Ole Miss Alumni Review - Summer 2014

Ole Miss Alumni Review SUMMER 2014 Vol. 63 No. 3

Summer 2014

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A Great Run Ole Miss finishes tied for third in Omaha

Digital avatars allow UM students to gain hands-on teaching experience Midnight train to success: Q-and-A with Jim Weatherly

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Vol. 63 No. 3

features

20 Midnight Train to Success

Q-and-A with singer/songwriter Jim Weatherly

By Michael Newsom

26 Behind the Seams Alumna styles the stars in couture

By Annie Rhoades

departments 7 From the Circle

The latest on Ole Miss students, faculty, staff and friends

18 Calendar

30 The Virtual Classroom

Digital avatars allow Ole Miss students to gain hands-on teaching experience

By Andrew Abernathy

40 sports

Former Rebel to lead men’s golf Walls elected to College Football HOF

44 arts and culture 46 Rebel Traveler 50 alumni news

36 Major League Talent Alumnus turns baseball know-how into MLB coaching job

By Benjamin Gleisser

On the cover: Ole Miss baseball postseason celebration. See page 40 for more photos.

Cover image by Joshua McCoy

Ole Miss Alumni Review P ublisher TimothyL.L.Walsh Walsh(83, (83) Timothy 91) Editor Jim Urbanek II (97) jim@olemiss.edu A ssociate Editor and A dvertising dvertising Director irector Tom Speed (91) Annie Rhoades (07, 09) tom@olemiss.edu annie@olemiss.edu C ontributing ontributing E Editor ditor C Benita Benita Whitehorn Whitehorn Editorial A ssistant A rt Director Brandon Irvine Amy Howell Designer C ontributors Eric Summers Andrew Abernathy (08, 10), Kevin Bain (98), Misty Cowherd, Ruth C orrespondents Cummins (82), Mitchell Diggs(96), (82), Kevin Bain (98), Tobie Baker Jay Ferchaud, Gleisser, Robert Rebecca LauckBenjamin Cleary (97), Lexi Combs, Jordan (83), Diggs Nathan(82), Latil, Mazurak, Mitchell JayJack Ferchaud, Joshua Sharon Morris, Michael MichaelMcCoy, Harrelson, Robert Jordan (83), Newsom (05),Jack StanMazurak, O’Dell Nathan Latil, Purnell (MA 02) ODeborah fficers of the University Edwin Smith (80), MattA Westerfield of M ississippi A lumni ssociation of

Officers of Brown The University Jimmy (70) M ississippipresident A lumni A ssociation Trentice Imbler Bill May (79),(78) president president-elect Richard Noble (68), Eddie Maloney (72) president-elect vice president

Larry Bryan (74), Kimsey O’Neal Cooper (94) vice president athletics committee member Mike Glenn (77), Chip Crunk (87) athletics committee member athletics committee member Sam Lane (76), athletics committee A lumni A ffairs Staffmember , O xford Timothy L. Walsh (83, 91), A lumniexecutive A ffairs Sdirector taff, O xford Timothly L. Walsh (83), executive director Will Anderson (11), Web developer Joseph Baumbaugh, systems analyst III Joseph Baumbaugh, systems analyst III Clay Cavett (86), associate director Clay Cavett (86), associate director Martha Dollarhide, systems programmer Martha Dollarhide, systems programmer II II Sheila Dossett (75), senior associate director Sheila Dossett (75), senior associate Julian Gilner (04, 07), assistant director director Port Kaigler Julian Gilner (06), (04), alumni assistantassistant director andKathryn senior club Sarah M. coordinator Hickman (03), Annette (79), assistant Kelly director for accountant marketing Steve Mullen (92), assistant director Port Kaigler (06), alumni assistant and for marketing club coordinator AnnieAnnette RhoadesKelly (07, 09), (79),publications accountant editor AnnaSpeed Smith(91), (05),publications alumni assistant Tom editor and club(97), coordinator Scott Thompson assistant director Scott (97,assistant 08), assistant director Jim Thompson Urbanek (97), director for Jim Urbanek (97), assistant director communications for communications Rusty Woods (01), assistant director for Rusty Woods (01), associate information services director information services James for Butler (53), director emeritus (60, 66),director WarnerWarner Alford Alford (60), executive executiveemeritus director emeritus The Ole Miss Alumni Review (USPS 561-870) is published published quarterly quarterly by

by The the University is University of of Mississippi Alumni Association and the Office of Alumni Affairs. Alumni Association offices are located at Triplett Alumni Center, 651 Grove Loop, University, MS 38677.

Telephone 662-915-7375.

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2 Alumni Review

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Chancellor Dear Alumni and Friends,

Growth is generally a good thing for an educational institution. It means that you’re fulfilling your mission, providing attractive options for students, and meeting the needs of your state and nation. This is particularly true for the University of Mississippi, where we are preparing to welcome another huge freshman class and celebrate 19 consecutive years of enrollment growth.

But success and growth also inevitably produce challenges, and those challenges bring change. And while those changes can be positive in the long term, they often are painful in the short run. We’re seeing some of that with the surge in construction on the Oxford campus.

A brand new multipurpose arena and parking garage are under construction near Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, and major expansion and/or renovation projects are continuing at Coulter Hall, the Thad Cochran Research Center, the Music Building and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. More construction work will begin shortly to expand the Student Union and add a new Northgate residence hall. We’re also nearing completion on a new water tower near Kinard Hall and repavement of Dormitory Row West and Hill Drive. It even extends off campus, with work to add new roundabouts designed to relieve traffic congestion on Old Taylor Road.

All this means that construction fences, dust and noise are more prevalent on our beautiful campus than ever before. This is causing some disruptions in vehicle traffic and pedestrian routes. It also means that parking will be tighter this fall, with the loss of many spaces due to construction and the continuing implementation of our UM 2020 master plan. But our Department of Parking & Transportation has worked diligently to find ways to accommodate the needs of all our students, faculty, staff and visitors. We’re limiting the number of parking passes being sold for certain lots and expanding shuttle services for our Park and Ride option. I’m confident that these changes will produce a safe, efficient way for all of us to get to class and work, and to continue to help the university grow.

In the midst of all these changes, one constant is our close partnership with the city of Oxford. We recently agreed to renew the quadrennial fire protection contract with the city, ensuring that the university is covered in the event of a fire or other disaster, and that the city is able to maintain its fire protection facilities and equipment. No university community has a stronger mutually beneficial relationship between the university and the city than ours, and we are grateful to the mayor and other city leaders for their commitment to maintain this bond.

We hope that you’ll visit us soon. You’ll find a university bustling with energy and activity and enthusiasm about the future. Please be patient as we adjust and build to accommodate this continuing growth, and I think you’ll agree that the future is brighter than ever for our university!

Sincerely,

Daniel W. Jones (MD 75) Chancellor

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As my year as Ole Miss Alumni Association president comes to a close, I would like to thank those responsible for allowing me to serve in this position and Chancellor Jones for his support. Alumni Association Executive Director Tim Walsh and his staff are key to our success, and Athletics Director Ross Bjork and his team have been outstanding partners with the Association. This experience has been a highlight in my life, and I will treasure all of the experiences and memories. It has especially been rewarding to meet so many people who share a deep love for Ole Miss.

My wife, Susan, and my family have been so supportive. I think they have enjoyed this year as much as I have. To serve in this capacity also requires support from my employer, and I am especially appreciative to everyone at Regions Bank.

After reflecting on the past year, I wanted to highlight some of the many accomplishments that make Ole Miss special: • Ole Miss continues to be the largest university in Mississippi with more than 22,000 students.

• Student enrollment grew 3.5 percent.

• The Patterson School of Accountancy was ranked No. 1 in the SEC and No. 4 in the nation.

• UMMC (the state’s largest employer of Mississippians) is nationally and internationally recognized for research and organ transplants.

• Capital projects total over $400 million on the Oxford campus and $300 million at UMMC. ATHLETICS • The football team finished with an 8-5 record and a 25-17 Music City Bowl victory over Georgia Tech.

• Sam Kendricks repeated as NCAA pole vault champion.

• Construction started on the parking garage, and a groundbreaking will soon take place for our new basketball arena.

• OMAHA! Congrats to Coach Bianco and the Rebel baseball team for our return to the College World Series, finishing with a No. 3 national ranking.

• A s associate athletics director for academic support, Derek Cowherd led 370 student-athletes to an all-time-high, cumulative 2.91 GPA. ALUMNI ASSOCIATION • The Association reached a record membership of 26,520, which included a record 8 percent increase in the past year.

• The Inn at Ole Miss was chosen the “Best Hotel in Oxford” for the fourth year in a row.

• The 2014 Rebel Road Trip made 11 stops in six days: Dallas, Little Rock, Memphis, Jackson, Tenn., Corinth, Tupelo, Oxford, Grenada, Jackson, Hattiesburg and Biloxi.

Finally, Susan and I want to welcome Trentice Imbler as our new Alumni Association president. I know you will support Trentice and THE University of Mississippi.

We will see you in Atlanta for the kickoff game against Boise State.

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The latest on Ole Miss students, faculty, staff and friends

Stepping Down

UMMC SENIOR LEADER ANNOUNCES TRANSITION PLANS Photo by Jay Ferchaud

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r. James E. Keeton, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, is stepping down from his role at the end of the next academic year, June 30, 2015. Keeton (BA 61, MD 65) has served in the position since July 2009, the first six months on an interim basis.

A national search will be conducted to identify the next leader of the Medical Center. The process will yield two-tothree candidates for final selection by University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones (MD 75), with the approval of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning board.

“This is a bittersweet decision for me,” Keeton says. “Every day I’ve worked at the Medical Center since 2002 has been a privilege. To be able to serve my alma mater in this way has been pretty special. I’ve had opportunities to work with people – inside and outside UMMC – that would never have come my way but for this job.”

The vice chancellor, who has a dual role as dean of UMMC’s medical school, essentially acts as the chief executive of a $1.6 billion enterprise engaged in health professions education, research and patient care. The Medical Center encompasses six health sciences schools with more than 2,900 students and employs more than 9,600 people.

A native of Columbus, Keeton, 74, trained in surgery and pediatric urology at UMMC and in London, England.

He served two years as lieutenant commander in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Navy. He was in private practice, specializing in pediatric urology for 27 years.

Keeton’s tenure has seen the planning, funding and groundbreaking for a new School of Medicine building, the implementation of a $90 million electronic health record system and the recruitment of more than 30 individuals to senior leadership positions. AR Dr. James Keeton

Summer 2014 7

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Circle Premier Professor UMMC’S DR. JOHN HALL NAMED SEC PROFESSOR OF THE YEAR

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his contributions in the broad fields of medicine and physiology are substantial.

He exemplifies the ideals we should all have for an SEC Professor of the Year.”

Hall is the Arthur C. Guyton Professor and chair of physiology and biophysics, and director of the Mississippi Center for Obesity Research at UMMC.

Photo by Jay Ferchaud

r. John Hall, a professor and administrator at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, was named the Southeastern Conference’s 2014 Professor of the Year in recognition of his excellence both in the classroom and as a top-flight obesity and cardiovascular researcher.

Dr. John Hall

The SEC announced on April 30 Hall’s selection as the top professor among those teaching at the SEC’s 14 member institutions of higher education.

“Dr. John Hall represents what is best about academic leadership in the Southeastern Conference,” UM Chancellor Dan Jones (MD 75) says. “His reputation as an educator spans the globe, and 8 Alumni Review

He is one of the most recognized teachers and researchers in the areas of cardiovascular and renal physiology, mechanisms of hypertension, obesity and metabolic disorders.

Hall says the award is a tribute to the university and the team of researchers there.

“I am deeply honored and feel very

privileged to represent the University of Mississippi,” Hall says. “This is a tribute not to me so much but the university – that we have a good team here of cardiovascular researchers and many folks that work together. I like to say that the team is a lot more than the sum of its parts. I think that’s especially true in this case.”

The award is given each year to one SEC faculty member with a record in research and scholarship that places him or her among the elite in higher education. The winners are picked from the universities’ SEC Faculty Achievement Award nominees. The SEC will provide Hall with a $20,000 honorarium. “[Hall] is the product of a department that has nurtured many leaders in the field of physiology and, in turn, his leadership has fostered the development of the next generation of exemplary scientists,” says Dr. James Keeton (BA 61, MD 65), vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the UMMC School of Medicine. “There’s no greater legacy than that and no person more deserving of this honor.”

Hall’s laboratory was the first to use renal-pressure natriuresis to demonstrate how the kidney’s ability to excrete salt and water plays a vital role in controlling blood pressure and maintaining salt and water balance in hypertension. Hall’s lab was also the first to discover that increases in leptin, a hormone secreted by fat cells, causes high blood pressure and links obesity and hypertension. His research has been funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute since 1975.

Hall has served as director of a National Institutes of Health Program Project since 1988 as well as the principal investigator of grants that have brought roughly $50 million in extramural funding to UMMC. AR

A Boon for Parents NEW UMMC PROCEDURE REPAIRS HEARTS WITHOUT OPENING CHILDREN’S CHESTS Photo by Jay Ferchaud

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oms and dads of babies born with what’s known as a “hole” in their heart usually brace themselves for seeing their tots having to undergo open-heart surgery, the accepted route to fixing the life-threatening defect.

However, a University of Mississippi Medical Center pediatric cardiologist carries out a significantly less invasive procedure in a catheterization lab, giving kids and parents a new option: a simple overnight hospital stay and a regular Band-Aid on their leg in lieu of a line of chest stitches.

Ten children have successfully undergone Dr. Makram Ebeid’s procedure to seal a perimembranous ventricular septal defect in their hearts’ lower half by transporting a plug on a catheter that is advanced through the child’s leg.

Ebeid says it’s a transformational development borne of clinical trials that could, in time, replace the decades-old standard of surgery requiring at least a three- to five-day stay and postop care in the pediatric cardiac care unit.

“It makes so much sense that this is the right thing to do,” says Ebeid, professor of pediatric cardiology and director of the Pediatric Catheterization Lab. “If we can achieve the exact same result using a catheter that goes up the leg, then why wouldn’t we do it?” says Dr. Jorge Salazar, professor of pediatric heart surgery and co-director of the UMMC Children’s Heart Center. “I have seven children. If one had a hole in his heart, I would choose the catheter.”

A ventricular septal defect is an opening in the septum wall that separates the heart’s left and right ventricles. That congenital flaw is almost always repaired during open-heart surgery.

Ebeid, however, has developed a trans-catheter approach.

Guided by X-ray imaging, Ebeid threads a wire through a tiny hole in the patient’s leg and into a blood vessel or artery. The wire is guided to the patient’s heart, and the cardiologist passes instruments over the wire that are used to make repairs, such as a plug to seal an opening in the heart or replacement valves to relieve those that no longer work.

Save “a few scattered cases here and there,” Ebeid says, he’s the only cardiologist placing a plug in a perimembranous ventricular septal defect in a catheterization lab. A muscular ventricular septal defect, typically located a little lower in the ventricle, is more commonly repaired in a catheterization lab.

Ebeid was chosen as part of other clinical trials to test the small nickel-and-platinum plug manufactured by St. Jude Medical.

“He definitely is one of the pioneers,” Salazar says. “It’s too new to have exact figures. Nobody has published them yet.”

Few pediatric cardiologists are telling parents of the new treatment option or perhaps know about it at all, Salazar says.

“It’s still a very prevalent opinion in the world that this particular hole can’t be closed with a catheter and that it shouldn’t be done,” he says. “But, that’s based on the approaches and technology of the past.”

Pass Christian resident Lindsey Stout chose catheterization

Wyatt Stout, 2, of Pass Christian listens intently to the heart of his cardiologist, Dr. Makram Ebeid, UMMC professor of pediatric cardiology and director of the Pediatric Catheterization Lab, as he and his mom, Lindsey, complete a follow-up exam.

for her 2-year-old son, Wyatt, whose pediatric cardiologist first discovered a “massive hole” not long after Wyatt’s birth and, after watching him carefully for a year, referred the family to Ebeid, Stout says.

“Dr. Ebeid told us 95 percent of cardiologists would just open him up but that he felt comfortable closing it with a catheter,” Stout says. “It wasn’t a difficult decision for me.”

Ebeid discovered a total [of ] three holes, she says. “If we had done surgery, they would have had to break his ribs and to stop my almost 2-year-old’s heart. The thought of that is still scary to me.”

Open-heart surgery requires placing the child on a heartlung bypass machine. The child is temporarily on a ventilator in the pediatric ICU but goes home in five days or less. If Ebeid concludes a patient is a better candidate for surgery, even after he’s begun catheterization, the child often can go to the operating room right then for surgery performed by Salazar.

The change in Wyatt’s health was immediate, his mom says.

“Before, he was tired all the time and ran out of breath quickly,” she says.

