Contact: Maridith Geuder
Mississippi State will commemorate the half-century mark of its College of Forest Resources.
The university's former School of Forestry was established in 1954 and became a college in 1996. Over the decades, it has graduated more than 3,000 majors in forestry, forest products and wildlife and fisheries. MSU President Charles Lee is a former dean.
A public program recognizing the college's contributions to the state and nation will take place at 10 a.m. at the academic unit's newest facility, the Hassell Franklin Center for Furniture Manufacturing and Management. Speakers include:
--Dean Emeritus Warren Thompson;
--Paul Winistorfer, professor and department head of wood science and forest products at Virginia Tech University;
--Richard Porterfield, a former MSU faculty member who now is dean of the Warnell School of Forest Resources at the University of Georgia;
--Carlton Owen, consultant and president of the Environmental Edge in South Carolina; and
--Vance Watson, vice-president for the Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine.
At 7 p.m., Sen. Thad Cochran will deliver the keynote address at the anniversary banquet in the Hunter Henry Center ballroom. Mississippi's senior United States senator, he chairs the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee and last year guided efforts to gain bipartisan approval for the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003.
While Sen. Cochran will be unable to attend the morning program, he will be available to visit with interested members of the media beginning at 6:15 p.m. in the Ritter Room of the Hunter Henry Center.
For more information on the day's events, contact Karen Brasher at (662) 325-8530 or Karen Brasher.