Spring-Summer 2003 Millsaps Magazine

Spring-Summer 2003

CHANGING OF THE GUARD An interview with the new Chairman of the Board

BACK TO THE FUTURE A fraternity’s return to campus

LIFE AMONG THE RUINS Our bold experiment in the Yucatán

On the cover: The Governor’s Palace at Uxmal, Yucatán Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage P A I D Jackson, MS Permit No. 164 O F F I C E O F C O M M U N I C AT I O N S

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Millsaps Magazine

Summer ‘02

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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, William Jeanes, Courtney Lange, Hannah Page, Jeff Mitchell, Tanya Newkirk, John Webb Contributing Photographers Sarah Armstrong, George Bey, Katie Brown, Wesley Kelly, Courtney Lange, Lewis R. Lowe, Jim McKeown, Tom Roster, Gordon Prima, Hubert Worley

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Millsaps College President Frances Lucas Senior Vice President 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, 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) 974-1033, by fax at (601) 974-1456, or by e-mail at lowelr@millsaps.edu.

Visit the web site www.millsaps.edu for the online magazine. Periodical postage paid at Jackson, MS.

Millsaps is dedicated to using recycled paper whenever possible.

M I L L S A P S

M A G A Z I N E

A P U B L I C AT I O N O F M I L L S A P S C O L L E G E ❁ S P R I N G - S U M M E R

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FEATURES

Maurice Hall

The Chairman of the Board, in his own words.

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Pi Kappa Alpha’s Long Road Back After a four-year hiatus, the Pikes return to Millsaps.

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Yours, Mayan, and Ours Millsaps’ multidisciplinary project in the Yucatán brings together students and faculty from many disciplines, backgrounds, and cultures.

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20 DEPARTMENTS Campus News

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Jane Goodall Why They Live at the P.O. Postcard From Cuba

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Sports News

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New Faces SCAC Champs

Meet Millsaps

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Hannah Page in the Yucatán

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Faculty & Staff 28 Welty Writer Honored

Major Notes

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Survey of Recent Graduates 33 Alumnus of the Year 35 Livesay Award Winners 37

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CAMPUS NEWS Message of hope: Nova Series brings Goodall to Mississippi “Good morning. Bonjour. Guten tag.

Jambo. Ogh-ooh-ogh-ugh . . .”

Jane Goodall taught hundreds of Mississippi middle and high school students how to greet one another in French, German, Swahili — and chimpanzee — as part of her April Nova Series program on the Millsaps campus. Her daylong appearance culminated in an evening presentation to a sellout crowd of more than 1,000.

Goodall said the careful listener will discover that the chimpanzee has a lot to say to humankind. “It’s as if the chimpanzee reaches across to us and says, ‘I do matter in your scale of reckoning,’ ” she said.

Goodall, whose lifetime of work with chimpanzees in the Gombe National Forest in Tanzania has earned her worldwide acclaim, participated in an academic outreach program to 275 high school students from around the state. It was followed by an afternoon lecture to 500 middle and high school students and a question-and-answer session with 80 Millsaps students.

She emphasized the pivotal role that her mother played in what was an unorthodox career for a woman in the 1960s. Her mother, for instance, always nurtured her interest in wildlife — from the compassion she showed to Goodall as a child when she brought worms to bed (“they’d die,” her mother said) to accompanying her into the forest for long periods.

An avid environmentalist and conservationist, Goodall quickly won over her audiences with warmth and humor, saying that she liked speaking to young people because they presented hope for the future. Indeed, she seemed to have a powerful rapport with the Mississippi students.

“At the 1 p.m. session, the crowd of students spontaneously burst into a long and enthusiastic standing ova-

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tion when Dr. Goodall took the stage,” said Martha Boshers, assistant vice president for development at Millsaps and an organizer of the Nova Series events.

“And she was impressed by the thoughtful questions they asked.”

In her presentations, Goodall stressed that the dividing line scientists have seen between man and animals is increasingly blurry. For instance, in the Gombe National Forest in Tanzania she observed a male adolescent chimpanzee raise and protect an orphaned chimp. This is an important life lesson, she said, that shows how humanlike animals are and how much we can learn from them about “moral compassion.”

Goodall’s books In the Shadow of Man and Through a Goodall with a toy monkey she was once given Window, and her spiritual autobiby a sightless magician. “If a blind man can do magic, you can conquer the world,” he told her, ography Reason for Hope, form a and she carries that message to children. cornerstone of modern environmental studies. Her book The are beginning to be awakened to Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of issues related to the environment and Behavior is recognized as the definithe natural universe,” said Dr. W. tive work on chimpanzees. “Dr. Lamar Weems of Jackson, who Goodall is one of the most influential attended the keynote address. scientists of our time,” said Dr. A noted children’s author, Richard Smith, senior vice president Goodall cited such classic characters and dean of the College. “She has as Dr. Doolittle and Tarzan as sparkchanged our perceptions of humanity ing her interest in animals and exploand its relationship to the larger ration. “I fell passionately in love world.” with Tarzan and was terribly jealous “It was a once-in-a-lifetime of that would-be Jane of his,” she opportunity for these students to quipped. meet one of the premier scientists of Goodall devotes much of her our time,” said Sandra Hindsman, a time to environmental activism. She Jackson educator. “Dr. Goodall is a promotes the work of the Jane great example to follow. She has been Goodall Institute, an organization passionate, dedicated, and relentless with operations in 14 countries. The in her pursuit of her goals. She is a institute supports the continuing wonderful role model for girls, in Gombe study and other research, particular.” education, and conservation proGoodall’s message is also heard grams. beyond the classroom. “Politicians

Goodall has received the Medal of Tanzania, the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal, and Japan’s prestigious Kyoto Prize. She also received the third Gandhi/King Award for Nonviolence, presented in 2001 at the United Nations by the World Movement for Nonviolence, and was designated a Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. The Millsaps Nova Series hosts individuals of international standing who have played transforming roles in the fields of education, business, government, religion, science, and the arts. The series was made possible by BancorpSouth, BellSouth, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, EastGroup/Parkway Foundation, and Dermatopathology Associates PLLC — Dr. Billy L. Walker and Dr. Jennifer Smith Schulmeier.

Fifth-graders who met with Goodall flooded the president’s office with thank-you cards.

Nova Series programs are intended to be discussions of cultural, social, economic, and political changes affecting Mississippi, the nation, and the world. Goodall’s appearance was offered as part of the Millsaps Green Semester, a series of events focusing on environmental education, conservation, and consumer responsibility.

Complementing Goodall’s stu-

dent program were related presentations by Dr. Michael Galaty, assistant professor of anthropology; Dr. George Bey III, associate professor of sociology and anthropology and associate dean of sciences; Dr. Jamie Harris, associate professor of geology; Dr. Debora Mann, assistant professor of biology; and Dr. Patrick Hopkins, assistant professor of philosophy.

‘Why I Live at the P.O.’: Students catalog Welty’s mail At colleges across the country, students read the completed works of Eudora Welty. But at Millsaps, students get to read Welty’s mail. Led by Dr. Suzanne Marrs, a Millsaps English professor, 13 Millsaps students have stepped out of the classroom and into the life of Eudora Welty.

The students are working to document and catalog letters sent to Welty by various writers, including poets William Jay Smith and Hubert Creekmore and author Reynolds Price. The information in the letters is being catalogued and put into a database. The class also attempted to determine how each writer influenced Welty’s works and vice versa.

“The work we are doing is of great significance to our own education and to the academic community in general,” said Charlie Mock, a student from Brandon. “The information found in these letters will continue to shed light on a wonderful woman’s work, thus giving the world a greater insight into her writing.”

In 1957, Welty donated a collection of her manuscripts, papers, personal correspondence, and photo-

graphs to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. She continued to donate her personal effects to the MDAH throughout the remainder of her life, resulting in the most impressive and extensive Welty collection in the world.

In 1986, Welty revised her estate so that ownership of her house would pass to the state of Mississippi upon her death. The Millsaps students’ work is a part of the efforts of the MDAH and the Eudora Welty Foundation to establish The Welty House Museum. The museum will serve as an inspiring venue for regional literary events, in addition to offering exhibits and tours of the house and garden.

As the Stewart Family Chair in Language and Literature at Millsaps, Marrs teaches courses in composition, 19th- and 20th-century American literature, and 20th-century Southern literature.

Marrs is also the author of The Welty Collection and numerous articles on Eudora Welty’s fiction. Her most recent publication, One Writer’s Imagination: The Fiction of Eudora

Welty, was published in fall 2002.

In 1985 and 1986, Marrs was the Welty Scholar in Residence at the state archives. She has lectured on Welty’s works in the United States, Russia, and France and served as a consultant for the 1987 BBC documentary on Eudora Welty. Marrs received the Phoenix Award for Outstanding Achievement in Eudora Welty Scholarship in 1998.

Photo: Mississippi Magazine

Marrs and her students poring over Eudora Welty’s correspondence.

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CAMPUS NEWS

Postcard from Cuba Meg Hyneman and Wesley Kelley, both Millsaps sophomores from Jackson, traveled to Cuba in March to experience firsthand the nation’s people, culture, government, and economy, and to better understand how that country is affected by U.S. policies.

The tour included stops in Havana and Santa Clara, burial site of the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara. The students had the opportunity to interact with ordinary Cubans, learning about their lives and the effects of the U.S. embargo.

Hyneman, who studies religion, philosophy, and Spanish, said that she thought the United States could learn from Cuba and its people. “In Cuba, they really focus on preventive medicine, since they don’t have a lot of resources due to the U.S. blockade,” she said. “Still, their infant mortality and life expectancy is like that of Sweden or Denmark, not like the rest of the ‘developing world.’ I had heard very little of Cuba’s achievements in human rights before I went; the only information we get

from the U.S. press tends to be about civil rights violations.”

The tour was sponsored by The Associated Colleges of the South and coordinated through the Center for Global Education at Augsburg College. “I was a bit nervous going on the day we declared war on Iraq, since Cuba is definitely anti-war and antiimperialism,” Hyneman said, “but the Cuban people do a really good job of differentiating between the U.S. government and the U.S. people. They were warm and welcoming and really emphasized that they wanted to have better relations with ‘their brothers and sisters in the United States,’ since we are their closest neighbors geographically.”

“Educational trips like these are important because it would be impossible for me to really understand the injustices present in the United States without experiencing the struggles happening elsewhere in the world,” Hyneman said. “I want to learn how the way I live — the way the U.S. middle class lives — really affects people in other parts of the world.”

Kelley, a business administration major whose photographs are featured here, said that she was planning several photographic exhibitions of Cuba and its people.

Center for Ministry receives $2 million Lilly grant The Lilly Endowment has awarded the Center for Ministry, operated by Millsaps College and the Mississippi United Methodist Conference, $2 million to participate in a national program called Sustaining Pastoral Excellence.

The Lilly Endowment initiative is designed to foster a high caliber of pastoral leadership in the United States. Overall, 47 grants totaling $57.9 million were awarded in October to U.S. organizations with religious affiliations. More than 700 institutions submitted proposals.

“We are deeply honored that the Lilly Endowment has recognized the Center for Ministry as an extraordinary resource for pastoral education,” said President Frances Lucas.“The College exists today because of the vision and faith of our Methodist founders, and this cornerstone gift will further strengthen our historic bond with the Mississippi Conference.”

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The five-year, $2 million award will allow the Center for Ministry to establish a Pastoral Excellence Project.

The project, which began in January, hosts interdenominational clergy and laity to assess pastoral ministry in Mississippi. The project will also offer pastoral seminars, provide grants for education of the clergy, develop models of evaluation and support for United Methodist ministers, and create a scholar-in-residence program.

“The Center for Ministry Pastoral Excellence Project will open the doors to high-quality resources and life-changing experiences for many pastors in Mississippi,” said the Reverend Andy Johnson, the center’s executive director. “Our goal is to honor God’s call and to offer support as pastors seek to nurture that call over a lifetime of ministry.”

Other recipients of Lilly Endowment pastoral-excellence grants include theological schools, regional and national judicatories from large

and small denominations, churchrelated colleges and universities, ecumenical organizations, retreat centers, and congregations from most major Christian traditions.

“We will be most interested in following these projects over the next few years,” said Craig Dykstra, the Lilly Endowment vice president for religion.

“They offer the promise of meaningful renewal for many pastors in this country. The endowment’s current religion grant-making revolves around two major and interlocking considerations: first, identifying, nurturing, and educating a talented new generation of pastors and, second, recognizing and supporting the excellent ones we have. Not surprisingly, we know that healthy, engaged, thoughtful, dedicated ministers usually go hand in hand with healthy, vibrant, and effective congregations.”

McMillan to share business expertise at Else School

accreditation for another 10 years. tions for change in that area, and Each school being considered described the Core, in particular, as for accreditation or reaccreditation is “exceptional in its conception and its required to document compliance execution.” with a series of requirements, comElise Smith “worked tirelessly to monly known as “must statements.” make sure our self study was superb,’’ These requirements fall into six said Dr. Richard Smith, senior vice Howard L. major categories: principles and phipresident and dean of the College.

McMillan Jr. losophy of accreditation, institution“She performed an extraordinary joined the Millsaps Howard McMillan al purpose, institutional effectiveness, service to the College.”

Else School of educational program, educational In addition, Millsaps was reacManagement as executive in resisupport services, and administrative credited in January by the United dence in January. In this role, processes.

Methodist Church’s University McMillan will assist students with “Our basic self-study document Senate. The University Senate is an career decisions, share his considerwas 259 pages long, going point by elected group of 25 higher education able business experience in the classpoint through all the must stateprofessionals who determine which room, and be involved in externalments and documenting how we schools meet the criteria for being relations work. were in compliance with each one,’’ listed as United Methodist-related McMillan, who graduated from said Dr. Elise Smith, an art professor institutions. the University of Mississippi, attendwho chaired the self-study effort.

The senate, established in 1882, ed the Harvard School of Business “And then we had reams of appenis one of the oldest accrediting bodAdministration and the School of dices and supporting evidence to go ies in the country. The United Banking of the South at Louisiana along with it.”

Methodist Church has 124 related State University. Currently, he is a The SACS committee gave the schools across the United States, financial adviser with Morgan undergraduate curriculum at from rural communities to large Stanley and the president of Century Millsaps an unusually strong affirmacities. Student enrollment ranges Club Charities. tion. They made no recommendafrom 200 to 15,000.

He has served as president of Deposit Guaranty National Bank and Deposit Guaranty Corp., the Millsaps Players: From politics to the parlor American Bankers Association, the United Way of the Capital Area, and The Millsaps Players’ 2002–03 seathe Country Club of Jackson. son is perhaps best characterized by McMillan has also served as chairits diversity. Productions included man of the board for the the world premiere in November of MetroJackson Chamber of The Great Western Swamp, a timely Commerce, the Mississippi commentary on war, violence, and Symphony Orchestra Association, the Middle East conflict in the conMississippi Baptist Health Systems, text of Greek tragedy, written and and the Jackson Metropolitan Crime directed by the award-winning playCommission. wright and Millsaps adjunct theater “We are very fortunate to have professor Kos Kostmayer; the someone with Howard’s extensive February production of The Robber and varied business and community Bridegroom (above), Alfred Uhry’s musical based on the writings of Eudora Welty, background at the Else School,” said directed by Denise Halbach, also an adjunct professor; and Brandon Thomas’s Randy Boxx, dean of the Else School 19th century comedy, Charley’s Aunt (below), directed in April by Brent Lefavor, of Management. “I am particularly associate professor of theater. The Players presented four senior-directed plays in excited about the prospect of our the fall: The first two were The students spending quality time with Purification, by Tennessee Williams, him.” directed by Sam Sparks (B.A. 2003),

Millsaps scores high during reaccreditation The Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has reaffirmed Millsaps’

and The Actor’s Nightmare, by Christopher Durang, directed by William Dubuisson. Trifles, directed

by Erin Whitaker, depicted the aftermath of a murder, and Legwork, directed by Joey Wilson, was a dark satire of corporate America.

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SPORTS NEWS Wise chosen as men’s basketball coach Former basketball standout Tim Wise, B.A. 1989, was named the 25th head men’s basketball coach at his alma mater.

“We are thrilled that Coach Wise has accepted this opportunity,” said Ron Jurney, Millsaps’ athletic director.

“Coach Wise is dedicated to Millsaps College and its student-athletes, and we believe that his intelligence, work ethic, and passion for the game will be beneficial to our basketball success.”

Wise took over the school’s 93year-old program after serving the last five seasons as the Majors’ assistant coach. During the past five campaigns, Millsaps saw five consecutive winning seasons and compiled a record of 79-48. The Majors won the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference title in 2000-01 and advanced to the Division III NCAA Tournament the same year.

Wise, who graduated with a degree in economics, was a four-year

basketball letterman under Coach Don Holcomb, from 1985 to ’89.

Wise received his teacher certification from the University of Memphis in 1993 and a master of science in sports administration from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2000. From 2000 to ’02, he was an adjunct professor in the sports administration department at Belhaven College.

Wise succeeds John Stroud, who began his career at Millsaps in 1990 and retired in March to pursue opportunities in private business.

During his 13-year tenure, Stroud guided his teams to three Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championships and led the Majors to three NCAA tournament appearances.

The two-time SCAC Coach of the Year and the all-time wins leader at Millsaps, Stroud compiled a record of 204-131, reaching the 200-victory plateau this season in a 71-48 triumph

Tim Wise

over the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in January. Suffering only two losing seasons while at Millsaps, Stroud posted seven seasons of at least 16 wins, including three campaigns of 20 wins or more. Stroud’s best year came in 1994-95 as he led the Majors to a 25-3 mark, an SCAC title, and a trip to the NCAA Division III Sweet 16.

Millsaps taps Saunders as head football coach David Saunders has been named the 19th head football coach at Millsaps College.

“We are pleased to welcome Coach Saunders to Millsaps,” Athletic Director Ron Jurney said. “He is well respected in football circles and carries with him a wealth of knowledge.”

Saunders comes to Millsaps after four years at the University of Mississippi as the director of recruiting. Saunders replaces Bob Tyler, who retired in November after three years at the Majors’ helm.