Ebeid and Salazar know the procedure has worked when an echocardiogram shows improved function and heart size. And, Ebeid says, there’s another sign of success, one that certainly brings joy to the heart of a parent.

“Once we’re done with the patient[s], they’re ready to play,” he says of toddlers like Wyatt, who rode a tiny tricycle in the pediatric ward the morning after his procedure. “They’re ready to play, even before they go home.” AR Summer 2014 9

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Circle More Than Words NEW BOOK EXPLORES HISTORY OF JOURNALISM DEPARTMENT

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Photo by Robert Jordan

enned by Ronald Farrar, chair of the University of Mississippi journalism department from 1973-77, Powerhouse: The Meek School at Ole Miss delves into the history of the journalism department from its beginnings in 1947 to the present Meek School of Journalism and New Media.

Readers will learn how the academic and professional program came to be, about Gerald Forbes, the man who founded it, and the men and women who nurtured it, and about Ed Meek (BSJ 61, MA 63), who did much to propel it toward the top tier in its field.

The following is excerpted from the book: They don’t teach you how to sit in a dinky, one-seat crop duster in Journalism 101. Not exactly sit. Hunker. More like perching on a gas tank behind the pilot, bracing your legs and hoping for the best as a cloud of weevil-killing chemicals spews behind you, zooming back and forth over a cotton field, both hands holding onto your camera for dear life as you try to get some good steady shots. For that matter, nobody taught Elizabeth Vowell how to sweet-talk the pilot into letting her on the plane to begin with. But what this senior in journalism at Ole Miss did was to learn how to tell a story, and how to listen

Will Norton (left), dean of the Meek School, and Charles Overby, chairman of the Overby Center 10 Alumni Review

when her gut told her that without this God’s view of the Delta country, she didn’t have enough to tell it right.

Vowell and seven other J-school students were part of an indepth investigation they called the Delta Project. Led by two faculty members — one a former national editor at the Miami Herald, the other a former editor at the San Jose Mercury News — the students had studied the Mississippi Delta in the classroom for weeks before they went there.

Then they’d spent the last week talking to dozens of people, breathing in cigarette smoke and listening to the blues where the blues first sprang up, in run-down honky tonks around Clarksdale.

“But we sensed that the only way to get a feel for the entire region was from the air,” Vowell said.

A male student went to the farmhouse beside a crop duster plane’s hangar and asked the owner for permission to ride along. He said no. Vowell went back on her own.

“You’re gonna think I’m crazy,” she told the man, “but we want a shot of the whole area.” She talked some more, and she got the shot. “I worked my butt off to get it,” she recalls.

The Delta project team was assigned to produce a magazine and a CD as well as a documentary program for television. The magazine won the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, honoring it as the best student magazine journalism produced in the nation that year.

Like much else in the South, journalism at the University of Mississippi started out small, and humble, and bare bones.

Seemingly, there wasn’t much to work with, just an old printing press in ramshackle quarters. But the professors were a couple of veteran newsmen who knew how to write — and plucky, talented, eager students — a combination with its own kind of magic. The students learned how to tell a story, ask questions and dig until they got what they needed to tell it right. The faculty didn’t just teach their kids how to write but how to tackle a story with common sense, fairness, and when needed, a lighter touch. They also taught them to keep an eye on the little things as well as the bigger picture.

When Dean Will Norton returned to Ole Miss in 2009, it was to a campus that had been transformed through the inspired leadership of Chancellor Robert C. Khayat. Almost since the day of its creation in 1946, the journalism chairmen at Ole Miss dreamed

Photos courtesy of Larry Wells

their department would one day become a school. More than half a century later, that dream came true. Ed Meek’s generosity and love for Ole Miss, and Chancellor Robert Khayat’s support and influence, made it happen. The new school of journalism made Freedom of Expression its founding principle: We foster freedom of expression by helping students understand the relationship between free speech and a democracy, and that understanding is at the heart of the mission of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media.

Other shared values included a reaffirmation of teaching excellence and a commitment to embrace change. Facilities and faculty notwithstanding, the underlying strength of the Meek School — as it had been for the old Department of Journalism at Ole Miss — is the quality and inner drive of its students.

The history of Ole Miss journalism is the story of many like Elizabeth Vowell of Quitman, who knew where they wanted to go

Otis Tims (bottom left), Daily Mississippian news editor, Sparky Reardon, front page editor, and Patsy Brumfield, executive editor, in 1972

Larry Wells (left), Willie Morris, Dean Faulkner Wells and Adam Shaw in the Grove in 1979

and pushed themselves hard to get there. It is students like these, and the veteran journalists who taught them, who have given the Edwin and Becky Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi the tradition it has today.

Powerhouse: The Meek School at Ole Miss is available at local bookstores, or contact meekschool@olemiss.edu. All profits will go to the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. A reception will be held at the Overby Center on Aug. 13 at 3 p.m. for Farrar, who will sign copies of the book at Square Books at 5:30 p.m. The public is cordially invited to attend. AR

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM GROWS TO 500 STUDENTS

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he University of Mississippi Meek School of Journalism and New Media’s undergraduate program in integrated marketing communications has swelled to more than 500 students since the course’s first classes were taught in fall 2011.

At the start of the 2011 fall semester, 80 undergraduate students were majoring in integrated marketing communications, but that number quickly multiplied to reach the 500-student milestone this spring.

Will Norton, dean of the Meek School, says the program has succeeded in part because of the strong industry connections and expertise of program director Scott Fiene and the other members of the faculty.

“Scott Fiene and his faculty colleagues truly know integrated marketing communications, which draws on many fields of study,” Norton says. “They all have a very strong professional network for placement in internships and jobs, and

the professional opportunities for graduates are broad.

Fiene says the growth has been “phenomenal” and is a testament to the value of the degree.

“It’s a really solid degree,” he says. “It’s an integrated marketing communications degree, but it also comes with a minor in business administration. In the industry, there’s a major need for graduates from a program like this, but there aren’t a lot of undergraduate programs of this kind, nationally.”

Recently, 50 students graduated from the program, which is the largest class yet for the new major. caption The undergraduate program puts a strong emphasis on writing, with students taking both integrated marketing communications and journalism courses. Public relations, advertising, market research, account planning, communications law and other similar courses round out the requirements. Accounting, economics, management and business communication are required for the minor in business administration. AR Summer 2014 11

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Circle Business Backing ALUMNUS EARNS FARRINGTON DISTINGUISHED ENTREPRENEUR AWARD

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enr y Jones, co-founder of Kopis Mobile, is the recipient of the 2014 Farrington Di s t i n g u i s h e d E n t r e p r e n e u r s h i p Award. The award, named for University of Mississippi alumni Jan and Lawrence Farrington, is given annually to

confidence from peers who face the same challenges that I do as an entrepreneur.”

The Farrington Distinguished Award was created to honor successful entrepreneurs who carry on the tradition of the Farringtons in creating effective businesses.

Photo by Philip Waller

him earn a full scholarship to graduate school at Stanford University.

He also credits his time at Ole Miss with allowing him to build relationships with other entrepreneurs – relationships and friendships that continue to this day – as well as to learn from people as successful as the Farringtons.

“I truly appreciate what the Farringtons have done in creating this award,” Jones says. “What they do to support young entrepreneurs is meaningful to me and to others who also have a vision for a brighter future for Mississippi and are trying to create businesses as a way to make that happen.”

For Jan (BAEd 65) and Lawrence Farrington (BBA 58), lending a helping hand is all part of their desire to give back.

“Lawrence and I want to do everything we can to encourage entrepreneurs in Mississippi,” Jan Farrington says. “We have so many bright, talented entrepreneurs in our state Henry Jones, recipient of the 2014 Farrington Distinguished Entrepreneurship Award, with Jan and Lawrence who have had the vision Farrington and tenacity to start their a graduate who exemplifies the best of According to Jones, whose Flowood- own companies. These businesses can entrepreneurship. b a s e d c o m p a n y c re a t e s a p p s a n d and will make a difference in the future Jones (BSME 95), a Richton native, app-enabled equipment for use by law of our state if we can keep them here calls the recognition “a big surprise and enforcement, private security personnel in Mississippi. Encouragement from an enormous honor.” and the military, the experience gained the government, universities, organiza“I know who the past honorees are; at Ole Miss set him on a path to success. tions such as Innovate Mississippi, they are entrepreneurs who are working While studying at Ole Miss, Jones took investors and individuals can help hard to grow businesses in Mississippi,” advantage of opportunities to participate make this happen. This award was just Jones says. “To be included in that group in student government and study abroad a small way that we thought we could is humbling, and it is also a vote of programs. The diverse exposure helped contribute.” AR

12 Alumni Review

Recipe for Success ‘BARKERY’ EARNS TOP AWARDS IN BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION

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hen it comes to the University of Mississippi’s Gillespie Business Plan Competition, it seems things have gone to the dogs.

Well, at least to the treats made especially for those canine companions.

During the 2014 competition, Madison native Janet McCarty, founder of Cotton’s Café Dog Treat Barkery, walked away with top honors, including Best Business Plan (First Place), Best Concept for Mississippi and Best Concept for Social Entrepreneurship. In addition to barking rights, McCarty earned $10,000 in prize money, funds she was able to invest right back into her business.

“After winning the Gillespie Business Plan Competition, we have grown exponentially,” McCarty says. “With the proceeds from the competition, we have procured a commercial kitchen space, acquired an automatic dough roller and a convection oven, purchased a significant inventory of raw ingredients and have increased cash flow, allowing us to move forward with

confidence as a growing business.”

The business is named after Cotton, a rescue dog who inspired McCarty’s vision. While making natural, healthy treats for pets is second nature to McCarty, who already had her business established, winning the business plan competition was no cakewalk for this senior art major.

“For me, the learning curve was steep,” she says. “It was like learning another language in a couple of months.

[The competition] forced me to look at parts of the business that I wasn’t focusing on. For example, I had to look at how to prepare a balance sheet, a cash flow statement and a profit-and-loss statement. I had to learn about gross margins, break-even points and how to create a business model.”

Thirty-one plans were entered into this year’s competition, which included three rounds and provided the finalists with access to mentors. That resource helped McCarty create and deliver a

Janet McCarty and her dog, Cotton

polished presentation and strengthened the overall credibility of the competition.

In its 10th year, the Gillespie Business Plan Competition is a hallmark of the business program offered at Ole Miss. AR

MCCLELLAND NAMED UM CHAIR OF TEACHER EDUCATION

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fter serving more individual academic units. than two years “As the flagship univeras interim chair, sity in Mississippi, it’s our Susan S. McClelland job to ensure we are pre(MEd 88, PhD 96) has paring pre-service teachbeen selected to serve ers to meet the demands as chair of the Uniof educating the children versity of Mississippi in our state,” says McClelDepartment of Teacher land, who also serves as Education. an associate professor of McClelland’s educational leadership. “In appointment began July Mississippi, we face chal1 and marks her third lenges like low literacy rates major move at UM. With Susan S. McClelland and high poverty rates, and more than 1,000 stuwe must constantly look at dents and more than 40 full-time faculty in how we can improve our programs to better the areas of elementary, literacy, secondary, prepare our pre-service teachers to be effecspecial and early childhood education, the tive, innovative educators.” department is one of the university’s largest During McClelland’s tenure as interim

chair, the department grew to include new programs such as the Mississippi Excellence in Teaching Program, an allinclusive, four-year scholarship and teacher preparation program for top performing students. The program has an average incoming ACT score of 29.

Before serving as chair, McClelland was the founding director of the Principal Corps, a highly selective educational leadership program with a 99 percent success rate in placing outstanding Mississippi educators into K-12 leadership positions. She was hired at UM in 2005 as an assistant professor of educational leadership to design the program after the School of Education received a $2 million startup grant from the Jim and Donna Barksdale Foundation. AR Summer 2014 13

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Circle Pre-K Specialization UM LAUNCHES EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION CURRICULUM Photo by Kevin Bain

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o meet the demand for qualified pre-K teachers across the state, a new curriculum offered by the University of Mississippi allows students to specialize in early childhood education and obtain a license endorsement in the field from the Mississippi Department of Education.

The curriculum, offered online this summer, will be provided in a traditional format during the 2014-15 academic year and is designed to be completed over two semesters as part of the School of Education’s elementary education program.

Working educators can also complete the program to obtain an endorsement from MDE. “One problem we’re facing in Mississippi is that many teachers haven’t had the specialized training to teach pre-K,” says Burhanettin Keskin, UM associate professor and coordinator of early childhood education. “Some people believe that teaching early childhood is just kindergarten and first grade watered down, but it’s a completely different and very important field.”

Mississippi does not support universal pre-K education in public schools, and there is no standard assessment for students entering kindergarten.

The Ole Miss curriculum was designed by three expert early childhood education faculty hired at the university last year after the School of Education received a $1.1 million grant from the Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation in Jackson to build the program. UM’s early childhood faculty includes Keskin, as well as assistant professors Beverly Alford and Lynn Darling.

“Our faculty [members] have worked tirelessly to create a

Lynn Darling is one of three expert early childhood education faculty members hired at UM in 2013 to develop new curricula to prepare pre-K teachers.

valuable program leading to a state-issued endorsement in early childhood education,” says Susan McClelland (MEd 88, PhD 96), UM chair of teacher education. “Elementary education is our largest program, and our hope is we can drastically increase the number of new teachers with specialized training in early childhood education who can make an impact in schools across the state.”

The new undergraduate emphasis is the first of what will be two major pushes to expand early childhood education programs at UM. In 2015, Ole Miss plans to also offer an online master’s degree in the field for educators and researchers who seek advanced specialization in early childhood learning. AR

NEW CENTER CREATED TO FOSTER CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTION

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o promote education and understanding across cultures while supporting traditionally underrepresented students, the University of Mississippi will open the Center for Inclusion and Cross-Cultural Engagement this fall.

Beginning in fall 2012, a faculty and staff-advised committee of student leaders, called the Multicultural Center Working Group, gathered information from UM students through surveys, interviews and focus groups to determine the need for more resources to improve diversity and inclusion.

The group’s findings were that underrepresented groups of students perceived inequities in the availability of resources in regards to their race, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, gender and other differences. A recommendation was made to

14 Alumni Review

develop a multicultural center that would provide a quality learning experience for all members of the university community.

“It was profound how much the students cared about making a case for this center,” says Norris “EJ” Edney (BA 11, MA 13), coordinator of Greek affairs and co-chair of the working group. “There was no doubt that they felt they owed it to their future alma mater to leave a legacy that would provide broader access to full membership in the Ole Miss family.”

The center, which will be located temporarily in Stewart Hall and later moved to the renovated Ole Miss Student Union, will provide programs and services that encourage cross-cultural interactions while serving as a “safe space” that is both welcoming and nurturing to all students. AR

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Circle Prized Students UM STUDENTS DOMINATE STATE PR ASSOCIATION AWARDS

P Photo by Stan O’Dell

ublic relations students in the University of Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media won the three top awards in the Public Relations Association of Mississippi student competition and 10 of 11 awards presented overall.

Public relations students in the Meek School of Journalism and New Media won the three top awards in the Public Relations Association of Mississippi student competition and 10 of 11 awards presented. Pictured from left to right are (front row) Bridget Quinn of Alpharetta, Ga., and Sofia Hellberg-Jonsen of Stockholm, Sweden; and (back row) Lauren McMillin of Madison; Caty Cambron of Rome, Ga.; Wil Yerger of Jackson; Olivia Rearick of Glen Ellyn, Ill.; Robin Street, UM lecturer in journalism and public relations; Katie Davenport of Wiggins; Madison Hill of Auburn, Ala.; and Emily Crawford of Horn Lake.

Olivia Rearick, a journalism major from Glen Ellyn, Ill., won both Student Best of Show for the best entry in the entire competition and the top award in her category, called a PRism. Wil Yerger, a marketing communications major from Jackson, also won a PRism. Those students won the only PRisms presented.

In addition, eight other students and their instructor, Robin Street (BA 75, MA 85, MS 97), all won awards, which were presented in April at the PRAM state conference in Hattiesburg. In each category, the award a step below the PRism is the Award of Excellence, followed by the Award of Merit.

“Having 10 of our students get awards sets a record for us,” says Street, a lecturer in journalism and public relations. “It was overwhelming that the judges only chose 11 students’ work from all over the state, and 10 of those were ours.

“Our students demonstrated that they excel in the diverse set of skills needed to succeed in PR such as producing quality journalism, planning strategy and conducting research. That is a real tribute to the preparation they received from all the faculty members at the Meek School.”

The students entered public relations campaigns they produced as final projects in an advanced public relations class taught by Street. Each campaign required multimedia journalism skills, including writing news releases and feature stories, as well as creating video, photos, blogs and social media. AR

ANN FISHER-WIRTH NAMED UM 2014 TEACHER OF THE YEAR

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fter more than 25 years of teaching poetry, creative writing, environmental literature and more, Ann Fisher-Wirth has won a bevy of teaching and professional awards, but the popular University of Mississippi faculty member admits to being “flabbergasted” at her latest honor.

