Montgomery’s legacy continues at MSU

1951 in the 31st National Guard Infantry Division. He retired from the National Guard as a Major General after 35 years.

G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery's roots run deep in Starkville. Though he called Meridian home, his greatgrandfather, Col. W.B. Montgomery, was raised around the Starkville area and was an original trustee of Mississippi Agricultural & Mechanical College, helping secure its location in Starkville. Montgomery Hall was named in his honor.

Even without these connections, Montgomery's love for the university was evident as a student during the 1940s. He was a varsity basketball player, a football manager, president of the Student Association and was named Mr. MSU. He graduated in 1943 with a bachelor's in general business administration and immediately went to Europe during World War II as a lieutenant in the 12th Armored Division, beginning his life-long involvement with veteran and military affairs.

After returning from World War II, Montgomery joined the Mississippi National Guard and later served in Korea in

"Sonny was always the life of the party," said Brad Crawford, president of the G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Foundation. "He was a well-rounded guy and was known as 'Mr. Personality.' He always treated every person he encountered with the same respect. From the workers in the cafeteria to the former presidents he worked with, he treated them all with genuine reverence."

Montgomery began his political career by representing his state when elected to the Mississippi State Senate in 1956. He served in that role for 10 years before heading to Washington, D.C., where he spent the next 30 years as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Known as "Mr. Veteran" on Capitol Hill, he was a proponent of veteran, military and National Guard issues and championed a G.I. bill that bears his name. Montgomery passed away in 2006 at the age of 85 in his hometown.

"Sonny's legacy is hard to sum up," said Crawford. "Everything he did was to help support those who served our country. He was a popular politician in Washington who earned the respect of his supporters and opponents alike because of his dedication to military endeavors. Before he passed away, he created the G. V. “Sonny” Montgomery Foundation to further his legacy to recognize and support the various military and veteran projects and needs around our state and nation."

Today, Montgomery's legacy continues to touch lives at Mississippi State in many ways. The Starkville campus is home to the G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Center for America's Veterans, a national leader in providing campusbased veteran resources. In addition to contributing to the center, the Montgomery Foundation also supports scholarships and other projects at MSU.

More recently, a new scholarship has been established by the foundation for MSU's Physician Assistant (PA) Studies master's program at MSU-Meridian. The Montgomery Physician Assistant Scholarship will support eligible students in the program. Preference for scholarship recipients is given to students who are veterans or immediate dependents of veterans, or students with an interest in serving veterans post-training.

Fittingly, the PA profession is rooted in military history. In the mid-1960s, amid a shortage of primary care physicians, Eugene A. Stead Jr., MD, designed a curriculum to credential Vietnam Navy Corpsmen who had received considerable medical training for civilian service. The curriculum was based on "fast-track" training for Navy physicians during World War II. Today, MSU-Meridian's program is one of 254 accredited PA programs in the U.S. and is the only publicly funded program in Mississippi.

Adriana Fuentealba, a first-year PA student at MSUMeridian, is the first recipient of the Montgomery Physician Assistant Scholarship. The Gulf Breeze, Florida, native earned her bachelor's in biological sciences in 2019 from MSU and spent a year at Fort Sam Houston Army Base in San Antonio, Texas, as a medical research tech and has completed a rotation at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida.

Her military connections come from her father, Marco, a U.S. Navy veteran and her grandfather, Marco Sr., who joined the U.S. Army after immigrating to the U.S. from Santiago, Chile. Her grandmother was a nurse at a hospital in Chile before moving to the U.S. to work at a sister hospital.

Joining the PA program in January 2022, Fuentealba knew that she wanted to enter the medical field and help people. With the rising costs of medical school and its intensive four-year programming, a friend convinced her to consider applying to PA programs. She considered a few different schools, but ultimately, it was her alma mater that won her over and provided her with the education and support she knows will enable her to be successful in the future.

"This program offers the best of both worlds," she said. "I get the one-on-one interaction with patients to explain complex information and break it down to show how it positively changes their lives. I also get to work with doctors to help diagnose, treat and provide plans for patients. As someone who has been a patient, I wanted to improve that interaction between health care workers and patients."

While she is still figuring out her path after graduating from the program, Fuentealba knows it will involve veteran care. She's found a passion for improving veterans' lives, just like Montgomery. She hopes to be a travel PA and work at different veterans' hospitals around the country.

"Even after his death, he left a legacy to support education and veterans," she said. "Sonny worked hard on Capitol Hill to ensure that veterans are cared for. They put their lives on the line, and the least we can do is provide the best available health care for them."

An inspiring leader and dedicated public servant, Montgomery was a champion of the men and women who served their country. Through the investments of the Montgomery Foundation, as well as the students like Fuentealba who will carry on his compassion in their lives and future careers, Montgomery's legacy lives on.

"Sonny not only talked the talk, but he walked the walk," said Crawford. "Everything we do is to support causes he would have wanted to support. It's an extension of his life, and we're continuing what he did during his life. Sonny is in the fabric of history at MSU. There was never a bigger cheerleader of the university than him. It makes sense that we do everything we can do to support his alma mater and give back to students."