At Ole Miss, Saunders established an acclaimed recruiting program and was lauded as one of the top nine recruiters in the nation by the television sports network ESPN. Saunders joined the Ole Miss athletic staff in December 1998 after working

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at the University of Tennessee, where he was responsible for on-campus recruiting.

Prior to joining the UT Volunteers, Saunders served two years as assistant football coach and recruiting coordinator at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro (199697). He spent the 1995 season coaching at Baylor University in Texas.

In 1993 and 1994, Saunders was the defensive coordinator and defensive-backs coach at Nicholls State University in Louisiana. From 1990 to ’92, Saunders coached the defensive line at Georgia Southern University and helped lead the Eagles to the 1990 Division I-AA national championship. From 1984 to ’89, Saunders coached and served as the recruiting coordinator at Jacksonville State

David Saunders

University in Alabama.

Saunders, a native of Douglasville, Georgia, graduated from Auburn University in 1982 with a bachelor of science degree and was a walk-on lineman for the Tigers.

Halbrook Award recognizes Millsaps’ tradition of excellence Millsaps College is the winner of the 2002 Halbrook Award in the independent college division.

Administered cooperatively by the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges, and the Mississippi Association of Independent Colleges, the Halbrook Award recognizes colleges and universities that maintain and achieve high academic standards for student athletes.

“At Millsaps, we are dedicated to producing great students, as well as great athletes,” said Millsaps Athletic Director Ron Jurney. “Our athletic programs emphasize the importance of being a leader in the classroom, on the field, and in one’s community.”

Millsaps has won the prestigious award for 11 of the last 13 years.

Individual Halbrook certificates for academic achievement also go to the most outstanding male and female athletes at each member institution.

Recipients must demonstrate academic achievement and campus leadership in addition to athletic ability. The two Millsaps winners are Matt Yglesias, a senior baseball player from Greenwell Springs, Louisiana, and Laura Hillgartner, a senior soccer player from Rockwall, Texas.

The annual awards program was named in honor of its founder, former state Representative David M. Halbrook of Belzoni and his brothers, John C., James G., and J. A. Halbrook.

Baseball, softball teams crowned SCAC champs Millsaps baseball and softball teams won the SCAC championship in their respective sports at the SCAC Spring Sports Festival in Terre Haute, Indiana, and completed their 2003 campaigns by advancing to their respective NCAA Championships.

The baseball team, after winning its first conference baseball title since 1994 and sixth overall, was awarded with Player, Pitcher, and Coach of the

Year honors in exclusive 2003 SCAC voting by the league’s head coaches.

Senior shortstop Matt Yglesias received the SCAC Player of the Year award, while junior pitcher Doug Garner earned Pitcher of the Year honors.

The Majors also placed a league-high seven players on the All-SCAC first team. Along with Yglesias and Garner, juniors Bo Roberts (catcher), Scott Staines (third base), and Stuart Phillips (center field) made the league’s top team. Senior K. K. Aldridge (second base) was named to the first team for the third time, while senior pitcher Chat Lenhart also earned All-SCAC honors for the third time.

The fastpitch softball team turned in a 2-2 performance in the NCAA Division III Softball Championships in Atlanta. In just their fourth season, the Majors became the first-ever SCAC softball team to win a game in the NCAA softball championships.

Millsaps finished the historic 2003 campaign with a schoolrecord mark of 28-11. Head Coach Joe Kinsella was named SCAC Coach of the Year, while senior outfielder Barbara Balla was tapped the league Player of the Year.

The Majors managed a conference-high seven All-SCAC first team spots. In addition to Balla, sophomores Naffie Mooney (left field), Brittany Ladner (designated hitter),

Linebacker tackles extra season The senior linebacker Matt O’Bryant, a 2002 Hewlett-Packard All-America Team selection, will take advantage of a medical year red-shirt granted in his freshman season and continue to play football for Millsaps this fall. O’Bryant is also only the second player in the SCAC to be named Defensive Player of the Year in consecutive years, 2001 and 2002. and Tammy Ladner (pitcher) were named to the SCAC’s first squad, while junior Robin Rockco (shortstop) and freshmen Christina Sharp (second base) and Danielle Cross (pitcher) were also tabbed first-teamers.

Page named Coach of the Year Millsaps Head Coach Jim Page, in his 15th season as the Majors’ skipper, was named the SCAC Coach of the Year, the fifth time in his career that he has been honored with the award. Page led his squad to a 13-5 Western Division mark, 27-15 overall record, and the SCAC tournament championship. Over his career, Page has compiled a 335226-1 record, which includes six Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference titles and three trips to the NCAA Division III National Championships, including this year’s NCAA tournament-bound team.

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Maurice Hall The 12th Chairman of the Board discusses The Millsaps Difference

Millsaps Magazine: What have been the biggest and most significant changes at Millsaps since you were a student?

What has remained a constant in your opinion?

Maurice Hall: It’s been 40 years since I enrolled at Millsaps, and the amazing thing is that “the more things change, the more they remain the same.” The student body and the faculty have grown by more than 20 percent, and at least half of the buildings on campus were built since my time as a student. The most significant changes seem to be the physical improvements on the campus and the technological advances. I am not sure there was a computer on campus in 1963, and the availability of intellectual resources and instant communication through computers has changed the whole dynamic of college life. Possibly the strangest difference to me is that today the food in the cafeteria is actually good.

However, it is the things that have not changed, the things that made my experience at Millsaps such a fulfilling one, that are the most important: the one-on-one relationships between students and professors, the fact that you can still know the name of almost anyone you see on campus, the curiosity and intellectual drive visible on almost every MILLSAPS MAGAZINE

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face on campus, and the feeling of absolute terror that the word “comps” puts in every heart.

You and the President of the College, Frances Lucas, are lifelong Methodists. Do you think this has a special significance in terms of the relations between the College and the Church?

I think it is positive that the Board Chair and the President share a lifelong commitment to Methodism. Many Methodists who have no direct relationship with Millsaps comment that they are pleased that both the President and the Board Chair share the Methodist heritage. Today the relationship between the Church and the College is more positive than it has been in many years, but that positive relationship has been growing since long before Frances became President and I became Board Chair. For example, the creation of the Center for Ministry as a cooperative effort between The United Methodist Church and Millsaps was conceived and implemented before either of us occupied our positions.

There has always been what I consider a vibrant and

appropriate tension between those who see the role of a great liberal arts college in terms of the academic freedom to question everything and those who would prefer to see a churchrelated college implement a particular doctrine or theology. I find that tension both healthy and stimulating. I was taught by some great Methodist scholars at Millsaps that an unquestioned faith is a shallow faith, much like the biblical house built on sand, lacking a strong foundation.

Why is a liberal arts education relevant for today’s and tomorrow’s students?

The goal of a liberal arts education is not to produce a person who has memorized the answers to a limited number of questions, but a person with the knowledge and resources to find the answer to most any question, to understand that answer, and to express that answer clearly, concisely, and simply enough that it makes sense to one who might not have the benefits of a liberal arts education. At Millsaps, our goal is not to teach people what to think, but to teach them how to think.

Can you get a Millsaps quality education elsewhere in the state?

Mississippi is blessed with a multitude of institutions of higher learning where an individual can obtain a good education in any number of fields. What you cannot find at any other institution in the state is the quality of the Millsaps experience. There are highly qualified teachers at other institutions in Mississippi, but there are no other institutions in Mississippi where a student can experience the quality of close student-faculty relationships to be had at Millsaps. In Mississippi and elsewhere, we are seeing large state universities attempt to emulate the Millsaps experience through the establishment of “honor colleges.” However, a limited enrollment class in English composition taught by a graduate student to freshmen living in a high-rise dormitory that holds more students than the entire Millsaps campus is not the same thing as having that same class taught

by the chair of the department of English literature, being invited to dinner at the professor’s home, and living on a campus where almost everybody knows your name.

Millsaps emphasizes close studentfaculty relations. Why is that important?

The intellectual and personal satisfaction a student gains from knowing a professor who is willing to listen to a student and challenge the student’s thoughts in personal conversation is immensely significant to the quality of the educational experience. Some of the warmest, most rewarding and intellectually stimulating memories I have of Millsaps are of discussions with my teachers over a cup of coffee at the Grill or leaning against a tree in the Bowl. I know the same atmosphere exists today at Millsaps because my daughter graduated just a few years ago, and the excitement and pleasure I see in her description of the Millsaps experience reflect the experience I had so long ago.

You have traveled to the Yucatán with Millsaps. What makes the College’s multidisciplinary program there special in your eyes?

The Yucatán project at Kiuic opens doors to our students that no one could have imagined a few years ago: a buried Maya city dating as far back as 600 B.C. surrounded by 4,000 acres of dry tropical forest owned by Millsaps College!

Our students are participating in hands-on excavation and reconstruction with researchers from Millsaps and other colleges to study Maya archeology, culture, art, and architecture.

Imagine the challenge of conducting archeological research while we find ways to protect the current ecosystems and create innovative community partnerships with people in local villages.

Our students are not just digging up rocks and pottery; they are developing a new model of research, analyzing the data, working side-by-side with people from local communities, and developing plans to manage the environmental and cultural resources of the Yucatán. I can see opportunities for students of language, political science, economics, biology, chemistry, sociology, anthropology, physics, philosophy, religion, and almost every academic field to engage in important research that will create new ways to look at conservation, opportunities for ecotourism, and economic development for local communities. We are looking at restoring species of plant and animal life lost from this tropical forest for 200 years. We have only begun to explore the opportunities for Millsaps in the Yucatán.

Why, given the other Boards you serve on, would you be willing to accept this time-consuming position?

Millsaps College gave me an education that has made every day of my life an adventure of exploring, learning, questioning, and finding satisfaction. A better question would be, “What can I possibly offer to Millsaps as an appropriate response to the gift of a lifetime filled with wonder?”

Hall with his wife Cathy, daughter Catherine, and son David.

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When I was a child growing up in Shubuta, Mississippi, on Sunday mornings we walked from our house across the railroad, down the long block through downtown, across the highway and into the Shubuta Methodist Church. Just before we began that walk, my father would give me five dimes. He would say, “Remember, this has to last until next Sunday.” His instructions were that the first dime was to go into the collection plate at Sunday school. The last dime was to be saved for the future. Two of the remaining dimes were mine for all the things a 5-year-old could buy in Shubuta, Mississippi. But one of the dimes was to be given to someone in need or used to support a worthwhile cause.

At the age of 5, I am sure I didn’t really understand why the church should get the first dime or why I should give away one of the other dimes, but I did get the message that God is first. Everything comes from God, and we give to show our thanks.

My favorite Bible verse contains the principles by which my parents lived and the greatest gift they left for me. It also summarizes my answer to your question: “Let each one serve one another to the measure of his endowment, as good stewards of God’s richly varied grace” (I Peter 4:10).

What do you think the priorities of Millsaps College should be at this point in its history, and how could the College better address them?

The first priority for Millsaps is to continue doing what we are doing,

offering the finest education available in the state of Mississippi, and continue to improve the way we do that. Our next priorities are the same as my wishes for Millsaps College in the future; that we can offer every deserving student the finest education possible at the lowest possible cost, and that we can continue to have the finest faculty and staff available, paying them what they really deserve. Beyond that, we have a new campus master plan that will create a more beautiful and efficient campus environment. We have in place an excellent faculty, staff, and Board of Trustees who continually impress me with new ideas and ways to improve the College.

What do you foresee as Millsaps’ greatest challenge under your tenure as Chairman of the Board?

At the moment, our greatest challenge is financial. Like everyone else, Millsaps has been buffeted by economic uncertainty for the last two years.

We must increase our endowment so that we can meet the goals I just mentioned. We are at the beginning of the process to determine what we must do over the next few years to raise the necessary funds for endowment, student scholarships, faculty and staff salaries, and capital improvements.

At a time when U.S. colleges and universities are facing financial challenges, what particular strengths can Millsaps draw on to help it compete?

I believe that our history and our reputation as the premier liberal arts college in Mississippi will continue to

distinguish Millsaps from other colleges and universities. Our ranking among national liberal arts colleges, our efforts to recruit qualified and deserving students from throughout the nation, unique opportunities like our Yucatán project, the loyalty of our alumni, the strength of our relationship with The United Methodist Church, and the quality of the people who are our students, faculty, staff, and Board are all sources of immense strength for Millsaps.

In 10 years, in 20 years, what do you wish for Millsaps College?

I wish that we could make Millsaps so secure financially that in 10 years, no student would miss the opportunity of a Millsaps education because of financial considerations and no member of our faculty or staff would consider teaching and working elsewhere for financial reasons. Most of all, I hope that the same quality of students and professors will still be enjoying the finest collegiate experience to be had in Mississippi.

Past Chairmen

C. B. Galloway 1890-1909

W. B. Murrah 1910-24 MILLSAPS MAGAZINE

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A. F. Watkins 1924-29

M. L. Burton 1930-34

J. T. Calhoun 1935-38

Robinson leaves a legacy of growth He helped rebuild the Millsaps campus, he helped enlarge and improve the Millsaps faculty, and he worked on fundraising campaigns that broke records not only for the College but also for the entire state of Mississippi. Indeed, E. B. (Bud) Robinson Jr., who joined the Millsaps Board in 1981, became chairman in 1992, and served until this past October, leaves behind a bountiful legacy of improvements and expansion at Millsaps.

A chairman emeritus of Deposit Guaranty National Bank, Robinson has also served as president of the Federal Reserve Bank’s Federal Advisory Council and on the boards of the United Way of the Capital Area and St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. “Because of his position in the community, Bud knew where to tap resources and open doors, and whom in the community to call,” said George Harmon, former president of Millsaps. “Bud was a Davidson graduate — why, he’s even a Presbyterian. But he saw the value of Millsaps and contributed tremendously.”

And heading the list of those contributions is fund-raising. Robinson assisted in the Centennial Development Fund Campaign, Phase One, which from 1979 to ’84 generated more than $14 million — with a goal of only $7 million. He also assisted in Phase Two of that campaign, which amassed $33 million. The goal then was $30 million. “It was the largest goal ever adopted in Mississippi at that time,” Harmon said. “He was sharp on the investment side, too, with how we managed the endowment.”

Robinson assumed the chairmanship during the early stages of the New

J. L. Decell 1938-45

Century of Light Campaign, which ultimately brought in more than $95 million against a goal of $80 million. “He was the logical person to take over because he had been involved in fund raising for so long,” Harmon said.

The money raised during Robinson’s tenure on the Board resulted in the extensive renovations of seven buildings and construction of three new residence halls, the Olin Hall of Science, the bell tower, the Campus Life Complex, and playing fields. “First, as chairman of the business affairs committee of the Board, later as chairman of the Board, he provided critical expertise in the process of completing these ventures, as well as in overseeing the growth and management of the endowment from $5 million to $95 million, and growth in the student body from approximately 800 to its present level of almost 50 percent higher,” Harmon said.

Furthermore, “because of the success we had in fund-raising, we were able to nearly double our faculty,” Harmon said.

“We were rated by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 College in the Southern Region in its first survey in 1984. A year or so later we were elevated and included among the top 100 National Liberal Arts Colleges in the nation. In 1988 Millsaps received the first chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in Mississippi. In 1990, the Else School of Management received accreditation by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business at both the graduate and undergraduate level, and in 1991, our teacher program received accreditation by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education.

All this, and much more, occurred during

R. L. Ezelle 1946-54

Special thanks to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and Debra McIntosh of the Millsaps archives.

M. A. Franklin 1954-64

E. B. Robinson Bud’s tenure on the Board.”

Robinson said that he had decided to step down because “after over a decade as chairman, it was time for a new chair.”

He said that each leader could “bring unique gifts to the position and the College could be enriched by the periodic rotation of chairs.”

Meanwhile, Harmon said he hoped that Robinson’s successor, Maurice Hall, would serve for many years. “He’s dedicated, capable, committed to Millsaps, and an alumnus. As for training, Maurice has served either as member or chairman on every standing committee of the Board, as well as on a number of important ad hoc committees. He has contributed significantly to the work of each.”

Hall will provide stellar leadership for the Board, Robinson predicted. “I don’t really think Maurice needs advice,” he said. “He is a great leader and is the person I had hoped would be the next chair. But if I must give advice to Maurice, it is just to follow his instincts as he helps President Lucas guide Millsaps to even greater heights.”

— John Webb

N. S. Rogers 1964-68 SPRING-SUMMER

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J. B. Campbell 1969-92 ’03

After a four-year hiatus, the chapter founded 98 years ago returns to Millsaps

Long Road Back

By William Jeanes

A

lmost a century ago, under a new moon on Friday, April 7, 1905, eight Millsaps men calling themselves the Sphinx Club became the 33rd chapter of a national fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha.

That night’s ceremonies, conducted by three Pikes from the University of Arkansas, set in motion a continuum of brotherhood that, with a single unfortunate interruption, has extended from that day to this.

Discussions of affiliation with an organized fraternity had begun in a campus boarding house in a small room occupied by Jesse Sumrall, one of the eight students who became the chapter’s founders. The College’s first president, Dr. William Belton Murrah, himself a Pike at Birmingham Southern College, had assigned the Sphinx Club a meeting room on the third floor of the College’s main building. In that meeting room, the club members examined the prospect of affiliating with a national fraternity. With or without the encouragement of Murrah, the group chose Pi Kappa Alpha, founded at the University of Virginia in 1868. The Millsaps outpost carried the designation of Alpha Iota Chapter and was the third national fraternity at Millsaps.

For 94 years after its founding, the Pike chapter provided its school, state, and nation with business leaders, scholars, legislators, judges, ministers, doctors, and writers by the dozen. These have included bishops, generals, best-selling authors, a Congressional Medal of Honor winner, a congress-

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man, a national president of Pi Kappa Alpha, and the sixth president of Millsaps College, Bishop Homer Ellis Finger Jr. On a less serious note, an alumnus who became an eminent professor of philosophy served as the namesake of Kermit the Frog.

Altogether, Alpha Iota initiates since 1905 number nearly 2,000. But in October 1999, initiations came to a halt. The chapter was gone — its charter revoked, its house emptied and taken over by the College. The lamp of brotherhood flickered, but it did not go out. Today, through the cooperation of concerned and dedicated alumni, the Millsaps administration, and Pi Kappa Alpha International, the flame of fellowship burns once more. A Pi Kappa Alpha chapter will return to Millsaps College.

