkodre. With a translator and a guide, the two were able to recreate several of Lane’s own photographs and speak to the descendants of the people she met during her journey.

“We met the descendant of the man Lane called the richest in Theth,” said Galaty. “She still lives in the family’s three-story stone house, carved with ancient pagan symbols. She received us in the same sitting room Lane had visited and regaled us with stories of her ancestor.”

Galaty and Schon plan to create a film of the experience, blending digital and conventional film footage to capture and reveal the dramatic physical and human landscapes of the land

about which Lane wrote so glowingly.

The finished product, which will include moving and still images accompanied by Lane’s narrative descriptions, will document the remnants of traditional Albanian culture.

“We learned so much about life in the Albanian high country,” said Galaty. “It was easy to appreciate why this place affected Lane as deeply as it did. The scenery is absolutely stunning, but the real wonder of Shala is the people and their culture, which is barely holding on in the new, capitalist Albania. I hope the film will do their stories justice.”

Dr. Michael Galaty has begun work on a documentary film about Rose Wilder Lane’s Albanian travels.

Arts and Letters Collin Asmus (art) had a sculpture accepted into a national competition, the LaGrange National, showing at the Chattahoochie Art Museum in LaGrange, Ga. The sculpture was one of 40 selected out of 350 entries. He also had two paintings selected for the Meridian Museum of Art’s Annual BiState Competition, one of which received an award of achievement. In addition, he had a sculpture included in the Texas National at the Stephen F. Austin State University Gallery in Nacadoches, Texas. His piece was one of 60 selected from 2,500 entries.

Catherine Freis (classical studies) was selected as a participant in the National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar “Roman Religion in its Cultural Context,” held in Rome. She also conducted a workshop on the “Classical Legacy of Myth” for teachers in the Academic and Performing Arts Complex of Jackson Public Schools.

An essay by Eric Griffin (English), “From Ethos to Ethnos: Hispanizing ‘the Spaniard’ in the Old World and the New,” appeared in CR: The New Centennial Review, a journal devoted to interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to the Americas. His essay “Ethos, Empire, and the Valiant Acts of Thomas Kyd’s Tragedy of ‘The Spains’” appeared in English Literary Renaissance, one of the major journals in his field. He spent 10 days in August 2002 conducting research at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. Thomas Kohn (classical studies) presented a paper entitled “The Tragedy of Ezekiel” at the meeting of the American Philological Association in Philadelphia. He also delivered a paper entitled “The Use of Four Speaking Actors in Seneca’s Oedipus” at the meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South in Austin, Texas.

Greg Miller (English) has had two articles accepted for publication. “‘Soul Making’: Spirituality in Contemporary American Poetry” will be published in the fall edition of Tikkun. “‘Glorious, Afflicting, Beneficial’: Triangular Romance and Dickinson’s Rhetoric of Apocalypse” is forthcoming in The Emily Dickinson Journal.

International Juried Exhibition at the Period Gallery in Omaha, Neb.

Elizabeth Moak (performing arts) has returned from her spring sabbatical, which included three trips to France.

While there, she performed in Paris, Dijon, Rouen, Notre Dame de Gravenchon, St. Esteve, and Autun.

She also observed teaching at the Paris National Superior Conservatory of Music and Dance.

Kristen Tegtmeier (history) gave a talk entitled “‘The Free Sons of the North’ vs. the ‘Myrmidons of Border Ruffianism’: What Makes a Man in Bleeding Kansas?” at the Lecompton Historical Society in Kansas. The talk took place in the old Constitution Hall, a national historic site where Kansas’ first pro-slavery constitution was written in the 1850s. She also took two senior history majors, Vicki Myers and Cole Cheek, to the regional convention of Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honorary society, at Mississippi College. The students presented papers based on original research, and Tegtmeier served on a panel that focused on civil rights in Mississippi.

Darby Ray (religious studies) attended the annual meeting of the Workgroup on Constructive Theology in Nashville, where she and 40 other Christian theologians were invited to work together on a new textbook series.

Elise Smith (art) gave a presentation on Marian imagery in the art of Evelyn De Morgan at the National College Art Association meeting in Philadelphia. Her book Evelyn Pickering De Morgan and the Allegorical Body was published in May 2002 by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.

Steve Smith (philosophy and religious studies) had an article in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion called “‘The Gates of Greatness Break Open’: Religious Understandings of Worth in Action.”

His essay “Topics in Philosophical Pneumatology: Inspiration, Wonder, Heart” has appeared in the book Advents of the Spirit: An Introduction to the Current Study of Pneumatology. His essay “Worthy Actions” has been published in The Journal of Ethics.

Sandra Smithson (art) had a painting accepted into the Annual Painting

Bill Storey (history) presented a paper, “Gun Control and Political Culture in Cape Colony, 1876-78: Citizenship, Risk, and Skill,” to the Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies. The seminar was held at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

John Thatamanil (religious studies) attended the IX International Paul Tillich Symposium in Frankfurt and presented a paper entitled “Beyond Number: Trinity as Symbol in Paul Tillich’s Thought.” The symposium was an invitation-only meeting for Tillich scholars. He was also awarded a grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. The grant will support research and writing on church-relatedness.

Thatamanil taught a class for “Kaleidoscope,” a gathering of the Presbytery of Mississippi on “Christian Approaches to Religious Diversity” at First-Trinity Presbyterian Church in Laurel. He spoke to the Unitarian Universalists of Jackson on “Spirituality and Wholeness” and discussed the issue “Does God Takes Sides?” with Darby Ray (religious studies) at St. James Episcopal Church, Jackson.

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faculty & staff Else School Ajay Aggarwal (management) has been appointed to serve a two-year term on the strategic planning for international affairs committee of the national Decision Sciences Institute.

Jesse Beeler (accounting) and Professor James E. Hunton of Bentley College cowrote a research paper, “Contingent Rents: Insidious Threats to Auditor Independence,” which was presented by Hunton at a seminar on auditor independence and the Enron situation. The seminar was sponsored

by New York University’s Stern School of Business and featured Harvey Pitt (former chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission) and Lynn Turner (former chief accountant for the SEC). The working paper was cited by the SEC in its “Final Rule; Revision of the Commission’s Auditor Independence Requirements” (effective Feb. 5, 2001). The final paper was scheduled for publication in the journal Advances in Accounting Behavioral Research.

Kevin Pauli (management) cowrote an article for the journal Business & Society titled “The Role of Moral Intensity in Ethical Decision Making: A Review and Investigation of Moral Recognition, Evaluation, and Intention.”

Science Jeanne Middleton-Hairston (education) has been appointed by Governor Ronnie Musgrove to the Southern Regional Education Board. The SREB supervises working alliances between government and education leaders in 16 states.

Patrick Hopkins (philosophy) gave a lecture entitled “Biotechnology and the Social Construction Debate” at the American Philosophical Association Convention in Atlanta, sponsored by the American Philosophical Association and the National Science Foundation.

Debora Mann (biology) and Jane Buck, B.S. 2002, presented a poster entitled “Impact of the exotic Ailanthus altissima on ground cover diversity in a disturbed Virginia forest” at the 87th annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Tucson, Ariz.

Mauldin, and Keely Mixon) on their research papers and helped prepare them for presentation at the meeting.

Student Caroline Ficara also presented her paper (a research project with Michael Galaty) at the conference.

Kathy Mathis (psychology) published an article entitled “Semantic interference from objects both in and out of a scene context” in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.

Don Fortenberry (student affairs) has served on the committee reading applications from colleges and universities around the country for undergraduate fellowships from The Fund for Theological Education, an Atlanta-based organization whose director, Jim Waits, is a Millsaps graduate. He has also been reading nominations for National Leader of the Year for Omnicron Delta Kappa, an award won by Peyton Hays, B.S. 2001.

Sarah Lea McGuire (biology) and student Jim Goode presented their research on cell cycle control at the national meeting of the American Association for Cell Biology in Washington, D.C. McGuire’s article “The DNA Damage Response in Filamentous Fungi” was published in the April 2002 issue of Fungal Genetics and Biology.

Kristina Stensaas (chemistry) hosted and directed the Mid-Mississippi competition for International ChemOlympics in March 2002. She and her research student, Anisha Bajah, gave a presentation entitled “Comparison of Aqueous Solvent Effects on the Singlet Oxygen Ene Reactions of Angelic Acid, 2, 3Dimethyl-2-Butenoic Acid and Their Salt Derivatives” in August 2002, at the National American Chemistry Society meeting in Boston.

Donald Schwartz (computer science) received a $244,256 software grant from Oracle Corp., which also donated Oracle 9I, its newest database environment, for use in his research and courses.

Ming Tsui (sociology-anthropology) presented her paper (cowritten with Lynne Rich, B.S. 1998) “The Only Child and Educational Opportunities for Girls in Urban China” at the ACS Women’s Studies/Gender Studies Conference at Hendrix College. Tsui also mentored six students (Alan Burrow, Karen Sheridan, Erin Redding, Margarita Schmid, Britney

Staff

Paula Garrett and Kathi Griffin (writing center) attended the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Chicago.

Garrett chaired the session “Teaching Writing without Composition: Administering Writing at Small Colleges without Composition.”

Ginger Gibson (student affairs) was awarded a Martin Luther King Jr. Incentive Grant from the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Service.

Nola Gibson (adult learning) was one of three judges of the Salute to Business & Industry Awards for the Mississippi Business Expo 2002.

Ann Hendrick (admissions and financial aid) was elected to chair the College Scholarship Service Southern Regional Council.

Wendy Hutchins (financial aid) has been selected as a summer instructor for the Southern Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators New Aid Workshop at Furman University.

Patrick James (financial aid) is the site coordinator for Mid-Level Training, a new joint venture sponsored by the Southern Association and Southwestern Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Larry Madison (library) had his oped piece “Drive, She Said: But Who or What Is Really in Control?” published in the library periodical Against the Grain. The piece addressed the need for prudence in adopting new technologies to replace traditional library materials.

Allison Mays (library) participated in a panel at the North American Serials Interest Group Continuing Education Seminar “E-Journal Management Systems” at Mississippi State University.

Jon Parrish Peede (communications) has been elected president of the

‘Friends, what are we to do?’

Looking to Thomas Merton and Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh Book review by Richard Freis Robert H. King, Thomas Merton and Thich Nhat Hanh: Engaged Spirituality in an Age of Globalization. (New York: Continuum, 2001) 202 pp. $24.95.

The Millsaps Faith & Work Initiative addresses one of the major questions of spiritual life: What is the right relationship between my vocation as the work I do and my vocation as my response to the call addressed to me by God? This is a version of a question that has been asked for two and a half millennia by cultures worldwide: What is the right relationship between a consecrated life centered on contemplation (the prayer of deep, wordless absorption in God for its own sake) and action (life in the world on behalf of oneself and others)?

Robert H. King, a former dean of Millsaps College, takes up this question anew in the context of two changes that mark religious life in the last half century.

The first is the prominence of an “engaged spirituality,” in which the mutual dependence of contemplation and action is recognized. “Contemplation, if it is genuine, must express itself in action on behalf of others, while social action unaccompanied by contemplation invariably grows sterile and unproductive.

College Public Relations Association of Mississippi.

Activities South Region. She coordinates communication with all agencies and artists involved in south regional activities in the fall and spring. She will be working with the Jackson Arts and Music Festival (Jubilee!Jam) Band Slam Competitions and the Planet Weekly stage.

Carol Stewart (bookstore) has been recognized for her outstanding service to bookstore customers. She has been named a winner of the Follett’s Finest Award. This program recognizes Follett bookstore employees who have consistently demonstrated superior customer service in their attitude, their appreciation of their customers’ needs, and their approachability.

David Wilkinson (maintenance) has been selected as Millsaps College Physical Plant Fellow for the Associated Colleges of the South Environmental Initiative. He recently attended their first meeting of the year at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.

Cindy Strine (student affairs) has been reappointed the associate member-relations coordinator for the National Association for Campus Contemplation and action are required for a fully integrated spirituality.” The second is the need, fostered by accelerated globalization, for increasing dialogue between religions. King states the connection between these two phenomena and the good they potentially offer.

“Contemplative practice can open the way to interreligious dialogue. Dialogue, in turn, can lead to greater mutual understanding and a greater willingness to cooperate with persons of other faiths in addressing the pressing social issues of our day. These will almost certainly be global issues that will require cooperative action across national, ethnic, and religious lines.”