Students praise Fisher-Wirth as passionate and inspirational, a teacher who brings out the best in them. The professor of English was rewarded for her commitment when Chancellor Dan Jones (MD 75) introduced her during the 71st annual Honors Day Convocation as the recipient of the 2014 Elsie M. Hood Outstanding Teaching Award.

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“By challenging students to delve Uppsala University in Sweden. deeper within themselves and to think “In my personal life, becoming a critically about the world grandma was just a litaround them, she helps tle bit higher, but this one open their minds to a whole is right up there,” Fishernew way of approaching Wirth says. “I’ve always life,” Jones says. l ove d t e a c h i n g , s o t o She was named the be given this award for Liberal Ar ts Outstanddoing what I love is really ing Teacher of the Year special.” for 2005-06 and the UM Based on nominations Humanities Teacher of the from both students and Year for 2006-07. She was faculty, the university has a senior Fulbright lecturer Ann Fisher-Wirth recognized excellence in at the University of Fribourg teaching by presenting the in Switzerland and held the Fulbright Dis- Elsie M. Hood Outstanding Teacher Award tinguished Chair of American Studies at each year since 1966. AR

Calendar August

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hrough Dec. 14 Ongoing exhibit: “William Faulkner’s Books: A Bibliographic Exhibit.” Open to the public. Faulkner Room, J.D. Williams Library. Email library@olemiss.edu.

by the Student Activities Association. Open to the public. The Grove Pavilion, 8 p.m.

Visit http://events.olemiss.edu.

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Austin SEC Club Annual Picnic: Austin American Legion House, Austin, Texas, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.

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Sports Reunion: All 1954-1963 teams. Gertrude C. Ford Ballroom, The Inn at Ole Miss, 6-9 p.m.

Call 662-915-7375.

-9 M-Club Summer Weekend: Various times and locations. Call 662915-7375.

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Concert: Welcome Home concert featuring The Dirty Guv-Nahs and Backroad Anthem. Sponsored

Denver SEC Picnic 2014: Eisenhower Park, Denver, Colo., noon5 p.m. Email olemisscolorado club@gmail.com.

Fall classes begin.

Fall Convocation: Chancellor Jones, Provost Morris Stocks and others welcome the Class of 2018.

Tad Smith Coliseum, 7 p.m.

Email npdarce@olemiss.edu.

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Football: Ole Miss pregame party prior to the Boise State game, STATS, 300 Marietta St. NW, Atlanta, GA 30313, 4:30-7:30 p.m. Call 662915-7375 or visit www. olemisssportstravel.com.

September

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Alumni Association Scholarship Recipient Social: Front of Triplett Alumni Center, 4 p.m. Call 662-915-7375.

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Performance: Ramsey Lewis. Gertrude C. Ford Center, 7:30 p.m. Call 662-915-7411 or visit www. fordcenter.org.

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Football: Ole Miss vs.

Louisiana-Lafayette.

Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, time TBA. Visit www.olemissfb.com.

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Performance: U.S. Navy bluegrass band Country Current. Gertrude C. Ford Center, 4 p.m. Call 662-915-7411 or visit www. fordcenter.org.

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Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College Fall Convocation: with guest speaker Camille Paglia. Gertrude C. Ford Center, 7-9 p.m. Ticket required. Email pleeton@ olemiss.edu.

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Performance: Garrick Ohlsson. Gertrude C. Ford Center, 7:30 p.m. Call 662-915-7411 or visit www.fordcenter.org.

AUG. 25

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Photo by Nathan Latil

Fall classes begin

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Reception: School of Law reception for those admitted to the Mississippi Bar in the fall. Thalia Mara Hall in Jackson, 4 p.m.

Call 662-915-1878.

M-Club Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony: The Inn at Ole Miss, 6 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. dinner. Call 662-915-7375.

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Football: Ole Miss vs. Memphis. VaughtHemingway Stadium, time TBA. Visit www.olemissfb.com.

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School of Pharmacy Tailgate: Front lawn of Faser Hall. Three hours prior to kickoff. Email thompson@olemiss.edu.

School of Applied Sciences Tailgate: Lawn of Triplett Alumni Center, time TBA. Visit olemissalumni.com/events.

Schools of Law and Business Administration Joint Tailgate: Lawn of Triplett Alumni Center, time TBA. Call 662-915-1878.

October

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School of Pharmacy Tailgate: Front lawn of Faser Hall. Three hours prior to kickoff. Email thompson@ olemiss.edu.

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University of Mississippi Medical Center Tailgate: Lawn of Triplett Alumni Center, time TBA. Call 800-844-5800.

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Football: Ole Miss vs.

Alabama. Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, time TBA. Visit www.olemissfb.com.

Performance: Hal Holbrook in “Mark Twain Tonight!� Gertrude C. Ford Center, 7:30 p.m.

Call 662-915-7411 or visit www.fordcenter.org.

Performance: Heart Behind the Music.

Gertrude C. Ford Center, 7:30 p.m. Call 662-915-7411 or visit www.fordcenter.org.

Alumni Hall of Fame Awards Reception: The Inn at Ole Miss, 6 p.m.

Call 662-915-7375.

-18 Rebelette Reunion: Various times and locations. Call 662-915-7375 or visit www. olemissalumni.com/events.

Ole Miss Alumni Association Annual Meeting: The Inn at Ole Miss, 10 a.m. Call 662-915-7375 or visit www.olemissalumni.com/ events.

School of Pharmacy Tailgate: Front lawn of Faser Hall. Three hours prior to kickoff. Email thompson@olemiss.edu.

University of Mississippi Medical Center Tailgate: Lawn of Triplett Alumni Center, time TBA. Call 800-844-5800.

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Photo by Robert Jordan

Football: Ole Miss vs. Tennessee, Homecoming. Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, time TBA. Visit www.olemissfb.com.

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Performance: Kenny Loggins. Gertrude C. Ford Center, 7:30 p.m. Call 662-915-7411 or visit www. fordcenter.org.

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Bridging the Gap: A student/alumni networking forum, 3:305:30 p.m., Gertrude C. Ford Ballroom, The Inn at Ole Miss. Call 662-915-7375 or visit www.olemissalumni. com/events.

Ole Miss vs. Tennessee, Homecoming OCT. 18

For more Oxford events, news and information, visit www.visitoxfordms.com or call 662-232-2477.

Summer 2014 19

Photo courtesy of Jim Weatherly 20 Alumni Review

Q-and-A with singer/songwriter Jim Weatherly

im Weatherly (66), a native of Pontotoc, played football for legendary Ole Miss Coach Johnny Vaught as an All-Southeastern Conference quarterback and honorable mention All-American on the 1964 team. He was also a member of the only unbeaten and untied national championship squad in University of Mississippi history in 1962 – a team that captured the SEC championship that year and again in 1963.

But Weatherly’s success hasn’t been limited to football. As a professional songwriter, he penned “Midnight Train to Georgia,” which Gladys Knight and the Pips turned into one of the biggest hits of all time. His efforts led to him being elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in this year’s class alongside music legends Donovan and the Kinks’ front man Ray Davies, among others.

As a hit songwriter, he also traveled in the same social circles with the elite of the music and acting industries when he lived in Los Angeles. His biggest hit song was inspired by a phone conversation he had with actress Farrah Fawcett. In the 1970s and ’80s, he also played flag football with “The Six Million Dollar Man” Lee Majors and actors Mark Harmon and James Caan.

Summer 2014 21

eatherly shared his thoughts about his career, his election to the Songwriters Hall of Fame and his memories of playing for Vaught.

Q: What drew you to Ole Miss?

A: Well, growing up, I had always been a big fan of Ole Miss

Photos courtesy of Jim Weatherly

football, and I followed Ole Miss all through high school, even when I was in junior high and grammar school. I grew up in Pontotoc. I used to listen to the ballgames on the radio. There was just this mystique about listening to what was going on just 30 miles away and in those red-and-blue uniforms.

I don’t think I ever made a conscious decision to go to Ole Miss. It was just kind of like if I ever got the opportunity that’s where I was going. It wasn’t something I really thought a lot about.

Q: What was that like to play for Johnny Vaught?

A: It was a thrill. It was an honor. He was like a rock star, and so I was in awe of him. To find myself on the field and he was talking to me, that was a pretty big deal.

Q: Is there any one Johnny Vaught story that stands out to you, anything you remember?

A: The thing that comes to mind about Coach Vaught is I don’t think I ever heard him raise his voice. He was kind of like a John Wayne type of character who was very quiet, very direct and didn’t have to raise his voice to get his point across. A lot of coaches feel like they have to scream and yell, and he was not that way.

The other thing about Coach Vaught, in my particular case, was, surprisingly, he was very supportive of my music.

I remember my senior year, the day we reported to summer camp for the fall practice, I had a dance I was supposed to play that night because I’d been playing some dances with my band during the summer. And so, I can’t believe I did this, but I did.

Sometimes I don’t know where I got some of the gumption that I had. I went over to Coach Vaught’s office, sat down with him and said, “Coach Vaught, I’m supposed to play a dance tonight.”

Practice hadn’t started yet, but it was the day we reported, and he was just very quiet. He said, “Well, we just won’t start bed check until tomorrow night,” and that just absolutely blew me away. I couldn’t believe he was that calm, that supportive, that in tune to the realities of other people’s situations, and it always stayed with me. I respected him quite a bit, but that made me respect him even more.

Q: How did you get into songwriting and then how did you find a way to make a living at it?

A: That’s a good question, especially about how to make a liv-

Weatherly and Coach Johnny Vaught.

Q: What are some of the memories from your time at Ole Miss that really stand out to you?

A: Just being there and being around what was a larger-than-life

situation. I mean Ole Miss, that name, had always been in my head, and to be there and be a part of it – I was in awe of a lot of the things that were going on around me. I was in awe of being a part of that Rebel football team and being a part of the Ole Miss student section. As far as particular memories, there’s just the friends and being coached by John Vaught. Those are things that you dream about and things you never forget.

22 Alumni Review

ing. I started writing when I was really young. My grandmother used to tell me I would sit down on her front porch and make up cowboy songs, coming home from the cowboy movies on Saturdays. But I really didn’t start making up songs until Elvis came on the scene and there was the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll. I also really loved rockabilly music and really got into it. At that point I started to really try to write things like what I heard on the radio.

I just did it because I could do it, and it was fun. It came natural to me. It wasn’t something that was forced or I had to like really work hard at. I just continued that all my life. I wrote songs while I was at Ole Miss, but that didn’t take anything away from anything else I was doing.

Then, I left with my band to go to California in 1966, and I was writing songs for our group. I wrote songs that were on our first album and just kept on and kept on and found that some people were giving me positive feedback. Eventually, I found the one guy who said what I wanted him to say. I met a guy named Larry Gordon. He listened to about three of my songs and said,

song, but they asked if we wouldn’t mind if they changed the title to “Midnight Train to Georgia” because it sounded more like an R&B title, and also Cissy Houston’s name being Houston, they didn’t want Houston in the title. So my publisher said, “Yes, that’s fine with us.” We were both in agreement that we would let the [artists] make the song what they could sing to make it something they could believe.

Gladys Knight [and the Pips] wanted to change the title, too, because they’re from Atlanta, and also the fact that it was a train now opened up a big thing for them with their background vocals. They made it a timeless record, not just a hit record but a timeless record.

Q: You were speaking about Lee Majors earlier. I understand he claims you were brought in as a ringer in a Los Angeles flag football league once (joking). Tell me a little about that and also the league, which I understand had a few notable people playing in it.

A: He said what? (laughs) I never heard that before. That’s

Weatherly, a native of Pontotoc, had an interest in songwriting from an early age.

“I want you to be at my attorney’s office tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. I’m going to sign you as a writer. I promise you, I will push your songs through the sky.”

That was the commitment I had been looking for from somebody. He made me believe what he said to me. And so, I signed with him. I didn’t even have an attorney, which I wouldn’t advise people to do. Fortunately, it worked out in my favor.

Q: Obviously, you’ll be forever linked to “Midnight Train to Georgia.” It’s one of the biggest hits of all time. It’s a really impressive piece of songwriting. But what was the inspiration for that and were you shocked at the kind of success recording artists have had with that one?

A: I wrote it based on a conversation I had with (actress) Farrah

Fawcett. She was dating (actor) Lee Majors, who was a friend of mine. I called Lee one day and Farrah answered the phone and, just during the course of the conversation, she mentioned she was packing her clothes, and she was going to take the midnight plane to Houston to visit her family. “Midnight plane to Houston” got kind of stuck in my mind in bold letters. When I got off the phone, I wrote “Midnight Plane to Houston” in about 30 to 45 minutes. It was right after I got off the phone with her, which was about 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. I put it on my first album that way.

My publisher, Larry Gordon, was pitching songs to people, and he got a phone call from a guy in Atlanta, a producer who was producing Cissy Houston, and they really wanted to cut the

funny. He actually invited me out to play football with his team.

He was already playing with them, and when he found out I played quarterback for Ole Miss, he said, “Why don’t you come on out and play with us?” I never thought about being a ringer.

I’ll tell you, it was probably something that saved my life because I hadn’t been doing any kind of exercise, and I had gone through some depression. And once I started playing football again, running and playing sports, that depression lifted. I started to feel like myself again.

Weatherly with Gladys Knight and the Pips, who took his song ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’ to a No. 1 hit in 1973.

(Actor) Mark Harmon, who was quarterback for UCLA, played on another team, and we played against them. Also, James Caan, the actor, came out and played with us. He’s a pretty good athlete. He didn’t come out consistently, but one or two times he came out. There were a lot of music business people, behindthe-scenes kind of people. Gary Usher, who had written songs with Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, played with us. I can’t think of anybody else off the top my head, but those were just some of the notables.

Summer 2014 23

Q: So what’s life like for you these days?

Tell me where you’re living and what you’re doing.

A: We live in Brentwood, Tenn., and we have a small farm. My

daughter (Brighton) is an animal lover and she wanted horses, so she is working to train horses and she does really well. She’s a heck of a rider. My son (Zack) is a budding quarterback for his high school team. He led his team this year as a sophomore to a 14-1 record. You can look any of his stats up on MaxPreps. You can also see his video on YouTube, his sophomore video. I mean he’s really good, and, well, he’s better than I ever was. Right now, he is something else.

I have a studio in my home, and I continue to write. I make my CDs here at the house and put them out on the Internet on Amazon or CD Baby or my website, jimweatherly.com. Life is good and it’s quiet, and we really enjoy it here.

Weatherly is recognized on the field in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for his induction into the Ole Miss Alumni Hall of Fame in 2011.

Q: Do you ever get back to campus or to Oxford much? What are the kinds of things you like to do when you come back?

A: I do get back. We get down to one or two football games a

Weatherly with his wife, Cynthia, who live on a small farm in Brentwood, Tenn.

year. My son has had official visits down there (at UM), and I still have family that lives in Pontotoc and Tupelo. I get down to visit them and go over to Ole Miss to some of the games. I would like to get down more often than I do, but, you know, raising a family, it’s been tougher to get down to Oxford.

Q: What does it mean to you to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame along with people like Donovan Q: Is there anything else you would like to say about Ole Miss and what this place and Ray Davies?

A: It’s the highest honor as a songwriter that you can have means to you personally? unless they want to give you some kind of a special award or A: It was four, or actually five, of the most wonderful years of something like that. Just being inducted into the Hall of Fame with all the great songwriters that are in there and, surprisingly, all the great songwriters that aren’t in there yet, it’s just an incredible honor. I was shocked because it’s something I never would let myself think about because I figured my chances were, if I ever got in, way down the list. So, I was really pleasantly surprised, to say the least.

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my life. It’s a very, very special place. I’ve heard before that people who go to Ole Miss really like the University of Mississippi, but they love Ole Miss. That’s exactly the way I feel. Ole Miss is part of my family, and I appreciate them letting me be a part of theirs.

The complete interview with Weatherly can be found online at http:// news.olemiss.edu/?s=weatherly.

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Photos courtesy of Jeanann Williams 26 Alumni Review

Alumna styles the stars in couture

Photo by Ben Watts

eeting an A-list actress for a wardrobe fitting, contacting top couture designers to get pieces from their latest collections, attending a magazine photo shoot and boarding a plane to London for a film premiere are all in a typical day’s work for Jeanann Williams (BSFCS 03), stylist for actress Naomi Watts.

“I don’t know if you can ever really envision where you’ll be, but that’s what is so fun about it,” says Williams. “I’m always waiting for the next job to come through and stay abreast of everything just because I truly love it. I’m proud of what I do. It’s a really fun, passionate, exciting industry, and I’m lucky to be in it.”

A native of Springfield, Ill., Williams was unsure about where

she wanted to receive her college education. She knew she needed a change and started applying to schools across the country.