How this came about, and why, provides several lessons in leadership and offers an instructive look at a fraternity’s relationship with its members, its school, and its community.

The removal Fraternity chapters go through high and low points just as individuals, corporations, and church congregations do.

By the late 1990s, in the eyes of the Millsaps administration, the Pikes had hit an alarming low. The active membership, at 15, was far below the school’s interfraternity average, below the 25-member standard of the international fraternity, and below the chapter’s own high-water mark of 70-plus.

Sporadic disciplinary problems had for a decade been the rule rather than the exception. A Pike from that time might tell you that the administration was looking for an excuse to close down the chapter. A member of the administration

Millsaps College as it existed in 1910, when the Pike chapter was established on campus.

The chapter founders cast their vote for Pi Kappa Alpha on the third floor of the Old Main, the building on the far left.

The Millsaps Alpha Iota chapter was gone — its charter revoked, its house emptied and taken over by the College. The lamp of brotherhood flickered, but it did not go out. might respond that the chapter was lucky not to have already been shut down. In this charged environment, the Pike chapter handed out bids to prospective members on a Saturday morning in October 1999.

Awaiting the bid offers, some would-be pledges spent Friday night partying. The next morning, the new Pike pledges accepted bids and assembled at the house. More drinking took place. One pledge, according to reports from those involved, had begun his celebration much earlier and had consumed a large but unspecified quantity of beer. At the Pike house, he consumed more alcohol and suffered a seizure. Some of the active members immediately took him to Mississippi Baptist Medical Center, where he recovered.

Word of the incident took little time to reach the administration.

Millsaps President George Harmon, as a courtesy, telephoned the two Pike alumni who served on the College’s Board of Trustees and told them that he intended to close the Pike chapter. What the trustees knew about the state of the chapter concerning its size and disciplinary problems, they learned from Harmon. Neither trustee felt overjoyed

by the decision, but both quickly gave Harmon their unqualified support. The College closed the chapter that same day.

The issue of underage drinking aside, a number of alumni and active members felt that the chapter had been treated unfairly, largely because the active members were unaware that the pledge in question had been drinking for hours before continuing to celebrate at the Pike house. Moreover, the chapter leadership acted quickly to secure medical help.

At least one chapter alumnus felt so strongly about the chapter’s removal that he sent his children to other schools.

There is no question, of course, that the active members were infuriated at the time, and a few doubtless remain so.

What generates such strong emotion over a College’s decision to remove what it saw as an intolerable annoyance, to say nothing of its view of the Pikes as a group hell-bent on wrecking the school’s image? To answer that, it’s useful to examine what constitutes a fraternity.

What is a fraternity?

Like most organized institutions, fraternities have their adherents and their detractors. They have been called exclusionary, frivolous, outmoded, and any number of other unattractive adjectives. Those accusations usually emanate from outside the fraternity community. Those who have belonged to fraternities, generally speaking, harbor radically different opinions.

Dr. Frances Lucas, the 10th president of Millsaps College, sees it this way: “Fraternities and sororities have been an important element of the college community since

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they first started on campuses more than 150 years ago. The Greek life program at Millsaps is built on the premise that fraternities and sororities enhance the educational mission of the College and provide an element of residential and social character to the campus.” Lucas came to Millsaps from Emory University, where she served as senior vice president for campus life.

One of her legacies there is a strong Greek system that the university considers an asset.

A fraternity can frame a student’s entire collegiate experience. A chapter that encourages leadership and scholarship will help its members flourish within the halls of learning. A chapter that overemphasizes the social side of college life will not be helpful in achieving the basic goal of a college: an education. In short, one can fall among companions good or bad in a fraternity, just as one can in a business, the military, or other professions.

Maintaining a balance between work and play has never been easy.

And few organizations can teach this balance in more ways than a fraternity.

That said, there’s nothing inherently magic about an organization that chooses to spell out its name in Greek letters. Yet, magic can abide there — not in the occult sense but in the marvel of warmth generated by friendship and brotherhood.

A fraternity chapter, ideally, represents the essence of diversity. Belonging to a group that marches in lockstep will teach you no more than you can learn from observing national conventions of any political party. But belonging to an organization made up of members who don’t look alike, think alike, work alike, or play alike can be of enormous use in teaching tolerance and understanding that applies to everything you do after your formal education is complete.

The return Shortly after Harmon’s retirement from Millsaps, three Pike alumni met with Vice President for Administration John Pilgrim and Dean of Students Todd Rose at the University Club in MILLSAPS MAGAZINE

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“Greek organizations are committed to instilling in members the ideas of scholarship, community service, leadership, brotherhood/sisterhood, interfraternalism, personal integrity, and social development.”

— President Frances Lucas Jackson to discuss the chapter’s expulsion and the prospects for its return.

The two Millsaps administrators surprised the alumni by outlining a wellconsidered timetable for the chapter’s return and a plan for returning the Pike house to the new chapter.

In brief, the College insisted that the chapter not be invited back to the campus until all members active at the time of the expulsion had graduated.

This meant that no formal action concerning the re-establishment of the chapter would begin until 2003. At that time, the administration would support a new Pike chapter established under the guidelines of the Pi Kappa Alpha International Office.

Meanwhile, the College would renovate and refurbish the house, maintain it, and use it as a women’s residence.

The administration renamed the house the Panhellenic House.

In 2002, after considerable informal discussion, the alumni formed a seven-member steering committee to work with the College, the chapter alumni, and the fraternity’s home office. Among the concerns was preparing for a fund-raising effort aimed at repaying the College for much of the renovation work done to the house, with a view toward having it returned to the chapter.

The largest concern, however, was voiced this way by one of the committee: “How on earth will we be able to carve out a new chapter on a campus this small, where there are already four Greek fraternities comparable to PiKA?” Indeed, the task seemed, if not insurmountable, extraordinarily difficult. A fraternity operates just like a college, persons leave, other persons

enter, all within a four-year structure.

Talks with Pike International Office representatives, based on their experience, convinced the committee that the goal was possible if not altogether probable.

Events accelerated in late 2002, and by early 2003 the Pike International Office had sent a team of recruiters to the campus. The recruiters hoped to interest 15 men in becoming members of what is called a Pi Kappa Alpha Colony. The colony, though without a house, would then learn to function as a fraternity, guided by both alumni and International Office representatives. Once the colony met a lengthy list of goals, including everything from scholarship to accounting, it would be reinstalled as a chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha.

The interviewer/recruiters met with members of the College administration, campus organizations including sororities, the athletic staff, and other faculty and staff, seeking names of Millsaps students not affiliated with a fraternity. The original goal turned out to be low. By the time the recruiting team completed its work, 31 men had signed on as members of the Pi Kappa Alpha Colony.

With recruiting over, alumni groups and the steering committee had the opportunity to meet the new colony members — who will become known as the “Re-founding Fathers” of the chapter.

“I’m stunned at both the quality and the quantity of the recruits,” said one of the committee members.

Another paid tribute to the recruiting team, saying, “I’d hire one or all of them in a New York minute.”

Courtesy of the Bobashela

Pi Kappa Alpha in 1905 The future The colony will be well into its considerable task of becoming a fullfledged Pike chapter by the time this article appears. It will conduct its first rush in the fall, and if it meets its many goals, the colony will be rechartered in 2004, marking the end of Pi Kappa Alpha’s absence from Millsaps College. The chapter will reacquire its original designation as Alpha Iota.

Those interested can follow the chapter’s progress at www.pikes-millsaps.org.

Lucas said of the effort, “Involvement in Greek life is one of many ways to enhance the quality of life for students. Greek organizations are committed to instilling in members the ideas of scholarship, community service, leadership, brotherhood/sisterhood, interfraternalism, personal integrity, and social development.”

Pi Kappa Alpha in 1906

Lucas’ thoughts were echoed by Ryan Van Andel, the fraternity’s director of expansion, who spearheaded the establishment of the colony. The chapter in 1999 “wasn’t running at the standards the College or the international office expected.” With the fresh start “we will bring a brand new fraternity with brand new ideas.” Van Andel also said that the fraternity did not condone hazing and that it placed a premium on leadership training and scholarship.

The new chapter will reoccupy the handsome red brick building built at the south end of the campus in 1987, a house that replaced the wood frame structure built on Marshall Street in 1939. That house, the first one owned by the chapter, followed a succession of rental houses on North West Street.

The Pikes who will live in the house

join a brotherhood of nearly 2,000 men, a line that stretches through the Great Depression and several wars — and across the momentous and monumental events and discoveries of the 20th century.

One of Alpha Iota’s original founders, Jesse Sumrall, lived to be 104 and saw most of the past century. In his 90s, Sumrall still communicated with the chapter he helped found. That Sumrall still cared about Alpha Iota after all those years draws a heavy line under the word “brotherhood.”

And places a heavy responsibility on the Re-Founding Fathers.

(William Jeanes, B.A. ’59, is the former publisher of Car and Driver and Road & Track magazines. He is also a Pike and a Millsaps Trustee.)

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YOURS, MAYAN, AND

OURS Millsaps’ sweeping vision for learning among the ruins leaves no discipline behind

By John Webb

magine a thatched-hut laboratory amid the gnarled roots, tangled vines, thorny vegetation, and rugged limestone of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Gathered around

I

a fragment of clay unearthed from nearby Mayan ruins are Millsaps anthropology, biology, and business professors, a religious studies major and an English major, a Mayan guide, and a Mexican archaeologist.

The archaeologist explains how the relic might have been part of a royal dwelling and passes it to the business professor, who tells the Mayan that it could be part of an exhibition generating money to preserve his heritage. As a solar-powered ceiling fan creaks overhead, the biologist remarks that the exhibition could also feature the ecosystem of the tropical dry forest, demonstrating how it contributed to the evolution of the Mayan civilization.

As a fading afternoon sun streams through the blinds, the anthropologist guesses that an inscription on the pottery might relate to Popol Vuh, the Mayan creation myth, and the religion student describes how that myth parallels Genesis. Finally, amid

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a rising cacophony of parrots and parakeets, the English major discusses how he might use those parallels as allegory in a short story he is writing.

Perhaps it’s the camaraderie of the journey or some mystical power exerted by shards of statues they have discovered beneath centuries of jungle growth. But here in the Yucatán, where the abundant waters of the Gulf flow into the clear currents of the Caribbean, barrier reefs are dissolving. Between Mexicans and Americans. Between students competing for grades and grants.

Between professors competing for the same college resources.

Between students and faculty divided by the things that have always divided the generations. Together they share insights that enrich one another’s understanding of the artifact at hand and the ancient culture it helps define.

At Kaxil Kiuic: The Helen Moyers Biocultural Reserve, Millsaps is creating an educational utopia where just such an exchange could take place. Although the focus of the project is the anthropology department’s marquee excavation at Kiuic, Millsaps’ complex presence in the region is attracting students and faculty across the academic spectrum, from this college and around the world. Working shoulder to shoulder in the tropical heat, amid snakes, scorpions, and other hazards, they are not

only helping uncover a lost civilization, but they are also generating buzz in archaeological circles that could spread the word internationally about the qualities that distinguish Millsaps.

To Dr. George Bey III, associate professor of anthropology, associate dean of sciences, and the executive producer of this epic undertaking, Kiuic is a “living laboratory” founded on the College’s view of disparate fields as inseparable from The Big Picture. Although Millsaps has long emphasized multidisciplinary study, Bey has built upon that tradition.

“What we have done is to bring together biology, geology, anthropology, archaeology, English, and business students to do projects whose lab is this single biocultural reserve,” Bey said. “This thing has just begun to crystallize. We’re in the moment, right now, where our vision is starting to take shape.”

It is taking shape amid the vestiges of an ancient civilization that counted from 5,000 to 8,000 inhabitants at its peak — with all the art, commerce, culture, and religion that would imply. Here, archaeology students have the opportunity to

Kaxil Kiuic is located in the Yucatán’s Puuc region, a land dense with Mayan pyramids and palaces.

excavate a city-state dating from approximately 600 B.C. to 1000 A.D., the oldest known settlement in the Puuc (“ridge”) region of the Yucatán, which teems with

Mayan pyramids and palaces. Biology, geology, and environmental-science students can examine Kiuic’s natural setting, a fragile tropical dry forest that represents the most endangered major tropical ecosystem on earth. Business majors at Kiuic (which they will tell you means “marketplace”) can study the history of Mayan commerce and the traditional Mayan economy as it is still played out today, contrasting it with the evolution of tourism and industry in the area.

While most such sites in Mexico are government-run and designed for professional archaeologists or graduate students, Bey wanted to create a reserve with undergraduate education as its focus.

“There are not many projects like this being carried out around the world, and where they do exist they are mostly governmental,” he said. “Of those, virtually none centers on an educational model.”

Bey has been directing field projects in the Yucatán since the mid-1980s, and a National Geographic grant had already enabled him to involve Millsaps undergraduates in the excavation of Ek Balam, a Mayan city-state dating to about 600 B.C. It was during that project that Bey began dreaming of an excavation that would not only integrate many disciplines, but also the site with its environment. “I was working strictly as an archaeologist, and I noticed the impact of the work on the local ecology and culture,” he said.

Dr. George Bey and Millsaps student Rebecca Hill at Kiuic, excavating a ceramic vessel that contained the remains of a Mayan child.

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Dr. George Bey says Millsaps is treading lightly amid this challenged ecosystem.

Kiuic to explore ways of joining forces with many different departments — from biology to business — each of whom could put the reserve under its own academic microscope.

Early on, Bey invited Dr. Sarah Armstrong, chair of the biology department, and Dr. Jim McKeown, professor of biology, to use the Yucatán site to build on existing field study programs in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The husband-and-wife team began by making two “reconnaissance missions” to investigate how students might do independent research in the region, McKeown said. “We wanted to look at the logistics. You have to haul in hardware such as microscopes and collecting gear such as nets, traps, plant presses, preservatives, pickling jars, dissecting tools, reference books.”

To simplify those logistics, Bey said “When you start working at a major Mayan ruin, you bring unintended consequences that you didn’t consider. It paves the way for commercial tourism.

Museums, t-shirts, busloads of tourists.”

So with two friends from his graduate days at Tulane — Dr. Bill Ringle, the chairman of anthropology at Davidson College, and Tomás Gallareta Negrón, an archaeologist and senior director of the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History — Bey conceived of something different — a project that would work with the local culture instead of against it. “In my dream, we’d cut out the tour buses and replace them

Bufo marinus, the largest species of toad in the world. This specimen weighed in at about two pounds.

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“What we have done is to bring together biology, geology, anthropology, archaeology, English, and business students to do projects whose lab is this single biocultural reserve.” — Dr. George Bey III with a low-impact tourism centered around education with a focus on Mayan, Mexican, and American students,” he said.

The timing seemed perfect for Kiuic, which occupied privately owned land that was being divided for sale. “The jungle was on the brink of being destroyed,” Bey said. “We visited the site and tried to figure out how we could work with the ecology as archaeologists and how we could work with the local Maya.”

For the last four years, Bey has been negotiating the bureaucratic labyrinth of purchasing some 4,000 acres, working with Mexico City to create an organization that could operate under Mexican law. The reserve, which is funded and supported by Millsaps, is managed by the Mexican nonprofit organization Kaxil Kiuic A.C., through which archaeologists, scientists, and students from Millsaps, the Autonomous University of the Yucatán, and the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History work with others from U.S. colleges and universities to preserve and explore the site.

While negotiating the legalities of the purchase, Bey brought Millsaps faculty to

that he would like to create a traditional field laboratory, complete with computers, microscopes, and other technology, “within the setting of this entire ecosystem.” Currently, the biology team sets up shop at Hacienda Tabí, about 15 miles (as the parrot flies) from the excavation and 20 miles from the archaeology students’ headquarters at Oxkutzcab. Students now wave as they pass each other on the dirt road, but Bey would like to foster more contact among both students and faculty of different disciplines.

The lab would not be the kind of facility you would find in Sullivan-Harrell or Olin halls, for Millsaps hopes to tread lightly and blend seamlessly into the aesthetic of the area. “The Helen Moyers Biocultural Reserve is located in a culturally rich, biologically diverse, and environmentally sensitive setting,” said Dr. Stan Galicki, assistant professor of geology, who co-teaches the multidisciplinary Living in Yucatán course with Bey. “We have a vision to develop the Center for Research and Sustainable Living within the constraints dictated by the culture, biology, geology, and hydrology of the

area. The development of the center within the dry tropical forest must be done with great care. In keeping with the culture of the area we have selected preliminary building designs that reflect the heritage of the Maya; life and research at the center should reflect that same heritage.”

Plans include a complex that would sustain up to 40 residents. “All buildings will be solar powered and use state of the art solid waste and wastewater treatment facilities,” Galicki said. “Although waterquality research is not yet complete, we anticipate utilizing groundwater to meet most of the demand for freshwater. We will also collect rainwater in chultuns or buried tanks, as the ancient Maya did, to supplement our needs. We will have backup power but are planning on using gas, not diesel, powered generators. The same clean-burning fuel that powers the generators will also run gas-powered refrigerators and stoves in the kitchen. We want to

minimize the human footprint as much as possible.”

Like the surrounding dry forest, the lab would be a sort of diverse, self-sustaining, and multifaceted organism, Bey said. Students would contribute to its maintenance, financial and otherwise, he said, “creating a sense of identity and community within this setting.” To wit, two graduate students from Tulane and Vanderbilt — who as Millsaps students worked at Kiuic for the last three years — will mentor undergraduates this summer.

“We’re creating a living laboratory, where students from around the world come to do research and then feed their data back into the system,” Bey said.

“We’re getting students involved in the idea of environmental citizenship and helping them become aware of the complex questions and issues involved in environmental studies. You’re not just an ecologist. You’re learning how business

Millsaps biology students at Hacienda Tabí, cataloging insects collected from the Helen Moyers Biocultural Reserve at Kaxil Kiuic.

impacts the environment.”

Until Millsaps is able to raise upwards of $100,000 to build the center, researchers must make do. The biology department has found temporary digs at Hacienda Tabí, an abandoned plantation owned by the Fundación Cultural de Yucatán. It is being restored room by room by the caretaker and an assistant. “Living at Tabí was a new experience for all of us,” Armstrong said. “The students slept in hammocks under mosquito netting on the outdoor gallery. There was indoor plumbing, and a good well supplied all the water we could want — icy cold from being underground.