Because this book addresses the fundamental Christian question, “Friends, what are we to do? (Acts 2:37),” King embodies much of his understanding by showing how the American monk Thomas Merton and the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh devoted themselves to engaged spirituality and interreligious dialogue. King sums up the universal aspect of his exploration in a vision of mystical intensity, which

Dr. Richard Freis is a Millsaps classical studies professor currently on leave.

He has published widely as a scholar, critic, and poet.

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draws on the medieval practice of prayerfully walking a circular labyrinth as an image of our spiritual journey: “On reflection I have come to think that the labyrinth is a good metaphor for what is happening spiritually for many people today. We find ourselves walking a path that we do not fully understand. Sometimes it seems to be moving toward the center and sometimes away from it. There are others on the path, but we are not always walking together, and we cannot be sure we are always going in the same direction. When we reach the center, as we inevitably do if we persist, we find that we cannot stay there. We are propelled outward, moved to retrace our steps back into the world we came from, knowing we have been transformed but in ways we cannot explain . . . We may hope that when we finally emerge from our respective labyrinths, we will recognize one another as brothers and sisters, members of the same human family, and will find creative ways of working together for the resolution of the world’s problems.”

King has written a moving account of the shape and scope of contemporary spirituality. His portraits of Thomas Merton and Thich Nhat Hanh are vivid, illuminating, and poignant.

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MAJOR NOTES SEND YOUR UPDATES TO: ALUMNI RELATIONS, P.O. BOX 151191, JACKSON, MS 39210. OR FAX: (601) 974-1088.

PHONE: (601) 974-1038 OR 1-86-MILLSAPS (1-866-455-7277, THE ALUMNI RELATIONS TOLL-FREE NUMBER).

E-MAIL: ALUMNI@MILLSAPS.EDU. Please include your name, address, phone numbers, email address, graduation year and degree, and any news you want to share. Photographs are also welcome. If you are aware of alumni who are not receiving the magazine, send us their names and addresses.

1940 Kate Wells, B.A. 1940, of Nashville is the recipient of the 2002 Tennessee Public Health Association’s R. H. Hutcheson Sr. M.D. Award. The award, the most prestigious given by the association, recognizes an individual for a distinguished career in public health. A medical-records assistant in the office of vital records, she has been with the Tennessee Department of Health for 50 years and has been a senior medical coder since 1982. She communicates with about 400 physicians every month to clarify and augment medical information gathered from death certificates.

1947

Dr. Harry C. Frye Jr., B.A. 1947, of Magnolia was featured in the Nov. 1, 2001, issue of the Magnolia Gazette for his work with the Magnolia Clinic. A resident of the town since 1952, he has maintained an active medical practice there for 49 years.

He helped found the clinic in 1969 and was among the first family physicians in the nation to become board certified in 1970. Frye was also the first president of the South Pike School District and is the longest serving school board member in the state, having held his seat since 1957.

Troy B. Watkins, B.A. 1947, of Natchez was featured in the Feb. 17, 2002, issue of The Natchez Democrat as one of the city’s four living past mayors. Elected in 1956, he was the youngest mayor ever to serve in Natchez, and he oversaw significant projects in his eight years in office.

Following his tenure as mayor, he served in the Mississippi Senate from 1972 to 1980. He was particularly active in education issues, helping lay MILLSAPS MAGAZINE

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the groundwork for the founding of Copiah-Lincoln Community College and Alcorn State University in Natchez.

1948

Van L. Stewart, B.S. 1948, of Natchez was honored as a contributor to amateur football at the 21st annual Miss-Lou Chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Banquet. He was selected as one of this year’s two honorees for his involvement in the community and sports. The former basketball, football, and baseball player was inducted into the Millsaps Sports Hall of Fame in 1985. He has taught and coached at Durant High School, Natchez High School, and Holmes Junior College.

1949

John Garrard Jr., B.A. 1949, of Atmore, Ala., has been named a certified municipal officer by the Alabama League of Municipalities in Montgomery. He serves as a city councilman for Atmore.

Dr. George L. Maddox Jr., B.A. 1949, of Durham, N.C., is the editorin-chief of The Encyclopedia of Aging, 3rd Edition, which was released in two volumes in 2001. The multidisciplinary volume, designed for lay readers, as well as professionals, is the first of its kind on gerontology and geriatrics. He and his wife, Evelyn G. Maddox, 1948, edit Contemporary Gerontology, a multidisciplinary journal of critical commentary and reviews related to aging.

1951 Linda M. Anglin, B.A. 1951, of Jackson has been listed in the 56th

Welty’s only children’s book, The Shoe Bird. The full score was completed in fall 2001 and was first performed by the Mississippi Boychoir in Natchez on March 2, 2002. The concert was the grand finale of the 13th annual Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, dedicated this year to Welty. This concert was followed by three other performances in Hattiesburg, Columbus, and Jackson.

Jones, who earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at the Eastman School of Music, has spent 35 years conducting and composing for major orchestras.

The founding dean of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, he is currently a master composer with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

edition of Who’s Who in America.

She received a master’s degree from Mississippi College and an educationspecialist degree from Mississippi State University. A teacher in the Jackson Public Schools from 1957 to 1994, she founded Mississippi Professional Educators, where she served as the first president. She has been a registered lobbyist for education and children’s issues in the Mississippi Legislature since 1980, was honored as a Distinguished Teacher at the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, chaired the Education TaskForce of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, and served on the first board of directors of the Public Education Forum of Mississippi.

Rev. J. R. “Rayford” Woodrick, B.A. 1957, of Ridgeland has been named the minister of mission outreach and communications for St. Matthew’s United Methodist Church of Brandon. He chairs the Mississippi Conference Committee on Hispanic Ministries and is a member of the board of the Mississippi United Methodist Foundation. He retired in 1997 after 27 years of pastoral work.

1952

1958

Rev. H. L. “Lavelle” Woodrick, B.A. 1952, of Philadelphia delivered the centennial celebration message for Wesley United Methodist Church in Meridian on April 28, 2002. A former member of the congregation, he has held 16 church appointments statewide.

1953 Joanne Huggins Reynolds, B.A.E. 1953, of Austin, Texas, has retired after 37 years of teaching. A member of Manchaca United Methodist Church, she has chaired the Child Development Center for eight years and the Church Council for two years.

1957 Dr. Samuel L. Jones, B.A. 1957, of Auburn, Wash., has created an original musical composition based on Eudora

Dr. John H. Stone III, B.S. 1958, of Tucker, Ga., performed in the Auburn University Montgomery Promenade Concert, “The Poet and the Pianist,” on Feb. 5, 2002. The renowned physician, educator, and author is Auburn’s Weil Fellow for 2001-02.

1959

Peggy Seay Brent, B.A. 1959, of Jackson has been named to the 2002 Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.

She chairs the English and modern foreign languages department and serves as curriculum coordinator for the Raymond campus of Hinds Community College.

1960

Lawrence “Larry” Marett, B.S. 1960, of Amory was inducted on April 26, 2002, into the M. B. Swayze Educational Foundation’s StudentTeacher Achievement Recognition Hall of Fame at the 12th annual

Anna Walker is appointed director of alumni relations Anna Walker of Jackson has been named director of alumni relations at Millsaps.

Walker now oversees all interaction between the College and its alumni. Her responsibilities include managing the planning and execution of alumni events, developing designated alumni markets, and launching alumni initiatives.

“I’m honored to be serving my fellow alumni,” said Walker, who received Anna Walker her B.S.Ed. degree from Millsaps in 1984.

“Promoting the good work of the College throughout the state and the nation is a stimulating challenge. I’m pleased to be part of a team dedicated to continuing the Millsaps tradition of excellence.”

Walker holds an M.Ed. degree in public policy and program evaluation from Vanderbilt University. In addition to teaching elementary school for five years, her professional experience includes serving as program director for various arts and humanities organizations in the state and providing independent consulting services in grant writing and program development. She has also served as an administrator for a regional collaborative of nonprofit organizations covering the states of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

Michele Bunch is appointed director of donor relations Michele Bunch, most recently coordinator of MEA Cares, a division of MEA Medical Systems in Jackson, has joined Millsaps as director of donor relations in the Office of Institutional Advancement.

Bunch graduated from Millsaps in 1979 with a B.B.A. She went on to earn her M.Ed. in community counseling in 1988 from Delta State University and received additional training to become a licensed Michele Bunch professional counselor. Her experience includes work at Millsaps as an admissions counselor and serving as the assistant director of admissions.

Bunch has also served as the initial coordinator of MEA Cares, which provided employee assistance programs to public and private companies in Mississippi.

At Millsaps, Bunch has created innovative ways to reach out to potential donors. “I see the relationship between donors and Millsaps as a stewardship,” Bunch said. “Relationships are formed as people invest.”

Bunch says that her transition to Millsaps has been rewarding.

“I’ve never been affiliated with an institution that displays such great teamwork,” she said. “I discovered that Millsaps is a place where moral values not only exist but also where they are growing and thriving.”

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’02

MAJOR NOTES Education Celebration on the Mississippi College campus. In the 35 years of the STAR program, only 42 other Mississippi educators have qualified for the Hall of Fame honor.

Marett, named a STAR teacher in 1968, teaches chemistry and physics at Heritage Academy in Columbus.

1961 William “Bill” J. Crosby, B.A. 1961, of Memphis is a capital-projects consultant in the hospitality business. He retired in December 2001 from RFS Hotel Investors Inc. James B. Tucker, B.A. 1961, of Jackson has joined the law firm of Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens, and Cannada PLLC, in the general and health-litigation group. From 1997 to 2001, he was an assistant U.S. attorney with the Justice Department.

1963

Marjorie Buie Dixon, B.A. 1963, of Jackson is a real estate agent with Broker South GMAC Real Estate in Jackson. She is a member of the National Association of Realtors, the Mississippi Association of Realtors, and the Jackson Association of Realtors.

1964

Dr. Curt Lamar, B.A. 1964, of Cleveland has retired from Delta State University after 33 years on the faculty of the history department.

Dr. Sarah “Sally” I. Parsonson, B.A. 1964, of Atlanta was appointed dean of education at the Art Institute of Atlanta on Jan. 7, 2002. She began her career at the Art Institute in 1993, teaching English in the general education department. Prior to this, she was a consultant for Georgia Power Co. and a faculty member at Georgia Perimeter College and Millsaps. In 1995, she was named the director of transitional studies, a new department committed to empowering students and giving them the skills needed for success. In 1999, she developed College Bound, an academic program designed to prepare students for a

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second chance at college admission and matriculation. Parsonson, who earned a Ph.D. in English from Tulane University, is an authority on business writing.

Mary J. “Jan” Payne Winston, B.S. 1964, of Jackson carried the Olympic Torch on its way to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. She was selected for participation in the Olympic Torch Relay after her daughter, Laura Lawson, wrote an essay about her for a United Way contest. Highlighting the theme of the contest, “Light the Fire Within,” Lawson wrote about her mother’s work with underachieving students in Richmond, Mo.

1965

Dr. Raymond “Ray” B. Hester, B.S. 1965, and Stella Handy, of Mobile, Ala., have announced the Dec. 7, 2000, birth of their first grandchild, John Handy Jennings. In spring 2002, the couple purchased a home built in 1866, located in the Mobile Historic District. He is the director of the Research Cytometry Laboratory in the College of Medicine at the University of South Alabama. She teaches advanced-placement English at the John L. LeFlore Magnet High School in Mobile.

John D. Lawrence, 1965, of LaGrange, Ga., received the Award for Photography at the 23rd Annual Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters banquet held at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art and Ocean Springs Community Center on May 11, 2002.

1966

Judge Ronald “Ron” A. Goodbread, B.A. 1966, of Washington, D.C., was made a magistrate judge on the District of Columbia Superior Court per legislation passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush in January 2002.

Dr. Charles D. Guess, 1966, of Madison has joined the staff of Information and Quality Healthcare,

the state’s Medicare peer-review program, as a clinical coordinator in the health-care quality improvement program. A family practitioner in Jackson since 1970, he has served on the medical staff of Central Mississippi Medical Center, River Oaks Hospital, and St. DominicJackson Memorial Hospital. Boardcertified and a diplomate with the American Board of Family Practice, he is also a fellow of the American Academy of Family Practice.

Dr. Sharon H. Walker, B.S. 1967, of Ocean Springs has been appointed to the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy’s science advisory panel. She serves as the administrator of the J. L. Scott Marine Education Center and Aquarium in Biloxi, associate dean of outreach for the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Marine Science, and director of education for the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium.