“I really wanted to get out of Illinois and experience something new,” she says. “After applying to several different schools, Ole Miss came through. I really didn’t know that much about it until I came for orientation, and I thought, ‘Sure, this sounds great!’”

Williams graduated from high school in 1999 and enrolled at Ole Miss the following fall to major in fashion merchandising.

“I always knew I wanted to study fashion, and there’s definitely fashion in Mississippi,” she says. “I found that women in the South love to be women and, of course, dress up for football games.”

At left, Jeanann Williams and Naomi Watts at the 67th annual Cannes Film Festival Summer 2014 27

Williams enjoyed her time in Oxford, moving in to the second floor of Martin her freshman year and becoming a member of Delta Delta Delta Sorority.

“When I met all of the girls from Oxford, they just took me in right away,” says Williams. “I made friends for life, and everyone was so welcoming and loving. Oxford is a very beautiful, special place that gives you that true college experience everyone wants. There’s definitely destiny to your path, and I can’t imagine not having Ole Miss as part of my story and part of who I am.”

Williams selects Watts’ jewels for the 2014 Golden Globes.

During her studies, Williams took advantage of the many internship opportunities the program had to offer, spending time abroad in London and Australia. However, it was a trip to New York City that truly made an impact.

“I took one trip to New York with our fashion merchandising group, and that was it,” says Williams. “I always knew the next step would be to move there to truly follow a career in fashion.”

After graduating from Ole Miss in 2003, Williams made the move to Manhattan and quickly found herself in a fast-paced environment full of hopeful young graduates longing to break into the industry.

28 Alumni Review

“When I first moved to New York, I moved into the dorms at New York University because it was the easiest transition,” says Williams. “You can live there for the summer, and it’s affordable.

It was really hard because I didn’t know that many people, and none of the jobs I applied for were panning out.”

Longing for a job in fashion public relations, Williams knew her time in New York City was limited if she didn’t find a job before the end of the summer.

“My parents were not going to keep paying for me to live there without a job and told me I was going to have to come back home,” she says. “The week my place at the dorm was up, I starting applying for retail jobs just to keep me in the city, and I got a job at Catherine Malandrino. I worked there for a week before I was recruited to work for Miu Miu in SoHo.” After working in sales at Miu Miu for more than a year, Williams briefly moved back home to Illinois to decide how passionate she truly was about pursuing a career in fashion.

The rigors of luxury sales proved to be tough, but after spending two months back home, she knew she belonged in the Big Apple.

“I think that’s when you figure out what you really love,” says Williams. “You have to leave it to know how much you love it. I knew I had to go back, but I just wasn’t sure how to work it out.”

Williams soon came upon the opportunity to obtain her dream job – working in fashion public relations for luxury shoe and accessory designer Sigerson Morrison.

“I received an email around Christmas that one of my clients at Miu Miu who did fashion PR for Sigerson Morrison was leaving her job. I said, ‘Oh my gosh, who’s taking your job?’ and she told me she was sure her boss would hire me.”

From there, Williams’ career in fashion took off. After landing the job with Sigerson Morrison, she boarded a plane and moved in with close friend and fellow Ole Miss alumna Laura Reid (BSJ 03).

“She let me stay with her for a couple of months while I got on my feet,” says Williams. “I’ve been here ever since.”

Reid, interior designer with Own Entity in Brooklyn, has enjoyed watching Williams’ career evolve over the years.

“I think when we moved here, she was always sort of the poster girl for the fashion world,” says Reid. “That was her drive.

She was always driven and had such grand goals for herself. Once she moved back, I feel like things really just started to fall into place for her.”

And fall into place they did. Williams worked her way up in the fashion industry doing fashion PR for various companies before landing a top-notch position in 2010 with KCD, an international fashion and luxury marketing services and production agency.

“I got to what I would say is the top,” she says. “Going to Milan and Paris, working alongside amazing brands, working with Alexander Wang, Isabel Marant, Bottega Veneta and producing fashion shows with Victoria’s Secret. KCD produces all of the best shows, parties and events. I had an amazing job in PR, but it was really taxing.”

After contemplating different avenues she could pursue within the industry, Williams’ career took an unexpected turn.

“I was going to start my own company, and then Naomi Watts asked me to style her.”

Williams with daughter Ruby

Williams met Watts through her brother, Ben Watts, photographer and father to Williams’ young daughter, Ruby.

“Ben and I met at a Gap fashion event during New York Fashion Week in September 2006,” says Williams. “On our first date, he took me to dinner with Naomi and [her partner, actor] Liev [Schreiber]. That’s how I met Naomi.”

Williams’ career took off after dressing Watts for the internationally acclaimed Venice Film Festival in 2012. With little to go on other than contacts she made in the PR world, Williams dove right in, gathering different looks for Watts to choose from.

“It was definitely fake it until you make it, so I wrote all of my friends who are editors, asking for contacts at Jimmy Choo and this and that,” says Williams. “They immediately sent me a list of about 25 people, and I was able to send her dresses and shoes. She ended up wearing Marchesa and looked gorgeous.

Around the same time, her film “The Impossible” (2012) was coming out, so within the next couple of weeks, I went with her to Toronto. All of a sudden, I was a full-time stylist.”

Having watched Williams grow through the years, Reid knew that transitioning from PR to styling would be a perfect match for her friend.

“She did PR for so long, but anyone who knows her can see

that she’s always had such an amazing sense of style,” says Reid.

“She is so good at putting anything and everything together for an event and has always had this sort of easy chicness to her.”

August 2014 will mark two years since Williams started styling Watts, and she couldn’t be happier with her newfound career.

“We’re very good friends, like sisters,” Williams says. “I travel with her everywhere, so it’s great to be able to share special moments with her and be at all of her premieres. It’s a great fit in my life. I absolutely love styling and truly have a passion for it.”

Daughter Ruby, Williams’ unofficial assistant, seems to have a passion for fashion just like her sophisticated mom.

“She likes to layer on the jewels and try on all the shoes,” Williams says laughing. “It’s quite cute. We recently went to a Ralph Lauren children’s fashion show. She had on her fanciest dress and said, ‘Mommy, I’m just wearing a cardigan and this purse.’ She even had a little star ring and headband on like ‘this is my fashion show look.’”

It’s important for Williams to stay passionate about styling as she may dress Watts in five different outfits in one day for press events, in addition to dressing other clients including actresses Emily Mortimer, Natalie Dormer and Suki Waterhouse.

She says that the best part of her job is being able to work so intimately with the ladies she styles.

“I get to work closely with all of these amazing women and celebrate and support them,” Williams says. “They’re truly outstanding and inspiring women.”

While she enjoys her work, styling is at times a hectic profession filled with extreme highs and lows. In an industry where everyone is a critic and best and worst dressed lists abound, it’s important to have thick skin and take the good with the bad.

“You get different reviews, but the only one I care about at the end of the day comes from the person I’m dressing,” says Williams. “I guess that’s my most important job is making them feel really confident. It’s always great to be recognized on a best dressed list, but you also remember you’re only as good as your last job.”

As it turns out, Williams is quite good at her job, having recently made The Hollywood Reporter’s 25 Most Powerful Stylists list for the second year in a row, a coveted list that profiles the industry’s top stylists.

“Where she is in her career now seems like that thing that we were all sort of waiting to happen,” Reid says. “It makes perfect sense. It’s been really exciting to see her grow, not only because she’s so good at what she does but also the notoriety that’s come with it. It’s like she’s blossomed into herself.”

It seems the sky is the limit for Williams and her styling career as she continues to charge forward in an industry that’s constantly changing and in a city with endless opportunities.

“I would definitely like to take on more clients,” says Williams. “I also want to style men, films and work more on a consultancy level for designers’ collections. I may even want to start my own line at some point. There’s definitely a lot more to come … that I’m sure of.” AR Summer 2014 29

Photo by Robert Jordan 30 Alumni Review

Digital avatars allow Ole Miss students to gain hands-on teaching experience

By Andrew Abernathy Summer 2014 31

W

TeachLivE provides a virtual classroom experience very similar to real-life instruction but without the risk of disrupting class for real students. While not a replacement for traditional student teaching, the technology allows UM education majors to get a taste of leading their own classroom earlier in their training and fine-tune aspects of their craft.

One goal is that this digital teaching experience will allow UM teacher candidates to begin student teaching ahead of the curve.

“The virtual experience of TeachLivE is the closest you can get to teaching without placing real students at risk,” says School of Education Dean David Rock, who coordinated the university’s involvement in the program.

“As an educator, you’re going to make mistakes when you first start. This gives our students the chance to make some of those mistakes on the virtual students first and be better prepared to teach once they begin their field experiences.”

Photo by Nathan Latil

hile there is no substitute for firsthand field experience in teacher training, aspiring educators at the University of Mississippi now have the chance to learn by doing even before student teaching, thanks to the latest technology in teacher preparation. In two years, almost 1,000 UM students have gained hands-on experience by teaching five avatars — all with unique personalities — in a virtual classroom.

Since 2012, the Ole Miss School of Education has been one of a growing number of institutions around the country — and the only university in Mississippi — using TeachLivE, a classroom-simulation program designed by education and computer science faculty at the University of Central Florida (UCF). At least 40 universities are now participating in this venture funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Almost 1,000 UM students have gained hands-on experience by teaching five avatars named CJ, Ed, Kevin, Maria and Sean.

32 Alumni Review

In the last year, the School of Education has expanded its facilities to include virtual classrooms not only in Oxford but at the university’s DeSoto and Tupelo campuses as well.

“The program is especially beneficial to nontraditional students who may not have been in a public school classroom setting for many years,” says Mark Ortwein, assistant professor of teacher education who teaches at the Tupelo and DeSoto campuses. “This offers a window into contemporary classrooms, which can be quite different than they were a decade ago.”

Currently, every junior education major completes at least two supervised TeachLivE sessions during the academic year, a number that is likely to rise in the future as more courses utilize these digital classrooms as part of the curriculum.

“We’re very fortunate to have TeachLivE as a teaching–learning resource for pre-service teachers,” says Susan McClelland (MEd 88, PhD 96), chair of teacher education. “Our faculty [members] have found its use to be beneficial to the overall learning experience of their students, and our students value the learning opportunity and the feedback. We believe these experiences make our students better prepared to work with children in a P-12 environment. This technology has the potential to elevate teacher education at Ole Miss to a new level.”

Avatars That Learn

Each of UM’s virtual classrooms features an 80-inch monitor, floor-mounted motion sensors and a headset for the student teacher.

Once logged in and linked to the UCF facility, pre-service teachers can teach five middle school-aged avatars — named CJ, Ed, Kevin, Maria and Sean — each with his or her own personalities, interests, motives and sense of humor.

The floor sensors allow students to navigate the virtual classroom and actually walk up and even kneel down next to the avatars’ desks.

Using a “hybrid intelligence model,” operators at UCF use software and prerecorded behaviors to bring these digital students to life remotely from their facility in Orlando during sessions.

Based on certain variables set by Ole Miss instructors and the UCF operators, the digital students can present myriad classroom situations.

If a student teacher is organized and adept in his or her subject, the avatars can learn. If an education major is unprepared or lacks management skills, the avatars can lose interest, text in class, try to flirt with the teacher, fall asleep or even derail the lesson by challenging the teacher’s authority.

“It feels like real life because you never know what the avatars are going to do,” says Shannon Green (BAEd 14), who will begin her first year of teaching this fall at Luther Branson Elementary in Madison. “I appreciated how I was able to critique myself. I’ve improved little things like remembering how to slow down and explain lessons in a way that students will understand. CJ was the most difficult avatar. She always seemed to crave attention and not necessarily positive attention. I saw the same sort of behavior during my student teaching.”

The personalities of the avatars have unexpectedly influenced the culture within the School of Education. Students and faculty

joke about CJ’s attitude or Sean’s over participation in class.

During graduation on May 10, graduates laughed when Dean Rock informed the new teachers that CJ wanted them all to know she said “Congratulations” before the big event.

“I feel the program helped me gain confidence more than anything,” says secondary education graduate Devin Hughes (BAEd 14), who will begin teaching at Strayhorn High School in DeSoto County next fall. “I would advise that anyone with no prior teaching experience use this before teaching a real class.

The avatars are all equally difficult to teach because they all have such distinct personality types, which the professors did a great [job] of teaching us how to work with them.”

Within the avatars’ personalities are also telltale signs of important issues the future teachers will face once they enter a real classroom.

Avatars can display signs of some learning disabilities, mood swings or struggles in their personal lives such as abuse or neglect at home.

“The program gives our students a chance to understand what it will be like standing and speaking in front of real people for the first time,” says Larry Christman (BSHPE 72, MEd 75), adjunct instructor in teacher education and a veteran school administrator who has come out of retirement to help implement TeachLivE at Ole Miss. “There are five distinct personalities on the screen, and these students are going to see these same types of personalities when they are in the real world. I think it will be very valuable to our programs.”

Following each 30-minute session, faculty members critique the students’ lessons, leadership style and provide feedback about how to better prepare for upcoming field experiences. Usually completed in groups of three or four, pre-service teachers also critique each other following lessons.

“It was a really safe environment where you can gain a lot of experience,” says Andy Banahan (BALM 01, BAEd 14), who is beginning a new career teaching in Killeen, Texas, next fall.

“I will probably never have a class with just five kids like these, but I’m sure I will have many classes with personalities similar to them. Future CJs will try and trick you into a back-and-forth power struggle. Future Kevins will try to be ladies’ men and flirt with the female teachers. It was a valuable experience and really fun too.”

Set for Growth

With UM’s second-year expansion of TeachLivE at its regional campuses in Tupelo and DeSoto County completed, the School of Education has plans to further weave the technology into its curricula in the next academic year and beyond.

Currently, two introductory education courses use the program. In the fall, faculty members will use some of the latest updates in the TeachLivE program to help student teachers gain experience with students who do not speak English as their primary language, according to McClelland.

Professional development could also be a groundbreaking direction for using TeachLivE, according to Carrie Straub, director of research for TeachLivE at UCF. Straub says UCF research shows that through practice with the program, working teachers are able to significantly improve Summer 2014 33

Photo by Robert Jordan

Currently, two introductory education courses utilize the TeachLivE program.

their teaching methods in as little as four sessions. To make the technology more accessible, they’ve also created a mobile version of TeachLivE that can be powered by a Wi-Fi hotspot from a smart phone and only requires a laptop with webcam, headset and an Xbox Kinect motion-sensor device. The virtual classroom can even be displayed on many smart boards commonly used in classrooms.

“This really presents a new paradigm in the way teachers can do professional development,” says Straub. “Their improvements can be extended directly to their classrooms. We’ve also found that teachers are energized by using this technology and actually enjoy their time with the avatars. Our vision is that eventually every single classroom should have its own TeachLivE.” Ole Miss is one of 10 research sites providing data for the TeachLivE research project. In 2012, mathematics education professor Renee’ Hill-Cunningham compiled data for researchers at UCF by bringing four seventh-grade teachers from Lee County into UM’s TeachLivE classroom in Oxford.

She found that after four 10-minute sessions followed by questioners, the teachers improved their efficiency in how they taught the lessons. Over time, they covered more material and spent less time talking at the avatars and more time asking higher order thinking questions. These results were very similar to those recorded at other research sites.

“The pace of how the teachers went through questions

34 Alumni Review

became more brisk and vetted,” explains Hill-Cunningham. “It rose to an almost electric level. By the end, you could see how they were asking deeper questions and drawing more insight from the avatars than in the beginning.”

Other goals for the program, Straub says, include creating new software for working and aspiring teachers specializing in critical-needs subjects.

TeachLivE is developing new avatars with learning disabilities for training in special education, as well as in lower elementary classrooms. All studies completed by the research team at UCF use lessons and course work aligned with Common Core State Standards.

In addition, the five avatars are growing up! For the past two years, CJ, Kevin, Ed, Maria and Sean have been middle schoolaged children. The program now offers a high school-aged version of the same avatar children to allow more specialized use for secondary-education training. An adult avatar is also available, which can be used to simulate parent-teacher conferences and more.

“TeachLivE is a learning opportunity that pushes our preservice teachers to be better every time they use it,” Rock says.

“I hope we continue to find ways to prepare every future teacher for any classroom situation. If you come to Ole Miss to become a teacher, we want you to know that we’re going to bring you every tool we can to help make you a quality teacher.” AR

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Major

36 Alumni Review

Alumnus turns baseball know-how into MLB coaching job

League

By Benjamin Gleisser

M

ickey Callaway is a peaceful man. When he likes your joke, he rewards you with a generous laugh.

However, when he gets down to business, this gentle guy loves to talk about attacking people.

Callaway (96), pitching coach for the Cleveland Indians, is referring to the opposing batters. The two mantras he stresses to his pitching staff are “attack the strike zone,” and “never give up.”

His strategy seems to be working. Last season, Callaway’s first as a major league pitching coach, Indians pitchers registered a collective 3.82 ERA – almost a run lower than the previous year.