The hacienda’s caretakers and their children took very good care of us and introduced us to the local cuisine. We had fresh fruit at every meal, and fresh-squeezed orange juice at breakfast.”

The team’s first project was to turn two rooms of the hacienda into a functioning laboratory where the specimens they collected could be sorted, identified, and catalogued. Chairs and tables were borrowed from other rooms, and a working lab with microscopes, insect pinning boards, plant presses, a reference library, and a laptop computer was quickly established.

“Four of the students, Robert Caskey, Robert Freeman, Jim Goode, and Barrot Lambdin, worked with Jim McKeown to collect and identify insects, both from the property at Kiuic and from the grounds around the hacienda,” Armstrong explained. “The fifth student, Dionne Jackson, worked with me to colHammocks at the hacienda: While bedrooms at Tabí are turned into makeshift labs, students sleep outdoors.

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lect and identify plants at Kiuic. We brought pollen samples from these plants back to Jackson, and Dionne is photographing those with a scanning electron microscope to develop a catalog of pollen grains that can be compared to pollen from the soils in George Bey’s dig. This can help to determine what kinds of plants were available to the people living in the area at the times the ruins were inhabited.

“It turned out to be a wonderful opportunity in terms of tropical biology.

There was the potential not just to investigate the flora and fauna there now, but also to study how it’s changed. From what George Bey has found in his digs, the area has been inhabited for approximately 1,600 years. They keep finding layer upon layer of habitation. In those soils covering up old buildings we can find pollen grains and fragments of plants that were either native to the area or were being used for textiles and food. This also gives us insight into the climate and how it may or may not have changed.”

The team would make the hour’s drive to Kiuic early every morning and work in the field into the afternoon, then head back to the hacienda for lunch and spend afternoons and evenings in the lab.

“It is a lifestyle dictated by climate,” Armstrong said. “The rainy season had just begun, and there were torrential downpours every afternoon and evening.

Daytime temperatures were in the 90s, with high humidity, much like Mississippi, but without the air conditioning.”

You can get air conditioning in Olin Hall. But in the Yucatán biology students could connect the dots between the classroom and the natural world. Robert Caskey, B.S. 2003, used the trip to research flies of the tropical dry forest.

“On the second day out in the field my friend and I were standing at the entrance to a cave, when one of the most amazing of all my experiences in the field occurred,” he wrote in his travelogue.

“All of a sudden we both heard a loud, deliberate, low-pitched buzzing sound and turned to see something huge and indistinguishable flying out of the hole.”

It was “the largest Hymenopteran [wasp] that I had ever seen in my life.”

On a biology trip to Virginia, Caskey had seen that very species at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington. “It was a fulfilling experiMILLSAPS MAGAZINE

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The caretakers asked the Millsaps delegation to help throw a fiesta for 300 locals celebrating the Feast of St. John the Baptist, patron of the hacienda.

ence to constantly be completing and connecting things that began in the classroom with these experiences that now exist in my mind,” he said.

Caskey, who plans to attend the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said that he hoped to apply insights gained from the Yucatán experience to his interest in the spread of tropical diseases. “I certainly hope to work in this area in the future and knowing Spanish and the culture will help,” said Caskey, who along with fellow seniors Barrot Lambdin and James Goode presented his findings at the Mississippi Academy of Sciences in February. The students were also invited to submit articles for publication to appear in Journal of The Mississippi Academy of Sciences.

But what might not appear in a scholarly journal is the impact that local Mayans had on the hearts of these stu-

dents, and the kind of crosscultural connections that have emerged. Caskey said that he found himself teaching English to the hacienda caretaker’s young daughter while she taught him a few words in Spanish — and brought the students insects for their research.

The students were surprised when the caretakers asked them to help throw a fiesta for 300 locals to celebrate the Feast of St. John the Baptist, patron of the hacienda — complete with slaughtered pig, mariachi band, fireworks, and the bishop from the nearby port of Progreso.

“We would not only get to see and participate in the fiesta, but also help with the preparations,” Caskey wrote. “We cleaned off the 300-year-old statue of the saint and moved it our into the common area. We then decorated the area with colored streamers to transform the lower level of the hacienda from a brick walkway into a festive area where we would

gather for Mass in both Mayan and Spanish, a perfect example of the importance of both Mayan and European influence in the culture of this area.”

It was also an example of the kind of crosscultural experience that seems to characterize Millsaps’ Yucatán initiative.

“It’s definitely something I wouldn’t have gotten at another school,” said Caskey, “Millsaps made this possible. It was truly the climax of my academic experience and something I will take away from here more than anything. It will affect me for the rest of my life, in terms of what I do and the way I interact with others.”

A literary perspective It is perhaps through a more subjective lens that Dr. Eric Griffin and his writing students will be examining the Yucatán in the summer of 2004. “The biggest selling genre right now is nonfiction, and I wanted to look at how to teach memoir and travel writing emphasizing cultural anthropology and an ethnographic perspective,” said Griffin, whose dissertation on Anglo-Spanish literary and cultural relations included a personal narrative. “I’ve always been interested in the way cultures rub up against each other in all kinds of suggestive ways. I grew up in the California’s San Joaquin Valley at the intersection of North American and

“There is a tradition in Mexico of expatriate writers such as D. H. Lawrence and Katherine Anne Porter.

I want to try to make this an interdisciplinary writing project, bringing together creative writers and those with more social-science interests.” — Dr. Eric Griffin Spanish culture. I was able to reflect upon those cultural experiences and how they were shaped by what has been going on since the 16th century. Vestiges remain of the Anglo-Spanish rivalry that existed in trying to carve up the New World.”

Griffin said that his students would prepare for the journey with readings in “early writings of intercultural interest to the rediscovery of the Maya in the 19th century to more contemporary ethnographic and cultural theory.” They would be encouraged to keep journals that would be shaped and revised after they return home. But he said that he planned to give students freedom of form.

“Fiction, nonfiction, ethnographic writing — all of those would be fair game. There is a tradition in Mexico of expatriate writers such as D. H. Lawrence and Katherine Anne Porter,” he said. “I want to try to make this an interdisciplinary writing project, bringing together creative writers and those with more social-science inter-

ests. I see this as a synthesis between the social sciences and literature.”

The evolution of an economy The synthesis between cultural history and commerce is the focus of Else School students traveling to the Yucatán, said Dr. Jesse Beeler, the Hyman F. McCarty Jr. Chair of Business Administration, professor of accounting, and director of international business studies. “Our thought is that for students to have a well-rounded view of business internationally they need an understanding of a developing economy. I’m a CPA and a Ph.D. in accounting, with 10 years’ business experience. Typically people don’t expect someone with my background to be interested in culture and history, but it fits with the way we teach James Goode, B.S. 2003, with children who visited Hacienda Tabí to celebrate the Feast of St. John the Baptist.

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things in the Else School. We want students to not only be technically competent in business but to also see the big view of things.”

To provide this vantage point, Beeler has designed a course that follows a time line from the Yucatán’s most basic economy to its most developed economic activ-

The group ended their trip in the Cancun, Playa del Carmen region with a different kind of perspective from what the MTV Generation might experience there on spring break. “We were able to see a highly developed tourist industry and its impact on both the economy and the culture,” Beeler said. The scope of the

The Yucatán program “was truly the climax of my academic experience and something I will take away from here more than anything. It will affect me for the rest of my life, in terms of what I do and the way I interact with others.” — Robert Caskey, B.S. 2003 ity. Six business students traveling with Beeler to Kiuic last December began their Yucatán experience by witnessing firsthand “the most basic forms of economic activity — subsistence farming, hunting, and logging — and saw how people there have subsisted for thousands of years,” he said.

How does this kind of study benefit a student preparing for a 21st century marketplace? “Many projects that large corporations undertake seek to offer opportunity to those in developing economies who have previously had limited opportunities,” Beeler said. “Firsthand experience gives you insights into the problems and opportunities that may exist when you seek to build business in these economically undeveloped areas. It’s important to understand the culture and history of the indigenous peoples. You have to create projects that fit the culture.”

The second leg of the journey took them to Mérida, an industrial city of about a million inhabitants where they visited business centers and government ministers in charge of economic development.

They also saw the port city of Progreso, 25 miles north, and witnessed firsthand how the manmade port there provides a vital transportation link between Mexico and the United States. “Students saw the cruise ships that allow tourists to visit Mayan ruins, ecotourism sites, and bird sanctuaries.” It was an illustration, he said, of “people trying to use everything at their disposal to develop their economy.

This port provides a facility that allows companies to ship products and raw materials from the United States and assemble them in Mexico and then ship back to the U.S. for consumption.”

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program “allows you to see people living in primitive conditions while many of their relatives work in the service industry and live a modern life.”

All of which combines to foster in the students a global sensitivity that, in a time of grave mistrust of what some around the world see as American commercial and cultural imperialism, is perhaps more crucial than ever.

A bull market In Motul, the students attended a bullfight, a spectacle in which horseback riders lanced the bull before a matador delivered the fatal blow. “It was riveting, yet it created an aversion,” Beeler said. Many of the students were taken aback, but learned that “you have to be careful not to scorn cultural differences.”

Gordon Prima, a graduate student in

the Else School’s Renaissance M.B.A. program, said that the bullfight is, for those Mexicans living close to the land, a natural thing. “The bullfight is not a mistreatment of animals; the bulls have been raised just for this function,” he said. “Some people view it as purely bloody, but it’s a competition testing the skills of the rider and the horse. As our society has moved away from the agrarian, our contact with animals is as pets. People are critical, but the culture of the Yucatán is one step closer to the land and so they don’t see it in the same context as we do.”

Meanwhile, as North American students gain an appreciation for the Mayan culture, Bey said that the Maya are beginning to increase their own appreciation for their heritage and environment. He said he believed that Kiuic could be a “beachhead” for helping the Maya see that low-impact tourism can create jobs by creating a nature reserve — and that the parrots, parakeets, black jaguars, and pumas have to be part of that natural picture.

“We’re developing among the locals a sense of identity and pride in their world,” he said. “They are not a people with a tremendous sense of self-worth. In 50 to 60 years, if the reserve is still there, it could help them maintain and solidify that identity. We want to have a dialogue with them about how we should use the resources and incorporate them into their lives. There are jaguars in the jungle, an endangered species. Most Mayans will kill them. It is worth teaching them how there can be value in not killing them. These relationSome students were shocked by the violence of the Motul bullfight.

ships with the indigenous people are slow and complex.

“I started off as an archaeologist just wanting to dig pits, and now I’m talking about crosscultural dialogue. And students participate in that dialogue. They work with families who are sending kids over the border to work and see migrant labor from that perspective. It makes you reflect on the values of what you’re doing.”

Millsaps graduate Christopher Gunn, now a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at the University of Kentucky, said that the opportunities he had working in the Yucatán provided him with valuable insights into the modern Maya. “We get to see firsthand what sorts of impacts that U.S. immigration and economic policies have on people living in the Yucatán,” he said. “We observe how traditional ways are constantly negotiated in the face of cultural influences from both Central Mexico and beyond. I could read about these things in ethnographies or magazines, but experiencing it for myself has been personally meaningful.” Gunn, who said that his dissertation would enhance academic knowledge about the ancient Maya through his research into households and patterns of ceramic consumption, said the project also helped him network with professional colleagues outside of U.S. academia.

Meanwhile, the Yucatán program has generated on campus a heady academic breeze fertile with multidisciplinary crosspollination. For instance, Bey and Galicki offer, through The Associated Colleges of the South, a Living in Yucatán course that synthesizes study of the Mayan culture and archaeology, tropical deciduous forest ecology, and the impact of tourism on the Great Maya Coral Reef.

Angles on the architecture And additional departments are finding avenues of research in the Yucatán. Dr. Connie Campbell, chairman of the math department, heard about the program and is planning to help her students view the region from geometric angles. Studies have discovered that the Maya, much like the ancient Egyptians and Chinese, built using the geometric proportions found in nature. “What is so interesting to me about mathematics in art and architecture is that it helps students see how much math is involved in the world around them,” said Campbell. “Students who might not see

the importance or have an interest in math might see how important it was to the Mayan culture.”

As students return from the Yucatán with research in hand, the project has established a presence on campus. For instance, Dr. Timothy Ward, chairman of the chemistry department, helped one student analyze the chemical makeup of pottery from Kiuic.

And then there is the Millsaps Institute for Interdisciplinary Archaeological Research, which emerged from conversations last fall among Dr. Michael Galaty, assistant professor of anthropology; Dr. James Bowley, associate professor of religious studies; and Dr. David Davis, associate professor of history and associate dean of arts and letters.

“By nature archaeology is multidisciplinary, so it’s not surprising that George is attracting all those faculty from other disciplines,” Galaty said. “Last October, some of us started talking about how there was a lot of interest on campus in archaeology. David Davis, a historian specializing in African history and Greece, has been wanting to add a material-studies component to their literary focus. James Bowley is a Dead Sea scholar who wants to take students to Israel to do archaeology when things settle down there. We started talking about a large umbrella organization where we could share ideas, equipment, resources, and information.”

MIIAR can, with little overhead, help to make Millsaps more than the sum of its departments, Galaty said. “Let’s say I have a student who comes in my office wanting

Bey says that the project is helping both Mayans and North Americans see themselves from new perspectives.

to do both anthropology/archaeology and religious studies,” he said. “He wants to go with me to Albania but also with Dr. Boley to Israel. In the past we might have competed for that student, but now we are more likely to cooperate, maybe encouraging the student to do a double major or major in religious studies with a concentration in anthropology/archaeology.”

Meanwhile, Galaty said, the Yucatán project is raising the profile of the entire institution. “Kiuic is good because it is high profile, but it is just one program out of a raft of programs at Millsaps, from going to China with Ming Tsui, chair of the sociology-anthropology department, to going to field school in Virginia with me,” he said. “Once students hear of Kiuic, they realize there is a lot more they can do here.”

“Millsaps is why this is happening,” Bey said. “A philosophy that permeates the faculty is seeing the value of connections. Part of the liberal arts vision of Millsaps is the ability to connect your area of study to the larger world. So here, instead of an English professor saying ‘why spend money on something that is not interesting to me?’ he is taking part.

We are also attracting faculty from other schools, as well as Mexican faculty, so it becomes a rich learning environment.”

“This is bigger than Millsaps,” Bey said. “It’s a great way to spread our dedication to education and preservation.”

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Meet Millsaps The Jungle Blackboard One student’s journey out of the classroom and into the real world of archaeology

By Hannah Page Winner of the 2003 Founders’ Medal

L

ying in my hammock on my second night in the Yucatán this summer, I wondered what I had gotten myself into.

I had little experience in archaeological theory, none in the field. I knew only a few phrases in Spanish. And the hammock was going to take some getting used to.

I adjusted more quickly than I expected. By the fifth day of my stay, I was content and comfortable with not only the work I was doing at the Kiuic site, but also with the general pace and nature of life in the Yucatán.

I lived in a house in the small town of Oxkutzcab with other student workers. We rose at 5:30 a.m., rode in a van to the site at 6:15, and arrived at around 7.

The heat at the site, which was in the middle of the jungle, rarely became stifling. But we nevertheless tried to take advantage of the cooler early hours. We worked steadily until 10:30, took a lunch break, and continued working until 2.

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Then, we rode in the van back to the town and ate a traditional afternoon meal.

By the time we had taken our chilly showers, it was 5 and we were exhausted.

But we often walked to the "lab" house to help with the work that goes on outside of the field, usually washing or numbering pieces of ceramics from pots at the site.

Finally it was off to the hammock, where sleep for me was not deep, but rather a series of intense naps.

The schedule was set, but the atmosphere was relaxed. The life was simple, but the work was rewarding.

Although I enjoyed my schedule, I was apprehensive at times about my responsibilities in the field. I had reason to be: Kiuic is an important site. It is the oldest in the Puuc region, believed by professors and students who work at the site to have been populated from around 400 B.C. to 1000 A.D.

Hannah Page, right, with Anna Catesby McGehee examining the excavation of the Yaxche group of buildings at Kaxil Kiuic, the oldest ruins in the Puuc region of the Yucatán.

There were two areas being excavated this summer in the Yaxche group of buildings: First, Patio B was likely a domestic center, where the support people cooked and disposed of waste. Second, the Dzunun (“hummingbird”) structure is thought to have been a ceremonial or government center.

I assisted a recent Millsaps graduate, Anna Catesby McGehee, in overseeing the excavation of the Dzunun structure. Before I left, I imagined I would be filing and filling out paperwork. Instead I learned not only how to use a digital camera, but also the art of drawing profiles and plantas (bird’s-eye views) of structures used in conjunction with the digital photographs to document every stage of the excavation process.

I was often intimidated by the prospect of my drawings being traced, placed in a computer, and used for years to come. At the same time, I was empowered by that very prospect; I was making a lasting imprint on the project, however small.

The nature of the Dzunun structure was overwhelming, as well. As the excavation moved forward, we began to see that there were stairs not only at the top level, but rather many different sets of stairs and floors underneath the top level — suggesting that there were possibly multiple structures layered on top of one another. In watching archaeologists discuss and theorize about this structure, I began to understand the creative and imaginative side of archaeology.

However, some of my best experiences in the Yucatán were with the people I met there. All of the workers at the Kiuic site were Mayan men who speak a combination of Spanish and Mayan. Although I understood only fragments of their conversations, I connected easily with their senses of humor. One day when I tripped on a rock, the two Mayan men nearest me, Sam and Henri, fell silent. I got up, dusted off, looked them straight in the eyes, and began laughing uncontrollably. They looked at each other cautiously, then joined in. After that, we communicated mostly through smiles, nods, and respect for one another that transcended our language barrier.

By the end of the summer, I wasn’t ready to leave the Yucatán’s hot days, cold showers, tropical evening storms, or its delicious fresh avocado.

I fell in love with the sound of Spanish, and I missed hearing it for weeks after my return.

While I might not become an archaeologist, because of this summer I will always understand the archaeological process in ways books could never teach me.

(This article originally appeared in The Purple & White.)