John E. Nikolic, B.A. 1966, of Pearl was inducted into the inaugural Pearl School District Hall of Fame on Nov. 29, 2001. One of two inductees chosen for the difference they have made in the Pearl public school system, Nikolic was noted for his instrumental role in fund raising. He is the vice president and chief administrative officer with AIR2LAN, a high-speed wireless Internet service.

Marion Francis, B.A. 1968, of Jackson has been named the supervisor of the Anne Arundel County Public Library System in Maryland.

Since 1994, she has served as the executive director of the JacksonHinds Library System. During her tenure, numerous improvements were made, including an upgrade of the libraries’ automation system and the addition of a college-access planning program, a law library, and a 24hour virtual-reference service.

1967

Rev. Charles R. Hallford, B.S. 1967, of Jackson, a minister with the United Methodist Church, is working part time at the East Jackson district office in Ridgeland. His wife, Alice W. Hallford, B.A. 1969, continues to operate her financial planning practice, Hallford Financial Advisors.

Judge James “Jim” Roberts Jr., B.A. 1967, of Pontotoc received the University of Southern Mississippi’s Distinguished Criminal Justice Faculty Award at the criminal justice department’s annual banquet, held at the University of Southern Mississippi on April 6, 2002. On a half-time appointment as a professor in the department, he teaches courses in constitutional law, evidence, operation of criminal courts, and legal problems of law-enforcement administration. A former Mississippi Supreme Court justice, he serves on the executive committee of the Mississippi Bar’s alternative dispute-resolution section and as a co-chair of the family law mediation committee. On Feb. 23, 2002, he was selected as a fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation.

1968

Russell E. Hawkins, B.A. 1968, of Vicksburg has completed certification with the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts, earning the designation of certified valuation analyst. The global professional association supports business-valuation and litigation consulting within the certified public accountant and professional communities. Hawkins, a practicing CPA since 1976, has served as a managing partner with May & Co. since 1998. He is also the associate Mississippi tax commissioner.

1969 Jones E. “Pete” Allison Jr., B.A. 1969, of Oxford is an adjunct assistant professor in the criminal justice program at the University of Mississippi. He began teaching after retiring from the U.S. Secret Service, where he had worked for 30 years.

Jacque Armstrong Hillman, B.A. 1969, of Somerville, Tenn., received two journalism awards in 2001. A senior writer and the communities editor for The Jackson Sun, she

received the Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award for her work on “October 1960: The Untold Story of Jackson’s Civil Rights Movement.” A team leader and section writer for the civil rights project, she wrote a piece on Tent City in Fayette County, Tenn.

She also won a Gannett News Service award for “The Ned,” an investigation into the funding, construction, and operations of the Ned McWherter Regional Arts Center.

Dr. J. W. “Buddy” Williamson, B.S. 1969, of Tupelo has been named a member of the local advisory board of BancorpSouth in Tupelo. A general surgeon with Surgery Clinic of Tupelo PA, he is also a clinical professor with the department of surgery at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He chairs the North Mississippi Medical Center medical staff for 2002 and is a member of the board of directors for North Mississippi Health Services and the American Medical Association.

1970

Barry K. Plunkett, B.A. 1970, of Jackson received the 2001 Jackson Medical Education District Community Builder Award, which recognizes those who have made significant contributions to the neighborhoods and people of the district. Plunkett, who served for two years as the president of the Fondren Renaissance Renewal board of directors, was noted for his instrumental role in the establishment of the Fondren Main Street Program — the first urban main street funded in the state. He is senior vice president of market development/corporate communications at St. DominicJackson Memorial Hospital.

1971

Robert M. Moore, Jr., B.A. 1971, of Colleyville, Texas, is an American

Airlines pilot based at the Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport.

1973

Rowan M. Torrey, B.A. 1973, of Hazelhurst serves as the center director of the Crystal Springs Mississippi Job Corps, which under his direction has been named the leading Job Corps Center in the continental United States. Torrey was selected as the top director for 2001.

1974

Robert F. Grisham, B.A. 1974, of Iuka has been elected to a three-year term on the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association’s board of directors. The association comprises 157 electric-distribution systems and represents the interests of member systems and their customers before the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Mississippi Legislature, and the U.S. Congress. Grisham, a certified public accountant, is the general manager of the Tishomingo County Electric Power Association.

1975 Justice James E. Graves Jr., B.A. 1975, of Jackson, a Mississippi Supreme Court judge, was the featured speaker at five Black History Month programs in Mississippi in February 2002. He addressed a meeting of the Black American Law Students Association; served as the keynote speaker at the AfricanAmerican History Month Banquet and Awards, sponsored by the Jackson Federal Executive Association; and spoke to students at the Mississippi College School of Law, Spann Elementary, and Northwest Middle School. Graves was also the keynote speaker at the Lexington Elementary School Parent Teacher Student Association banquet on April 25, 2002. On April 26, he spoke at the Student-Teacher Achievement Recognition program at Mississippi College. On June 8, he spoke at the Pike County Minority Business League annual banquet.

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MAJOR NOTES Jeff O. Lundy, B.S. 1975, of Flora received the Jack Phelan and Century awards from Edward Jones Investments in July 2002 in recognition of his achievements last year. An investment representative, he has worked at Edward Jones for four years.

Dr. Susan M. Weill, B.A. 1975, of San Marcos, Texas, is the author of In a Madhouse’s Din: Civil Rights Coverage by Mississippi’s Daily Press, 1948-1968. The book, published in March 2002, is the first comprehensive examination of civil rights coverage and white supremacist rhetoric in the state’s daily newspapers during five critical periods of the civil rights movement. Weill is an assistant professor of mass communications at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos.

1976

Albert G. Delgadillo, B.A. 1976, of Tupelo has been certified as an estate-planning law specialist by the Estate Law Specialist Board Inc. A partner with the Tupelo-based law firm of Mitchell, McNutt & Sams, he is a member of the American Bar Association Business Law Section, the executive committee of the Mississippi Bar Association business-law section, and the National Association of Estate Planners and Counsels real property and probate section.

Robert “Bob” W. Pittman, 1976, of New York City was featured in an editorial in The Clarion-Ledger for his impact on American popular culture and modern media. Pittman, who at the time was the chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner, created MTV before reaching age 30. He is a member of the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and was named

by Advertising Age as one of the “50 Pioneers and Visionaries of TV.” Life magazine also tapped him as one of the “Five Original Thinkers of the 1980s” and one of the “50 Most Influential Baby Boomers.” In addi-

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tion to serving on the Millsaps board of trustees, he is an investor with his brother Tom in The DeSoto Times Today daily newspaper in northwest Mississippi.

1978 William “Bill” H. Leech, B.A. 1978, of Jackson has been selected as an adjunct professor of secured transactions and debtor-creditor law at the Mississippi College School of Law. He heads the litigation section of the Jackson office of McGlinchey Stafford PLLC. Edward T. McManus Jr., 1978, of Chattanooga, Tenn., was interviewed in the Chattanooga Times for his expertise as the president of Advanced Financial Concepts, a financial advisory company. A professional financial adviser since 1976, he carries the advanced designations of chartered financial consultant, registered financial consultant, and chartered life underwriter.

1979

John K. Dyer, B.A. 1979, of Birdsboro, Pa., is the informationsystems administrator for Quality Systems Inc. He served 12 years in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear-trained mechanical operator and supervisor for submarines, and nuclear-work coordinator.

Joseph “Joey” C. Langston, B.A. 1979, of Booneville received the award for Outstanding Citizen 2002 at the Booneville Junior Auxiliary’s 24th annual charity dinner, held March 23, 2002, at Northeast Community College. Receiving recognition for his work with underprivileged children, he has sponsored more than 30 baseball and softball leagues for Booneville and Prentiss County and is a primary supporter of the renovation and development of the new Anderson Elementary playground. He sponsors the Joe Ray Langston Memorial Scholarship and administers the Langston Fund, which provides financial assistance to needy families in Prentiss County.

He owns the Langston Law Firm in Booneville, where he is the senior partner.

1980 Miki Demeranville Swanson, B.B.A. 1980, of Decatur, Ga., is the senior tax manager for Turner Broadcasting System in Atlanta.

Layne B. Taylor, B.A. 1980, of Natchez is the president of the Natchez Opera Guild and serves on its board of directors. The associate producer of two Tony Award-winning plays, Strange Interlude and Aren’t We All?, he is also a co-owner of Myrtle Corners Bed and Breakfast in Natchez.

Benjamin “Ben” B. Watts, B.B.A. 1980, of Columbia has been featured in the Batesville weekly newspaper Panolian as an emerging artist in bronze sculpting. Specializing in “portrait” sculptures of Native Americans, cowboys, horses, and athletes, he won the Best of Show Award at the Red River Revel Arts Festival in Shreveport, La., First Place at the Oklahoma Arts Festival, and the Patron’s Award at the Three Rivers Art Festival in Covington, La. He was commissioned to create a life-size sculpture of the late Walter Payton, the Columbia native and alltime leading rusher in the NFL. The sculpture was unveiled at Columbia High School’s Walter Payton Stadium at the beginning of the 2002 football season. Watts’ art can be viewed at the Southern Breeze Gallery in Jackson, at his studio in the Lampton Co. Building in Columbia, and at www.southernbreeze.net.

1981

Dr. Leo R. Trehern Jr., B.S. 1981, and Melissa Trehern, of Montgomery, Ala., have announced the July 6, 2001, birth of their daughter, Abigail.

1982

Richard D. “Dale” Shaw, M.B.A. 1982, of Jackson has been named the director of human resources for the Biloxi Regional Medical Center. A

past president of the Mississippi Hospital Association Society for Human Resources and a participant in the United Way loaned-executive program, he has served as the director of human resources for the Central Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson since 1997.

Claudia A. Ziegeler, B.A. 1982, M.B.A. 1983, of Miami is the business-development manager of the group-functions team for Volkswagen South America. She is responsible for interacting with Latin American markets, providing business-management consulting and strategy, and sales-network planning for all brands and markets in the Latin American region.

1983

Elizabeth Fargason, B.A. 1983, and Leonard “Len” Lewis Stanga of Jackson were married May 5, 2001, in Ridgeland. He is a videographer with Sights & Sounds in Ridgeland. She is the marketing director for Johnson Bailey Henderson McNeel Architects, JBHM Education Group, and JBHM Facility Resource Group, with offices in Columbus, Hattiesburg, Jackson, Southaven, and Tupelo.

William “Bill” M. Gist, B.S. 1983, and Linda Wood Gist, of Houston are the parents of Bennett McGowan, born May 21, 2001. He has two brothers, W. Cullen and Peyton Wood. Bill Gist is the manager-Gulf Coast supply at BP Energy Co. William D. “Doug” Mann Jr., B.S. 1983, of Jackson is an attorney with Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell in Jackson. He concentrates on bankruptcy and creditors’ rights.

George C. “Carroll” Todd Jr., B.A. 1983, of Memphis is president of the board of trustees for the Children’s Museum of Memphis. He is a financial adviser with Merrill Lynch.

1984 Jolene L. McCaleb, B.A. 1984, of Albuquerque, N.M., is senior partner

Sports Hall of Fame inductees At Homecoming, Millsaps hosted a Sports Hall of Fame brunch in the Robert and Dee Leggett Special Events Center. Those honored at the ceremony included, from left, Murray Meadows (B.B.A. 1992), Mike Frascogna, Dale Berry (B.A. 1980), Sammie Joe Glorioso (B.A. 1954), Thomas Clay Ranager (B.A. 1988), and Lucia DaSilveira (not pictured). in the law firm of Wolf, Taylor & McCaleb PA, in Albuquerque. She provides water law representation.

William S. “Scott” Stephens, B.S. 1984, of Memphis is the director of development and community outreach for Memphis Recovery Centers Inc.

1985

William “Bill” J. Baine, B.B.A. 1985, of San Antonio, Texas, has joined the litigation department of the international law firm of Fulbright & Jarworski LLP. He represents physicians, health maintenance organizations, and long-term care organizations, focusing on malpractice, nursing-home, and personal-injury cases.

F. Joseph Rein Jr., B.B.A. 1985, M.B.A. 1986, of Ridgeland has been promoted to first vice president and manager of corporate planning for Trustmark National Bank, Jackson.