That improvement helped the team reach the playoffs after a six-year drought.

The staff also recorded a franchise-record 1,379 strikeouts in 2013, which was second most in the major leagues.

This season, as of June 4, Indians pitchers had notched a league best 541 strikeouts, and the squad had recorded a leagueleading 27 double-digit strikeout games.

Callaway is hesitant to take credit for the numbers, citing “his guys” for their hard work and “gutsy performances.”

“All I tell them is to attack the zone and keep their pitch counts low,” Callaway says. “They do the rest. I can’t say to a pitcher to go strike that guy out or not to walk him because then he’ll just end up walking him.”

Photos by Dan Mendlik/Cleveland Indians Summer 2014 37

Mickey Callaway, second from left, waits behind manager Terry Francona to congratulate Nick Swisher, No. 33.

Photo by Dan Mendlik/Cleveland Indians

It Takes Grit

I

t’s early June. Cleveland is on a roll. The Tribe has just swept the Colorado Rockies, who own the best team batting average in baseball. The next challenge is a threegame series with the dreaded Boston Red Sox, with their free-swinging hitters who always aim for the home run fence.

Clearly Callaway’s work is cut out for him. His work involves more than just fine-tuning a pitcher’s delivery and suggesting better ways to throw a baseball.

Seven hours prior to game time, Callaway sits at his desk and contemplates the 80-page advance scouting report on the Sox. He notes which batter likes change-ups in the strike zone and who feasts on hanging curveballs on the outside corners.

Later he meets with manager Terry Francona and other coaches to strategize.

He then makes his way to the bullpen with coach Kevin Cash to discuss which relievers would match up best against Boston if the starters get in trouble early.

Finally Callaway huddles with the pitching staff, having a one-on-one session with the night’s starting pitcher.

In both meetings, his message is the same: Be prepared, be aggressive, and attack the strike zone.

“Motivating guys is the biggest part of my job,” Callaway says. “The bullpen coach and I sometimes act like team psychologists. A pitcher needs sound mechanics, but mental attitude is also a great part of his game. Once he steps off the mound and lets go of the ball, there’s nothing he can really do if the batter 38 Alumni Review

steps into it and hits a home run. He’s just got to swallow it and get ready for the next pitch.

“If someone’s not doing so well, we can study his routine and pitch distribution and help him get back on track. But if he’s lost his confidence – well, that can be tough to get back.”

When a pitcher falls into a rut, Callaway has drills to help the player return to form.

One involves getting the body to feel like it’s in the right spot.

Occasionally he’ll suggest a visualization exercise, such as imagining stepping on the mound and throwing the perfect pitch.

Callaway says the best pitchers aren’t always the ones with the best records. What separates the players from the pretenders is grit.

“Guys with grit work hard and battle through the game,” he says. “In our last series [against Colorado], Josh Tomlin didn’t have his best stuff, but he grit his way through five-plus innings and gave up a few runs but kept us in the game. That’s grit – always focusing on the future and not dwelling on the past.”

T.J. House, who worked under Callaway at Kinston, Cleveland’s Class A minor league team, says Callaway helped turn his career around.

While House played college baseball, scouts remarked that he had good command of an explosive fastball, but he wasn’t showing that in the rookie league.

“I struggled a lot,” says House. “My velocity dropped, and I was inconsistent. Mickey called me into his office, and he was tough on me. He said, ‘I’ve been watching video of you of your first year with us, and your arm slot was a lot lower. We’re going

to go back to that because what you’re doing isn’t working.’ Then he said, ‘I expect better of you.’

“I dropped back down to the three-quarters slot. It was a struggle at first, getting back into that groove, but two years later here I am in the major leagues. He told me, ‘This is awesome.

This makes me so proud.’ I felt the same way.”

Callaway joined the Indians organization in 2010 as the pitching coach for the Class A Lake County Captains – the same season they won the Midwest League championship.

In 2011, Callaway became the pitching coach for the Class A Kinston Indians, whose 3.68 ERA ranked third in the Carolina League. He was promoted to minor league pitching coordinator in 2012 and joined the major league staff in 2013.

Photo courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics

Formative Years

A

Memphis native, Callaway grew up in a baseball-loving family.

His father, Mike, a civil engineer in the Army and die-hard New York Yankees fan, named his sons after Mickey Mantle and Casey Stengel.

Mickey Callaway watched his dad play baseball in local games and looked forward to playing catch with him on warm evenings in the backyard.

He joined Little League at age 6 and continued developing as a player in high school, where as a senior the power pitcher with a slick curveball was named the Gatorade Tennessee High School Player of the Year.

He went on to become a member of Team USA at the 1992 Goodwill Games.

Then Ole Miss Baseball Head Coach Don Kessinger recruited Callaway to Mississippi. Once Callaway visited the campus, he was hooked.

“I fell in love with the baseball stadium,” he says. “And Coach Kessinger was a huge mentor – he prepared his guys in a professional way. We were ready for baseball when we got there.”

Kessinger remembers Callaway as an intelligent young man who loved and studied the game.

“The good Lord gave him quite a bit of talent,” he says. “And when things didn’t always go right, he never quit or gave up.

That’s one of the great things baseball teaches you – to have passion and perseverance not just in the game but in life.”

In his three years with the Rebels, Callaway appeared in 61 games, compiling a 20-18 record and 4.08 ERA. He notched 224 strikeouts in 278 innings and surrendered no home runs.

After his junior year, the Tampa Bay Rays selected him in the seventh round of the 1996 MLB draft and sent him to the team’s minor league club in Butte, Mont.

“The first time I saw myself on a baseball card, I thought it was pretty cool,” he says. “It was a minor league baseball card from Butte. I looked at myself and felt really fortunate I was able to be here.”

Callaway played a total of 14 seasons, including parts of five seasons with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Texas Rangers and Anaheim Angels. He won a World Series ring with the Angels in 2002.

From 2005-07, he pitched in Korea, where an arm injury resulted in “Tommy John” ligament replacement surgery.

He tried making a comeback in 2009, playing in Taiwan, but tore the rotator cuff and labrum in his pitching shoulder. He opted to retire and begin coaching.

Callaway spent three years with the Rebels before his selection in the 1996 MLB draft.

Callaway has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.

He hopes to stay in professional baseball with an ultimate goal of becoming a manager. If his success so far is any indicator, alumni and friends can expect to see more of him. AR Summer 2014 39

Sports

OLE MISS FINISHES TIED FOR THIRD IN OMAHA

A

fter a 42-year drought, the Ole Miss Rebel baseball team ended its absence from the College World Series with a top-four performance. After falling to Virginia 2-1 in the first game, the Rebels battled their way through the losers’ bracket, eliminating TCU 2-1 and Texas Tech 6-4 to get another chance at the Cavaliers in the semifinals. After an inclement weather delay postponed play in the second inning of the semifinal performance, Ole Miss got out of an early jam once the game resumed the next day and took the lead in the bottom of the second. Virginia rallied with a three-run fourth inning to take the lead on the way to the 4-1 win.

“I’m proud of our guys,” said Head Coach Mike Bianco immediately following the game. “You don’t ever want to come this short, especially when you’re this close to winning the national championship. But this is a special group of guys.” AR

40 Alumni Review

Photos by Joshua McCoy

A Great Run

Sports

Three Rebels Named All-Americans KENDRICKS MAKES FIRST TEAM; SEMIEN, YOUNG SECOND TEAM Photo courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics

T

hree Ole Miss athletes were named U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Americans for the 2014 outdoor track-and-field season.

NCAA pole vault champion Sam Kendricks, who won his second straight outdoor pole vault crown, earned first team All-America honors. Robert Semien and Phillip Young made the second team.

Student-athletes were honored for their performances at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Ore. First team All-America honors are awarded to those who finished among the top eight in an individual or relay event as part of a team. Second team All-America honors go to those who finished between ninth and 16th. Honorable mention honors are given to the remaining finishers.

Kendricks, a junior from Oxford, captured his second NCAA title with a winning clearance of 18-8.25 in Eugene. He received All-America accolades for the fifth time in his career, including four times on the first team.

Semien became an All-American for the first time by virtue of his 16th-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles (14.01).

Young placed 10th in the triple jump (52-0.5) to garner second-team status. The junior from Key West, Fla., became an All-American with Ole Miss for the first time. He was a fourtime All-American at Florida State before transferring. AR

Sam Kendricks, a junior from Oxford, captured his second straight outdoor NCAA pole vault championship this summer.

More Acclaim WESLEY WALLS ELECTED TO COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME

F

ormer Ole Miss All-American Wesley Walls is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2014 as announced by the National Football Foundation.

One of the most acclaimed players in Ole Miss history, Walls received first team All-America honors in 1988 at tight end while also being recognized as an NFF National Scholar-Athlete.

The Pontotoc native, who went on to enjoy a successful NFL career, becomes the ninth former player or coach to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as an Ole Miss Rebel. Two other members of the Ole Miss family have also been enshrined in the hall.

42 Alumni Review

Walls currently works as a real estate developer, and he serves as president and CEO of Delta Furniture Manufacturing.

Active in the community, he endowed a football scholarship at Ole Miss, and he was inducted into the Ole Miss Sports Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Independence Bowl Hall of Honor in 2001. He received the Distinguished American Award from the Ole Miss chapter of the National Football Foundation in 2009.

The 16-member 2014 class of the College Football Hall of Fame will be inducted together at the 57th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 9, 2014, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. AR

Wesley Walls

Former Rebel to Lead Men’s Golf MALLOY RETURNS AFTER FOUR YEARS AS USF HEAD COACH

F

ormer Ole Miss student-athlete Chris Malloy will lead the Rebel men’s golf program.

Malloy, the 2013 Big East Coach of the Year, returns to Oxford after four years as the head coach at the University of South Florida. As a player for the Rebels, he helped lead Ole Miss to a pair of NCAA tournament appearances in 1999 and 2000.

“It’s a great day for Ole Miss Golf,” Athletics Director Ross Bjork says. “Chris Malloy is the perfect coach to lead our program and put us into a competitive position to win championships. As an Ole Miss student-athlete and alumnus, he possesses the highest of qualities we sought in our new coach. His energy and tenacity in recruiting, player development and fundraising will provide us with the proper ingredients for success in the SEC and on the national

Chris Malloy

stage. It is always a special time when we can welcome back one of our own to Oxford, and we are thrilled to have Chris, Danielle and Kaylee join the Ole Miss family.”

“I am extremely excited to return to my alma mater as the head coach of this program,” Malloy says. “Anyone that has ever been to Oxford knows it’s a truly special place. There is no other college town like it in the country. However, as much as this may have pulled on my heartstrings, I am not returning to Ole Miss because it’s my alma mater; I am returning to win a national championship.”

A two-year letterman and team captain for Ole Miss, Malloy earned his bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management in 2001 and was named to the UMAA Academic Honor Roll during his time as a Rebel. AR

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Summer 2014 43

arts &

Culture My Southern Wild b y Joe Mac Hudspeth Jr., 142 pages, $40 (Hardcover), ISBN 9780578128962 Joe Mac Hudspeth Jr.’s third book, My Southern Wild, is a photo collection of deer, ducks, turkeys, alligators, gallinules and Mississippi scenery that he has captured during his career as a wildlife photographer.

According to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who hunts in Mississippi and wrote the foreword to the book, “The present volume contains the best of his work, photographs taken over many years, all in Mississippi. I recommend it to nature lovers — and especially to hunters, for whom it will heighten anticipation of the coming season during the long summer at home.”

Hudspeth’s first attempt at wildlife photography occurred some 30 years ago when he captured a sunning screech owl on film with a Kodak 110 Pocket Instamatic camera. Since then, the self-taught, lifelong Mississippian has turned his hobby into a part-time job with his work appearing in numerous state, regional and national publications. In 1993, Hudspeth (BBA 75) received national recognition when his image of an immature least bittern, captured at Ross Barnett Reservoir, was awarded the “Grand Prize for Wildlife” by the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History. Since 1997, his photographs have graced Mississippi duck stamps and sportsman licenses.

Hudspeth lives in Brandon with his wife, Janet. His current favorite wildlife subject is his 4-year-old granddaughter, Lainey.

44 Alumni Review

Letters to a Young Pharmacist: Sage Advice on Life & Career from Extraordinary Pharmacists by Susan A. Cantrell, Sara J. White and Bruce E. Scott, 176 pages, $23 (Paperback), ISBN: 9781585283996 Letters to a Young Pharmacist offers expert guidance on the choices and challenges new pharmacists face. Written by 35 leading pharmacists, these very personal letters offer sound advice and insight for seizing or creating opportunities, balancing career and family, avoiding mistakes and overcoming setbacks.

Gain from the wisdom and practical advice o f f e re d in these letters on such

topics as finding the right job or residency, developing productive partnerships, networking, thinking creatively to design new therapies, working well in the culture of your organization, and understanding your strengths and weaknesses.

Susan Cantrell (BSPh 83) is senior vice president and managing director of DIA (Drug Information Association) Americas.

Magnolia Mud b y Randy Pierce, 320 pages, $24.95 (Hardcover), ISBN: 9780983538653 Lee Jones, the popular Republican governor of Mississippi, figures to win re-election easily against Anna Scott, a populist Democrat and the lieutenant governor. Both vow to run honorable

campaigns and debate each other squarely on the issues that concern the people of their state. But the mud begins to fly when both sides hire outside political consultants to raise funds and do opposition research, and the lives of Jones and Scott really become complicated when their fourth-grade daughters become the best of friends.

As the sprint to Election Day takes place and the race becomes a tossup, Jones and Scott crisscross the state in hopes of landing undecided voters while launching vicious personal attacks against each other. In their quietest moments, they know they have betrayed their campaign promises, and in doing so they have strained their marriages. Yet the hard truth is that it would be political suicide not to continue the mudslinging. Then tragedy strikes.

It i s n o t o n l y a sobering moment for the entire state of Mississippi but also a time that will bring out either the best or worst in two honestly good people who are vying for the top job in their home state.

Randy Pierce (JD 97) grew up and still resides in Greene County.

He previously served in the Mississippi Legislature and is a sitting justice on the Mississippi Supreme Court. Magnolia Mud is Pierce’s second novel.

Information presented in this section is compiled from material provided by the publisher and/or author and does not necessarily represent the view of the Alumni Review or the Ole Miss Alumni Association. To present a recently published book or CD for consideration, please mail a copy with any descriptions and publishing information to: Ole Miss Alumni Review, Ole Miss Alumni Association, P.O. Box 1848, University, MS 38677. AR

Hop on the bus for a historic drive through the Ole Miss campus, the downtown square and other points of interest in Oxford with a local historian. Learn more about the city you love.

Sept. 12 Tour 2pm Sept. 26 Tour 2pm

Oct. 3 Tour 2pm Oct. 17 Tour 2pm

Oct. 31 Tour 2pm Nov. 7 Tour 2pm

All tours leave from the Oxford Visitors Center, 415 South Lamar Blvd.

Tickets are $5 and tours last 1 hour.

visitoxfordms.com

Planning for football season? or give us a call 662.232.2477 or 800.758.9177

SHOW YOUR GAME TICKET TO RECEIVE

$2 OFF REGULAR ADMISSION

GOING TO THE TEXAS A&M GAME? Be sure to stop by and visit!

GAME DAY: October 11th, 2014

1000 GEORGE BUSH DRIVE WEST COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS 77845

bushlibrary.tamu.edu/visit

2014-15

rebel

raveler T

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he Ole Miss Alumni Association is offering a number of spectacular trips for 2014 and 2015.

Alumni and friends obtain group rates and discounts. All prices are per person, based on double occupancy and subject to change until booking.

Airfare is not included unless noted. For a brochure or more information, contact the Alumni office at 662-915-7375.

You also can find the most current and complete listing of trips and prices on the Ole Miss Alumni Association’s website at www.olemissalumni.com/travel.

PARIS TO PROVENCE: CRUISING THE RHONE RIVER SEPT. 1-9, 2014 This exclusive French sojourn features a two-night stay in enchanting Paris, travel aboard the famous TGV highspeed train to the Rhône Valley and a cruise through the world-famous Burgundy, Beaujolais and Provence wine regions. Spend a day in Lyon, France’s gastronomic gateway, before embarking the exclusively chartered M.S. Amadeus Symphony, one of the finest ships to ply the waterways of Europe. Visit the Roman city of Orange, the historic Papal Palace of Avignon and the wonderfully preserved Roman Amphitheater in Arles.