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Millsaps in á the Yucatan: The big picture Millsaps students and faculty in the Yucatán have the perspective that comes not only from hands-on excavation at Kiuic, the region’s oldest civilization, but also from exposure to its ecosystem, economy, culture, and people. A “living laboratory” is emerging where anthropology, biology, religion, business, math, and even English students and professors from Millsaps, Mexico, and beyond — armed with their respective academic microscopes — can meet to examine different details of the same canvas.

Biology students study the endangered dry forest and its diverse array of plants and animals. Business students contrast the traditional Maya economy with that of nearby cities such as Mérida and Progreso. Math students study angles in the ancient architecture. English students study ethnographic writings on the region. And as they come together, they share information.

Thus is cultivated the biologist who understands tourism’s impact on an ecosystem. The businessman sensitive to how commercialization threatens indigenous culture. The mathematician who appreciates the anthropological significance of architectural proportions. And the writer who can synthesize Northern and Central American points of view. — John Webb

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Mérida Mérida, capital of the Yucatán, is known as the White City for its cleanliness and the way it reflects the brilliant Mexican sun. A center of industry that is home to about a million people, Mérida provides a starting point for Millsaps students’ exploration of the region. Here, they can meet with scholars at the University of the Yucatán and tour museums and other cultural sites. In addition, students have the opportunity to meet with government ministers of economic development and examine the impact of industry on the area..

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FACULTY & STAFF Marrs honored by Mississippi Humanities Council The Mississippi Humanities Council has selected Dr. Suzanne Marrs, the former E. B. Stewart Family Professor in Language and Literature at Millsaps, for a 2002 Humanities Teacher Award. As part of its Arts and Humanities Month celebration each fall, the council bestows this award on distinguished humanities professors at Mississippi’s colleges and universities.

“Dr. Marrs is widely regarded as a fine teacher and is an important contributor to the life of Millsaps,” said Dr. Richard Smith, senior vice president and dean of the College.

“She is also a nationally recognized scholar on the work of Eudora Welty.

We are very fortunate to count a professor of her caliber among our faculty members.”

At Millsaps, Marrs teaches courses in composition, 19- and 20thcentury American literature, and 20th-century Southern literature.

In 1985 and 1986, Marrs was the Welty Scholar in Residence at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. She has lectured on Welty’s works in the United States, Russia, and France and served as a

consultant for a 1987 BBC documentary on Eudora Welty.

She also received the Phoenix Award for Outstanding Achievement in Eudora Welty Scholarship in 1998.

“The Mississippi Humanities Council greatly enriches life in Mississippi through its support of a wide variety of cultural programs,” Marrs said. “It’s a special honor to be recognized by this outstanding organization.”

Marrs, who was authorized by the late Eudora Welty to write her official biography, is also the author of The Welty Collection, a guide to the Welty documents and materials at the state archives, and numerous articles on Welty’s fiction. Her most recent book, One Writer’s Imagination: The Fiction of Eudora Welty, was published in fall 2002. The new book cenDr. Suzanne Marrs ters on Welty’s creative process, exploring the way in which Welty adapted the world around book also details the biographical and her for use in her fiction and how she historical background of some of dramatically revised her stories. The Welty’s work.

At left, Marrs with Eudora Welty; above, Marrs’ book One Writer’s Imagination.

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Lucas is named leader of Southern University Conference Dr. Frances Lucas, the 10th president of Millsaps, has been elected president of the Southern University Conference.

The announcement was made in March at the organization's annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

“The Southern University Conference is a distinguished organization with a long and impressive history,” said Lucas, who previously served as vice-president of the group.

“It is an honor and a pleasure to be named president of a group so committed to the educational process.”

The Southern University Conference was formed in 1985 to examine the progress of education and other matters pertaining to

college and graduate work.

Membership in the select body is by invitation, and current members hail from 13 states.

Lucas came to Millsaps from Emory University, where she served as senior vice president for campus life. A 1978 alumna of Mississippi State University, she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in administration of higher education from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Lucas has also studied at the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University.

Lucas was recently named the 2002 Business Woman of the Year by the Mississippi Business Journal.

President Frances Lucas

Ammon assumes Stewart Professorship Dr. Ted Ammon, associate professor of philosophy and chair of the Millsaps philosophy department, has been appointed to the E. B. Stewart Family Professorship in Language and Literature, effective July 1.

The Stewart Professorship is awarded on a competitive basis for a two-year term to support the scholarly work of a faculty member in language and literature. It allows for a reduced teaching load, a summer stipend, and a research and travel fund.

“I am honored and delighted to be appointed the Stewart Professor,” Ammon said. “I look forward to completing long-standing projects during my professorship.”

With the support of the Stewart Professorship, Ammon plans to finish a book-length study of the work of Jorge Luis Borges.

The book is expected to contribute to the Borges scholarship by examining several philosophical complexities in Borges’ work that have been studied only superficially by critics.

Ammon is also revising and expanding two shorter pieces in the areas of philosophy and literature: an article on skepticism and mysticism in Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood and a longer article on rhetorical strategies of dominance in the plays of Harold Pinter. Lastly, Ammon is finishing a novel entitled The Verge.

Dr. Ted Ammon

Peede is appointed speechwriter for new N.E.A. chairman John Parrish Peede, who has served as Millsaps’ director of communications for the last year and a half, has been appointed speechwriter to the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington.

Peede was recommended for the presidential appointment by the chairman of the NEA, Dana Gioia, and he

was offered the position following an interview and evaluation by the White House office of personnel.

“Reporting on the Millsaps Difference as the editor of Millsaps Magazine has been one of the greatest pleasures of my professional career,” said Peede, who joined the Millsaps communications staff in 1997.

“It has been a privilege, too,” he added. “Some years ago, at a Millsaps conference on Southern literature and religion, I wrote these remarks for a speaker: ‘The South is not a riddle to be solved, or a book to be read, but a house to be lived in.’ What I said of the South then, I say of Millsaps now.

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FACULTY & STAFF Millsaps has been a grand house and a welcoming home where I have lived among family.”

Peede said that he “could not have enjoyed better support from any college president or administration” than he had over the past five and a half years. “President Harmon hired me to direct the magazine, and President

Lucas promoted me and mentored me at key times in my career,” he said.

“They have my gratitude, as does the communications staff who labored month after month, year after year, to deliver a magazine worthy of the College.”

Peede, who left the College in April, said that the decision to move

on was difficult. “My decision was consistent with what I was taught by the Millsaps faculty and students and alumni: Always challenge yourself, always be open to new opportunities, always look for new ways to grow. I have left Millsaps, but it will never leave me.”

Burke named Cook Chair at Else School of Management Dr. Kimberly Burke, associate professor of accounting, has been appointed the Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Chair of Business Administration at the Else School of Management.

A Millsaps faculty member since 1995, she received her B.B.A. and M.S. degrees from Texas Tech University and her Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University. She has served as the director of the accounting program since 1999, directing both the undergraduate and the master of accountancy programs.

Burke’s areas of scholarly research include consumer satisfaction with assurance services and accounting education. She has published articles in Advances in Accounting, The Journal of Information Systems, The Review of Accounting Information Systems, The Journal of Applied Business Research, The Journal of Business Education, and Internal Auditing.

Burke is also the co-author of a national continuing education course provided by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

As a teacher, Burke encourages students to master the technical aspects of accounting that will allow them to enter the accounting profession upon graduation and to develop dynamic thinking and reasoning skills that will sustain them both professionally and personally.

Her teaching is distinguished by an active learning environment that promotes critical thinking and communication skills in the classroom and by her willingness to extend the boundaries of her classroom to the professional community.

The Cook Chair, established in 1991 through the generosity of the Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Charitable Foundation, provides an opportunity for Millsaps College to recruit or retain

Dr. Kimberly Burke

an outstanding teacher/scholar whose accomplishments deserve recognition.

The chairholder teaches, guides, and counsels students at all levels, conducts scholarly research, publishes findings, and exchanges ideas, theories, and concepts with students, faculty, and external communities.

Around Campus Arts and Letters Collin Asmus (art) has had three paintings accepted into a national juried exhibition at the Slidell Cultural Center in Louisiana. His work received a second place award in the show.

Amy Forbes (history) in April presented a paper entitled “Ridicule in the Courtroom: Political Satire and the Jury Trial in France,” at the annual conference of the Society for French Historical Studies in Milwaukee.

Darby Ray (religious studies) delivered the convocation address at Rust

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College’s Religious Emphasis Week in March.

Elise Smith (art) had a paper accepted for the annual Southeastern College Art Conference meeting this October in Raleigh, N.C. The title of this paper is “‘A pillared shade’: The Tree as Monument and Metaphor in Georgian England.”

Bill Storey (history) attended a workshop in Amsterdam, where he participated in a roundtable of historians who are planning to write a multivolume history of modern European technology. After the meeting, he presented his

findings on the history of guns in South Africa to the African Studies Seminar at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University.

Else School Ajay Aggarwal (management) has been appointed to a second two-year term on the Decision Sciences Institute’s innovative education committee. The committee conducts the instructional innovation competition annually and determines the winner of the prestigious DSI Innovative Education Award.

He has also been elected chairman

of the board for the south-central Mississippi chapter of the American Production and Inventory Control Society.

He won the Best Paper in Track Award at the southeast Decision Sciences Institute annual meeting in Williamsburg, Va. The paper, entitled “Business Ethics: Do Well by Doing Good,” was co-authored by Andy Felo.

Randy Boxx (Else School) served as the program chair for the 2003 AACSB International annual meeting held in New Orleans in April. In addition, he has been selected by the organization to serve as the vice chair of the new maintenance of accreditation committee.

Sciences Connie Campbell (mathematics) has been asked to serve as a leader for the national workshop “Leading the Academic Department: A Workshop for Chairs of Mathematical Sciences Departments.”

Michael Galaty (sociology-anthropology) delivered a paper entitled “The Mallakastra Regional Archaeological Project: The Fifth Season” at the international symposium Viti Arkeologjik 2002, in Tirana, Albania, sponsored by the Albanian Academy of Sciences and Institute of Archaeology.

Mark Lynch (mathematics) had a paper entitled “A Class of Metrics with Strangely Shaped Disks” accepted for publication in the International Journal of Mathematical Education.

Sarah Lea McGuire (biology) attended two invited seminars at the International Fungal Genetics Conference in March at Asilomar, Calif. One seminar was entitled “The SNXA1 Gene of Aspergillus Nidulans Affects the DNA Damage Checkpoint.” The second one was entitled “Mentoring Undergraduate Research in a Small College.”

She has also been awarded a

three-year, $100,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund fungal genetics research on the molecular biology of cell division.

Jimmie Purser (computer science) will appear on the satellite broadcast “Tech It or Leave It: Technology’s Impact on Teaching Methodologies.”

He also presented a paper entitled “Technological Literacy and Information Fluency in a Senior Chemistry Seminar” at the national American Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans.

Staff Shelly Bass (communications) was awarded a second place award from the College Public Relations Association of Mississippi for her work on the Millsaps web site.

Nicole Bradshaw (communications) was awarded four PRism Awards from the Public Relations Association of Mississippi for her skills in public relations work for Millsaps.

She also won a second place award from the College Public Relations Association of Mississippi.

Don Fortenberry (student affairs) was elected to the executive committee of the Leadership Jackson Alumni Association.

He will also be chairing a panel at a meeting in Washington sponsored by the United Methodist Higher Education Foundation. The symposium, “The Clash of Civilizations,” involves a number of key United Methodists on Capitol Hill. The symposium honors United Methodist Bishop James Mathews, who has written about Mahatma Gandhi and has worked for interfaith and intercultural understanding.

meeting in Tampa. She is the Mississippi representative to the council.

Kathi R. Griffin (writing center) and six peer writing tutors conducted an all-day workshop in March at Jackson State University. The workshop was designed to help prepare eight undergraduate JSU students for tutoring as their new writing center, The Richard N. Wright Center for the Written Word, takes shape.

Lewis Lowe (communications) won two PRism awards and two PRAM awards of excellence from the Public Relations Association of Mississippi for his work in the design of Millsaps publications.

He also won two first place awards, two second place awards, and one third place award from the College Public Relations Association of Mississippi.

Larry Madison (library) had an essay entitled “Onomastic Musings” accepted for publication in the February 2003 issue of Against the Grain, a library journal.

Todd Rose (student affairs) has been named president-elect of the Mississippi Association of College Student Affairs Personnel and will be responsible for organizing the association’s meeting in 2005.

Cynthia Thompson (athletics) graduated cum laude, Phi Theta Kappa, from Hinds Community College, with an associate’s degree in applied science.

Nola Gibson (adult learning) was a judge for the second year for the Mississippi Business Journal’s annual “Salute to Business and Industry” contest. She was also elected secretary of the Southern Regional Council of the College Board at its February

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MAJOR NOTES SEND YOUR UPDATES TO: Millsaps College Office of 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, please send us their names and addresses.

1953 Dr. Robert T. Lott, B.S. 1953, of West Point retired from the Clay County Medical Center in fall 2002, after 40 years in the medical profession as a general surgeon.

1956 Dr. Hiram C. Polk Jr., B.S. 1956, of Louisville, Ky., received the Ephraim McDowell Physician of the Year Award at the Doctors Ball in Louisville in November 2002. The award is given annually to honor a physician who has made significant contributions to the medical field, demonstrated humanitarian service, represented the medical field with distinction, and demonstrated the highest ethical standards. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Polk was inducted in 1995 as an honorary member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the oldest surgical college in the world. He has served as president of numerous surgical societies. The author of several hundred scientific publications, nine books, and eight monographs, he is the editorin-chief of the American Journal of Surgery. He has served as chair of surgery at the University of Louisville since 1971.

1957 Dr. A. Wallace (Wally) Conerly, B.S. 1957, of Jackson has been appointed to a four-year term on the board of regents of the National Library of Medicine by Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. He is the first Mississippian to be named to the prestigious board. The National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library, is located in Bethesda, Md., and collects materials in all areas of biomedicine and health care. A fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians, MILLSAPS MAGAZINE

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Conerly served a three-year term as the college’s commissioner of accreditation of allied health-education programs. A former examiner and member of the board of trustees of the National Board for Respiratory Care, he has served on the Mississippi State Medical Association council on medical education, the professional education committee of the American Heart Association (Mississippi affiliate), and the Journal of Respiratory Diseases editorial review board. He is vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

1958 Albert (Glenn) Calloway, B.S. 1958, of Clinton has been named president of the American Council of Engineering Companies for Mississippi. A registered professional engineer and land surveyor, he has worked for the Mississippi Highway Department for more than 32 years. He is the vice president of Michael Baker Jr. Inc., in Jackson.

1959 Dr. Robert (Bob) A. Weems, B.A. 1959, of Oxford is the co-author of Mississippi Law of Tort, published in the fall of 2001. The book was written in collaboration with his son, Robert M. Weems, a law clerk. The senior Weems is a professor at the Mississippi School of Law. Dr. Clyde V. Williams, 1959, of Starkville received the 2002 Outstanding Humanist Award from Mississippi State University. As part of the recognition, he presented a public lecture entitled “The Viper in the Ointment” in the university’s Mitchell Memorial Library in October. A former reporter for the Baton Rouge State

Times and the Jackson Daily News, he also served on the administrative staff of the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington. He holds a master’s degree from MSU and a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. An associate professor in the English department at MSU, he teaches courses in literature, writing, and film.

1961 Isabel G. Kelly, B.A. 1961, of Clinton works as a naturalist at The Earth Lab at the Duncan M. Gray Episcopal Camp and Conference Center in Canton. Established in 2000, The Earth Lab seeks to provide kindergarten through 12th-grade students with hands-on encounters with nature and to inspire them to live in sustainable ways. Kelly has more than 20 years of elementary-level teaching experience in Mississippi.

1962 William Sanders, B.A. 1962, of Elkin, N.C., appeared in the title role of King Lear at the 2002 Virginia Shakespeare Festival at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg. A longtime actor, he has participated in Shakespeare Festivals in Fort Worth, Dallas, and Virginia, and has played notable roles at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va., and Mill Mountain Playhouse in Roanoke. He is a retired history professor.

R Sarah Beth Allen, 1963, of Bartlett, 1963

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Tenn., is the director of guidance at West Memphis High School in West Memphis, Ark. Dr. Carleen Smith Leggett, B.A. 1963, of Baltimore, Md., is serving as the national vice president for the

Southeast region of the Pi Delta Phi National French Honor Society. She is an associate professor of foreign languages at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Mary Sue Mitchell, B.A. 1963, of Jackson was named one of Jackson’s 2002 Outstanding Volunteers at a dinner at the Country Club of Jackson in August. McRae’s and Goodwill Industries co-sponsored the annual event.

James (Jim) B. Persons, B.A. 1963, of Gulfport was reappointed in July 2002 special chancellor for the Eighth Chancery Court District, Place 1, in Harrison, Hancock, and Stone counties. An attorney who has practiced law on the Gulf Coast for 28 years, he was appointed to the post by the state Supreme Court earlier this year.

Bettye Y. Sullivan, 1963, of Jackson has been named by the Mississippi Business Journal as one of 12 finalists in Mississippi’s 50 Leading Businesswomen. She is the executive director of the Wilson Research Foundation at Methodist Rehabilitation Center, where she oversees all financial operations.

She represents the foundation and the center locally, regionally, and nationally. Active in numerous volunteer organizations, she has received the Goodwill Industries of Mississippi Salute to Volunteers Award and the Mississippi Governor’s Distinguished Service Award. She has also served as president of the Goodwill Industries International Volunteers, the Jackson Symphony League, and the Millsaps College Arts & Lecture Series.

1964 David Allen, 1964, of Bartlett, Tenn., has retired as the business manager of Theatre Memphis.

The Reverend Travis R. Fulton, B.A. 1964, of Monticello has retired from the Mississippi Army National Guard after more than 25 years of service as chaplain with the rank of colonel. After completing the Chaplain Officer Basic Course, the Chaplain Officer Advance Course, and graduating from the

Survey focuses on recent graduates A survey of recent Millsaps graduates has revealed that 57 percent were employed, and of those not employed most were enrolled in graduate school. Only 14 respondents indicated that they were looking for work.