1986

Olen M. “Mac” Bailey Jr., B.A. 1986, of Memphis is the president of Bailey Law Firm PC and a licensed attorney in Tennessee and Mississippi. He is active in his community, serving as the chairman and a board member of the Arthritis Foundation of West Tennessee, the president-elect of the Exchange Club of East Memphis, and

a board member of the Sea Isle Park Neighborhood Association.

Renee Coates Harrison, B.S. 1986, and Robert R. Harrison of Hazlehurst have announced the May 26, 2001, birth of their daughter, Heather Rhea.

Renee Harrison is an associate at Shannon Law Firm in Hazlehurst.

Virginia “Ginger” J. Joyner, B.A. 1986, and her husband, Brad Joyner, of Sallis opened the Attala Art Gallery & Studios in fall 2001. The gallery is located in her ancestral family home, a 1906 farmhouse built by her great-grandfather and renovated by the couple. Both Joyners are artists, creating and selling specialty items such as wheel-thrown and slabbuilt pottery, colored and scented art candles, and furniture.

Albert A. Labasse, B.A. 1986, M.B.A. 1989, of Houston is the project sales coordinator for Berg Steel Pipe Corp. in Houston.

Kay K. Regan, B.A. 1986, of Birmingham, Ala., is the regional sales director for Serono Labs, based in Boston.

1987

Carolyn S. Heard, B.B.A. 1987, of Natchez is the internal auditor for United Mississippi Bank in Natchez.

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’02

MAJOR NOTES Lynn Plimpton Ladner, B.B.A. 1987, of Jackson is an attorney with Watkins & Eager PLLC, where she specializes in pharmaceutical, medicaldevice, and general-product liability litigation. She has coordinated several statewide mock-trial competitions and helps aspiring law students by serving as a team coach for the national moot court competition at Mississippi College.

Edward L. Sanders, B.B.A. 1987, and Krista Sanders, of Columbus have announced the Oct. 16, 2001, birth of their son, McLin Duke.

1988

Dr. James “Jim” P. Coleman, B.S. 1988, of Belden has joined the emergency services department of the North Mississippi Medical Center in Ackerman. He received his M.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, where he completed his residency in family medicine.

Martha Campbell Cooke, B.B.A. 1988, and Jack Cooke of Jackson are the parents of Laura Collins, born April 19, 2001. She has two brothers, Jack and Campbell.

Carol Elizabeth “Beth” Rives de Gruy, B.A. 1988, of Jackson received the Federal Executive Association’s Federal Professional Employee of the Year 2002 Award for the Jackson/ Vicksburg area at a ceremony held May 7, 2002, at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Jackson.

She is a senior attorney with the Social Security Administration’s office of hearings and appeals.

David N. Welch, B.S. 1988, of Denmark, Maine, is the informationsystems director and membership director for the Lakes Environmental Association, located in Bridgton. The private, nonprofit organization was founded in 1970 to protect the water quality and watersheds of the SebagoLong Lake Region in western Maine.

Welch’s primary responsibilities include organizing, restructuring, and

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integrating the environmental association’s databases and mapmaking capabilities.

1989

Amy B. Alexander, B.A. 1989, of Amory has been selected as the Amory Middle School Teacher of the Year for the second consecutive year. She teaches seventh-grade language arts.

Brian K. Ayers, M.B.A. 1989, of Houston is the vice president and division manager for Samson Resources in Houston.

William C. “Chris” Crosby, B.B.A. 1989, of Germantown, Tenn., is the vice president of supply chain management for Mueller Industries in Memphis. The corporation is a worldwide manufacturer of copper tubing and fittings.

James P. “Page” Inman, B.B.A. 1989, M.B.A. 1991, of Memphis is the president of Inman Construction Corp.

One of the largest construction corporations in the region, the firm has erected buildings such as AutoZone Corp.’s World Headquarters, Clark Tower, and The Pyramid in Memphis.

Dr. David M. Laird, B.S. 1989, of Jackson, Tenn., is a surgeon with Jackson Surgical Associates.

Beth Smith Mikeska, B.B.A. 1989, and Mike Mikeska of Dallas are the parents of Anna Stokes, born June 13, 2001. She has one brother, Jack.

Jill Fowlkes Simmons, B.A. 1989, and Jack Simmons of Gulfport are the parents of Katherine Elizabeth, born June 3, 2001.

Jason W. Walenta, B.B.A. 1989, and Shanda Walenta, of Brandon are the parents of Samuel Joseph, born May 18, 2001. He has one brother, Jason William “Will” Jr. Jason is the account manager for Ethicon EndoSurgery, a division of Johnson & Johnson, based in Cincinnati.

William P. “Paul” Wilson, B.A. 1989,

of Columbus is a major in the U.S. Air Force. He works as a strategic airlift planner for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at Headquarters Air Mobility/Tanker Airlift Control Center at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, and on contingencies such as Operation Enduring Freedom.

1990

James G. “Bo” Chastain IV, M.B.A. 1990, of Whitfield received the Bradley A. Sanders Service Award at the 20th Annual Joint Mental Health/Mental Retardation Conference, held Nov. 1, 2001, at the Grand Bayview Resort in Biloxi. The award honors those who have made outstanding contributions to behavioral health-care management in Mississippi. Chastain is the director of the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield.

Lewis A. “Ashton” DeMent, B.B.A. 1990, of Decatur, Ala., is the business-development officer at Heritage Bank in Decatur.

Stephanie Richards Howard, B.A. 1990, of Blanca, Colo., has received a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Southern Mississippi. Her dissertation was entitled “Student Perceptions of Violence: An Exploratory Field Study.” She is in her sixth year as the principal of Sierra Grande High School, in Blanca.

Jonathan M. Jones, B.A. 1990, of Memphis has been named the director of business development for QualityLife Communities, a real estate development and consulting firm specializing in independent living communities for older adults.

Julia Bliton Kite-Powell, B.A. 1990, and Rufus Kite-Powell III, of Tampa, Fla., are the parents of Gavin Paul, born April 1, 2002. He has one brother, Graham.

Dr. Melissa C. Lang, 1990, and Harold E. Wilson of Woodstock, Ga., were married Oct. 25, 2001, in Lake

Tahoe, Calif. She is a school psychologist for the Cherokee County Board of Education. He is the director of business development at Object-io, an information-technology solutions firm in Atlanta.

Dr. Tiffany A. Merriman, B.A. 1990, and Scott M. Merriman of Seattle are the parents of Elizabeth Anne, born May 12, 2001. She has one brother, Will.

Jerry B. “Ben” Peavy, B.B.A. 1990, and Donna E. Peavy of Richland have announced the Jan. 9, 2001, birth of their son, Mason Elliott.

Dr. Sharon Stephenson, B.S. 1990, of Aspers, Pa., was selected as one of the 12 U.S. delegates to the International Conference on the Status of Women in Physics, held March 7-9, 2002, in Paris. The conference, organized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, brought together more than 300 physicists from 65 countries. Participants examined why so few women enter the field of physics and developed strategies for increasing their participation and impact. Stephenson is an assistant professor of physics at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pa. Her research takes her to the Triangle Universities Nuclear Lab on the campus of Duke University, as well as to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. She has a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from North Carolina State University.

Derek L. “Ric” Youngblood, B.A. 1990, of Laurel is the dean of business affairs at Jones County Junior College in Ellisville. He became a certified public accountant in 1995 and earned an M.B.A. from the University of Southern Mississippi in December 2001.

1991

Mary Margaret Dill Case, B.A. 1991, and Chad Erik Case of West Point are the parents of a daughter, Catherine “Kitty” Bryan, born Aug. 12, 2001.

Martin J. “Jimmy” Dempsey, B.S. 1991, of Ridgeland has been elected vice chairman of the moot court board at Mississippi College School of Law. To be elected, second-year students must prepare a brief and participate in several rounds of oral arguments. The final round of the intraschool competition, traditionally held in the State Capitol, is decided by judges from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Mississippi Supreme Court, U.S. District Courts, and the Mississippi Court of Appeals.

Based on their performance, 16 students are chosen as board members for the following year.

Ronna M. Jones, B.A. 1991, and Steven Jones, of Live Oak, Fla., are the parents of Garrett Steven, born April 10, 2002. He has one brother, Phillip Randall. Ronna Jones is a fulltime mother who taught in the Suwannee County School District for 10 years.

Holly Powell Lange, B.A. 1991, and John A. “Alan” Lange, B.A. 1993, M.B.A. 1996, of Jackson are the parents of John “Jake” Armisted, born Feb. 22, 2002. He has one brother, Ford. Alan is the vice president of development for Way2Smart, an online legal-training company.

Chandler C. Tipton, B.B.A. 1991, and Julie Tipton, 1993, of Vienna, Va., are the parents of a daughter, Sophie Merritt, born Nov. 29, 2001.

He is the chief knowledge officer in the tax and legal department of KPMG International in Washington, D.C. Christopher D. Webre, B.A. 1991, of Metairie, La., is a physical therapist for East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie.

Richard P. Weiss, B.A. 1991, M.B.A. 1994, of Jackson is a sales and marketing representative for Venture SystemSource.

1992

Donald W. Bates Jr., B.S. 1992, of Madison is the office manager and

director of environmental operations for the Mississippi office of Thompson Engineering. He has more than eight years of experience as a geologist.

Lia L. Bunch, B.A. 1992, of Trussville, Ala., is the ombudsman for Palmetto Government Benefits Administrators in Trussville.

Robert B. “Brian” Cooke, M.B.A. 1992, of New Albany is a specialty sales representative for KOS Pharmaceuticals Inc. in New Albany.

Dr. Jennifer J. Davis, B.S. 1992, of Jackson is the chief resident of internal medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Following her residency, she will pursue a three-year pulmonary fellowship at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Timothy “Tim” C. Howard, B.S. 1992, of Jackson was named the assistant district attorney for Lincoln County in October 2001. Howard is a graduate of Notre Dame University’s School of Law and holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University.

Prior to his current appointment, he worked as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate.

Robert “Rob” F. Jay, M.B.A. 1992, of Naples, Fla., is the corporate controller for Health Management Associates Inc. in Naples.

Timothy “Tim” F. Magandy, B.S. 1992, of Jackson is the operations manager for the Jackson State University e-Center, an e-commerce and technology organization. He and Becky Metz were married Nov. 26, 1994. They are the parents of William Porter, born Sept. 6, 2000.

Clinton C. McKinzie, B.A. 1992, of Denver has published his first in a series of novels with Delacorte Press, entitled The Edge of Justice. A rockclimbing thriller set in the mountains of Wyoming, McKinzie’s debut novel has received critical acclaim since its release in June 2002. The American Booksellers Association named it

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MAJOR NOTES among their top 10 mystery recommendations for summer 2002, and The Washington Post and USA Today listed it on their hot summer-mystery pick lists. The author spent the month of June on a nationwide book tour.

Mitzi A. Michaelson, B.B.A. 1992, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., is a financial adviser with Merrill Lynch in Brentwood, Tenn.

Dr. Joey Easom Rogers, B.S. 1992, of Collins is the owner of Rogers Dental Clinic in Collins. His wife, Woodson, a registered dental hygienist, works with him. He became the sole practitioner of the clinic after his father retired in 1995. Active in his community, he offers annual dental exams for first-grade students at Hopewell Elementary School and at area health fairs. As the chairman of the Covington County Chamber of Commerce’s beautification committee, he works with local schools to promote anti-litter and recycling programs. He also teaches courses in dental hygiene at Pearl River Community College.

Shawn L. Shelton, B.S. 1992, of Brandon has completed certification as a personal trainer through the American Council on Exercise and the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Since May 2001, she has worked as a contract trainer with the Courthouse Racquet & Fitness Club in Jackson. She is a financial analyst at SkyTel. Cynthia Clark Wilkinson, B.S. 1992, of Romney, W. Va., is the senior physical therapist at Physiotherapy Associates in Winchester, Va. She and Bill Wilkinson were married April 21, 2001, in Jackson.

1993 Tanya G. Brieger, M.B.A. 1993, of Ridgeland has been named the director of enrollment services for the Belhaven College Aspire Program, an accelerated degree program for adult students.

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Matthew M. Crosby, B.B.A. 1993, of Memphis was named the first vice president of capital markets at the National Bank of Commerce in Memphis.

Russell E. Dorris, B.L.S. 1993, of Brandon is the DeSoto County road manager. He is responsible for maintenance and upkeep of roads, bridges, signs, striping, and road-drainage structures in the county. He has 15 years of road-management experience, with five in Madison County.

