Contact: Sammy McDavid
Speaking Saturday with considerable passion and few prepared remarks, a Meridian music industry pioneer sought to give his fellow Mississippi State graduates a strong dose of inspiration for their future endeavors.
Hartley Peavey, founder and sole owner of Lauderdale County-based Peavey Electronics, was the university's spring commencement speaker. The 1965 MSU business graduate, who also is the international company's chief executive officer, received an honorary doctorate in creative and performing arts from his alma mater.
Peavey, whose many other honors include a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, started his business in the basement of his parents' Meridian home the same year he graduated from MSU.
"There's an aspect of ability you don't come in this world with, one you have to learn," Peavey said of his own experiences. "You graduates already have exhibited some of that ability, something most people call 'stickability' or persistence.
"I don't care how smart you are or how talented you are, if you don't have the quality of 'stickability," you'll never be as successful as you could and should be," he said.
Peavey Electronics presently employs some 1,300 workers in more than 30 international facilities. Exporting to more than 130 countries, the company produces 2,000 separate products, including public address systems, keyboards, electric and acoustic guitars, drums and a host of other commercial equipment. Additionally, the business holds more than 130 industry patents.
Some 2,300 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students received degrees during the morning ceremony at a near-full Humphrey Coliseum. Of that number, 24 bachelor-degree candidates finished with perfect 4.0 grade averages-believed to be a school record.
Later in his message, Peavey recalled that, upon graduation from MSU, "I was just stupid enough to think I could succeed." Despite the fact that "I didn't have the talent, the money or the experience some of my competitors did," he ultimately was proved correct because "I had a goal, I had 'stickability' and I focused my energies."
Repeating an earlier observation, he said "you graduates have demonstrated a great degree of 'stickibility' and I want to ask you to keep it up. Don't quit."