Of the 57 percent of respondents currently employed, 34 percent had earned an additional degree since leaving Millsaps. Other degrees earned include two J.D.s and 10 master’s degrees in business administration and accounting, eight of these from the Else School. Students also earned degrees from such prestigious institutions as the University of Rochester, Washington & Lee University, and the University of Western Sydney, as well as Arizona State University and Washington University School of Medicine.

The 39 alumni in graduate school include four in the Else School, four working on law degrees, six pursuing an M.D. or doctor of psychology, eight working toward Ph.D.s, and the rest pursuing a variety of master’s degrees. In addition, two alumni were in the process of applying to graduate school. Overall, 52 percent of Millsaps graduates from 1999 to 2002 had completed or were enrolled in graduate programs.

Young alumni were employed in a wide variety of fields, including city and state government offices, human resources, and teaching. One worked for Habitat for Humanity, another was in a transition job with AmeriCorps, a third was set to begin a Peace Corps assignment, and two worked for or with churches. Others were working in CPA or law offices, and a few were on staff at the Coca-Cola Co. headquarters in Atlanta. Several were employed by regional banks, while several others had started their own businesses. Fifteen percent reported earning $50,000 a year or more.

The survey was conducted to gather data about students’ educational and professional experiences since their graduation. The 2003 Alumni Survey was distributed to 779 alumni from the 1999 through 2002 graduating classes, and had a 15 percent response rate with 117 returned. Majors covered most departments available at Millsaps, from accounting to Spanish. Fifteen of the respondents (14 percent) indicated a double major. Thirty-one percent of all majors were in the Else School of Management, 29 percent in Arts and Letters, and 48 percent in the Sciences. The total is over 100 percent due to double majors.

Results of this survey are being shared with a variety of campus offices to better track the impact of a Millsaps education.

Chaplain Command and General Staff Officer’s Course, he was stationed throughout Mississippi and mobilized during Desert Shield/Desert Storm. His military honors include the Meritorious Service Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Reserve Component Medal with six OLCs, and the National Defense Service Medal. His state decorations include the Mississippi Magnolia Cross, the Mississippi War Medal, and the Mississippi Longevity Medal with five OLCs. He is the minister of Monticello United Methodist Church.

Paula V. Page, B.A. 1964, of Sarasota, Fla., has retired after spending 34 years in Europe as an opera singer and voice professor.

1965 Dr. Carl W. Grubbs, B.A. 1965, of Indianola has been named chairman of the Rural Life/Farm Crisis Commission of the United Methodist Church.

1966 Dr. Joseph S. Bennett, 1966, of Greenville received the Alumnus of the Year Award from St. Joseph High School in October 2002. His involvement with St. Joseph spans many years and includes serving as co-chair of the development council, chair of the annual fund, and major-gifts chair for the St. Joseph Fund for Excellence. A dentist, he has had a private practice in Greenville since 1973.

George B. Pickett Jr., B.A. 1966, of SPRING-SUMMER

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MAJOR NOTES Jackson has been named first vice president of the Million Dollar Round Table, an international, independent association of nearly 25,000 life insurance and financial services professionals from 66 nations and territories. His five-year term on the executive committee will culminate with the 2004 presidency. He is a principal at Pickett, Bradford & Associates PA in Jackson.

1968 Brenda Davis Hawkins, B.A. 1968, of Vicksburg was chosen as one of Five Fabulous Women of Distinction by River City Business & Professional Women as part of their celebration of National Business Women’s week in October 2002. Hawkins was selected for her commitment to numerous civic organizations. She has received the Volunteer of the Year Award from the United Way of West Central Mississippi, the Distinguished Volunteer Leadership Award from the March of Dimes, and was named the Outstanding Young Woman of 1980 by the Vicksburg and Mississippi Jaycees.

She is the president of Mississippi Episcopal Women, a member of the Diocesan Ministry Development Commission, and a member of the Church of the Holy Trinity, where she is a minister of evangelism as well as community relief and development.

Susan D. Mayfield, B.M. 1968, of Jackson was named one of Jackson’s 2002 Outstanding Volunteers at a dinner at the Country Club of Jackson in August. McRae’s and Goodwill Industries co-sponsored the annual event.

1969 Linda Boswell Montgomery, B.A. 1969, of Jackson is president of the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson.

Joe Frank Sanderson Jr., B.A. 1969, of Laurel was inducted into the Mississippi Poultry Hall of Fame at Mississippi State University in October 2002. U.S. Senator Thad Cochran, Congressman Chip Pickering, and Undersecretary of Agriculture Bill Hawks participated in

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the ceremony. Sanderson currently serves as director of the Mississippi Poultry Association and is a member of the Business & Industry Political Education Committee, the Mississippi Manufacturers Association, and the National Chicken Council. In addition to serving as past chair of those organizations, he is the former director of the Mississippi Economic Council and the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association. He is also a member of the Laurel School Board.

1970 Dr. Gene R. Barrett, 1970, of Jackson is on staff at the Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center’s new clinic, located at Primary Care Plus in Brookhaven. The center is the state’s leader in subspecialized treatment of orthopedic problems and athletic injuries. Barrett’s main practice is with the Mississippi Sports Medicine’s Jackson office. He serves on the Millsaps College Board of Trustees.

Will L. Mayo, 1970, of Canton has been named vice president of governmental affairs for Entergy Mississippi.

1971 The Reverend Luther S. Ott, B.A. 1971, of Clinton has been serving as a priest at the Episcopal Church of the Creator in Clinton since September 2002. For the past five years, he has served as executive director of Stewpot Community Services, an inner-city faithbased charity in Jackson. A founding member of the Ott & Purdy law firm in Jackson, he also served as assistant rector at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Jackson. Active in numerous professional and community organizations, he has served on the boards of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson, the Entergy Mississippi Advisory Board, and the St. Dominic Hospital Advisory Board. He is a fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation and a member of the Board of Trustees at Millsaps College.

1972 Judge Thomas A. Woodall, B.A. 1972,

of Birmingham is serving his first term on the Alabama Supreme Court. He was appointed to a Jefferson County circuit judgeship in 1996 by then Alabama Governor Fob James, and was elected to the post in 1998. Woodall served as circuit court judge until his election to the high court in 2000.

1973

R

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David Marsh III, B.A. 1973, of Jackson won first place in the state and second place in the overall 100-meter dash in the 50-54 age group at the 2002 Regional Senior Olympics. He is the founder, owner, and president of Benchmark Construction Corp. in Jackson.

1976 John R. Brinson, B.B.A. 1976, of Oviedo, Fla., is an attorney with Margaret A. Wharton PA.

1978 Dr. Timothy J. Alford, B.S. 1978, of Kosciusko has just completed a oneyear term as president of the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians, having served from July 2001 through July 2002. He is currently serving a term on the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Legislative Affairs Council. In addition, he is in his 16th year as a family physician with Kosciusko Medical Clinic.

1979 Nancy E. Clarkson, B.B.A. 1979, of Jackson has been promoted to vice president at Trustmark National Bank in Jackson. She is the retail portfolio risk consultant.

1980 Bill D. Fitzgerald, B.A. 1981, and Tanya Hamill Fitzgerald, of Little Rock, Ark., are the parents of Jack Harrison, born March 4, 2002. He has two sisters, Phoebe Calland and Augusta Jane. Bill is the associate creative director for Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, an advertising agency in Little Rock.

1982 Linda D. Sweezer, B.A. 1982, of Vicksburg is the author of Eating Along the Way, published in June 2002.

The book, an autobiography, is an account of her spiritual journey. The founder and pastor of The House of Peace Worship Church, she also works at the Vicksburg Family Development Service, where she has served as codirector for 18 years.

R James (Jamie) L. Crawford, B.S. 1983, 1983

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of Jackson has been named director of the Office of Land and Water Resources for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

A registered professional geologist, he has 17 years of experience with the department in water-related programs.

He has been an active member of the Groundwater Protection Council and the National Groundwater Association, and served on the board of directors for the Groundwater Protection Resource Foundation.

Amy Lyles Wilson, B.A. 1983, of Nashville is spending the spring 2003 semester at the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Ind., as a writing fellow.

1984 Suzannah Bowie Moorman, B.A. 1984, of Houston presented “A Concert of Hymns and Sacred Songs” at St. Andrews United Methodist Church in Amory in August 2002. She has presented recitals and sacred programs in Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas. She has also been a featured soloist in opera and orchestral performances in Houston, and is a former apprentice artist with the Des Moines Metropolitan Opera in Iowa.

Dr. Benjamin R. Wynne, B.B.A. 1984, of Tallahassee, Fla., is a visiting assistant professor of history at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

1985 Jo Watson Hackl, B.A. 1985, of Greenville, S.C., has completed a term

CBS newsman Pinkston named Alumnus of the Year The CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston, B.A. 1973, was named Millsaps’ 2003 Alumnus of the Year in February.

A native of Yazoo County, Pinkston has been a New York-based CBS News correspondent since 1994. He reports regularly for the “CBS Evening News” and contributes to other CBS News broadcasts. Pinkston has covered the war in Afghanistan from the front lines in Tora Bora and Jalalabad, devastating earthquakes in Turkey, the Albanian refugee crisis in Kosovo, U.S. military participation in the Balkans, and Saddam Hussein’s past refusals to allow Randall Pinkston United Nations inspections in Iraq.

“During his impressive career in journalism, Randall Pinkston has risked his own safety to bring vital information of international importance to the American public,” said Millsaps President Frances Lucas. “He truly exemplifies the spirit of open inquiry, social advocacy, and global citizenry that Millsaps fosters in its graduates. We are proud to include him among our alumni.”

Pinkston received a 1996 Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism and the Edward R. Murrow Award for the documentary “CBS Reports: A Legacy of Shame.” Pinkston is also the winner of two additional Emmy Awards: one in 1998 for his coverage of the death of Princess Diana and another in 1997 for his work reporting the TWA Flight 800 disaster.

Prior to his New York assignment, he was based at the CBS Washington bureau, where he had joined the network as a White House correspondent. While there, Pinkston became a fixture on “CBS This Morning” and CBS Radio, reporting on the Persian Gulf War. Before joining CBS News, Pinkston worked for WCBS-TV, the CBS-owned station in New York. While at WCBS-TV, he was honored by the New York State Associated Press Broadcasters Association, the Council of Churches of the City of New York, and the Scripps Howard Foundation for a series on the lack of government care for the mentally ill and physically handicapped.

He received the Outstanding Journalist Award from Black Citizens for a Fair Media and the Public Service Award from the Greater New York Safety Council for his reporting on teenage drunk driving, reports that helped set the stage for changes in the state’s drunk driving laws.

Pinkston began his career in Jackson as an anchor/reporter at WLBT-TV and as an announcer at WJDX-FM Radio. Pinkston and his wife, Patricia McLain, currently live in Bergen County, N.J. The award was established by the College in 1950 and is presented annually to an individual in recognition of outstanding contributions to his or her chosen profession, church, and community, as well as to Millsaps. Pinkston, a member of the graduating class of 1973, was presented with the award at the annual College Awards Dinner in the A. Boyd Campbell College Center. as president of the Greenville County (S.C.) Bar Association, having served from December 2001 through December 2002. She serves on the board of directors of the Peace Center for the Performing Arts, where she is a member of the executive committee. She was named Philanthropist of the Year by the Peace Center in December 2002.

She also serves as chair of the Women’s Leadership Council of the United Way. Albert J. Woelfle, M.B.A. 1985, of Wake Forest, N.C., is the director of business administration and finance at Seimens Power Transmission and Distribution Inc., in Wendell, N.C.

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MAJOR NOTES

1987 Michael K. Croal, B.S. 1987, of Gulfport has been promoted to senior vice president with Hancock Holding Company and Bank. He is currently enrolled in the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University.

Anne E. Gray, 1987, of Moorhead is the director of music at St. John’s United Methodist Church.

Lee D. Johnson, B.S. 1987, M.B.A. 1991, of Vicksburg has been promoted to first vice president with Trustmark National Bank in Jackson. She manages the company’s interest-rate risk position.

Michael B. Williams, B.A. 1987, M.B.A. 1996, of Madison has been promoted to senior manager in assurance for KPMG LLP.

1988 William R. McKnight, B.S. 1988, of Brandon has been promoted to vice president of operations at CommuniGroup. He is currently working toward an M.B.A. at the Else School of Management at Millsaps.

Joel (David) Patton, B.B.A. 1988, M.Acc. 1996, of Brandon has been named supervisor in the employee benefits group with Horne CPA in Jackson.

Robin T. Sanderson, B.B.A. 1988, M.B.A. 1993, of Columbia has been promoted to chief operating officer of Citizens Bank.

1989 Dosha F. Cummins, B.S. 1989, of Jonesboro, Ark., was named Distinguished Young Pharmacist of the Year in June 2002 by the Arkansas Pharmacists Association at its annual state convention in Little Rock. The award is presented for individual excellence in and outstanding contributions to state pharmacy association activities, community affairs, and professional practice. Cummins is an assistant professor of family and community medicine and pharmacy practice at the University of Arkansas for Medical MILLSAPS MAGAZINE

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Sciences Family Practice Residency program in Jonesboro.

Amy K. Dilworth, B.A. 1989, of Richmond, Va., is an attorney with McCandlish Holton PC. Tim A. Wise, B.A. 1989, and Rachel C. Wise, B.A. 1991, of Jackson are the parents of Allison Marie, born Sept. 13, 2001. She has two siblings, Luke and Anna. Tim is the head coach of men’s and women’s golf and the new head coach for men’s basketball at Millsaps.

1990 Dr. Emily Walker Cook, B.A. 1990, and William G. Cook, of Madison, Ala., have announced the birth of a daughter, Sara Grace, on March 27, 2001.

Judith L. Gieger, B.S. 1990, of Athens, Ga., has announced the birth of Alexei Gieger Souvorin, on Sept. 18, 2002.

Dr. Anne Dye Haire, B.S. 1990, of Tupelo has joined the West Tupelo Family Medical Clinic. She received a master’s degree and Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Mississippi. After medical training at the University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kansas City, Mo., she completed a family medicine residency at the North Mississippi Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Center.

Dr. Melissa C. Lang, 1990, of Woodstock, Ga., co-founded The Center for Psychological and Educational Assessment in Atlanta in June 2002. She is also a child psychologist for the Cherokee County Board of Education.

1991 Barry Gillespie Jr., B.S. 1991, and Elizabeth (Beth) Gillespie, B.A. 1992, of Missouri City, Texas, are the parents of Sarah Elizabeth, born on Nov. 27, 2001.

Tony R. Moore, B.B.A. 1991, of Jackson has been named branch director for reimbursement in the business services division at the Mississippi State Hospital.

1992 Timothy Mitchell Kalom, M.B.A. 1992, of Biloxi has been selected to participate in the Mississippi Economic Council’s 2002–03 Leadership Mississippi Program. In addition to earning a B.A. and M.B.A., he attended the School for International Training in Florence, Italy, and is a certified financial planner. He also received the Historic Preservation for Redevelopment Award and the Business for Russia Award for international teaching in Russia. He is the managing director of Kalom Consulting.

Selena Cook Swartzfager, M.B.A. 1992, and Glenn Swartzfager of Ridgeland are the parents of Greyson Ian, born April 14, 2002. He has a brother, Ashton. Selena is the operations manager at the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Nursing.

Dr. Hari Tumu, B.S. 1992, moved to Austin, Texas, in fall 2002 to join the private practice group Neurosurgical Specialists of Austin.

R Philip C. Brickman, B.A. 1993, of 1993

EUNION CLASS

New Orleans is an attorney at Hailey McNamara LLP. Kira C. Honse, B.A. 1993, of Defuniak, Fla., is an attorney for Walton County, representing the Board of County Commissioners.

Alan Lange, B.A. 1993, M.B.A. 1996, of Jackson has been selected to participate in the Mississippi Economic Council’s 2002–03 Leadership Mississippi Program. Lange is the vice president of business development at Legal Resources Inc. John O. Lawrence, B.L.S. 1993, of Jackson is the sales force automation and operations manager for Andrx Laboratories.

Roy R. Sandefer, M.B.A. 1993, of Oakfield, Tenn., is a sales representative for Pan American Laboratories in Covington, La.

Rebekah McKeown Sanders, B.B.A. 1993, and Rich Sanders of Atlanta have announced the birth of their son, William McKeown, on March 30, 2002.

1994 Beauregard (Beau) B. Mixon, B.S. 1994, and Melissa O. Stainback, B.S. 1994, of Houston have announced the birth of a daughter, Sara Brigham, on Dec. 19, 2001.

Jennifer C. Roth, B.S. 1994, and Brade Roth, of Galveston, Texas, are the parents of Caroline Grace, born June 5, 2002.

Chris B. Wright, M.B.A. 1994, of Grenada is an administrator with North Central Mississippi Regional Cancer Center. He manages all operational aspects of the cancer treatment center, including radiation and medical oncology. He is a member of the Medical Group Management Association and the Chamber of Commerce.

1995 Thomas D. Dale Jr., M.B.A. 1995, and Hayes Dale of Jackson were married on Oct. 6, 2001, in Jackson. He is a financial adviser for Security Ballew Inc., an investment management company specializing in the qualified retirement plan market. She is a pharmaceutical representative with GlaxoSmithKline.

Robert K. Hubbard III, M.B.A. 1995, and Stephanie Hubbard, of Memphis have announced the birth of a daughter, Elizabeth Anne, on June 4, 2002.

Mary McKay Lasker, B.A. 1995, of Jackson graduated from the Mississippi College School of Law on May 10, 2002.

She is a law clerk with Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Jim Smith.

Susan K. Mascari, B.A. 1995, and Tom Mascari, of Collierville, Tenn., are the parents of Lillian (Lily) Clemens, born May 24, 2002. She has a brother, Tate.

David V. Morrow, B.A. 1995, of Washington is the social marketing manager for Calvert in Bethesda, Md.

Prior to joining Calvert, the nation’s largest family of socially responsible mutual funds, he was an environmental analyst for UBS Global Asset Management in Zurich, Switzerland.

Jennifer V. Rider, B.S. 1995, and William Rider, of Brandon have announced the birth of their daughter, Alison Paige, on Oct. 19, 2002. Jennifer is a program manager with Gateway Country Stores in Jackson.

April Dawn Vaughn, B.S. 1995, of Allen, Texas, is the director of major accounts at Snelling and Snelling Inc., in Dallas.