Laura Ladner Harwell, B.S. 1993, of Lewisville, N.C., is a national boardcertified teacher in the Forsyth County School District.

David S. “Scott” Maddox, B.S. 1993, of Asheville, N.C., is a senior sales representative for Sta-Rite Industries in Asheville.

Ronald “Ron” G. Selby, M.B.A. 1993, and Laura Zepponi Selby, of Indianola are the parents of John Luther, born March 23, 2002. Ron Selby is a sales representative for Aventis Pharmaceuticals.

1994 Christy Sigman Burch, B.A. 1994, of Franklin, Tenn., is an occupational therapist with Foundations Treatment Center in Nashville.

Mary Robin Coggin, B.S. 1994, of Brookhaven works at Brookhaven Academy, where she teaches seventhgrade grade science and K-5 computer science. She also coaches varsity fast-pitch softball and seventh-grade girls’ basketball.

Laura Santoro Flynn, B.B.A. 1994, of Dallas is the business/design analyst for The Software Group in Plano, Texas.

Jeremy D. Goux, B.S. 1994, of Mandeville, La., is a self-employed attorney in Mandeville.

Thomas “Tom” O. Metcalfe III, B.L.S. 1994, of Madison has invented a device to protect children’s hearing.

Labeled “The Kid’sEarSaver,” the device permanently attaches to headphones and reduces the volume of any connected sound device, such as a CD or DVD player, computer, or stereo.

Metcalfe is a full-time industrial-supply salesman.

Christopher “Chris” F. Minshew, B.B.A. 1994, M.B.A. 1995, of Carthage has been promoted to administrative services manager at Dancing Rabbit Golf Club in Philadelphia, Miss.

Elizabeth F. Brigden Smith, B.A. 1994, and Jeffrey Smith of Mableton, Ga., were married July 21, 2001, in Atlanta.

Cynthia D. “Dee” Weems, B.A. 1994, of Kansas City, Kan., and Amauri Franca da Silva of Sao Paulo, Brazil, were married Nov. 24, 2001.

They live in Kansas City.

Brent E. Wilson, B.B.A. 1994, of Ridgeland has been named vice president of operations for the YMCA of Metropolitan Jackson.

1995 William “Billy” A. Morehead, M.Acc. 1995, of Cleveland has been named the vice president for finance at Delta State University. Since August 2000, he has served as an instructor of accountancy in the Delta State College of Business.

James “Jim” O. Nelson, M.B.A. 1995, of Madison has been named the assistant secretary of state for business regulation and enforcement. He returns to the secretary of state’s office following three years as associate state council for First American Title Insurance Co. He previously served as the assistant secretary of state for public lands.

Brent E. Sheppard, B.S. 1995, M.B.A. 1999, of Memphis is a sales representative in the college division of Prentice Hall Publishing. His wife, Emily E. Mayo Sheppard, B.S. 1997, is studying dentistry at the University of Tennessee.

Kenzie Walter Winstead, B.A. 1995, and Ray Winstead of Silver City are the parents of Hatten Hill, born Sept.

1, 2001. He has one brother, Cole.

1996 Diane L. “Lea” Barton, B.L.S. 1996, of Flora exhibited her latest art collection, “Paradox in Paradise,” at the University of Mississippi in Oxford through Aug. 25, 2002. The 19 multimedia works explore issues such as gender, class, and racism in the South through media ranging from paint to watermelon rinds. Barton received her M.F.A. from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. Cara Strickland Buckner, B.B.A. 1996, M.B.A. 1997, and Randy Buckner, of Destrehan, La., were married Nov. 10, 2001, in New Orleans. Both are certified public accountants with LaPorte, Serht, Romig & Hand in Metairie, La. Angela A. Davis, B.S. 1996, of Lafayette, La., is a geologist for Fugro GeoServices in Lafayette.

Victor C. Fettes, M.B.A. 1996, and Jennifer Fettes, of The Woodlands, Texas, are the parents of Caroline Lorrain, born May 7, 2002. She has one brother, Christopher. Victor is the associate director of finance for Verizon Wireless in Houston.

Christina M. Finzel, B.A. 1996, of Atlanta graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School on June 6, 2002.

She is a law clerk for the Honorable Charles A. Pannell, a U.S. District Court Judge, in Atlanta.

Cora Elizabeth Gee, B.A. 1996, of Jackson serves as the administrator of the Governor’s Mansion. Her duties vary from maintaining Governor Ronnie Musgrove’s day planner to calling for repairs. She began her work as an intern in the Governor’s Office in January 1996.

Lester “Les” A. Lala III, B.B.A. 1996, of Biloxi is a senior sales professional at Sanofi-Synthelabo

2001-02 Livesay Award winners During the annual Millsaps College Awards Dinner held Feb. 21, 2002, in Jackson, alumni Daniel T. Keel (1984) of Memphis, Dr. Vonda Reeves-Darby (1978) of Jackson, and Leila Clark Wynn of Greenville were presented with the Jim Livesay Award, which honors the spirit of commitment in which the late Jim Livesay served the College as an alumnus, a member of the College administration, and a volunteer.

Keel sits on the advisory board of the Millsaps Else School of Management and also serves on and has recently accepted a position as chair of the Millsaps Planned Giving Daniel T. Keel Advisory Group. An active M-Club member, he has hosted Millsaps Sports Nights for prospective students with the Office of Admissions. He has also worked with the Office of Alumni Relations to foster increased alumni activities in the Memphis area, where he is a managing director of the Equity Capital Markets Group at Morgan Keegan & Co. Reeves-Darby has been a supporter of the College during four years of service on the Millsaps Alumni Council and as a member of the council’s executive committee. As a chair of the alumni council career-development committee, ReevesDarby helped plan the first and second annual alumni networking dinners, at which alumni meet with current students to answer questions and give career advice. Her impact as a Dr. Vonda Reeves-Darby role model for students was also highlighted during the inaugural Millsaps Medical Connections weekend in spring 2001. A gastroenterologist and the mother of four, Reeves-Darby is a strong supporter of the new Millsaps Faith & Work Initiative, which is devoted to helping Millsaps students find and explore their calling in life.

Wynn joined the Millsaps Board of Trustees in 1986, where she served as co-chair of the academic affairs committee. Upon the expiration of her term as a trustee, Wynn was named a life trustee, an honor currently held by only a handful of Millsaps devotees. She has been instrumental in supporting the Millsaps Straddlefork Lectures and the Writer in Residence program, and she has also hosted prospective students in her home. In addition to her work at the College, Leila Clark Wynn Wynn serves as chair of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation, director of the Greenville Community Counseling Center, and Trustee of the Mississippi Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

Pharmaceuticals. He was also the 1999 World Skeet Champion.

Hite C. “Colby” Lane, B.S. 1996, of Arlington, Va., is an attorney with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C. Robert P. “Pratt” Lewis, M.B.A. 1996, of Greenville is a management trainee with Guaranty Bank and Trust Co. in Greenville.

Reneé Gober McGill, B.A. 1996, and Derek McGill of Corinth have announced the Oct. 6, 2001, birth of their daughter, Sarah Anne.

Katherine “Kathy” Kemp Parker, B.A. 1996, of Jackson is an attorney with Ingram & Associates of Hattiesburg. She was admitted to the Mississippi Bar on Sept. 26, 2001, and the Tennessee Bar on Nov. 13, 2001.

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MAJOR NOTES Ginger A. Webster, B.A 1996, and Dr. Winston S. “Scott” Webster, B.S. 1997, of Rochester, Minn., are the parents of John “Jack” Keller, born Dec. 20, 2001.

1997

Halley A. Austin, B.A. 1997, of San Antonio, Texas, is the logistics manager at Menlo Logistics.

Elizabeth M. Dyer, B.B.A. 1997, of Memphis is a financial analyst with FedEx. Kristen McRae Fowler, B.S. 1997, of Jackson is the director of operations for U.S. NetworX. Dr. Jon A. “Ashley” Hansford, B.S. 1997, of Madisonville, Ky., earned a doctor of physical therapy degree from Belmont University in Nashville on Aug. 10, 2001. The recipient of the academic excellence award for the class of 2001, he is now a physical therapist with Trover Foundation Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation in Madisonville.

Phillip “Phil” L. Hartness, B.S. 1997, of Starkville is a financial adviser associate with American Express Financial Advisers in Starkville. A member of Phi Eta Sigma honorary society, he is active in organizations such as Ducks Unlimited, Toys for Tots, the Special Olympics, and Habitat for Humanity.

Amy Petro Hopping, B.A. 1997, of Madison has been promoted to human resources manager for Cypress Pharmaceutical, where she has worked for three years.

Dr. William T. “Todd” Lewis, B.S. 1997, of Biloxi received a doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from the University of Health Sciences in Kansas City, Mo., on June 2, 2002.

He is a resident in urological surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Rebecca “Becky” G. Long Maggiotto, B.A. 1997, and Michael

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Maggiotto of Alvaton, Ky., are the parents of Richard Ramsey, born Sept. 26, 2001. He has one brother, Anthony.

Kelsey H. Mitchell, B.A. 1997, of Vicksburg was honored by the Delta Business Journal as one of the top 50 businesswomen of the Delta. She is the director of marketing at Pemberton Square Mall in Vicksburg.

Dr. Jennifer L. Mosley, B.S. 1997, of Meridian received an M.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine on May 24, 2002. She began a residency in internal medicine at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville on July 1, 2002.

Dr. Simon W. “Wayne” Murphy Jr., B.S. 1997, of Madison received an M.D. from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans on May 18, 2002. He began a residency in anesthesiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in July 2002. He and Laurie Bradford were married Feb. 16, 2002, in New Orleans.

William “Billy” H. Redd, M.B.A. 1997, of Madison is the president and chief executive officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Mississippi, based in Jackson. The nonprofit organization, which celebrated 65 years of service to the community in 2001, serves 3,600 children ages 6 to 18 in six locations.

Dr. Carla D. Webb, B.S. 1997, of Watertown, Mass., received a D.M.D. degree from the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry on May 19, 2001. At Honors Convocation, she received the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology Award; the American Association of Endodontists Award; the Waterpik Prosthodontic Award; and the AmSouth Bank Award/ Scholarship. She was inducted into the Omicron Kappa Upsilon National Dental Honor Society and the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society. She is a resident in endodon-

Conerly named 2001-02 alumnus of the year

tics at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston.

Heather B. Wiggins, M.B.A. 1997, is the financial administrator for John J. McMullen Associates in Pascagoula.

1998

Laura Ford Benfield, B.A. 1998, of Memphis received a master’s degree in mass communications from the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia in December 2001. She is the coordinator of alumni programs and special events at the University of Memphis.

David S. Fontenot, B.B.A. 1998, M.B.A. 1999, of Germantown, Tenn., is the portfolio manager for Stanford Financial Group.

April A. Harris, B.S. 1998, of Jackson received an M.S. in counseling and education from Loyola University.

She is the specialist in foreignlanguage, library-media, businesstechnology, and advanced-placement curricula for the Mississippi Department of Education in Jackson.

Stacey S. Martin, M.Acc. 1998, of Brandon, a certified public accountant, is a senior accountant with the Jackson office of Smith, Turner & Reeves.

Ashley E. McDonnell, B.B.A. 1998, of Nashville is pursuing an M.B.A. at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.

Jana E. Nye, B.A. 1998, of Amory graduated from the Mississippi College School of Law on May 10, 2002. She is a law clerk for Chief Judge Roger McMillan at the Mississippi Court of Appeals.

Kathleen R. Robbins, B.A. 1998, of Greenwood was the featured artist in a photography exhibit hosted by the Greenville Arts Council at the Wetherbee House in spring 2002. Her work uses images of her family’s cotton plantation to explore the connec-

Dr. A. W. “Wally” Conerly of Jackson has been named the 2002 Alumnus of the Year in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the medical profession, the state of Mississippi, and Millsaps College. Established in 1950, the award is presented annually to an alumnus who exemplifies leadership in his or her chosen field, church, and community.

Conerly, who received a bachelor of science degree Conerly has had a “tremendous with honors from Millsaps in impact” on Mississippi medicine.

1957, was presented with the award on Feb. 21, 2002, at the annual College Awards Dinner.

