Forever Maroon

William Earnest “Bill” Allen Jr. (B.S. risk management, insurance, financial planning; ’62) 81, Greenville – He began a career with the Social Security Administration in Tupelo following his graduation. After working in other offices in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, he was promoted to district manager for the offices of Greenville, Clarksdale and Cleveland. He retired after 48 years. He was an active member of the Bulldog Club, which he served as president, and the Washington County Alumni Association. In 2001, the Alumni Association presented him with a Distinguished Service Award. He was part of the Greenville Rotary Club, which he served as president; the United Way of Washington County, including its board of directors; Boy Scouts of America; Exchange Club and the YMCA. In 2010, he was honored by the Greenville Junior Auxiliary as King of the Ball for his civic work and community involvement. — June 28, 2021

Dr. Craig Bradford (B.S. biology, ’77) 65, Natchez – After earning a Doctor of Dentistry from the University of Mississippi, he completed a residency in pediatric dentistry at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a longtime member of the Natchez Rotary Club, the Mississippi and American Dental Associations, the Pierre Fauchard Academy, and was a Fellow Diplomate of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. He provided dental care to the children of Natchez and the surrounding communities for 37 years. — June 19, 2021

Wythel E. “W.E.” Boggs (B.S., M.S. education administration, ’59, ’63) 84, Saltillo – He was a basketball standout at Northeast Community College and a veteran of the national guard. He served as principal at high schools across north Mississippi before joining the staff of Itawamba Community College where he held positions as professor, administrator, dean of instruction, dean of students, vice president and interim president before retiring after 40 years. During his career, he earned numerous awards including the 2001 Bennett Lifetime Achievement Award from Phi Theta Kappa, a fraternity of community college scholars. He was a member of the Itawamba County Development Council; founder and co-leader of Leadership Itawamba; and past member of the Citivan Club and the Kiwanis Club. — May 30, 2021 Jack M. Carlisle (B.S. history, ’54) 91, New Albany – Following his graduation from State, he earned a master’s in education leadership from Mississippi College. He spent more than 61 years as a teacher and football coach, accumulating a high school record of 262 wins, 70 losses and 17 ties. He coached at Ethel, Lula Rich and Nettleton, Murrah High School, Jackson Preparatory Academy, Ole Miss, East Tennessee State University, Madison Ridgeland Academy and Louisiana College. He is a member of seven halls of fame including the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and those of the Mississippi Association of Coaches, Jackson Prep, Mississippi Community College, MAIS, MRA and the North Mississippi Coaches Association. Nettleton High School’s football stadium was dedicated to his honor in 2010. — July 27, 2021

James W. Chiles (B.S. entomology, ’57) 94, Tupelo – He was a U.S. Navy serviceman in WWII before graduating from Mississippi State. He was an entomology consultant and pecan grower. He also developed a cotton seed treatment and researched new varieties of pecan. He was owner of Chiles Entomological Service and president of the Mississippi Delta Pecan Co. He was also a member of the American Legion, Delta Council, Masonic Lodge and a deacon in the Baptist church. He served as director of the Mississippi Entomological Association and was a member of the Entomological Society of America, Southeastern Pecan Growers Association and the National Cotton Council. He was appointed to colonel on the staff for Gov. John Bell Williams and served as chairman of the state welfare board. — July 25, 2021

Boyett Graves (retired staff) 83, Starkville – After earning a master’s from Louisiana State University, he moved to Virginia to work at the Virginia Truck and Experimental Station where he spent 16 years working on potato varieties. He moved to Beaumont in 1981 to work for Mississippi State University and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. Prior to his retirement in 2001, he worked at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station in Crystal Springs. He spent his free time working with Boy Scout Troop 140 in Richton where he served as an assistant troop leader. He also served on the Eagle Scout committee for the Pine Burr Area Council. — June 6, 2021 Jerry Speed Lee (B.S. accounting, ’68) 74, Madison – A national guard veteran, he spent 28 years as a certified public accountant with KPMG Peat Marwick in Jackson where he oversaw the tax practice. He then served as CEO of Southern Lumber Company until his retirement. He served as chairman of the deacons at First Baptist Church Jackson, president of the Rotary Club, delegate to Leadership Mississippi, chairman of the Mississippi State Board of Public Accountancy, president of the Estate Planning Council of Mississippi and chairman of the Mississippi Tax Institute. An Eagle Scout, he was a board member of the Andrew Jackson Council of the Boy Scouts of America and those of Community Bancshares of Mississippi, Mississippi Children’s Home Society, Mississippi Lumber Manufacturers Association and Southern Forest Products Association. — June 20, 2021