1996 Derek R. Arrington, B.A. 1996, of Hattiesburg has been selected to participate in the Mississippi Economic Council’s 2002–03 Leadership Mississippi Program. He received his law degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law, where he served as president of the Law School Student Body Association and received the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award. He served as a law clerk for both Billy G. Bridges of the Mississippi Court of Appeals and Oliver E. Diaz Jr. of the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Arrington is an attorney in the Hattiesburg office of Heidelberg & Woodliff PA. Angela A. Davis, B.S. 1996, and Christopher Daniel Cring, of Lafayette, La., were married on Oct. 5, 2002, in Navarre Beach, Fla. She is a geologist with Fugro GeoServices Inc. Dr. Daniel Alan Nix, B.S. 1996, and Amber Leigh Shippee, B.A. 1997, of Birmingham were married Dec. 1, 2001, in Wiggins. Millsaps alumni serving as bridesmaids and groomsmen included Amy Baier Batson, B.A. 1997, M.B.A. 1999; Elizabeth M. Dyer, B.B.A. 1997; and Antony (Brice) Stokes, B.A. 1995.

Shippee is employed by Delta Air Lines and Nix is a practicing dentist in Birmingham.

Michele DeMarco Zeber, B.A. 1996, of Prairieville, La., is the human resources manager at Louisiana State University.

1997 Dr. Jeffrey (Shawn) Goodwin, B.S. 1997, of Nashville is conducting cancer-related research at Vanderbilt University’s Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. He received his Ph.D. in August 2002 from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Southern Mississippi. His graduate research involved the study of the protein hydrophobin, which might eventually aid chemotherapy patients by targeting cancer cells more directly.

During his graduate studies, he presented his research at numerous U.S. conferences and in Canada, Greece, and Brazil. His findings have been published by the American Chemical Society and in scientific journals.

Dr. Jason S. Grissom, B.S. 1997, of Oxford has joined the Byhalia Family Health Center as a staff dentist. He graduated in 2002 from the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry.

Sarah (Katy) Hall, B.A. 1997, M.B.A. 2002, of Tulsa, Okla., is the marketing and public relations manager for the Tulsa Ballet.

MyMillsaps.com: the alumni online community The Millsaps alumni online community makes it easy for alumni to stay in touch with classmates and their alma mater.

Access to the online community is a password-protected benefit exclusively for Millsaps alumni. Registered users enjoy a number of services, including an online search for other alumni and permanent e-mail forwarding, which allows alumni to receive e-mail no matter how many times their addresses change. An online events calendar alerts alumni to upcoming events on and off campus, enabling graduates to stay informed.

Alumni can also report changes in their address and personal information.

If you would like additional information, or if you have questions or comments about the online community, please e-mail web manager Shelly Bass at odemsd@millsaps.edu or call 1-86-MILLSAPS. SPRING-SUMMER

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MAJOR NOTES Dr. Sara Beth Kimmel, M.B.A. 1997, of Jackson received a Ph.D. in international development from the University of Southern Mississippi in May 2002.

The first graduate of this new program, her dissertation was entitled “Sources of Interpersonal Power and Barriers to Female Candidacy for Political Office.”

Kelsey H. Mitchell, B.A. 1997, of Vicksburg received the award for Highest Gift Certificate Sales Increase for her company, CBL & Associates Properties Inc., one of the nation’s largest owners of malls and shopping centers. As director of marketing in the Vicksburg office, Mitchell is responsible for all aspects of marketing and public relations for the Pemberton properties.

Amanda L. O’Kelly, B.A. 1997, of Waco, Texas, received an M.S.Ed. in counseling from Baylor University in August 2002. She is a guidance counselor at West High School.

Benjamin Watson, B.A. 1997, of Ridgeland is an attorney with the commercial litigation group at Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada PLLC.

1998 Carrie V. Bakelaar, B.B.A. 1998, M.Acc. 1999, of Brandon has been named supervisor of the tax group with Horne CPA in Jackson.

Erin L. Best, B.A. 1998, and Dr. Daniel James Margolin of New Orleans were married Dec. 1, 2001, in New Orleans.

Elizabeth Dubuisson (B.A. 2000) and Christy Jones (B.A. 2000) served as bridesmaids, and Adele Dauphin (B.B.A. 2000) was a reader in the ceremony. Best is an administrative assistant at a local law firm and Margolin is in his fourth year of residency in general surgery at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans.

Sam R. Hall, B.S. 1998, of Houston, Miss., has been named president of Houston Newspapers Inc., and publisher of The (Houston) Times-Post and The (Calhoun City) Monitor-Herald.

He previously served as managing editor for The Natchez Democrat, where MILLSAPS MAGAZINE

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he will continue to publish a weekly column on Mississippi politics.

Betsy D. McLean, B.B.A. 1998, M.Acc., 1999, and Christopher W. McLean, B.B.A. 1998, M.Acc., 2002, of Birmingham have announced the birth of their daughter, Emma Catherine, on May 15, 2002.

Perry (Lee) Nations Jr., M.B.A. 1998, of Madison has joined Parkway Properties’ Jackson office as a financial analyst.

1999 Stephanie R. Fanguy, B.S. 1999, B.B.A. 1999, of Madison, Ala., is a pharmaceutical sales representative with Eli Lilly & Co. Margus Sarglepp, B.A. 1999, of Tallinn, Estonia, is a media analyst for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Estonia. He received a master of theological studies degree from Duke University Divinity School in December 2001.

Dan H. Walker, B.B.A. 1999, M.Acc. 2000, of Flowood has been promoted to senior associate in the tax group with Horne CPA in Jackson.

Robert F. Walker, B.B.A. 1999, of Jackson is an associate with the law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Mississippi School of Law. Rebecca A. Abbott, B.A. 2000, and Nicholas O. Zotti, of Slidell, La., were married on Dec. 15, 2001, in Las Vegas.

She is a second-year law student at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans.

2000 Sarah E. Gardner, B.B.A. 2000, of Oxford has been selected to participate in the Criminal Appeals Court at the University of Mississippi School of Law. She is one of two students in the new program, which allows law students to represent underprivileged defendants on appeal. The clinic was designed to give students practical experience and culti-

vate better-trained appellate court advocates by admitting them to limited practice under state statute. Gardner is a third-year law student at the university.

Mary Haney, B.B.A. 2000, of Madison has been promoted to supervisor in the business valuation and litigation support group with Horne CPA in Jackson.

Alan R. Kirk, B.B.A. 2000, of Collierville, Tenn., is a marketing specialist with FedEx. Jill R. Caruthers, B.B.A. 2001, of Memphis is an associate analyst with Morgan Keegan.

2001 Lindsey N. Henley, B.B.A. 2001, M.Acc. 2002, of Flowood has joined KPMG LLP as an assurance associate.

Walker (Jesse) Milnor Jr., B.A. 2001, and Sarah Anne Henderson of Jackson were married on Aug. 18, 2002, in Jackson. Hannah K. Mashburn (B.A. 2001) served as a bridesmaid.

Henderson is a senior at Millsaps.

Angela M. Payne, B.S. 2001, and Gary D. Eeds, B.S. 2002, of Nashville were married on May 18, 2002, in Baton Rouge. Both are graduate students at Vanderbilt University. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in biomedical research with a focus on genetics and gene expression, and he is pursuing a master’s degree in economics.

Charles W. Scales, B.S. 2001, and Theresa Katherine Houston, B.A. 2002, of Hattiesburg were married on Aug. 3, 2002, in Vicksburg. Both are graduate students at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in polymer science and engineering and works as a research assistant.

She is pursuing a graduate degree in counseling and college student personnel and is working as a graduate assistant for the university’s student activities coordinator.

Stephen T. Shelton, M.B.A. 2001, of Madison has been selected to participate in the Mississippi Economic

Livesay Award winners During the College Awards Dinner in February, Millsaps presented the Jim Livesay Award to four distinguished alumni. The award 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. The recipients were: Dr. James R. Cavett Jr., B.A. 1941 After growing up only a few blocks from the downtown campus, Cavett, a premed student, graduated from Millsaps in 1941.

He was then accepted into the Navy V-12 medical program, graduating from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1945. After serving as a commissioned medical officer with the U.S. Navy for three years, he returned to Jackson to practice general medicine. He served as the Millsaps College physician from 1948 to 1959, and again from 1961 to 1988. Additionally, Cavett has helped since 1997 to organize an annual reunion of Millsaps alumni of the 1930s and 1940s at the Colonial Country Club.

Dr. Jeanne Middleton-Hairston, B.A. 1971 Jeanne Middleton-Hairston has made many contributions to the Millsaps community, as a professor, colleague, and civic leader. Middleton-Hairston joined the faculty in 1978 and went on to serve as the chair of the education department for 11 years. In 1992, she founded the Millsaps Principals’ Institute, a program that continues to provide professional development and continuing education for school principals and assistant principals. She has provided valuable guidance both as director of the Millsaps Ford Teaching Fellow Program and with the College’s Strategic Planning Initiative group. The co-author of the award-winning Mississippi history textbook Mississippi: Conflict and Change, Middleton-Hairston has served on the board of Leadership Jackson, which she has also chaired.

Lem E. Mitchell, B.A. 1971 Alice Rhea Mitchell, B.A. 1971 Lem and Alice Mitchell have demonstrated strong leadership in the Millsaps community as parents, alumni, and Majors fans.

They have served on the executive committee of the Millsaps Parents Council since 1998 and led the council as co-presidents from 1999 to 2000. The Mitchells are also committed recruiters for Millsaps in the McComb area. Alice is curriculum coordinaCouncil’s 2002–03 Leadership Mississippi Program. He is the chief operations manager of Sports & Fitness Insurance Corp.

Ryan J. Vincent, B.A. 2001, of Jackson is the publications assistant for Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society.

Jonathon D. Wise, B.B.A. 2001, of Jackson has joined Edward Jones as an investment representative.

From left, Alice Mitchell, Lem Mitchell, James Cavett, and Jeanne Middleton-Hairston.

tor for the South Pike School District in Magnolia and teaches English at South Pike High School. She is the author of Interdisciplinary Instruction in Reading Comprehension and Written Communication (1993) and was honored by the Student-Teacher Achievement Recognition program in 1992, 1996, and 1999. Lem, a devoted member of the Millsaps MClub, is an attorney in private practice and presides as the municipal court judge of both Magnolia and Osyka.

Ruma Haque (posthumous recipient), B.A. 1983 The late Ruma Haque has left behind a legacy of civic pride and commitment. After graduating from Millsaps, she obtained a law degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1987. In 1989, Haque became the first full-time board attorney for the Hinds County Board of Supervisors. 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 ArtsAlliance of Jackson and Hinds County), 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. Haque extended her community involvement to the Millsaps community,

serving on the board of the Arts & Lecture Series for five years. As a board member, Haque was known for her creativity, dedication, and intelligence.

Corbin M. Womac, B.B.A. 2001, M.B.A. 2002, of Houston is a credit analyst in the commercial banking department of Washington Mutual in Houston. He recently completed six weeks of credit training at corporate headquarters in Seattle, as part of the company’s Business Banking Professional Program. The training, which continues until July 2003, provides eight recent M.B.A. graduates from around the country with in-depth training in various components of com-

mercial banking (both retail and international banking, as well as treasury management services). The program is a fast-track avenue to becoming a commercial banker within the company.

2002 Crystal S. Berry, B.S. 2002, of Jackson is an admissions counselor at Millsaps.

Alice Klinker Brinkley, M.B.A. 2002, and Dr. Jack Brinkley, of Hickory, N.C.,

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MAJOR NOTES are the parents of Bjórn Gunther, born Sept. 13, 2002. Alice is an accountant with Klinker & Associates Inc.

Susan F. Cherry, B.A. 2002, of Jackson teaches fifth- and sixth-grade Spanish at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School.

Mary (Leslie) Davis, B.S. 2002, of Oxford is a graduate student at the University of Mississippi School of Law. Adam D. Grimmett, B.B.A. 2002, of Austin, Texas, is a sales representative with Dell Computer Corp.

Mark F. Johnson, M.B.A. 2002, of Madison is a technical analyst for SmartSynch in Jackson.

Anna (Catesby) McGehee, B.A. 2002, of Nashville is a graduate student in the anthropology department at Vanderbilt University. She is working toward a Ph.D. with a research focus in Mesoamerican archaeology. During the summers, she continues to assist Dr. George Bey, a Millsaps professor and associate dean of the sciences, at the Labna-Kiuic Archaeological Project in northern Yucatán, Mexico.

Victoria (Vicki) J. Myers, B.A. 2002, of Houston was awarded the Southeast Province’s Senior Achievement Award for 2002 by Mu Phi Epsilon, international professional music fraternity.

The award is given annually to the outstanding senior collegiate member in each province. It is based on excellence in scholarship and leadership, and participation in campus, community, and professional activities during the college years. This is the fourth consecutive year that a member of the Millsaps Delta Nu chapter has received the Southeast Province’s Senior Achievement Award.

Lawrence Y. Ou, B.B.A. 2002, of Atlanta is a treasury analyst with CocaCola Enterprises.

Malia A. Pelly, B.B.A. 2002, of Jackson is a marketing director with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network.

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Beverly Pogue, M.Acc. 2002, of Jackson is an associate in business valuation and litigation services with Horne CPA in Jackson.

Hannah J. Silkman, B.A. 2002, of Hattiesburg is the tourism clerk for the Hattiesburg Convention & Visitors Bureau. She is pursuing an M.S. in communications, with a focus in public relations, at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Jeff K. Speed, B.B.A. 2002, of Jackson is a computer analyst/programmer with the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Otis B. (O.B.) Stander, B.S. 2002, of Tampa, Fla., is a loan officer with Residential Finance Corp.

Brandi M. Young, B.B.A. 2002, of Pearl is the chapter officer coordinator for Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society.

In Memoriam Charles Wayne Allen, B.A. 1954, of Shreveport, La., died on Nov. 5, 2002. A retired businessman, he was highly involved in the visual and musical arts. He received a graduate degree from Louisiana State University and was an assistant professor of business administration at the University of Southern Mississippi, as well as a lecturer and instructor at the University of California at Los Angeles. He held executive positions in several major industries, including TRW Inc., CACI Inc., Twentieth Century Fox, and United Artists. During his tenure on the Mississippi Board of Economic Development/Mississippi Economic Development Corp., he was instrumental in developing the first motion picture commission in the state. A musician in his own right, he assisted with the Monterey Jazz Festival while in California.

During his later years in Shreveport, he was a founding sponsor of the Jazz Appreciation Festival at the Strand Theatre and was actively involved in the philanthropic activi-

ties of the Edna Marie and Charles Allen Foundation. He served on the board of the local chapter of the National Conference of Community and Justice and the Holy Angels Residential Facility. In 1997, he received the Citizen Award from the Evergreen Foundation and the Man of the Year Award from the Shreveport Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Gamma Gamma Gamma honorary, and the Interfraternity Council.

Sarah Johnston Allen, 1947, of Leland died on Jan. 5, 2003. She was a retired schoolteacher.

James Redrick Bankston, B.S. 1951, of Greenwood died on Nov. 6, 2002.

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

Charline Vetter Barr, 1930, of Jackson died on Nov. 30, 2002. A longtime resident of the Jackson area, she was a member of Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church, where she had been a secretary. She composed and copyrighted the hymn “Into Every Heart” and was listed as a poet in Who’s Who in Mississippi.

During her tenure as president of the Mississippi Poetry Society Inc., she was instrumental in organizing branches of the organization throughout the state.

Robert Louis Billings, B.S. 1950, of Memphis died on Nov. 5, 2002.

Dudley Copeland Brumfield, B.S. 1934, of Oxford died on Sept. 28, 2002. A retired school administrator, he had received a graduate degree from the University of Mississippi and served as a lieutenant commander of the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was active in professional and civic organizations, serving as president of the Mississippi Attendance Principals Association, vice president of the Mississippi School Administrators Association, past president of the Belzoni Lions Club, and past president of the Ruleville

Rotary Club. He was a member of First Baptist Church of Oxford and a past chair of the board of deacons in Ruleville. At Millsaps, he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and participated in athletics.

Cecile Brown Clement, B.A. 1953, of Pass Christian died on Nov. 10, 2002. A schoolteacher, she taught in Mississippi and New Orleans before moving to Gulfport, where she was a volunteer reading teacher and leader of a Brownie Girl Scout troop. She was a member of the Mississippi Poetry Society, the Four Seasons Garden Club, the Coast Medical Auxiliary, Trinity United Methodist Church, and was an honorary lifetime member of the Pass Christian Garden Club. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Phi Mu sorority, Sigma Lambda honorary, and Kit Kat. Lucy Hammons Elfert, B.S. 1940, of Greenwood died on Nov. 14, 2002.

She was a retired schoolteacher.

Mary (Frances) Evans Hawkins, 1927, of Greenville died on April 24, 2002. She was a homemaker.

Louise Menefee Hickman, 1962, of Madison died on Oct. 14, 2002. A native of Washington and longtime resident of Jackson, she worked as a librarian for the Jackson Library System and the Jackson Public Schools. She was a member of St. Columb’s Episcopal Church and the Daughters of the King.

May Tatum (M. T.) Hull, B.A. 1933, of Ridgeland died on Dec. 27, 2002.

A retired teacher, she had received a master’s degree from the University of Southern California. She taught English in Meridian at the high school level, then at Meridian Community College for almost 20 years. Later, she moved to Pensacola, Fla., where she taught accelerated English at Woodham High School.

During her 10-year tenure as an instructor at Pensacola Junior College, she was commissioned to create a writing syllabus published

for Escambia County English teachers. She completed her teaching career as the director of student teachers at Florida State University.

Active in her church and community, she served as an adult Sunday school teacher and a United Methodist Woman at Central United Methodist Church in Meridian and at First United Methodist Church in Pensacola. In Meridian, she provided assistance for Wesley House, a United Methodist Women’s service project. While at Millsaps, she was involved in the Wesley Foundation and the YWCA, and she played on the women’s basketball team.

Edith E. (Boggy) Jones, 1932, of Jackson died on Jan. 10, 2003. A homemaker, she was a member of Christ United Methodist Church, where she was active in the United Methodist Women and the Griffin Sunday School Class.