A London pre-program option, with rail travel through the Chunnel to Paris, and Aix-en-Provence post-program option are offered. — From $3,995

SYMPHONY ON THE BLUE DANUBE: A CLASSICAL MUSIC CRUISE SEPT. 1-13, 2014 Visit six countries and up to eight UNESCO World Heritage sites on this exclusive journey to the cultural centers 46 Alumni Review

Blue Danube

that inspired classical music’s great masters. This custom-designed itinerary includes three nights each in the medieval gems of Prague and Kraków and a five-night cruise on the legendary Blue Danube from Budapest, Hungary, to Passau, Germany, aboard the deluxe M.S. Amadeus Elegant. Experience the musical heritage of Europe’s accomplished composers, including Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin. Enjoy a comprehensive schedule of exclusive expert lectures, classical music performances and guided excursions in Bratislava, Vienna, Dürnstein and Melk. A Budapest pre-program option and Warsaw post-program option are offered. — From $3,995

AUTUMN IN AMERICA’S HEARTLAND SEPT. 19-27, 2014 Experience the breathtaking beauty of autumn from Minnesota to Missouri along the Mississippi River: the brilliant red, yellow and orange foliage among limestone river bluffs, and the one-ofa-kind communities of classic riverside America. Begin with a hotel stay in St. Paul, a culturally rich city replete with fascinating museums and lovely parks, before boarding the grand American Queen, an authentic paddlewheel steamboat that brings to life the river lore of Mark Twain. Cruise south to the picturesque town of Red Wing, and let the past come to life on a walking

tour of its many historic sites. Visit La Crosse, a Victorian architectural gem highlighted by towering bluffs and a scenic river walk. Take in a three-state fall vista in Dubuque, “Masterpiece on the Mississippi,” home to a vibrant revitalized riverfront, and revel in Davenport’s elegant parks and dynamic downtown on the banks of the Mississippi. Savor more river-town charm in Burlington, Iowa, home to Snake Alley, “the Crookedest Street in the World.” Continue to Mark Twain’s lovely boyhood home, Hannibal, Mo., a bountiful source of American lore, before Autumn in America’s Heartland concludes in St. Louis, with its famed, high-rising Gateway Arch dominating the cityscape. — From $2,549

Arts and Sciences. Regional spirit thrives in Barcelona, a cultural hub where famed architect Antoni Gaudi masterfully left his mark. Experience the charm of colorful Marseille, gateway to the rich Provençal countryside, and the irresistible allure of St. Tropez, a small village transformed into a glamorous French Riviera masterpiece in the 1950s. Savor more glitz in Monte Carlo, the glittering Riviera playground of the wealthy, where its famed casino and palace radiate luxury. Admire wonders such as Michelangelo’s classic “David” and the majestic Duomo adorned with Brunelleschi’s dome in Florence, or stand before the legendary Leaning Tower of Pisa before your cruise concludes in legendary Rome. — From $3,999

SPANISH SERENADE SEPT. 23-OCT. 4, 2014 Celebrate fascinating landmarks, exotic structures and natural wonders as you cruise around the Iberian Peninsula to the French Riviera and Italy’s revered west coast aboard the luxurious Oceania Cruises’ Marina. Depart Lisbon for Gibraltar, and view its tremendous landscape defined by the Rock of Gibraltar, a massive Jurassic limestone ridge. Sail to Morocco, and take in fragrant spices as you walk the narrow streets of the Old Medina in Tangier, then on to Málaga along Spain’s Costa del Sol, where archaeological monuments from more than 2,800 years of history are on display. Continue to Valencia, and delight in Baroque cathedrals, lively plazas and the visually impressive City of

NORMANDY: 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY SEPT. 24-OCT. 2, 2014 On June 6, 1944, a heroic formation of Allied troops achieved the largest coordinated military invasion in history on the beaches of Normandy, triggering the beginning of the end of World War II. Walk through history on this exclusive journey through Normandy, featuring two full days of exploration that highlight this important victory during the 70th anniversary of D-Day. From your base in the charming town of Cabourg, journey to the D-Day landing beaches, including poignant Omaha Beach, led by a historian who will discuss D-Day’s events. Visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, the Peace Memorial at Caen and the commune of

Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

Sainte-Mère Église, one of the first towns liberated on D-Day. Stop at the German cemetery at La Cambe. In addition, you will travel to Monet’s home and studio in Giverny, indulge in a special tasting of Normandy’s famous Calvados brandy and visit the majestic Mont Saint-Michel. This program offers an exceptional value that includes all excursions, educational programs, first-class accommodations, an extensive meal plan and wine with dinner. — From $3,295 TOWN AND COUNTRY LIFE IN OXFORD AND ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE OCT. 18-26, 2014 Immerse yourself for one full week in quintessential England, with four nights in the five-star landmark Macdonald Randolph Hotel and three nights in the charming Cotswolds. Local guides lead you through legendary Oxford and the quaint villages. By special arrangement, Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill hosts an exclusive tour and private lunch in Blenheim Palace. Carefully designed excursions and cultural enhancements capture the true essence of this storybook region. Visit Bampton of Downton Abbey fame. Meet local residents during the exclusive Town & Country Forum. Cambridge pre-program and Canterbury post-program options are available. — From $3,795 PEARLS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN NOV. 7-15, 2014 Discover culturally rich pearls of the Mediterranean as you cruise from Monaco to Spain aboard Oceania Cruises’ Riviera, an elegant vessel replete with breathtaking amenities and outstanding cuisine.

Depart Monte Carlo for Portofino, and find a magnificent 16th-century castle overlooking a modern playground of villas and yachts. Journey to Rome, and admire its stunning wealth of historical monuments and marvelous wonders such as the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain and St. Peter’s Basilica. Head inland from the port of Livorno, and experience the idyllic Tuscan countryside and the legendary cities of Florence and Pisa — two icons bursting with world-class art and Renaissance architecture. Savor the historic port city of Marseille, or explore its rich Provençal countryside dotted with medieval towns Summer 2014 47

2014-15 rebel

Traveler Cape Town, South Africa

and quaint villages before heading to Port-Vendres. Bound by beauty, this classic Mediterranean harbor town along the Vermillion Coast is a true gem. Continue to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, a beautiful island offering stunning architecture from a massive Gothic cathedral to an ancient circular castle overlooking the harbor.

Stroll the cobbled streets of Old Palma, or relax along the picturesque countryside sprinkled with windmills, before your exceptional voyage concludes in Barcelona. — From $2,999 CRUISING THE CANARY ISLANDS AND MOROCCO NOV. 7-15, 2014 Join this unique nine-day itinerary cruising from the fabled coast of Morocco to the sun-washed Canary Islands aboard the exclusively chartered, 59-cabin M.S. Serenissima. With a port call every day and an included excursion in every port, this unparalleled combination of Moorish treasures and natural beauty features six UNESCO World Heritage sites, idyllic ports rarely visited by larger ships and the timeless monuments of two dynamic yet ancient societies — the Spanish and the Moors. Explore cosmopolitan Casablanca, 17th-century Essaouira and seldom-visited islands rich in otherworldly landscapes, subtropical vegetation and Spanish colonial architecture. Marrakech pre-cruise and Madrid post-cruise options are offered. — From $2,995 48 Alumni Review

PANAMA CANAL AND COSTA RICA JAN. 3-11, 2015 Join this spectacular nine-day journey through the mighty locks of the Panama Canal to the Costa Rican rainforest.

Spend one night in a deluxe hotel in San José, Costa Rica. Cruise for seven nights aboard the exclusively chartered, fivestar M.V. Tere Moana, featuring only 45 deluxe staterooms. Visit Panama’s San Blas Islands. Cruise through the awe-inspiring Panama Canal to remote island paradises, and snorkel in pristine waters home to diverse marine life. Tour Panama City, and explore the terrestrial wonders of Costa Rica’s national parks and Osa Peninsula. Enjoy lectures by exclusive onboard study leaders.

Panama pre-program and Costa Rica’s Volcanoes post-program options are offered. — From $4,995 SAFARIS, SANDS AND SARIS JAN. 5-FEB. 5, 2015 From serene, sun-soaked beaches and impressive game reserves to timeless colonial and Asian architecture and cutting-edge skyscrapers, discover the distinct splendors of Africa and Southeast Asia. Embark on your remarkable 30-day voyage in cosmopolitan Cape Town, and cruise to beautiful South African cities rich with remnants from their colonial pasts, including Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban and Richards Bay. Stroll past time-worn

palaces intermixed with modern highrises in laid-back Maputo, Mozambique, and find a tranquil escape on the gorgeous island of Nosy Be. Visit Dar es Salaam, a bustling metropolis sprinkled with intriguing monuments, and explore the historic centers in Zanzibar and Mombasa, where an exotic eruption of colors and aromas awaits. Sail east towards Asia, relax on the sugar-white sand beaches of Mahé, and admire ornate mosques in Malé. Encounter a fascinating fusion of grand, centuries-old buildings, pristine beaches, and fine museums and galleries in Colombo, Phuket and Penang. Round out your odyssey in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, magnetic cultural hubs complete with enticing cuisine, vibrant ethnic quarters and chic boutiques. — From $9,999 including airfare VENICE AND TRIESTE JAN. 16-25, 2015 Venice is balanced on more than 100 islands in the midst of lagoons and canals and is virtually the same as it was 600 years ago. Venice has decayed, in a genteel way, since its heyday, but that just adds to its romantic charm. The sights in Venice are too numerous to mention. Around San Marco Square alone are the worldfamous Doge’s Palace and Saint Mark’s Basilica with its gilded bronze horses and bell tower. Another Venice landmark is the 800-year-old Rialto Bridge and market. Substantial churches are located in every district. The Galeria dell’Accademia is one of Italy’s most significant traditional art museums while the Peggy Guggenheim Museum is a personal collection of outstanding modern art. Trieste was recently designated as the world’s most underrated travel destination! As the main port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the city became a very influential and powerful center of politics, literature, music, art and culture, which is reflected in its architecture. While in Venice, visit Padua, Vicenza and Cortina d’Ampezzo. From Trieste, visit Ljubljana, Slovenia; Pula, Croatia; and Udine, Italy. — From $4,195

Only YOU can help us grow higher!

Alumni Association membership has reached an all-time high. Help Ole Miss by renewing your membership and encouraging your classmates, neighbors and friends to remain active.

Membership is open to graduates and non-graduates.

olemissalumni.com/join

News alumni

Class Notes ’60s

HOLMES ADAMS (BA 68) served as commencement speaker at the University of Southern Mississippi’s 2014 graduation ceremony in Hattiesburg.

BETTY ADEN (BSHPE 63) of Greenwood won the 2013 Ms. Mississippi Senior America pageant and received the Community Service Award.

MAX HIPP (BBA 67, MURP 73), retired CEO of the Oxford-Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce, received the chamber’s 2014 Citizen of the Year Award.

BILL HOPE (BBA 66, MAccy 67) of Germantown, Tenn., was inducted into the University of Mississippi Patterson School of Accountancy’s Hall of Fame.

ROBERT C. KHAYAT (BAEd 61, JD 66), chancellor emeritus of the University of Mississippi, was named 2014 Law Alumnus of the Year at the UM Law Alumni Luncheon held at the annual meeting of the Mississippi Bar in Destin, Fla. CHARLES M. MERKEL JR. (BA 64, JD 66) of Clarksdale was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2014.

’70s

PHILLIP J. BAILEY (BAEd 70) of Oxford is a 42-year member of the Million Dollar Round Table, an association of financial professionals.

ROBERT E. BASS JR. (JD 79) was named chief administrative officer of Corporate Management Inc. in Gulfport. The former mayor of Long Beach is a certified public accountant.

WILLIAM O. BROWN (JD 77), of Copeland, Cook, Taylor & Bush PA in Ridgeland, was elected to the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

BENNY S. CHUNN (BBA 72), a senior account agent in Hattiesburg, retired in 2011 after 39 years of service with Allstate Insurance.

EDWARD J. CURRIE JR. (JD 76), a shareholder in the Jackson law firm of Currie Johnson Griffin & Myers PA, was named presidentelect of the American College of Coverage and Extracontractual Counsel for 2014-15.

WALTON GRESHAM (BBA 71), president of Indianola-based Gresham Petroleum, was named Indianola’s 2014 Morris Lewis Jr. Citizen of the Year by the city’s chamber of commerce and the 79th president of Delta Council.

Photo by Craig Gordon

O

Mississippi in the Big Apple

le Miss alumni and friends in New York celebrated the 35th annual Mississippi Picnic in Central Park on Saturday, June 14. The picnic featured music, art and a healthy dose of Southern hospitality. The Mississippi Catfish Cooking Team served up Simmons farm-raised fried catfish, and McAlister’s Deli supplied its famous sweet tea. AR

50 Alumni Review

GENE HARLOW (BBA 79, JD 82), member of Hortman Harlow Bassi Robinson & McDaniel PLLC in Laurel, was sworn in as president of the Mississippi Bar at its annual convention.

WILLIAM HARRINGTON (BA 72) of Madison was named vice president of Trustmark National Bank.

JOHN D. HAYNES SR. (BBA 72), president and CEO of Farmers & Merchants Bank in Baldwyn, was appointed to a three-year term on the St. Louis Fed’s Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council.

OLIVIA MANNING (71) was featured in the July 2014 issue of New Orleans Magazine as a New Orleans Top Female Achiever.

DAVID MILLER (BBA 79), CPA, president of Nail McKinney Professional Association, is serving a three-year term as a National Association of State Boards of Accountancynominated representative for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ Auditing Standards Board. Appointed by Gov. Phil Bryant (79), Miller is also serving a second five-year term with the Mississippi State Board of Public Accountancy.

LAWRENCE L. LITTLE (BA 73) of Oxford was elected a fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation.

GUY MOORE JR. (BBA 72) of Pascagoula was inducted into the University of Mississippi Patterson School of Accountancy’s Hall of Fame.

ARCHIE MANNING (BPA 71) of New Orleans was chosen to receive the Rube Award for his lifetime of contributions to sports in the Magnolia State.

DAVID NELSON (BBA 77) was named chief financial officer of Springfield, Ill.-based Hospital Sisters Health System’s Western Wisconsin Division.

DR. CHARLES S. O’MARA (BS 70) of Ridgeland was named associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

JAMES R. ROGERS (MEd 75, MA 77) of Monroe, La., is the author of the essay “Higher Learning” on the human transcendence experience. The essay appeared in the March 2014 issue of Mensa Bulletin.

STEVE SEALE (BA 75, JD 87) of Jackson accepted the position of vice president of state and local government relations with SAP.

’80s

DR. JAMES CROSS (BA 86) was promoted to professor of surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.

DR. ROBERT B. LEE (MD 84) joined the medical staff of Mercy Medical Associates, an employed/owned physician practice of Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, Ky.

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Summer 2014 51

News alumni

The Ole Miss Alumni Association thanks the 2014 College World Series pregame party sponsors for supporting our events.

Susan and David McCormick Mississippi Federal Credit Union Ole Miss Athletics Foundation Regions Liberty Mutual Mercer

52 Alumni Review

ALWYN H. LUCKEY (BA 82, JD 85) of Ocean Springs was appointed by Gov. Phil Bryant (79) to a five-year term on the Mississippi State Personnel Board, representing the Second Supreme Court District.

MICHAEL MANSOUR (MD 84), FACC, of Greenville was elected chair of the American College of Cardiology board of governors and secretary of the board of trustees, the main governing body of the college, for 2014-15.

JIM SHUTE (BBA 81) accepted the position of executive recruiter with Linked Executive Search in Dallas.

’90s

JOHN A. BAINE (BPA 94), an accountant with Murphy USA, is running unopposed for his second term as a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives.

ELIZABETH ROSS HADLEY (BA 96, JD 99), a senior associate in the Austin, Texas, office of international law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, was named a finalist in the legal category of the 2014 Austin Under 40 Awards.

JENNIFER G. HALL (BBA 99, JD 02), of the Jackson office of Baker Donelson, was selected as a new shareholder in the firm.

DAVID HITT (BA 96) of Huntsville, Ala., released his second book, Bold They Rise: The Space Shuttle Early Years, 1972-1986, coauthored with Heather R. Smith.

NIKIE N. LOMAX (BA 98) served as guest speaker for BETA Center 2014 graduation for teen girls at the Ronald Blocker Educational Leadership Center in Orlando, Fla. CHARLES L. MCBRIDE JR. (JD 91) of Ridgeland joined Telapex Inc. and C Spire as senior vice president and general counsel.

CHARLES M. MERKEL III (BA 95, JD 98) of Clarksdale was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2014.

THOMAS SOUTHERLAND III (BBA 92, JD 97) of Memphis received the 2013 FedEx Express Five Star Award for outstanding leadership and individual contributions to FedEx’s Purple Promise as a member of the legal department.

TODD VINYARD (BA 93) of Asheville, N.C., serves as communications director for the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching.

WESLEY WALLS (BE 91) of Charlotte, N.C., was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

LT. COL. RICHARD L. WEAVER (BPA 96) of Saucier serves as the director of plans, training, mobilization and security at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center.

WILLIAM G. YATES III (BBA 93), president and CEO of W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co. in Biloxi, was elected to serve as the 2014-15 treasurer of the Mississippi Economic Council.