A Tylertown native, Conerly earned his medical degree in 1960 at Tulane University. Conerly also completed special training at the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas and served in the U.S. Air Force for six years. After completing a fellowship in medicine in the section of cardiology at Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans, Conerly spent a residency in medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he served as the Mississippi Lung Association fellow in pulmonary disease from 1972 to 1974.

tion between landscape and psyche in the Mississippi Delta. She received an M.F.A. from the University of New Mexico and has been exhibited in Mississippi, Tennessee, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Sandra G. Tabor, M.B.A. 1998, of Tampa, Fla., is an adjunct faculty member at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, where she is teaching marketing and management.

1999

Gregory “Greg” D. Butler, M.B.A. 1999, of Ellisville is a participant in the 12th class of Leadership Jones County, an organization providing monthly sessions on community involvement, social issues, government, education, and team building for area leaders. Members undertake projects designed to benefit the community while enhancing their leader-

A professor, Conerly specializes in chest medicine and critical care. He was the medical director of respiratory therapy at University Hospital for 21 years and served the health sciences campus as director of the Division of Continuing Health Professional Education from 1979 to 1993.

Conerly currently serves as the vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the school of medicine at UMC. He served for 13 years as the assistant vice chancellor for health affairs before his current appointment in 1994.

“Dr. Conerly has had a tremendous impact on public health in Mississippi and health legislation on a national scale,” said Millsaps President Frances Lucas-Tauchar. “He is the driving force behind the largest expansion of UMC in its history, and he has broadened the institution’s research base.

We are proud of Dr. Conerly and how he has used his Millsaps education to better the lives of others.”

A member of more than a dozen professional organizations, Conerly is a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and the Mississippi State Medical Association. He has served on the boards of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Red Cross, the Rotary Club of Jackson, Health Futures, and the Capital Area United Way. He currently serves on the boards of the Metro Jackson Chamber of Commerce, Junior Achievement, and the Jackson Medical Education District. Conerly was also named the Mississippi ambassador to the United Nations Association at an October 2001 ceremony on the Millsaps campus. Conerly is married to Millsaps alumna Frances Bryan Conerly, who graduated cum laude in 1958 with a degree in mathematics.

ship skills. Butler is the director of the small-business development center at Jones Junior College.

Jason S. Catlin, B.B.A. 1999, of Madison is the Web manager at SkyHawke Technologies LLC, in Ridgeland.

William “Bill” H. Fulcher Jr., M.B.A. 1999, of Vicksburg has been named to the advisory board for Britton and Koontz First National Bank in Vicksburg. He is the administrator for Mission Primary Care Clinic and serves as the chairman of the board of West Mississippi Home Health Service.

Megan A. Glidewell, B.A. 1999, of Savannah, Ga., is the assistant to the dean of undergraduate studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

John G. Green, M.B.A. 1999, of Las Vegas is a research assistant at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in civil engineering.

Stephanie LeBlanc, B.B.A. 1999, of Baton Rouge, La., is a marketing assistant at Community Coffee Co. in Baton Rouge.

Misty A. Leon, B.S. 1999, of Arlington, Va., graduated magna cum laude from the Washington and Lee University School of Law in 2002.

She was inducted into the Order of the Coif, a law school honorary. She began work as an associate at Alston and Bird LLP in Washington, D.C., in September 2002.

Katharine D. McKee, B.S. 1999, of Jackson graduated from the

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MAJOR NOTES University of Mississippi School of Law on Dec. 20, 2001, and was admitted to the Mississippi Bar Association in April 2002. She is a law clerk for Mississippi Supreme Court Justice George C. Carlson Jr. Wayne S. “Scott” Naugle, M.L.S. 1999, of Pass Christian is executive vice president of agency administration at Stewart Sneed Hewes/BancorpSouth Insurance.

Based in Gulfport, it is one of the 100 largest insurance agencies in the United States. Naugle joined the agency in 1999 as vice president for agency administration. He has earned the certified insurance counselor designation and is completing requirements for the chartered property casualty underwriter designation. He has written for various insurance publications and has taught CPCU Society classes.

Charles A. “Andrew” Sanders, M.B.A. 1999, of Memphis is the portfolio analyst with First Tennessee Bank in Memphis.

Lauren Stamps, B.S. 1999, of Lakewood, Colo., and Jimmy Wayne Mull were married May 25, 2002, in Slidell, La. She is the office manager for the Rocky Mountain division of Barton Beers in Denver.

2000

Bradley Bennett, B.B.A. 2000, M.Acc. 2001, of Baldwyn has joined the assurance practice of KPMG LLP in Jackson.

Mary Lambdin Haney, B.B.A. 2000, of Madison received a certified public accountant license in January 2002.

She is employed with Horne CPA Group, where she was promoted in November 2001 to senior associate in the business valuation/litigation support group.

April D. McGreger, B.S. 2000, of Chapel Hill, N.C., is pursuing an M.S. degree in geological sciences at

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IN MEMORIAM Robert “Rob” N. Anderson Jr., 1972, of Jackson died May 9, 2002.

Originally from West Point, he was a real estate facilities manager. While at Millsaps, he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order.

St. Paddy Party President Frances Lucas-Tauchar with a dozen members of The Group at the 2002 St. Patrick's Day parade in Jackson. The Group comprises 19 women who entered Millsaps in 1966, bonded as freshmen, and have a tradition of reuniting every five years. the University of North CarolinaChapel Hill, where she works as a teaching assistant and research assistant. Her master’s thesis is a seismological investigation of Stromboli Volcano in Italy, where she spent May 2001 collecting data.

Steven A. Scott, B.S. 2000, of New Orleans is pursuing a master’s degree in American history at the University of New Orleans.

2001

Sharon C. Butler, M.B.A. 2001, and Mike Butler of Jackson are the parents of Leila-Ann, born Sept. 25, 2001.

Benjamin “Ben” A. Witt, B.A. 2001, and Amanda Leigh Coody, B.S. 2002, of Dallas were married July 27, 2002, in West Monroe, La. He is pursuing an M.S. in applied geography at the University of North Texas in Denton, concentrating his studies in archaeology. She is pursuing an M.D. at Southwestern Medical School, Dallas.

Kelli L. Crossland, B.B.A. 2001, of Atherton, Calif., is the reservations coordinator and tour manager for Stanford University’s travel/study programs. She accompanies Stanford alumni on three to four international tours each year. In December 2001, she hosted a trip to Paris, and in April

2002 she led a group to Peru for a cruise down the Amazon.

Sarah C. Dees, B.A. 2001, of Oxford was crowned Queen Ixolib by the Gulf Coast Carnival Association in February 2002. She is a student at the University of Mississippi School of Law, where she is a member of the American Bar Association, the Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association, the Law Association for Women, Delta Theta Phi, and the Christian Legal Society. Her community involvement includes working with Les Masques and serving as a leader for the Children’s International Summer Villages.

Margaret M. Peaster, M.B.A. 2001, of Jackson has joined the firm of Matthews, Cutrer and Lindsay PA, in Ridgeland. She specializes in taxation and auditing.

2002 Shane A. Hard, B.B.A. 2002, of Biloxi is a prime-time teller for AmSouth Bank in Jackson. He is pursuing an M.B.A. at Millsaps.

Mary Lillian Barrett, 1951, of Pensacola, Fla., died June 12, 2002. A Jackson native, she was a homemaker and a member of Christ United Methodist Church of Jackson. She later attended Pine Summit Baptist Church in Pensacola.

Stacel Barney Boan, B.A. 1965, of Indian Harbour, Fla., died Nov. 2, 2001. A mathematics teacher at Satellite High School in Brevard County, Fla., she was a member of the National Council of Teachers of Math. She had attended Mississippi University for Women prior to Millsaps, and later received a master’s degree from the University of Mississippi. She was a member of Eastminster Presbyterian Church. At Millsaps, she was a member of Phi Mu sorority, Eta Sigma Phi, and Alpha Psi Omega honorary.

Sammie “Sam” T. Boleware, B.S. 1952, of Brandon died May 28, 2002.

A retired regional sales manager for the Ohio River Co., he had also worked for the Illinois Central Railroad for 26 years. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1946 and served 18 months touring the Middle East and Asia on the U.S.S. Toledo. He was an active parishioner of St. Peter’s bythe-Lake Episcopal Church in Brandon. At Millsaps, he was a member of Delta Kappa Delta honorary and Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Robert “Jack” Brantley Jr., 1973, of Jackson died Nov. 15, 2001. A Jackson native and local attorney for over 20 years, he graduated from the University of Mississippi School of

Law. He was a member of Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church.

While at Millsaps, he was a member of the varsity football team.

Dr. Cal W. Bullock Jr., B.S. 1963, of Jackson died March 12, 2002. A dentist, he had attended the University of Tennessee Dental School before serving in the U.S. Army Dental Corps at Mainz, Germany, for three years. He practiced dentistry in Jackson until his retirement in 1984. An active member of the Professional Dental Organization, he taught courses at the University of Mississippi’s Dental Hygiene School. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

Joan Terry Case, B.A. 1964, of Bogue Chitto died Nov. 14, 2001. The vice president and corporate secretary for Casca Products Co., she had a master’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi. She taught fourth grade in the Natchez school system from 1964 to 1968. At Millsaps, she was a member of the Millsaps Singers and the Millsaps Players.

Neal W. Cirlot, B.S. 1938, of Moss Point died Feb. 7, 2002. He was retired from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, where he had worked as the public relations director for 27 years. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1942 to 1943 and the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945. An active volunteer, he was a member of numerous civic and public relations organizations. Following retirement, he served as the chairman of the Moss Point Historical Committee and managed Griffin Cemetery. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Sigma Rho Chi. David Terence Cobb, B.S. 1973, of Jackson died Jan. 3, 2002. A native of

St. Helen’s, England, he was a graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law and had practiced law in Jackson since 1984. He served as a director of the Better Business Bureau, was the president of the Jackson Futbol Club, and served as a lector at St. Richard’s Catholic Church.

Lady N. Gill Corban, B.A. 1957, of Rolling Fork died Oct. 13, 2001. A retired schoolteacher who had taught for 27 years, she was an active member of First United Methodist Church of Rolling Fork and participated in several community organizations.

While at Millsaps, she was a member of Kappa Delta Epsilon honorary, the Millsaps Singers, and Wesley.

Betty Nelson Crisler, 1953, of Clinton died May 10, 2002. A longtime homemaker, she was a member of numerous civic organizations, including Le Midi Luncheon Club, the Magnolia Extension Homemakers Club, the Jackson Music Association, the Newtarrian Club, and the Women’s Auxiliary of the Homebuilders’ Association. For more than 35 years, she was a member of First United Methodist Church of Clinton, where she was active in church circles and service organizations. At Millsaps, she was a member of Kappa Delta sorority.

Charles Thomas Ellington, B.A. 1955, of Forest died Feb. 2, 2002. A retired finance director for the Jackson Public Schools, he had retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of major in the 492nd Civil Affairs Unit.

He was a member of Masonic Lodge No. 619.

Kenneth P. Faust, B.A. 1940, of Hattiesburg died Jan. 27, 2002. A retired chairman of the chemistry department at the Mississippi Gulf

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’02

Coast Community College at Perkinston, he had taught chemistry there for more than 25 years. After graduating from Millsaps, he attended graduate school at the University of Southern Mississippi and taught high school for three years. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Alpha Epsilon Delta honorary.

Ernest Williams Graves, 1947, of Laurel died April 21, 2002. A retired attorney, he was a partner in the law firm of Gibbs, Graves Attorneys until his retirement in 1991. He completed his law degree at the University of Mississippi School of Law. While a practicing attorney, he served as the president of the Mississippi Bar Association, the Mississippi Bar Foundation, the Jones County Bar Association, the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association, and the University of Mississippi Law Alumni. He was a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers and was listed in The Best Lawyers in America in 1991. After retiring, he taught classes in legal research and terminology at Jones County Junior College. The author of five books of nostalgic essays exploring the history of the Jones County area, he was also an accomplished actor and founding member of the Laurel Little Theatre.

He was an active member of First United Methodist Church of Laurel, where he taught Sunday school for more than 45 years. A member of the U.S. Navy during World War II, he served on the U.S.S. Juneau while enrolled in the U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School. He attended Millsaps as part of the Navy V-12 program and was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order.