Glenn S. Leavell, B.A. 1942, of Ridgeland died on Jan. 1, 2003. A homemaker, she was a member of the Minter United Methodist Church.

While at Millsaps, she was a member of Kappa Delta sorority and participated in athletics.

The Reverend William O. Marble, B.A. 1969, of Bay Springs died on Sept. 14, 2002. A lawyer and a pastor, he had attended the University of Mississippi School of Law before serving as a military intelligence officer in Vietnam. For his service he received the Bronze Star with two Battle Stars. After completing law school, he became the first public defender for the City of Jackson. He practiced law for 19 years and served as a lecturer at the Mississippi College School of Law and Hinds Community College. He then left the practice of law and graduated from Memphis Theological Seminary. He served numerous United Methodist churches throughout the state, including those in Vicksburg, Bovina, Yazoo City, and Byram. Most recently, he had been serving both Bay Springs and Holder United

Methodist churches in Bay Springs.

Active in the community, as well, he had served as president of the Rape Crisis Center and the Forest Hill Exchange Club. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and participated in the debate team.

Billy Donavan Martin, B.S. 1951, of Meadville died on Nov. 11, 2002. A retired hospital administrator, he had served the Franklin County Memorial Hospital for 34 years. As such, he played a key role in assuring quality health-care service to rural communities in southwest Mississippi. He was a World War II veteran. Active in professional and civic organizations, he was a past president of the Southwest Hospital Council and the Southwest Emergency Medical Service, and a director of Blue Cross & Blue Shield.

He was also a member of the Mississippi Hospital Association Board of Governors. He served three terms as president of the Middlefork Country Club and was a longtime member of the Sam Newman Hunting Club and the Indian Mound Hunting Club.

Grace Mason Maynor, B.A. 1935, of Starkville died on Dec. 24, 2002. She had been a longtime resident of Jackson before moving to Huntsville, Ala., and then to Starkville. Active in the Jackson Little Theatre, she was also a tutor for the Methodist Children’s Home and supported animal-welfare organizations. She was a member of Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Beta Sigma Omicron, the Millsaps Singers, and the Millsaps Players.

Patricia (Pattie) McDonough Fennell of Jackson died on Dec. 15, 2002. A retired nurse, she graduated from the Pittsburgh Hospital School of Nursing and began her career in home health care. She relocated to New Orleans, where she worked for the American Red Cross. She served as the director of student health serv-

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IN MEMORIAM ices at Millsaps from 1966 until her retirement in 1987. She was a troop leader for the Girl Scouts and spent many years as the nurse at Camp Wahi in Brandon. She served the Catholic Church by involving herself in activities devoted to women and children. She was a founding member of St. Catherine’s Circle and was awarded the St. Anne Medal by the Natchez-Jackson Diocese for her work with area youth.

Michael O’Ryan McGee, B.A. 1977, of Fannin died on Sept. 29, 2002. A Meridian native, he was a technical sales representative for Bulk Chemicals Inc. He grew up at the Masonic Home in Meridian and was a star football player at Meridian High School. He had been a resident of Fannin for the past 20 years and served as a board member of the Fannin Water Association. While at Millsaps, he was a member of the varsity football team.

Curtis W. McKewen, 1950, of Jackson died on Oct. 28, 2002. The owner of McKewen Realty and Construction Co. and a World War II veteran, he was a graduate of the University of Mississippi and the Jackson School of Law. Active in numerous civic and professional organizations, he was a member of the American Trial Lawyer Association, the Mississippi Bar Association, the Hinds County Bar Association, the American Legion, Henry Graves Post No. 1, Capitol Lodge Mason, Scottish Rites Bodies, and the Wahabi Temple Shrine. He was also a member of Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church.

Virginia Price Mims, B.A. 1943, of Natchez died on Sept. 6, 2002. At Millsaps, she was a member of Kappa Delta sorority and the Millsaps Singers.

Sarah (Marjorie) Hull Monk, B.A. 1939, of Canton died on Dec. 12, 2002. She was an English and Latin teacher at Byram High School, where she taught for 18 years. She also served as class sponsor, annual spon-

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sor, Junior Classical League adviser, and play director for grades 10 through 12. At Leavell Woods United Methodist Church, she served as adult, youth, and children’s education director and as a Sunday school teacher. She was also active at Madison United Methodist Church, in both the Lamplighters Sunday school class and the Mary Martha Circle. She was a lifetime member of United Methodist Women. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Beta Sigma Omicron and the YWCA. Margaret Elizabeth Myers, B.A. 1936, of Columbia died on Nov. 1, 2002. A retired English teacher, she had taught for 40 years in Amory, Philadelphia, Union, and Jackson public high schools. She had undergraduate degrees from Whitworth College and Millsaps, and received a master’s degree in English from the George Peabody College for Teachers. She was a member of the Jackson-Hinds Retired Teachers Association, Delta Kappa Gamma International, United Methodist Women, and the Chapel of the Cross United Methodist Church in Columbia. At Millsaps, she was a member of Delta Zeta sorority, the Beethoven Club, the Millsaps Singers, and the YWCA. Dr. Charles Lamar Neill Jr., B.S. 1936, of Jackson died on Sept. 28, 2002. A distinguished doctor and war veteran, he received an M.D. from Cornell University School of Medicine and was certified by the American Boards of General and Neurological Surgery. During his military career, Lieutenant Colonel Neill served in England as a neurosurgeon with the 158th General Hospital. Following the war, he completed neurosurgical training at The New York Hospital before returning to Mississippi in 1948 as the state’s first neurosurgeon. A clinical professor of neurosurgery at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine and an avid supporter of medical education, he opened his practice each summer to medical stu-

dents. His professional and civic involvement was extensive, and he served as president of the Southern Neurological Society and the Neurosurgical Society of America.

He was a member of the Jackson Airport Authority, served as assistant scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 18, and was a deacon at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson. At Millsaps, he was a member of Alpha Epsilon Delta and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

His father had helped establish the Pikes during his own student days at the College. His mother, also a Millsaps graduate, was a member of the first class to include women. In 1951, Neill received the Alumnus of the Year Award, becoming the second recipient in Millsaps history, following the late Jim Livesay (B.A. 1941).

Hulbert T. Nowell, B.S. 1939, of Bolton died on Oct. 4, 2002. A retired chemical engineer for Gulf Oil Corp., he had also taught math and science and coached basketball at Byram High School in his early years. He was a Boy Scout troop leader in Vicksburg and an active member and lay leader at the Kingston United Methodist Church of Natchez. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Sigma Rho Chi fraternity and the International Relations Club.

Dr. William H. Parker Jr., B.S. 1966, of Brandon died on Nov. 8, 2002. He was a retired direct caregiver. He received an M.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine and served as staff physician at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield for many years. He was a member of the American Medical Association and served as president and secretary of the Mississippi State Medical Association. At Millsaps, he was a member of the pep band and Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

Mary Dudley Gordan Regan, 1936, of Wiggins died on Jan. 11, 2003. She served as alderwoman for the town of Wiggins for 20 years and was active in the cultural and civic affairs of the

town. Among her many activities, she was a member and president of the Wiggins Woman’s Club, a charter member of the Garden Gate Garden Club, and a charter member of the Stone County Library Board of Trustees. She was instrumental in initiating the annual Carnival Ball for Wiggins under the auspices of the Woman’s Club. She was named one of the outstanding women of the Mississippi Gulf Coast by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Women of Achievement.

She was a member of the United Methodist Church of Wiggins, where she was active in the Women’s Society for Christian Service. She also taught Sunday school and was a substitute teacher in the Wiggins school system.

Elsie Virginia Richardson, B.A. 1940, of Byram died on Oct. 1, 2002.

A lifelong resident of Jackson until 1988, she was a member of Central Presbyterian Church. At Millsaps, she was a member of Phi Mu sorority.

Bessie H. McCafferty Sanford, B.A. 1940, of Jackson died on Dec. 22, 2002. A retired teacher, she spent most of her career in the public schools of Bolivar County (Rosedale and Gunnison), where she taught elementary school. She supported public education and teaching through membership in various professional and civic organizations. She was also a member of her local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Gunnison United Methodist Church. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Phi Mu sorority, the Millsaps Singers, and the YWCA. Curtis E. Slay, 1944, of Ridgeland died on Oct. 18, 2002. A retired accountant, he had worked for 40 years for the Mississippi Stationery Co. The Carthage native and longtime resident of the Jackson area was a World War II veteran, having served in the U.S. Army. He was a charter member of Broadmeadow United Methodist Church, past presi-

Dr. Robert E. Bergmark: A dynamic professor and civil rights advocate Dr. Robert E. Bergmark, 81, a dynamic teacher, provocative civil rights advocate, and emeritus professor of philosophy at Millsaps College, died on March 17, 2003, in hospice care at home with his family.

For Bergmark, teaching was a ministry in and of itself. “I think of life as an opportunity for service,” he once said.

“My particular role in being of assistance is to be a teacher.”

“Bob Bergmark was one of the most renowned professors in the history of the College,” said Dr. Frances Lucas, president of the College. “During his 34-year career, he challenged his students and fellow faculty members to think creatively, to act upon their values, and to live authentic lives. He was an important voice for social change in Mississippi for more than four decades, and many of his students continue that tradition today in his honor. We will miss him, but we will also celebrate his life and what he stood for in our community.”

Bergmark came to Millsaps College in 1953, after having spent nine years as a Methodist pastor in Massachusetts and Texas. He taught philosophy for 34 years, before retiring in 1987. During his distinguished career at Millsaps, he served as chairman of the philosophy department from 1962 until 1987; chairman of the humanities division from 1964 to 1973; member of the academic council from 1967 to 1973; and director of the two-year Consortium for the Advancement of Private Higher Education project, which encouraged computer literacy among Millsaps faculty. In 1974, he was named a Millsaps Distinguished Professor.

When he was asked what had been most significant about his career, Bergmark said that “rather than one thing, it’s more the day-to-day experience with students. It simply is worth something, this kind of work, to see students over four years developing themselves, discovering their minds and their abilities to make distinctions.”

“Dr. Bergmark’s social conscience, his commitment to reasoned and

informed thought, his keen analysis of domestic and world issues, his impatience with Dr. Robert Bergmark mediocrity and appreciation of excellence, and his warmth and wit made all of life seem so important and full of meaning,” recalled Don Fortenberry, Millsaps chaplain. “He always made me want to be a better person and to bring some measure of grace to the world.”

Bergmark was a mentor and friend to numerous students over the decades.

Two of them honored him by establishing a lectureship and a scholarship fund in his honor. In 1986, the Millsaps alumnus Jack F. Dunbar and his wife, Wylene F. Dunbar, of Oxford endowed the annual Dunbar Lecture in Philosophy honoring Bergmark. In 1993, the Millsaps alumnus and trustee Robert N. Leggett Jr., and his wife, Dee, of Great Falls, Va., established the Dr. Robert E. Bergmark Endowed Scholarship Fund.

Bergmark was an enthusiastic supporter of local cultural and fine-arts endeavors. He was also a world traveler who made extended trips through Western Europe, the Far East, and the Middle East. He led three study tours to mainland China in 1976, 1980, and 1988.

A native of Charlton, Mass., Bergmark graduated from Emory University in 1943 with an A.B. in philosophy. He earned his bachelor of sacred theology at Boston University in 1946, and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston University in 1961.

A memorial service was held on March 30 at in the Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex Recital Hall.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Bergmark Endowed Scholarship Fund at Millsaps College, c/o Director of Donor Relations, Michele Bunch, P.O. Box 151191, Jackson, MS 39210-1191. The scholarship fund was created by Bob and Carol Bergmark at the time of their daughter Christina’s death in 1986.

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IN MEMORIAM dent of the Sertoma Club of Jackson, and a member of the Industrial Management Club.

Fred Day Smith, B.A. 1954, of McComb died on Nov. 18, 2002. He was a retired senior merchandising manager with the J.C. Penney Co. in Natchez and Victoria, Texas. He graduated from McComb High School, where he was a member of the famed Tigers football team. A U.S. Navy veteran, he was stationed with the Sixth Fleet on the USS Taconic in 1956. He was an active member of Centenary United Methodist Church, where he participated in the men’s Sunday school class. At Millsaps, he was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity and played varsity football. He was a member of the team that won the Dixie Conference championships in 1951 and 1952.

Dorothy Cowen Tynes, B.S. 1935, of Clarksdale died on Jan. 8, 2003. She was a retired librarian with the Clarksdale public school system.

Early in her career, she had worked as a substitute teacher in Terry, Brandon, and Biloxi. She later taught English at West Tallahatchie High School and French at Clarksdale High School. Among her many professional and civic activities, she served as president and vice president of the American Association of University Women, president of the Coahoma Mental Health Association, and secretary of the Opera Study Club. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Beta Sigma Omicron, Alpha Psi Omega, the International Relations Club, the YWCA, and the Millsaps Singers.

Phillip Harold Upton, B.S. 1959, of Raymond died on Sept. 9, 2002. He was a retired sales representative.

Robert Clayton Watts, 1949, of Canton died on Jan. 15, 2003. A graduate of the Chicago School of Interior Design, he was a decorator for Batte Furniture Co., Sid Jones Inc., and Warren Wright’s House of Ideas, in addition to owning a private MILLSAPS MAGAZINE

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The Rev. Robert M. Matheny: Minister and former trustee The Reverend Robert M. Matheny, B.A. 1942, of Meridian died on Nov. 26, 2002. A retired United Methodist minister, he joined the Mississippi Methodist Conference in 1939 and was appointed to the Hattiesburg Circuit.

After serving as conference director of evangelism, he pastored churches in Richton; Jackson; Terre Haute, Ind., and Hattiesburg; as well as Central United Methodist Church in Meridian. He also served as superintendent of the East Jackson and Meridian districts. Following his retirement, he served for nine years as pastor of Daleville United Methodist Church and as pastor in residence at Central UMC in Meridian.

He was twice elected as a delegate to the jurisdictional and general conferinterior design practice. He was a member of the American Institute of Interior Designers and a lifelong member of First Baptist Church of Canton. At Millsaps, he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

John L. Weissinger, B.S. 1959, of Portsmouth, R.I., died on Nov. 3, 2002. A retired oceanographer, he received an M.S. in geology from the University of Mississippi. He served in the U.S. Navy for five years and was a member of the Navy Reserves for 20 years. He worked as an oceanographer for the U.S. Naval Underwater Systems Center in Newport, R.I., for 35 years, until his retirement in 2000. While working at the center, he traveled extensively to the arctic ice cap. He was also on staff at Brown University, where he taught courses in earth science. His involvement in environmental and civic organizations included membership in Save the Bay, the Portsmouth Historical Society, and the Portsmouth Economic Development Committee. He was also a member and past president of the Pheasant Hill Association and the Newport Ski Club. At Millsaps, he participated in athletics.

ences of the United Methodist Church.

During his ministry, he helped organize 26 new churches and was instrumental in Rev. Robert Matheny the development of Aldersgate Retirement Community in Meridian.

He served on the Board of Trustees of Millsaps and as president of the Alumni Association. He also served on boards of the Wesley House Community Center and Aldersgate. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Sigma Rho Chi, Omicron Delta Kappa, the Millsaps Singers, and the Ministerial League.

Benton Gerald Wells, 1954, of Houston died on Aug. 29, 2002. He was a retired executive with Delta Air Lines and a World War II veteran. He began his career with Delta in 1941, then served in the war from 1942 to 1945 on the European front with the famous Washington Field Artillery.

He returned to Delta and, after 42 years of service with the company, retired as the district director of marketing in Houston. He was a leader in numerous professional and civic organizations. In 1976, he implemented the Certified Travel Counselor Program for the Institute of Certified Travel Agents in Houston. He served as director of the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau, and president of both of the University Area Rotary Club and the Sales and Marketing Club of Houston. He was a former member of the Houston Chamber of Commerce – Aviation Committee and the American Society of Travel Agents. He was also a member of the board of directors for Texas Commerce Bank of Greenway Plaza and a lifetime member of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

He was a longtime member of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, where he had been serving on the current board of stewards.

Friday, November 7

• Friday Forum: “Millsaps in Retrospect” –a panel discussion featuring Ms. Frances Coker (’62), Rev. Don Fortenberry (’62), Rev. Ed King (’58), Dr. T.W. Lewis (’53), and Dr. Vonda Reeves-Darby (’78) • Welcome Reception for all reunion classes hosted by the Greater Jackson Alumni Chapter • Pi Kappa Alpha National Reunion • Performances by the Millsaps Singers and the Chamber Singers Saturday, November 8

• 5K Run/Walk • Sports Hall of Fame Brunch • Women’s and Men’s Soccer vs. Oglethorpe • Faculty Showcase • “Walk Down Memory Lane” –archival exhibits and displays in the Library • Book Sale and Storytelling in the Library • Picnic Lunch, Music, & Kids’ Activities in the Bowl • Millsaps vs. Rhodes at 2 p.m.

• Classes of ’53, ’63, ’73, ’83, ’93 Reunions • Young Alum Party Sunday, November 9

• Breakfast in the Caf’ • Memorial Service for Alumni and Friends

Visit www.millsaps.edu/homecoming.shtml for the latest information.

Millsaps Heritage Society

“Our family has definitely benefited from the excellence of a Millsaps education and we feel the Heritage Society gives us the opportunity to give back to the college so that others may have a similar experience.”

–Nelda and John Stringer

The Millsaps Heritage Society is a special group of people who have included Millsaps in their estate plan or who have made a planned gift on behalf of the College. Presently, nearly 120 individuals have made provision for Millsaps using a will, trust, life insurance, gift annuity, or other creative giving technique, in order to fund scholarships, faculty positions, or to enhance the physical appearance of our campus. These individuals recognize the impact that their future gift will have on sustaining the kind of quality education Millsaps must continue to provide tomorrow's students. In fact, nearly one-third of the total endowment of Millsaps can be attributed to Heritage Society gifts. Our goal is to increase Heritage Society membership by educating our alumni and friends on the importance of planning for the future, and by showing how a planned gift to Millsaps can help perpetuate the values that have made them successful.

For More Information, Contact Gift and Estate Planning Services P.O. Box 151191, Jackson, MS 39210-1191 (voice) 601-974-1035 (fax) 601-974-1088 www.millsaps.edu/plannedgiving