’00s

WILLIAM ANDERSON (BA 01) of Oxford was promoted to master police officer with the University of Mississippi Police Department.

MAJ. WILSON C. BLYTHE JR. (BA 01) of Alexandria, Va., received the 2013 Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award for his article “Arthur L. Wagner: Military Educator and Modernizer.”

CHARLES CASCIO (BBA 08) of Washington, D.C., joined the lobbying team at the American College of Cardiology.

LAURA BRAME CERRA (BBA 05), CPA, of Laurel was selected as one of the Mississippi Business Journal’s 2013 Leaders in Finance.

CHARLES P. COPELAND (BBA 03, JD 07) was named a shareholder in the Ridgeland office of Copeland Cook Taylor & Bush.

DERRICK ECHOLES (BSW 08, MA 10) of Jackson was named assistant director of career services at Mississippi College.

CANDICE C. HARGETT (BA 01, JD 04) joined the newly opened Oxford office of McAngus Goudelock & Courie, a regional law firm focused on insurance defense.

WEI-KAI LEI (PhD 08), assistant professor of mathematics at the University of South Carolina-Salkehatchie, received the 2013 John J. Duffy Excellence in Teaching Award.

Summer 2014 53

News alumni

SUZANNE MCDONOUGH (PhD 08) of Clinton was promoted to associate professor with tenure at Mississippi College’s Department of Kinesiology.

BAILEY MELTON (BA 05, BSPh 07, PharmD 10) of Olive Branch was elected to serve a two-year term as president of the Mississippi Independent Pharmacies Association.

WILLIAM HUNTER NOWELL (BBA 02, JD 06) of Cleveland was appointed county court judge of Bolivar County by Gov. Phil Bryant (79).

JORDAN COVINGTON WOODRICK (BS 08, BAEd 08) of Washington, D.C., earned a doctorate in tumor biology from Georgetown University.

’10s

BRIAN THOMAS ALEXANDER (BBA 10) of Ridgeland received the John B. Farese Memorial Trial Advocate Award from Mississippi College School of Law. BRANDON IRVINE (BAJ 11) accepted a position as evening newscast producer for KMEG/KPTH in Sioux City, Iowa.

RICHARD SHIELDS (BBA 03) was promoted to vice president at Trustmark Bank in Jackson.

TOM NORSWORTHY (MBA 14) joined the Memphis office of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc.

ANNA WATSON (BBA 08) of Jackson received the Mississippi Bankruptcy Conference Award from Mississippi College School of Law.

JESSICA PERALTA (BAEd 13) of Mooreville is the first Mississippian to receive a highly competitive Knowles Science Teaching Foundation Fellowship worth $175,000.

T

RYAN J.F. PULKRABEK (JD 13) joined the Kansas City, Mo., law firm of Lathrop & Gage LLP. AMARETTE H.A. SPEIGHTS (BA 11) of Seminary received a Juris Doctor from Mississippi College.

Friends Jeffrey Ulmer, former president of the University of Mississippi Athletics Association, was named vice president for development and alumni engagement at Stetson University in Florida.

Mississippi on the Mall

he Mississippi Society of Washington, D.C. hosted the 24th annual Mississippi on the Mall on Saturday, June 21.

In the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, Ole Miss alumni and friends enjoyed catfish, hushpuppies, coleslaw and McAlister’s sweet tea. The event also featured music by Fistful of Grits. AR

54 Alumni Review

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Summer 2014 55

News alumni

Weddings Daphne Baird Harlow and Jason Eugene Johnson (BBA 06), Oct. 20, 2012.

Augustus Clinton, son of Elizabeth Johnson Randall (BBA 03, MBA 05) and Robert McPherron Randall III (BA 02), May 23, 2014.

Lacy Allison Jones (BS 13) and Jerry M. Ware Jr., April 28, 2014.

Smith Thomas, son of Caroline M. Roberson (BAccy 06, MAccy 07) and Jason Adam Roberson, March 11, 2014.

Hannah Elizabeth Miller (BAEd 08) and Michael Benjamin Moseley (BA 06, MA 12), Oct. 7, 2013.

LaToya Michelle Redd (JD 06) and Marcus Leanders Thompson, May 2, 2014.

In Memoriam 1930s George Hunter Bergold Sr. (35) of McComb, April 19, 2014

Rachel Catherine Rucker (BA 12) and Paul Hamilton Furr (BSChE 14), May 24, 2014.

Births Lewis Conrad V, son of Alex Fershleiser Anderson (BA 07) and Lewis Conrad Anderson IV (BA 03, JD 07), March 26, 2014.

Georgia Anne, daughter of Rachael S. Cade (BA 10) and Matthew Deon Cade (BBA 07), March 25, 2014.

Harrison Barksdale Jr., son of Jeannie Blair Hood (BAccy 08, MTax 09) and Harrison Barksdale Hood (BBA 08), April 25, 2014.

Jane Gayden, daughter of Leigh Taylor Jernigan (BBA 07) and John Eric Jernigan (BBA 07), Nov. 7, 2013.

Roman Cai, son of Darrilyn C. Mitchell and Jesse Mitchell III (BAccy 04, JD 08), April 7, 2014.

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Ava Morgan, daughter of Laurie Gore Wissman (BAccy 00, MAccy 01) and Eric Wissman, March 24, 2014.

Abbott L. Ferriss (35) of Gainesville, Ga., March 12, 2014 Katharine Clark Hantz (BA 37, MA 39) of Fayetteville, Ark., May 28, 2014 Lucian S. Minor (BSC 37) of Memphis, Tenn., April 7, 2014 1940s Mary Allen Crigler (MA 47) of Saint Joseph, La., April 16, 2014 John William Daves (49) of Florence, April 25, 2014 Dolsie Williams Doerr (BA 42, LLB 44) of Gulf Shores, Ala., May 1, 2014 Robert N. Emmich (49) of Portland, Ore., June 25, 2014 Elmore Morgan Gibbens (46) of Bay Saint Louis, March 11, 2014 Hershel Byron Howell (49) of Water Valley, April 7, 2014

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56 Alumni Review

James Burr Johnston (44) of Shubuta, April 5, 2014 Norma Dees Laird (BAEd 47) of Madison, April 12, 2014 M. Clifton Maxwell (BBA 47, LLB 49, MBA 49) of Fort Worth, Texas, March 22, 2014 Paul Edward Mink (BA 48, MedCert 50) of Kosciusko, April 25, 2014 Sherman Clifford Myers (MedCert 47) of Oconomowoc, Wis., June 5, 2014 Bobby Joe Oswalt (BSHPE 49) of Columbia, April 13, 2014 Harry D. Owen Sr. (40) of Madison, April 10, 2014 Silas Wesley Pearson Jr. (BA 49) of Oxford, June 25, 2014 Helen House Pilkinton (43) of Columbus, March 27, 2014 James M. Power (BA 48) of Memphis, Tenn., June 18, 2014 Alvin Lewis Pressgrove Jr. (LLB 49) of Southaven, March 29, 2014 Benjamin Alexander Quintana Sr. (BSPh 47) of Meridian, April 13, 2014 Jules Mark Reaves Sr. (BA 48) of Memphis, Tenn., April 1, 2014 Roy Dexter Sheffield (BA 48, MA 49) of University, May 4, 2014 Alvin Linfield Smith Jr. (BA 41, LLB 49) of Denver, Colo., April 4, 2014 Wilmoth Fant Trezevant (47) of Memphis, Tenn., May 24, 2014 Mary Elizabeth Brueck White (BSC 45) of Colfax, N.C., May 4, 2014 Foster F. Wilkinson (BAEd 47, MEd 50) of Cleveland, May 29, 2014 1950s John Wilson Anderson Sr. (BSPh 55) of Hattiesburg, May 23, 2014 James David Biggers III (50) of Ridgeland, Feb. 18, 2014 Drue Dunlap Birmingham Jr. (BBA 56, LLM 68) of Olive Branch, May 26, 2014 Charles H. Brown Jr. (BBA 50) of Washington, June 26, 2014 Al Bullock (BSHPE 59) of Gulfport, March 19, 2014 Dorothy Files Carrubba (BA 51) of Long Beach, March 23, 2014 Pete H. Carrubba (LLB 52) of Long Beach, May 30, 2014 Thomas Eugene Christopher (BM 59) of Grenada, June 20, 2014 William Franklin Coleman (LLB 52) of Ocean Springs, May 31, 2014 Evelyn Stroebel DeBaerstrand (BA 58) of Patterson, N.Y., April 3, 2014 John Christian Diamond (BBA 59) of Memphis, Tenn., May 21, 2014 James Don Dunavant (MBEd 51) of Memphis, Tenn., March 21, 2014 Linda Street Fritchie (BA 58) of Baton Rouge, La., May 6, 2014 Eduardo Gaitan-Duran (BSCvE 52) of Cary, N.C., April 2, 2014 Stewart Jones Gilchrist (LLB 50) of Brentwood, Tenn., June 23, 2014 Elva Potts Gooch (BAEd 50, MEd 54) of Jackson, May 13, 2014 Herbert Raymond Goodman (BA 57, JD 75) of Tupelo, May 21, 2014 James Terry Hall (MEd 56, EdD 73) of Oxford, May 14, 2014 William Albert Harder (BSPh 51) of Bassett, Va., May 23, 2014 Mark Franklin Hartley (MedCert 50) of Waverly, Tenn., May 22, 2014 Holmes Kuykendall Herron (BSGE 57) of Atlanta, Ga., April 3, 2014 Shed Hill Hunger Jr. (BBA 50) of Winona, June 1, 2014 William Ottis Hurst (57) of Bruce, June 8, 2014 Mary Shaifer Ingram (BSC 54) of Cordova, Tenn., March 28, 2014 Gordon Vance Justice Sr. (BSPh 59) of Long Beach, May 5, 2014

Summer 2014 57

News alumni

Kathleen Snipes Lawson (BAEd 51, MEd 56) of Tupelo, May 4, 2014

Joe Walter Terry Jr. (MD 57) of Canton, April 4, 2014

Carl Thomas Lipe (BA 54) of Greenwood, April 26, 2014

William Arthur Williams (BSHPE 59) of Tampa, Fla., May 31, 2014

Margaret Holmes Lipe (BAEd 55) of Greenwood, March 17, 2014

Frank McEachern Youngblood Sr. (LLB 51) of Brandon, June 25, 2014

Thomas Rowland Long (BA 51) of Gulfport, June 4, 2014 Barbara Flowers Maxwell (BSHPE 51, MEd 53) of Hollywood, Fla., April 20, 2014

1960s Mark Wayne Blackburn (BS 63) of Jackson, April 11, 2014

Phyllis Mullen Phillips (BA 53) of Nashville, Tenn., April 1, 2014

Ronald Arthur Bussler (MA 68) of Cave Spring, Ga., May 31, 2014

Floy Stone Proctor (BA 56) of Birmingham, Ala., May 5, 2014

Estelle Adams Byers (MEd 69) of Holly Springs, May 26, 2014

Bobby Joe Ready (52) of Fuquay Varina, N.C., Nov. 20, 2013

Edith Imogene Frazier Calbert (BAEd 60) of Sikeston, Mo., Feb. 5, 2013

Louis Ernest Ridgway Jr. (BSGE 57) of Kerrville, Texas, May 2, 2014

David Byrd Clark (JD 69) of Florence, May 29, 2014

Olivia Mounger Roland (BM 53) of Jackson, May 21, 2014

Joseph Ross Colingo (BBA 61, LLB 64) of Fairhope, Ala., March 21, 2014

Richard Elon Schaffstall (MS 54) of Sterling, Va., Dec. 12, 2013

Bella West Dunn (MEd 67, SpecEd 72) of Lakeland, Fla., Dec. 17, 2013

Robert Leo Schmitz Jr. (58) of Clarksdale, April 23, 2014

William Harold Edwards Jr. (BS 68) of West Point, June 1, 2014

Josephine Garner Scott (BA 53) of Aiken, S.C., April 13, 2014

George Marion Fleming (JD 66) of Jackson, April 1, 2014

Delmar Leon Simmons Jr. (BA 51) of Ridgeland, June 17, 2014

C.G. Gaston Jr. (BSHPE 67, MEd 70) of Thaxton, May 14, 2014

Ben Taylor Smith (BSPh 59) of Booneville, April 3, 2014

Charles G. Gates (BBA 68) of Ridgeland, April 27, 2014

Patricia Boswell Tatro (BAEd 56) of Pine, Colo., April 5, 2014

Georgia Ann Jackson Gatwood (BSC 63) of Atlanta, Ga., May 29, 2014

Margaret Curtis Taylor (BAEd 58) of Memphis, Tenn., April 14, 2014

Betty Black Geeslin (Cert 65) of Blytheville, Ark., June 21, 2014

Theresa Poythress Taylor (BA 50) of Pasadena, Texas, April 10, 2014

Charles Robert Hand (BS 62) of Grand Isle, La., April 1, 2014

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58 Alumni Review

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Summer 2014 59

News alumni

Ernest E. Howard III (BBA 65, JD 68) of Metairie, La., March 26, 2014

Marvin Leeton Carraway (BSEE 71) of Clarksdale, April 27, 2014

Cleveland P. Huggins III (BPA 68) of Berlin, Conn., June 6, 2014

Linda Collums Cooper (BAEd 73) of Bruce, May 25, 2014

Jane Gibbs Jackson (MA 64) of Sevierville, Tenn., June 13, 2014

Patricia Spees Dillard (BAEd 76) of Tupelo, May 5, 2014

Richard Theodore Krayer (MA 67) of Center Point, Ala., May 13, 2014

James Dudley Disharoon (JD 72) of Jackson, June 10, 2014

Matthew Joseph Lautar (BBA 67) of Cordova, Tenn., June 2, 2014

Robin Esarey Dowdy (MEd 73) of Greenwood Springs, June 16, 2014

Helen Armstrong Lowry (BA 60) of Durham, N.C., April 7, 2014

Michael Edward Eader (MEd 75) of New Smyrna Beach, Fla., Jan. 13, 2014

Sybil Brown Moore (MEd 66) of Sulphur, La., April 26, 2014

Johnnie Lewis Gibson (BAEd 71) of Greenville, May 8, 2014

Charles Lester Mougey (BAEd 69) of Collierville, Tenn., March 29, 2014

Alan Maurice Hathorne (BA 74, JD 77) of Holly Springs, May 5, 2014

Eldon Franklin Nauman (BBA 60) of Corinth, June 13, 2014

Dollie Hawkins Henderson (MEd 78) of Water Valley, March 28, 2014

Charles Edward Neubecker (MCS 65) of Overland Park, Kan., May 16, 2014

Marguarite Moore Henry (MEd 70) of New Albany, June 4, 2014

Howard Shupe Paradise (BAEd 63, MCS 67) of Jackman, Maine, May 9, 2014

Perry Chris Holder (MBA 73) of Houston, Texas, June 26, 2014

Kenneth Wayne Powell (61) of Winona, June 16, 2014

William Davis Hollis (BSPh 72) of Theodore, Ala., April 9, 2014

David Hugh Raborn Jr. (BBA 62) of Hot Springs Village, Ark., May 2, 2014

Nadara Morris Johnston (MEd 78) of Blue Mountain, May 15, 2014

Marilyn Michael Ragan (BAEd 63) of Cleveland, March 26, 2014

Ebb Lee Loden Jr. (BBA 75) of Saltillo, March 26, 2014

Carey Charles Smith Jr. (BA 67) of Fairhope, Ala., April 23, 2014

William Cato Mayfield Jr. (MD 70) of Jackson, June 6, 2014

Sidney Lamar Smith Jr. (BA 66) of Taylor, April 8, 2014

Alice Walker McClain (BA 75) of Marks, May 18, 2014

Carl Dewitt Spencer (BBA 65, MEd 67) of Vardaman, April 21, 2014

Johnetta Wade Morrison (MEd 71) of Starkville, April 25, 2014

Robert Francis Thomas (BBA 60) of Forest, April 14, 2014

William John Purchis (BA 76) of Pascagoula, July 1, 2013

Hermine Copeland Welch (BA 64) of Madison, June 1, 2014

Robert Glenn Ramsay (JD 76) of Pascagoula, May 6, 2014

Richard Wayne Westerman (BA 68) of Shreveport, La., May 18, 2014

Deborah Parker Roberts (BSPh 79) of Kosciusko, Jan. 25, 2014 Mary Sue Robinson (MA 76) of Oxford, April 11, 2014