Dr. Robert “Bob” Myers (B.S. general science, ’75) 69, Ridgeland – He earned a medical degree from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in 1978. He practiced with the Mississippi Urology Clinic for 30 years and served as chief of staff at Baptist Medical Center. — June 13. 2021

Ted W. Norris (B.S. entomology, ’66) 77, Marks – He retired from the U.S. Postal Service as a rural mail carrier, having previously been a farmer and entomologist. He was a past president of the Quitman County chapter of the MSU Alumni Association and a past president of the Mississippi Beta chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon. He was a member of Marks First Baptist Church where he was a deacon and Sunday school teacher. — Sept. 5, 2020

Henry Randle (B.S. business information systems, ’09) 50, Aberdeen – A native of Aberdeen, he attended Mary Holmes College in West Point, earning an associates degree before attending Mississippi State. He joined the Aberdeen Police Department in 1997 and the Army National Guard in 2001, reaching the rank of Sergeant First Class. He was elected chief of police in 2008 and served in the position until his death. — May 16, 2021

William “Gene” Stevens (Ph.D. agronomy, ’92) 63, Portageville, Missouri -A native of Tennessee, he began a 26-year career at the University of Missouri’s Delta Research Center following his graduation from Mississippi State. An active researcher, he published his work in leading scientific journals and academic books, in addition to penning short stories for his grandchildren. His patented innovations and pioneered approaches to agriculture have been used around the world. — Jan. 17, 2021

Harold S. “Tommy” Thompson (B.S. business administration, ’39) 103, Westminster, Colorado – A native of Egypt, Thompson arrived at Mississippi State with an athletic scholarship. He played football for legendary coach Dudy Noble, who disliked the name Harold and gave Thompson the lifelong nickname “Tommy.” During a particularly memorable game against Southwest Louisiana, he caught a deflected pass and headed for the end zone. His roommate, future Brigadier General Edward W. Scott Jr., tackled Thompson on MSU’s 10-yard line to prevent him from scoring a safety for the opposing team.

He worked for GM Fisher Aircraft in Memphis, Tennessee, supervising the salvage repairs on fuselages and wings on B-21 and B-26 bombers. He then returned to Egypt to farm and operate a general store while raising a family. He later became general manager for Meadow Sportswear, a multifacility plant with 750 employees. He was a longtime member of the Chickasaw County Draft Board, the Okolona Lions Club, the Okolona School Board, the American Institute of Industrial Engineers, and the Knights of Columbus. Thompson retired from the Mississippi Department of Agriculture. — April 20, 2021

Steve Wallace (B.S. electrical engineering, ’73) 70, Columbus – Following his graduation from Mississippi State, he earned an accounting degree from the Mississippi University for Women and a law degree from the University of Mississippi. He practiced law in Columbus for 17 years, serving 15 as a public defender. He was recently elected Lowndes County Prosecuting Attorney. — May 27, 2021

In Memory of Krishnaprasad G. “Krish” Bhansali

Distinguished former Mississippi State University Political Science Professor Krishnaprasad G. Bhansali, 93, died at his Starkville home May 27. A native of Mahudha, India, Bhansali was a highly respected political science professor at MSU from 1967 until 2011. He came to MSU from the faculty of Texas Southern University. After earning his undergraduate degree at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal in India, Bhansali came to the U.S. to pursue his dream of teaching. He worked from 1951-61 at the Embassy of India in Washington, D.C. while attaining his master’s and doctoral degrees from American University in Washington. Bhansali was an active member of the Starkville Rotary Club from 1985 until his death. While a proud American and Mississippian, he maintained a lifelong love of the culture and history of his beloved India. Memorial gifts, may be directed through the MSU Foundation to the MSU Krish Bhansali Endowed Scholarship in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration in the College of Arts and Sciences at Mississippi State.