Rev. Robert M. Huffman, B.A. 1960, of Hattiesburg died Feb. 8, 2002. A retired United Methodist minister, he served 22 churches during his 40 years in the Mississippi Conference, with appointments at Mount Olive, Long Beach First UMC, Columbia First UMC, and St. Luke’s UMC of Jackson. He also served on many dis-

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trict and conference boards and committees and was an active volunteer in the Boy Scouts of America.

George E. Kilmer, 1945, of El Paso, Texas, died June 14, 2002. A retired assistant vice president for Mutual Federal Savings & Loan Association of El Paso, he had attended the University of Oklahoma. He was an active volunteer in the Little League and the United Fund Drive and served as a local chapter president of the U.S. Savings & Loan Institute. He attended Millsaps as part of the Navy V-12 officer training program. He also played varsity football and was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity.

John Breckenridge “Breck” King Jr., 1958, of Jackson died June 17, 2002.

After graduating from the University of Mississippi, he served the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany.

While at Millsaps, he was a member of the varsity golf team and the Kappa Alpha Order.

Marie Grubbs Frantz-Murphy, B.A. 1944, of Garland, Texas, died Dec. 19, 2001. She owned and managed Frantz Properties in Garland and began her career as a copywriter for WHOC in Philadelphia. In Garland, she was active in the community, serving as a member of the Garland Women’s Activities Association, the Garland Book Review Club, and the American Association of University Women.

She was a president of the PTA and the Newcomer’s Club, as well as serving as an alumni adviser for Kappa Delta sorority. While at Millsaps, she was a member of the debate team, the Millsaps Players, Kappa Delta Epsilon honorary, Pi Kappa Delta, Sigma Lamda honorary, and Kappa Delta sorority. She was also involved in student publications such as the Bobashela and the Purple & White.

John W. Godbold, B.A. 1939, of Shalimar, Fla., died Jan. 5, 2002. He was a World War II veteran, civil service officer, and university instructor. After graduation from Millsaps,

he joined the U.S. Army as a buck private and was stationed throughout the South. After World War II, he joined the Civil Service Commission in Atlanta, later serving as a regional director in St. Louis, Mo. He also joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve, retiring as a lieutenant colonel following active duty in Korea. In 1960, he became the senior personnel director for the newly formed Federal Aviation Agency in Washington, D.C. Following his retirement from the FAA, he joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi. He then moved to George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., where he was instrumental in establishing the master’s degree program in public administration. The John W. Godbold Scholarship in Public Administration was established there in his honor.

Upon his retirement he traveled extensively and served as a consultant for U.S. government agencies. At Millsaps, he was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa honorary and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

Steven Campbell Hull, B.E. 1983, of Scooba died Oct. 15, 2001. A basketball coach for 18 years, he spent the last five as the head men’s coach at East Mississippi Community College.

He also coached at high schools in D’Iberville and Columbus. After working in Florida as an umpire in professional baseball, he returned to Mississippi as an assistant basketball coach at Delta State University. He later served as the head basketball coach at West Lauderdale High School, where he led the team to four consecutive 20-win seasons and two state runner-up titles. At Millsaps, he played basketball and was a member of the varsity baseball team.

Johnny E. Jabour, B.A. 1950, of Vicksburg died Feb. 26, 2002. A lifelong resident of Vicksburg, he was a successful real estate developer and businessman whose projects included many residential and commercial landmarks. Following graduation from Millsaps, he attended the

University of Mississippi School of Law. His many accomplishments include service as the president of the Warren County Board of Realtors and the Mississippi State Board of Realtors, and the chairman of the Mississippi Real Estate Commission.

He was named to the National Board of Realtors in Washington, D.C., as well as to Who’s Who in the Worldwide Registry of Global Businessmen. Jabour was nationally acclaimed for his achievements in real estate development, receiving the Better Homes & Gardens National Real Estate Developer of the Year Award, the National Homes Foundation’s Blue Ribbon Home Award, and the Mississippi Historic Foundation’s Historical Heritage Award in Architecture. He was a member of St. George Orthodox Church, the Vicksburg Country Club, the Vicksburg Jaycees, and the Rotary Club. At Millsaps, he participated in student government, was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, was elected Major Millsaps, and was named to Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.

Rev. Claude W. Johnson Jr., B.A. 1949, of Crystal Springs died Oct. 13, 2001. A retired minister in the United Methodist Conference, he graduated from Boston Theological Seminary and went on to serve churches in Coffeeville, Amory, Okolona, Lula, and Tutwiler. During his career, he served as the secretary-treasurer of the North Mississippi UMC, worked extensively with the Mississippi Methodist Historical Society, and served with the Mississippi Methodist Bicentennial Commission. In 1998, he received the Tobias Gibson Award for outstanding service during his tenure, and was recognized in summer 2001 for his 50-year membership in the UMC. At Millsaps, he was a member of Alpha Epsilon Delta honorary, Eta Sigma Phi honorary, and the Ministerial League.

Dr. Phyllis Hayes Lanier, B.S. 1963, of Magnolia died June 24, 2002. A

Charlotte Murray Pace: Cherished friend and role model Charlotte Murray Pace, B.S. 2000, died May 31, 2002, at her home in Baton Rouge. A native of Jackson, Pace was a student at Louisiana State University. She was named to the Dean’s List at Millsaps, was a member of the Beta Alpha Psi accounting honorary fraternity, and had participated in the Millsaps International Business Program, studying in London, Paris, Munich, and Prague. She was a varsity athlete and served as co-captain of the Millsaps women’s soccer team during her junior and senior years. She was also a member of the Millsaps Athletic Advisory Committee. Pace earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting from Millsaps and was the youngest graduating MBA in her class at Louisiana State University in May 2002.

She served for two years on the Millsaps Student Senate and was a member of Kappa Delta sorority, where she served as alumni relations chair and rush co-chairman. She participated in many philanthropic activities, including mentorship of inner-city children, volunteering at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center, building houses for Habitat for Humanity, serving meals at Stewpot, and fund-raising to benefit the victims of child abuse. At the time of her death, Pace was slated to begin her career as an internal auditor with the Enterprise Risk Services practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP in Atlanta.

Classmates, friends, and family have established a scholarship in her name. “If I could tell the future recipients of Murray’s memorial scholarship one thing, I would tell them that Murray was defined by her choices,” said her friend and fellow Millsaps alumnus Hayes Bryant (B.B.A. 2000). “Her choice to graduate early from high school and pursue a college degree, her choice to add sports to an already demanding academic schedule, and her choice to transcend cultural and social boundaries to include hundreds of people in her circle of friends. None of these choices made her life easier, but they made it more worthwhile. It is that young person’s choice, now, whether or not to expand her own horizons with the opportunity that has been given her.” retired chemistry instructor at Copiah-Lincoln Junior College, where she had chaired the science division, she earned an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi and an educational specialist degree from the University of Mississippi. She won the 2001 Alumna of the Year Award from Southwest Mississippi Community College and received numerous professional awards throughout her career, including the Phi Theta Kappa Faculty Scholar Award, Outstanding Instructor of the Year at Copiah-Lincoln, the Chemical Manufacturer’s Association of America Excellence in Teaching Award, and the Mississippi Academy of Science Outstanding Instructor. In

1993, she was named in USA Today as one of only 50 community college instructors in North America to receive an Excellence Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development. The author of several professional publications and a chemistry laboratory manual, she also published the book Dorothy Laura in 1987, which chronicled her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Lanier was a member of the Amite County Farm Bureau, the American Quarter Horse Association, the South Pike-Magnolia Area Chamber of Commerce, and numerous professional honoraria, including Phi Theta Kappa and Kappa Delta Phi. She was a member of Gillsburg Baptist Church. While at

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IN MEMORIAM Millsaps, she was a member of the Baptist Student Union and Alpha Epsilon Delta honorary.

Helen Ball Lee, 1923, of Pearl died Dec. 1, 2001. She spent most of her life in Jackson, but lived in Washington, D.C., while her husband was in charge of claims with the U.S. House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee. She was a member of Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church, Eastern Star, the Gavel Club, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Amity Luncheon Club, and the Wednesday Bridge Luncheon Club. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Kappa Delta sorority.

Robert “Bob” E. Luckett, B.A. 1967, of Florence died Feb. 5, 2002. A career educator fondly remembered for his dedication to students, he had served for 19 years as the principal of Richland High School. He worked most recently as the director of special projects for the Rankin County School District and chaired the Mississippi Secondary Committee of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. He received a M.Ed. degree from Mississippi College, a specialist’s certificate from the University of Southern Mississippi, and did additional graduate work at Jackson State University and Mississippi State University. He completed principals’ institutes at Millsaps and Harvard University, and was a visiting Fulbright educator in Cameroon in 1980. He began his career in 1967 as a history teacher at Wingfield High School in Jackson, then became an assistant principal at Jim Hill High School in 1971. He served as the principal of St. Joseph High School from 1973 to 1981, before moving to Richland High School. Luckett was named the High School Principal of the Year for Mississippi in 1997 by Met Life/National Association of Secondary School Principals. He served on the board of directors for the Mississippi Association of

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Secondary School Principals and the Mississippi Association of School Administrators. He coordinated the Mississippi/German Principal Exchange Program for the state secondary principals association and was a member of the international programs committee of the national association. He was an active member of St. Peter’s Catholic Church, where he served as a eucharistic minister, lector, and had been a member of the parish council. He and his wife, Jeanne, B.A. 1966, served as foster parents for 16 children over the years. While at Millsaps, he participated in athletics and was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Kathryn “Kathy” L. Lehmann Matheny, B.S. 1964, of Natchez died Nov. 3, 2001. A medical technologist at Natchez Pathology Laboratory, she completed training and licensure at Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans. She had also taught high school biology and chemistry at Trinity Episcopal Day School. She was a member of First Presbyterian Church, the Pilgrimage Garden Club, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists. She was also a past secretary/treasurer of the Natchez chapter of Habitat for Humanity. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Phi Mu sorority.

James I. Lundy Jr., 1935, of Greenwood died March 9, 2002. He was a retired Leflore County farmer, World War II veteran, and cotton magnate. After graduating from Mississippi State University, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and served as a first sergeant in Great Britain and on the European continent. Following WWII and for the next 40 years, he and his brother farmed cotton and soybeans and raised cattle at Bonita Plantation, southwest of Sidon. As the commissioner of the Abiaca Drainage District, he helped provide for the maintenance of levees that protected Holmes County and parts of Leflore County from spring flooding. He served as the director and secretary-treasurer of the Leco Gin Co. in Sidon. Lundy was a member of numerous civic organizations, including the Delta Council, the Mississippi Cattlemen’s Association, the Leflore County Board of Education, the Sidon Lions Club, and the Greenwood Elk’s Lodge. He was a past president of the Farm Bureau and a charter member and director of the Young at Heart social club. In 1986, he was named king of the Greenwood Junior Auxiliary Cotton Ball. He was a member of First United Methodist Church. At Millsaps, he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

Otis A. Mayberry, 1931, of Jackson died May 4, 2002. After serving as a store manager with the Jitney Jungle Co. for 20 years, he began his own real estate firm. A member of the Blue Lodge, the Scottish Rite, The Shrine, and the Drum Corps marching unit, he also served as potentate of the Wahabi Temple.

Lamar D. McQuirter, B.S. 1950, of Memphis died March 30, 2002. A retired vice president and account executive with the Bryce Corp. in Memphis, he was a member of Christ Methodist Church and a board member and life patron of Variety Club International.

Mary Margaret Nail Murphy, B.A. 1995, of Atlanta died Dec. 16, 2001.

She was the regional manager of technical support for Qwest Communications and a member of Senatobia Presbyterian Church. She graduated cum laude from Millsaps.

While at Millsaps, she participated in the Heritage Program and was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa honorary, Chi Omega sorority, Campus Ministry, and the tennis team.

David W. Nonnemacher, B.A. 1973, of Jackson died May 1, 2002. He was a self-employed building contractor.

While at Millsaps, he participated in the Heritage Program.

Joseph Creath Odom, 1943, of Jackson died Feb. 18, 2002. The founder and operator of Odom’s Optical of Jackson, he was a charter member and past president of the Mississippi Association of Dispensing Opticians. He attended Millsaps, Oklahoma State University, and Vanderbilt University as part of the U.S. Army Specialized Training Service. During World War II, he served in the 106th Infantry Division, assigned to the 424th Headquarters of the First Battalion. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

A longtime member of First Baptist Church of Jackson, Odom was active in the Fisher of Men Sunday School Class. He was a member of the Masonic Order and was a Shriner.

While at Millsaps, he was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity.