1970s William Sidney Allgood (BBA 75) of Moss Point, Dec. 6, 2013

Audie Len Rushing (BAEd 79, MEd 81) of Pascagoula, May 27, 2014

Mary Chapman Anderson (BAEd 71) of Belknap, Ill., Dec. 7, 2013

Elsie Charlese Spencer (MN 73) of Albuquerque, N.M., May 26, 2014

Marilyn Frederick Barnard (MEd 76) of Port Orange, Fla., April 12, 2014

Joe Bryan Street (BA 72) of Ripley, May 27, 2014

Robert Owen Bowen (BAEd 73) of New Orleans, La., May 26, 2014

Edwin William Tindall (JD 74) of Greenville, April 11, 2014

Mary Louise Bryant (MN 73) of Ovett, April 25, 2014

Janet Roberts Venetis (BAEd 78, MEd 79) of Tupelo, June 23, 2014

60 Alumni Review

Audra Johnson Scott (BAEd 75, MCD 77) of Belden, April 3, 2014

r

Emery Norton Voorhies (BA 70) of Covington, La., May 20, 2014

Robert Edward Wigley (BBA 84) of Brevard, N.C., March 3, 2014

Terry Michael Wallis (BA 78) of Tupelo, April 11, 2014 Phillip Jack Wong (BSChE 79) of Waller, Texas, June 22, 2014

1990s Matthew Lance Boutwell (BSCvE 92) of Petal, June 6, 2014

1980s Christopher Brian Booker (BBA 89) of Atlanta, Ga., April 9, 2014

Polly Hutchison Brinkley (BSChE 99) of Booneville, Oct. 19, 2013

Elizabeth Wilson Boothe (BAEd 86, MEd 95) of Sardis, May 8, 2014

Precious Tyrone Martin (JD 97) of Ridgeland, May 11, 2014

Katherine Cox Cadden (BAccy 85) of Amory, May 27, 2014

Ellen Denise Norris (BBA 96, BAccy 02) of Cordova, Tenn., March 24, 2014

Floyd Winston Carpenter (PhD 84) of Murray, Ky., Feb. 23, 2014

William Scott Radford (BA 95) of Spring, Texas, May 7, 2014

Glenda Murphree Criddle (EdD 84) of Tupelo, April 26, 2014

James Harold Smith (EdD 95) of Starkville, April 22, 2014

Robert Clinton Elmore (PhD 86) of Cookeville, Tenn., May 26, 2014

Tracy Hayslip Vincent (BBA 98) of Jensen Beach, Fla., April 26, 2014

Jesse Burge Goodsell (BAccy 80, JD 86) of Jackson, April 10, 2014

Kenneth Robert Weileder (BBA 96) of Duluth, Minn., Jan. 2, 2014

Myra Lynn Gwyer (MEd 83, SpecEd 85) of North Chesterfield, Va., April 15, 2014

Carol Ezzo Clayton (PhD 90) of Sanford, Fla., March 30, 2014

Matthew Wayne Henry (BA 83) of Louisville, April 16, 2014

2000s Patrick David Parker Corrales (00) of Jasper, Ga., March 17, 2014

Pamela Michelle Hooks (BSHPE 86) of Collierville, Tenn., March 25, 2014

David Raymond Schneider III (BA 07) of Pelahatchie, May 6, 2014

Ashley Anne Hopkins (BBA 88, JD 91) of Gulfport, April 26, 2014 John Jerimah McMorrough Jr. (81) of Olive Branch, June 15, 2014 Richard Joe Morgan (MA 86) of Vaiden, May 4, 2014 Jeffery Clell Morton (BA 83) of Kingwood, Texas, Jan. 21, 2013 Chester Dodson Nicholson (JD 84) of Gulfport, May 24, 2014

2010s Tanner Dale Morgan Chapmon (14) of Carriere, May 3, 2014 Michael Tait Hendrix (14) of Madison, June 4, 2014 James Calman McCastlain Jr. (14) of Little Rock, Ark., April 25, 2014

Elizabeth Juhan Sanders (BSPh 84, MD 95) of Mercer Island, Wash., Sept. 2, 2013

Joshua Michael McMillon (BBA 10) of Oxford, May 26, 2014

William Franklin Selph III (JD 89) of Gautier, May 13, 2014

Faculty and Friends John Watts Avent of Brandon, March 31, 2014

Richard Green Sessions Jr. (BBA 83) of Meridian, July 18, 2012 Linda Brown St. Martin (81) of Gulfport, May 23, 2014 Sandra Reasons Wallace (BBA 83) of Waxhaw, N.C., May 29, 2014 Robin Harmon Walley (DMD 80) of Richton, May 29, 2014

Sadie McIntosh Bell of Oxford, April 3, 2014 Martha Wright Bourland of Tupelo, May 11, 2014 Alfred Campbell of Abbeville, April 23, 2014

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News alumni

Bobby Lee Chain of Hattiesburg, May 31, 2014

David Leslie Richardson of Baton Rouge, La., May 11, 2014

Frank Conner of Oxford, April 13, 2014

Wilma Wilkins Riddell of Madison, June 13, 2014

Thomas Edward Davis of Oxford, May 17, 2014

Jesse James Scott of Memphis, Tenn., May 20, 2013

Sylvia Diane Denton of Oxford, June 2, 2014

John Donald Shupe II of Natchez, Sept. 28, 2013

Carolyn Northcutt Gibson of Baton Rouge, La., June 2, 2014

Stanley Roger Stansell of Greenville, N.C., April 15, 2014

David Haley of Oxford, May 3, 2014

Andrew Peter Stefani of Oxford, May 22, 2014

Christina W. Hall of Natchez, April 9, 2014

Larry L. Taylor of University, May 14, 2014

Lee Hill Harrington of Aberdeen, April 10, 2014

Patricia Davis Vinson of Columbus, May 9, 2014

Elton Larone Harris Sr. of Olive Branch, June 14, 2014

Harvey Banks Wright Sr. of Laurel, June 2, 2014

Sam Harris of Abbeville, May 11, 2014 Donald Ray Hubbard of Ridgeland, April 30, 2014 Olivia Kinds of Etta, June 23, 2014 Sarah Grubbs Magee of Magee, May 15, 2014 Betsy Barnett McCain of Clinton, June 2, 2014 Jean Smith McCalla of Corinth, May 30, 2014 John Angus McLeod IV of Hattiesburg, May 3, 2014 Edwin Harold Merriman Jr. of Grenada, April 2, 2014 Charles Rutledge Mullen of Jackson, June 7, 2014

Due to space limitations, class notes are only published in the Alumni Review from active, dues-paying members of the Ole Miss Alumni Association. To submit a class note, send it to records@olemiss.edu or Alumni Records Dept., Ole Miss Alumni Association, P.O. Box 1848, University, MS 38677-1848. Class notes also may be submitted through the Association’s website at www.olemissalumni.com. The Association relies on numerous sources for class notes and is unable to verify all notes with individual alumni. AR

Doris Bond Redmond of Oxford, April 14, 2014

HERE’S YOUR LICENSE TO BRAG! Now you can sport the official University of Mississippi license plate!

For an additional $50 a year — $32.50 of which returns to Ole Miss for educational enhancement — you can purchase this “license to brag” about your alma mater. When it’s time to renew your license plate, simply tell your local tax collector you want the Ole Miss affinity license plate. It’s an easy way to help your University.

This particular tag is available to Mississippi drivers only. Some other states, however, offer an Ole Miss affinity license plate. Check with your local tax collector for availability.

62 Alumni Review

Serving Oxford, Lafayette County and the University of Mississippi

TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2010

JENNY DECKER

142ND Year, No. 169 — 50 CENTS

Run-off solution sought E-Edition booming

INSIDE

Erosion problems wash away county officials’ patience

BY ALYSSA SCHNUGG Staff Writer

The Lafayette County Planning Commission has ordered the owners of Williams Equipment Co. to

produce a plan of action on how it intends to solve erosion issues once and for all at its construction site located across from the Cumberland subdivision.

“I need a schedule of how this is going to progress with a time frame I can put my hands on by June 1,” County Engineer Larry Britt said at Monday’s Planning Commission meeting.

Williams Equipment started con-

struction in the summer of 2008 on its new home for the commercial business on 4.3 acres of land located on Highway 6 West. Since construction began, neighbors have complained the runoff from the graded property has caused silt to run onto their lawns, destroying grass and bushes, as well as cause local flooding.

A year ago, a cease and desist order was issued until erosion problems were handled.

“We have had some problems with erosion out there that we’ve been dealing with for a year and a half,” Britt said.

When 3 inches of rain fell in Oxford within 30 minutes last week, the issue resurfaced when silt and water caused erosion on some of the adjoining landowners’ property.

See SOLUTION on Page 2

Oxford schools set budget hearing

GRADUATION CELEBRATION

POMERANZ HONORED Ole Miss left-handed pitcher Drew Pomeranz was named as the recipient of the 2010 Cellular South Ferriss Trophy given to the top collegiate baseball player in the state of Mississippi. For more details on the honor, see Page 6.

BUSINESSMAN ARRESTED A local businessman who has been on the lam from the law was arrested last week. Get the details on Page 2.

EDUCATION NEWS Turn to Pages 6 and 7 of Education to find out what’s happening with local teachers and students.

UM GRADS

ONLINE

BY MELANIE ADDINGTON

The Oxfo rd Eagle E-Edition helps you keep up w ith your home awa y from ho me Complete C o v eragework BP probe on other companies’ of Ofocuses le accepted iss Sports Report: Oversite workersM BRUCE NEWMAN

Many of the students graduating from the University of Mississippi earlier this month were from the Oxford area.

Turn to Pages 5 and 10 to read the names of the locals who picked up a diploma.

Brittney Deonna Jeffries (from left), Wesley Lane Carroll and Kimberly Annette Wilson throw their caps at the Scott Center’s graduation ceremony on Monday afternoon. Also graduating were Laura Leeann Brower and Dillon Lee Hopkins.

gifts from oil companies

INDEX

Classifieds 12-13 Local 2-3 Comics 14 Obituaries 2 Editorial 4 Sports 8-9 Education 6-7 Weather 2

One of th e top dail ies in Mississ ippi Subscribe to the E-Edit io n Only $5 p er month

BY GREG BLUESTEIN AND

MATTHEW DALY

Associated Press Writers

Guinness finds Minn. man is tallest in US ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) — Guinness World Records has recognized a Minnesota man as the tallest man in the United States.

The Guinness World Record Association measured Rochester’s Igor Vovkovinskiy (voh-kov-IN’-ski) at 7 feet, 8.33 inches tall during NBC’s “The Dr. Oz Show” on Monday. He edged out Norfolk, Va., sheriff’s deputy George Bell by a third of an inch.

The 27-year- old Vovkovinskiy is originally from Ukraine but moved to Minnesota with his mother when he was 7 years old for treatment at the Mayo Clinic for a pituitary disease that spurred his rapid growth.

Vovkovinskiy now attends the Minnesota School of Business and is pursuing a degree in paralegal studies.

Guinness says the world’s urkey’s Sultan tallest man is Turkey’s Kosen. He measures in at 8 feet, 1 inch tall.

also owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

The other three areas of focus for the investigation involve the cementing and casing of the wellhead, which was Halliburton Inc.’s responsibility.

COVINGTON, La. — Oil giant BP said its internal investigation of Assessing decisions the unchecked Gulf oil spill In BP’s release, Chief is largely focused on work Executive Tony Hayward done by other companies as stopped short of assigning a new government report responsibility. President today showed workers at the Barack Obama has blasted federal agency that oversees executives from the compaoffshore drilling accepted nies for blaming each other sports tickets, lunches and during Congressional hearother gifts from oil and gas ings this month. companies.

“A number of companies BP PLC said in a release are involved, including BP, that an initial investigation and it is simfound mulply too early tiple control “...it is simply — and not mechanisms too early — and not up to us — should have to say who p r e v e n t e d up to us — to say who is at fault,” the accident is at fault.”

Hayward that started said. with an oil — TONY HAYWARD G e n e rig explosion Chief Executive, BP Beck, a April 20 off petroleum the coast engineer of Louisiana that killed 11 at Texas A&M at College workers.

Station who worked in the Seeking the cause drilling industry for two BP, the largest oil and decades, said the list of gas producer in the Gulf, Gulf problems BP is investigating listed seven areas of focus appears exhaustive. But he as it hunts for a cause. Four said the company also needs involve the blowout pre- to look at decisions made by venter, venter a massive piece of people on the rig. machinery that sits atop the “That needs to be inveswellhead and should have tigated: Why did they do acted as a safety device what they did?” Beck said. of last resort but did not.

“They need to ask themThat was manufactured selves that very very, very serious

by Cameron International question: ‘Why did we make Corp. and owned by these choices?”’

Transocean LTD, which

PATRICK SEMANSKY/AP

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (center) speaks at a press conference in Galliano, La., Monday. Standing behind Salazar are Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Meanwhile, a new Interior Department report released today found that staffers in the Louisiana office of the Minerals Management Service violated a number of federal regulations and agency ethics rules, including accepting gifts from oil and gas companies and using government computers to view pornography. pornography The report by the department’s acting inspector general follows up on a 2007 investigation that revealed what then-Inspector General Earl Devaney called a “culture of ethical failure” and conflicts of interest at the minerals agency. agency

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called the latest report “deeply disturbing” but stressed that it only covered a period from 2000 to 2008. He said he wants the investigation expanded to include agency actions since he took office in January 2009.

BP filed its site-specific exploration plan for the Deepwater Horizon in February 2009.

The Obama administration has come under increasing pressure as frustrations build, oil washes up in delicate Louisiana wetlands, and efforts to cap the well prove unsuccessful.

Staff Writer

Members of the Oxford School Board set a public hearing for June 14 at 5 p.m. for the public to discuss the district’s 2010-2011 budget.

Despite continued budget cuts from the state during the past several months, the Oxford School District has put together a budget for the coming school year that ensures no jobs will be cut.

The school board has a proposed $29 million budget that, while not yet finalized, won’t cut jobs and won’t raise the tax rate.

On Monday, Gov. Haley Barbour signed the FY 2011 education funding bills, House Bill 1622 and House Bill 1059, Mississippi Department of Education Superintendent Tom Burnham said.

“HB 1622 is the primary funding bill that we recommend (districts) develop the FY 2011 budget around,” Burnham said. “HB 1059 is contingent upon the passage of federal legislation that would extend the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage provided for in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.”

662.871.7653

REAL ESTATE IT’S WHAT I DO l 23 years experience l Knowledge of Oxford market l Top producer & lister

Worst-case scenario

City school officials are basing their budget on the funding equation that provides Oxford the lowest amount of state funds.

The board will not request any increase to the city’s tax rate, but the district still expects to experience an increase in revenue collections due to the additional taxes it projects to increase from new homes.

Revenue is expected to be up about $420,000 from 2009-2010 for a total of $29.5 million. Mississippi Adequate Education Program funding is slightly down to $12.54 million from $12.56 million the year before. Ad valorem tax collections will go up from $14.1 million to $15.4 million. With athletic admission tickets expected to be down about $10,000, the district may have to dip deeper into its reserve funds.

After the hearing, the board will vote on the budget.

In other business, the school board: — Approved salary scales for employees, teacher assistants and administrators.

— Approved a resolution in memory of the late Patricia P Aschoff SPED teacher at Aschoff, Oxford Learning Center.

Marcia Cole accepted the plaque and resolution on family behalf of the family.

—melanie@oxfordeagle.com —melanie@oxfor

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Georgia Celebrates Fifth Mississippi Picnic

he Mississippi Society of Georgia hosted the fifth annual Atlanta’s Mississippi in the Park on Saturday, June 14, at Chastain Park in Buckhead. Ole Miss alumni and friends enjoyed an afternoon with catfish plates provided by Penn’s, McAlister’s sweet tea and caramel cake from Sugaree’s Bakery in New Albany. AR

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Oxford’s Newest Family Development In Town!

Steeplechase is back!

Finishes include granite slab counters, wood floors, crown molding, stainless steel appliances and a metal roof. 3 Bedroom, 3.5 Bathrooms. Come pick your lot and choose your finishes today!

$275,000-$425,000

$349,000 - $1.5million++

4 acre park, bike/walk path to the square, close knit community association & a community swimming pool coming!

All lots at Least 1.5 acres.

Come pick your lot & floor plan today or build a custom home.

Strict architecture covenants and community lake.

Phases 1, 2 & 3 SOLD OUT

Northpointe

The Highlands Lots

• 2650 sq ft/3 Bed 2.5 Bath • Swimming pool

• Oxford City Schools • each lot 2.5 acres+

$339,900

$149,000

1416 Van Buren • On Square • Viking Kitchen • Two Car Garage

$599,000

Come check out these private community lake lots. Features include granite counter tops in kitchen and bath, stainless steel appliances, hand scraped floors, fireplace, crown molding, walk-in closets, and two car garages.

Three lots to choose from with multiple floor plans for you to customize. Experience the beauty and serenity of Tuscan Hills, just 5 minutes from downtown Oxford!

70 Old Taylor Road • 3 Bed/ 3.5 Bath • Large Covered Patio in Back Yard • New Wood Floors, Ample Parking

$189,000

Windsor Falls • 3100 sq ft • 5 Bed 3 Bath

$375,000