Remembering Kenneth E. Miller

Kenneth E. Miller, a Columbus native who enrolled at Mississippi State University at age 15 among the first group of African Americans admitted to the university, died Aug. 17 in Arlington, Virginia. He was 69. Miller became the second African American to graduate from MSU’s aerospace engineering program, and later received a master’s degree in systems management from the University of Southern California. He served his country for more than 30 years in civilian service to the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force and retired as one of the highest-ranking civilians in the Department of Defense. He also founded KEM and Associates, becoming a recognized strategist and trusted adviser to a broad range of national and international defense, security and aerospace firms. Miller was the recipient of the Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award in 1996 and 2001, and the Nathaniel Stinson Award. He was also honored as an MSU Bagley College of Engineering Distinguished Fellow. Throughout his career, he earned the respect and admiration of peers, colleagues, and leadership in both government and industry. Memorial donations in honor of Miller’s legacy of mentorship, generosity, and gratitude and his unwavering commitment to supporting future MSU Black engineering leaders may be made to the MSU Kenneth E. Miller Excellence Endowment with the MSU Foundation.

In Memory of Robert B. Deen Remembering Beth Swalm

Longtime Meridian philanthropist, retired attorney and Mississippi State University-Meridian benefactor Robert B. ‘Bobby” Deen Jr. died Dec. 13. He was 96. Deen’s work as president and chairman of the Riley Foundation and his work with the Phil Hardin Foundation greatly impacted education and opportunity in the state’s East Central region, specifically as it related to the transformation of Downtown Meridian and MSU-Meridian. The university recognized his long record of public service to the local community and the university in 2012 with an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service. In 2015, the Newberry Building at the MSU-Meridian Riley Campus was designated the Robert B. Deen Jr. Building. The 20,000-square-foot building is home to the MSU-Meridian Campus' Division of Business, with six state-of-the-art classrooms, a computer laboratory, two conference rooms, faculty offices and student study spaces. Deen was one of four founding members establishing the Riley Foundation in 1998, and served as its director, officer and general counsel. He was presently serving as president and COO. He also was a founding member of the Phil Hardin Foundation, as well as the Mississippi Bar Association Foundation. A 1950 Vanderbilt University Law School graduate, Deen was a Lauderdale County attorney in general practice for 55 years. Deen served in the Pacific Theater during World War II after his 1943 graduation from Starkville High School. In 1946, he entered Mississippi State after three years in the U.S. Army Air Corps, studying electrical engineering until the summer of 1947, when he left for law school. Beth Swalm, a longtime friend and benefactor of Mississippi State University, died on Dec. 2, 2021 in New Ulm, Texas, at the age of 84. Beth and her husband of 29 years, Dave, were active philanthropists through their non-profit foundation and made generous private contributions to MSU, including the lead gift for the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering. Beth was a longtime president of the Swalm Foundation, which provided millions in financial support to charitable organizations, focusing primarily on helping the homeless, hungry, and abused, as well as disadvantaged youth. In her professional career, Beth worked for Sinclair and Arco Chemical Company. She was valedictorian of her graduating class at Katy High School in Texas and received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston. She was a member of First United Methodist Church in Columbus, Texas. The Swalms’ generous contributions to MSU supported scholarships for hundreds of students, faculty development, lab and research equipment, as well as the 100,000-square-foot chemical engineering building on the Drill Field that bears the Swalm name. The couple also provided a $5 million scholarship endowment for students from Brookhaven to come to MSU to pursue technical fields. They also provided $3 million for African American students to pursue MSU graduate degrees in engineering with a preference for students from Jackson State University.