The Way Things Are Supposed to Be

By Carolanne Roberts

Photo by Tate Nations, courtesy of Maris, West & Baker

This is a story of generations and success – one with a bit of drama outweighed by lots of joy. Richard Puckett and his family – owners of Jackson-based Puckett Machinery – are as Mississippi State as maroon, cowbells and Bulldogs. To hear Richard, the current Chairman and CEO, tell it, there’s no end in sight for the winning team of MSU and the Puckett family business.

The story begins with Ben Puckett, a young man from Mobile who happened upon Mississippi State through a friend who was a student there. Ben’s father agreed to pay for one semester; Ben did the rest.

“Daddy got on the train to Starkville only to find that his friend had left [the University],” recounts Richard, going on to boast of his father’s accomplishments over the next years. “He was in all the honor societies and president of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He always credited Mississippi State with his success. That set the tone for us all.”

What also set the tone was Ben’s first job in 1953 as a staff accountant for a Caterpillar tractor dealership in Jackson. The young man rose steadily through the ranks, buying into the business increasingly along the way. In 1982, the company formally became Puckett Machinery, with Caterpillar making up 99 percent of its business. In 1987, Richard took over as President and General Manager after finishing his business degree at State.

It all appears so seamless, yet the story is more complex than that. When Richard graduated from high school early at age 17, he headed to junior college and a Puckett Machinery job in Gulfport. He enjoyed the company work far more than the coursework.

“All I wanted to do was sell tractors,” he recalls. “When I was a child sweeping the warehouse on Saturday mornings, I wanted to work for the company. I still love the company today right up there with family. But I did go to school. I finished the two junior college years and went on to State.”

The self-professed non-student found himself doing well enough in his business classes when disaster struck.

“Our corporate airplane crashed, and six of the nine people on board died,” he says. “My daddy survived, but our sales manager did not.”

The senior Puckett was hospitalized for three months, so Richard departed Mississippi State and all things collegiate.

“I left to work and to be a stabilizing family member to the company,” he remarks. “I knew the staff and had always been engaged in the business. I went straight into the sales department and worked there for about a year and a half.”

Staying put at Puckett Machinery seemed the responsible thing to do, even when his father returned. College, he felt, seemed over.

“Daddy encouraged me to go back,” says the son. “In fact, he told me I could never own the company if I didn’t have my college degree. That was incentive!”

A funny thing happened on the way to that degree. Classes took on meaning; there was sense in those textbook pages.

“All of a sudden I realized the validity of what I was learning and how it could be used,” Richard says. “I looked at it quite differently. I’d sit there and try to apply what I’d been doing to what I was hearing from professors.”

Later in Jackson, Ben Puckett welcomed the new graduate into the fold and enthusiastically embraced Richard’s contributions from the College of Business curriculum.

“He was so open to the ideas,” says Richard. “Daddy was a sales-minded person. Systems, processes and procedures of the office were foreign to him – and I liked that aspect. That’s what made us so good together. He respected what I knew and what I could do inside the company while he worked in sales on the outside. We were good.”

So good, in fact, that the father of Puckett Machinery was able to sell out to Richard and his younger brothers in 1994.

“He wanted the next generations to come along,” says Richard. “He was ready, and it was time.”

Ben, who passed away in 2013, had delighted in seeing yet another generation take the reins: Grandson Hastings Puckett stepped up in 2000, armed with his own degree in finance from MSU’s College of Business.

It was a day Richard had anticipated since Hastings’ birth.

“He had a choice,” says the proud father. “He completed an internship with our due diligence team during his senior year at State as we were acquiring an equipment rental company. I offered him six months off after graduation, but he came to me after two saying he wanted to work for the rental company.”

The rental company is now in the hands of Hastings’ younger brother Rob, 10 years his junior.

“Both my boys graduated from the College of Business in finance and were really, really good students. Hastings made only one B during his time there, and Rob made all As.”

Richard, who was ready for the changing of the guard, told his elder son, “I know you can run the company. I want a seat on the bus, sort of up near the front, but I don’t need to drive it anymore.”

Hastings took the helm in 2011. As Chairman and CEO, Richard confers with Hastings but leaves day-to-day matters to the Puckett in charge.

“He’s put together an unbelievable management team,” Richard states.

A charter member of the College of Business Executive Advisory Board, Richard also serves on the Mississippi State University Foundation Board and its fundraising committee. He attends athletic events and contributes to the teams’ support, yet he and wife Mary largely devote their time and funding to education philanthropy.

“Students who receive our scholarships write us letters each year, and 30 to 40 percent of them tell us they’re the first family members to have the opportunity to attend college,” he observes. “We feel we’re going where the needs are.”

With three generations of Mississippi State business graduates involved with Puckett Machinery, eyes are turning these days to the oldest of Richard’s five grandsons.

“They’re all Bulldog fans except for the one in South Carolina, and we’re working on him,” he says with a smile. “Ten years from now the 12-year-old will be graduating from Mississippi State and coming in. And in 12 years, the 10-year-old will come in too, so we’re set for now.”

To Richard’s mind, the future is filled with likely heirs.

“They’ll have their options,” he says with confidence. “But once it gets in the blood, it doesn’t get out. We feel it’s a privilege to be in the family business.”

With the youngest in line a mere nine months old, there is a lot of potential ahead, for Puckett Machinery and Mississippi State alike.

“Each generation has improved the business,” says Richard. “They’ve taken it forward. And that’s the way things are supposed to be.”