Contact: Dale Dombrowski
Actor and director Morgan Freeman is among four new members of the Mississippi State University Foundation board of directors.
Freeman lives and raises horses in Charleston when not engaged in his primary career. A friend of the university who has appeared in more than 35 films since 1971, he was honored in 1998 by MSU President Malcolm Portera for creating a major scholarship endowment for College of Veterinary Medicine students.
E.M. "Hoot" Gipson of Meridian, A.P. "Jack" Hatcher of Pinehurst, N.C., and Gerald W. "Jerry" Thames of Duluth, Ga., join Freeman for three-year terms as new board members.
Gipson, president of Gipson Steel Inc. and a friend of the university, fills the remaining term of J.F. "Bud" Thompson, also of Meridian. Thompson recently became president of MSU's Bulldog Club and remains on the board by virtue of that office.
Hatcher, a 1949 civil engineering graduate, is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Robertson-Ceco Corp. Thames, president of Global Telesystems Group before joining the Lehman Brothers global investment banking system, received a bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering from MSU in 1970 and a master's in business administration a year later.
Returning board members include Fred Carl of Greenwood; Georgene Dunn, New Orleans, La.; Hassell Franklin, Houston; Mickey Holliman, Belden; Richard McNeel, Jackson; Robert Whitehead, Brandon; and Joe Whiteside, Tupelo.
Members may be reappointed after leaving the board for a year after their terms expire.
Carl is president and CEO of Viking Range Corp.; Dunn, secretary/treasurer of Durward Dunn Inc.; Franklin, president and CEO of Franklin Corp.; Holliman, president, CEO and chairman of the board of Furniture Brands International; McNeel, vice president of Johnson Bailey Henderson McNeel Architects; Whitehead, president of R.W. Distributors Inc. and owner of Whitehead Equipment Co.; and Whiteside is the former owner of Great Homes Gallery.
In addition to naming new and returning board members, the MSU Foundation elected officers for one-year terms. They include:
--Leo W. Seal Jr. of Bay St. Louis, president. Seal, an 1949 banking and finance graduate and chairman and CEO of the Hancock Bank, will serve out Bryce Griffis' term. Griffis, a Starkville resident who remains on the board as a past president, is a new appointment by Gov. Ronnie Musgrove to the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning.
--Roderick A. "Rod" Moore, also of Brandon, vice president. A 1967 accounting graduate, Moore is vice president and chief financial officer of the Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Co.
--Richard C. Adkerson, also of New Orleans, treasurer. Adkerson, president, CFO and chief operating officer of the mining ventures company Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold, is a 1969 accounting graduate who went on to complete an MBA the following year.
The foundation board staff includes Dennis Prescott, COO; David Easley, CFO; and Frank Shannon, secretary. In their larger MSU roles, Prescott is vice president for external affairs; Easley, foundation director for finance and budget; and Shannon, executive director.
All new and returning board member and officer terms begin Jan. 1.