Johnnie-Marie Whitfield: Beloved professor and friend Dr. Johnnie-Marie Whitfield, a beloved Millsaps professor of chemistry and native Jacksonian, died Jan. 13, 2002, at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.

The first of four children, Whitfield was a Millsaps alumna, B.S. 1965, and earned her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge in 1973. Her teaching career took her from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo to Peace College in North Carolina and, finally, back to Millsaps as an assistant professor of chemistry.

As a student at Millsaps, Whitfield was the first graduate of the Millsaps Honors Program. In her professional career, she was a devoted member of the American Chemical Society, the Mississippi Science Teachers Association, the National Science Teachers Association, and Sigma Xi. Whitfield also served as a National Chemistry Week coordinator and as director and membership chair in the Mississippi Academy of Science. In recognition of her achievements in the field of chemistry and education, she was chosen as a scholar in chemical education at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, spending the spring of 2000 at foundation headquarters in Pennsylvania.

Whitfield was director of the Summer Research Institute,the Master Teachers’ Program, and the Millsaps Science Teachers’ Institute, which was established in 1997 and offered summer workshops for K-8 science teachers from central Mississippi. She was also active in arranging internships for Millsaps students, placing them in professional and business offices throughout Jackson.

“There is no wonder that Johnnie-Marie was loved by her students— not just the shy ones, but especially those who were shy and felt intimidated before others in the classroom,” said T. W. Lewis III, B.A. 1953, emeritus professor. “The ease with which she engaged Eudora Welty, her students, and her colleagues must have sprung from a soul that knew itself so well that she had no need for defensive maneuvers. . . . Johnnie-Marie was incapable of indifference toward the plight of anyone she might encounter. Her gifts and graces did not diminish with her illness. Even in its most difficult moments she conveyed to callers her love and gratitude for the moments they had shared with her.”

Dr. Marion P. Parker, B.S. 1949, of Jackson died Feb. 23, 2002. A retired anesthesiologist, he received his M.D. from Tulane University and completed his medical internship and residency at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. He served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force in Montgomery, Ala., prior to establishing his first medical practice in Rolling Fork. He then returned to Jackson, where he completed a residency in anesthesia at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He earned board certification from the American Board of Anesthesiology and maintained a private practice with Anesthesia Consultants of Jackson until his retirement in 1996. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Alpha Epsilon Delta honorary.

Catholic schools. At Millsaps, she was a member of Chi Omega sorority.

Cecilia “Cele” Burdette Peterson, B.A. 1942, of Lookout Mountain, Tenn., died Jan. 28, 2002. A homemaker, she was actively involved with children as a Brownie and Cub Scout leader and in her work with the Junior Auxiliary. She was a member of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and served in the mothers’ clubs of St. Francis Xavier and St. Aloysius

Albert Carpenter Pippen, 1941, of West Point died March 8, 2002. A practicing attorney and World War II veteran, he spent most of his life serving the municipality of West Point.

After graduating from the University of Mississippi, he served in the U.S. Army as a member of the 79th Division during the European Campaign. Returning to West Point

following WWII, Pippen began practicing law in the office of the late J. E. Caradine. He later served 16 years as a Clay County prosecuting attorney and 28 years as a municipal court judge for the City of West Point. He was a member of the Clay County Bar Association and a charter member and the first president of the West Point Civitan Club. He was a member of First Baptist Church in West Point, where he served as a deacon and Sunday school teacher. While at

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IN MEMORIAM Millsaps, he was member of the Kappa Alpha Order and the debate team, and was involved in student publications.

Maybelle Alford Furness Riser, B.A. 1927, of Raymond died June 26, 2002.

A retired business professor at Hinds Community College, she also taught at Florence, Byram, and Forest Hills high schools after completing a master’s degree in business education at the University of Mississippi. She served as the president of the Hinds Junior College Education Association, and was a member of both the Hinds Junior College Retired Teachers Association and the Jackson-Hinds Retired Teachers Association. She was a member of First Baptist Church of Raymond.

While at Millsaps, she was a member of Kappa Delta sorority and the Millsaps Singers.

William Alf Saums, B.S. 1941, of Louisville died March 22, 2002. A retired quality-control manager for the Georgia-Pacific Corp., he had also worked in research and development. He earned a master’s degree in organic chemistry from the University of Mississippi. He was a member of First United Methodist Church in Louisville, where he was active in the Ed Livingston Sunday School Class. While at Millsaps, he was a member of the Millsaps Singers and was included in Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.

Bret Lyle Sigsby, B.B.A. 1992, of Baton Rouge died Oct. 28, 2001.

While at Millsaps, he was on the Dean’s List, participated in athletics, and was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

Joe Dixon “J. D.” Simpson, 1938, of Rosedale died Oct. 28, 2001. The retired founder and owner of Simpson Dry Cleaners in Rosedale, he had built Liberty Ships during World War II while working for A. J. Jones Construction Co. in Georgia. A longtime

resident of Rosedale, he was a charter member of the Rosedale Fire Department and founded the first public ambulance service in Mississippi. He earned his emergency medical technician’s license in the 1970s and was instrumental in securing government funding for ambulance and fire department services in Rosedale. Simpson was a former Rotarian, served as a deacon and elder of Rosedale Presbyterian Church, and had officiated at high school football games for 19 years. At Millsaps, he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

Claude J. Smith, B.A. 1953, of Jackson died Nov. 4, 2001. A retired insurance agent with more than 40 years of experience, he had worked as a property and casualty underwriter for Western Insurance Co. and American States Insurance Co. Prior to this, he had served in the U.S. Army as a linguistics expert. He was a past president of the Jackson Photographic Society and a member of the Jackson Central Lions Club.

He was a volunteer with the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and had been president of the Friends of Handicapped Readers. A member of Christ United Methodist Church, he served on the administration board and sang in the choir. At Millsaps, he was member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Kit Kat, and the Millsaps Players.

Normastel Ford Smith, 1923, of Madison died Jan. 23, 2002. A lifelong resident of Jackson, she received her bachelor’s degree from RandolphMacon College. She taught in the Jackson Public Schools for two years.

During World War II, she served as a Gray Lady at Foster General Hospital. She served on the board of the Jackson YWCA and was a charter member and president of the Children’s Theater. An active member of First Presbyterian Church, she held a lifetime membership in the Women of the Church. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Phi

Mu sorority and the Panhellenic Council.

Warren Grayndler Smith, B.A. 1998, of New Orleans died Nov. 7, 2001. A native of New Orleans and a selfemployed carpenter, he had spent time in North Carolina and Australia after graduating from Millsaps.

Alice Kathryn Casey Vince, B.A. 1931, of Brandon died Dec. 14, 2001.

A native of Jackson, she spent most of her career working in the intelligence division at the Pentagon. She had also worked as a schoolteacher in Tutwiler and Pearl. Upon leaving Millsaps, she attended Loyola University and the University of Chicago. She was a member of Pearson Baptist Church. She graduated with highest honors from Millsaps.

Udine Burns Williford, 1944, of Mobile, Ala., died June 17, 2002. A native and longtime resident of Drew, she became a schoolteacher after graduating from the University of Mississippi. She taught English at Cleveland High School and Spanish at A. W. James Elementary School in Drew. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Kappa Delta sorority.

Kathleen “Kate” M. Wimmer, B.A. 1986, of Memphis died Jan. 20, 2002.

She was the vice president of the Equity Capital Markets division at Morgan Keegan & Company in Memphis. She was also a member of the “Lick the Toad” systems analysts association. At Millsaps, she participated in the Heritage Program and was a member of Alpha Kappa Delta honorary, Eta Sigma Phi honorary, and Kappa Delta sorority.

Dr. Hardy B. Woodbridge, Jr., B.A. 1957, of Jackson died Feb. 24, 2002.

The retired physician, professor, and decorated veteran graduated from the University of Mississippi before completing premed training at Millsaps, and earned his M.D. from Tulane University. During World War II, he served in the Army Infantry in the

European Theater of Operations.

Discharged with the rank of captain, he was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He earned numerous honors during his career as a family physician in Jackson, including the John B. Howell Award for Mississippi Family Doctor of the Year; Family Medicine Residents’ Golden Stethoscope Award; life membership in the American Board of Family Practice; and life membership in both the Mississippi Academy and the American Academy of Family Physicians. One of four original faculty members in the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Department of Family Medicine, he was appointed professor emeritus in 1997. He received the Exemplary Teaching Award from the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians in 1996, the same year that The Teaching Center of the Department of Family Medicine was named The Woodbridge Teaching Center. A longtime member of St. James Episcopal Church and a member of the Vestry, he was a past president of the Jackson Swim Association, a member of Kiwanis Club International, and a member of the “ROMEO” Club (Retired Old Medics Eating Out).

Ruma Haque: A leader who touched many hearts On June 20, 2002, Ruma Haque died as the result of an automobile accident, and the eve of the calendar’s longest day became one of our lives’ darkest nights.

In memorials, you always hear the word “irreplaceable.” But if you look at the people she knew, the organizations she served, and the places she graced, and you realize the absence created, you know that Ruma Haque, in the lives of so many and in the life of her community, is irreplaceable. If you look around at all of us whom she touched personally and professionally, in social circles or in civic duty, we are all dots on a landscape connected by Ruma.

A native of Bangladesh, Ruma had served as the attorney for the Hinds County Board of Supervisors since 1989, that body’s first full-time attorney. A 1983 graduate of Millsaps, she graduated from Callaway High School in 1979 and the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1987.

Among her many civic activities, she was president of the Government Law Section of the Mississippi State Bar Association, president of the National Association of County Civil Attorneys, president of Encore! (a division of the Jackson Arts Alliance), vice president of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, vice president of the Crossroads Film Society, and secretary of the Hinds County Bar Association. She served on the boards of directors of the Millsaps Arts and Lecture Series, Arts Alliance, Jubilee!JAM, and the National Association of Counties. She was a member of the Mississippi Hearts Against AIDS Commission and the Junior League of Jackson.

Ruma was always somewhere: busy, involved, knowing. Even as a student, she was always active, never content to sit on the sidelines. Her many activities included membership in Sigma Tau Delta English honorary, the Millsaps Players, the English club, and Kappa Delta sorority. She also served on the staff of campus publications such as the Bobashela and the Purple & White. This energy and commitment continued into her professional life. She didn’t just sit on boards; she served on them tirelessly and tactfully. Ruma was the touchstone. She was the red arrow on the compass point. For those of us who served with her, well, we will continue to find our way, but the journey will be longer and more difficult . . . and a lot less entertaining.

The memorial service was full of Ruma’s good friends, all remembering their best friend, for not one who met her could fail to recognize the bond of her friendship, the focus of her commitment, the power of her understanding, or the joy of her presence.

Ruma did not shrink from involvement: If it was the right thing to do, she was there. If was important to Jackson and to Mississippi, she was there. If it improved our community, she was there. “She loved Jackson and was devoted to it,” said Malcolm White, Mississippi music impresario and founder of Mal’s St. Paddy’s Parade in Jackson. “She did what so many talked about doing. She gave back.”

In every circle, professional or social, we all relied on Ruma. If you had a question about laws or legislation or politics or society or entertainment or people . . . well, Ruma was good for the knowledge. “Ask Ruma, she’ll know.”

When the Crossroads Film Festival was created several years ago, the design and mission was to create a festival where film and art and vision and community come together, to create a crossroads where people join together in celebration, in illumination, in understanding. Ruma was central to its growth because Ruma embodied the ideals of communication and celebration and community that we envisioned.

Ruma was . . . and is . . . for all who knew her, our crossroads.

—Ward Emling (B.A. 1976), Manager, Mississippi Film Office

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EMERGENCY POWER: 5 A.M.

by John Stone

Electrons slow and stop, clogging the wires.

For 60 seconds, blood is not red, bone not white — the hospital is dark as the inside of a heart.

For this long minute we have all gone blind.

Then the partial light of diesels: On the tenth floor in emergency power a baby is born in its own time.

And now a light another a row of lights.

I come back to my desk that was always there, flick on the overhead lights that were out without even knowing it.

I go upstairs to speak to the new-born: he answers me with his babiest cry, having just come out of his own darkness having passed the test with us all here in the bloom of the hospital with new breath coming out of the walls and every clock but his ten minutes slow forever.

Dr. John Stone’s poem “Emergency Power: 5 A.M.” originally appeared in In All This Rain and is reprinted with the permission of the author.

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