Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--After a successful 45-year career of business education leadership at three Southeastern Conference universities, William C. Flewellen Jr. has the right to go easy with the dress code.
Yet, even at 90 years old, the former Mississippi State business dean rises each morning at his Tupelo residence and puts on his trademark outfit--a navy suit and red tie.
"I read somewhere many years ago that a navy suit and red tie was a 'power suit,'" the Eufaula, Ala., native recalled recently. "I've been wearing one ever since."
After serving as an accounting professor and assistant business dean at the University of Alabama, he was named dean of MSU's College of Business in 1961. He left in 1968 to take a similar position at the University of Georgia, where he remained until retirement in 1989.
"I was just tickled to death when I was offered the job at Mississippi State University," Flewellen said. "And, I was proud of everything I was able to accomplish there.
"I spent a lot of time getting the community, particularly the business community, to recognize the College of Business, and we were able to get accreditation for our master's and doctoral degrees," he added.
Recently, an anonymous college alumnus again recognized Flewellen's leadership at MSU with a gift of more than $2 million to support faculty programs and student scholarships in one of the South's oldest academic programs in business.
Previously, the donor committed $100,000 to create the Flewellen Classroom in McCool Hall, home of the college. Also, through a separate 2004 gift, the individual established a Flewellen scholarship awarded preferentially to students from the Alabama counties of Houston, Dale, Coffee, Geneva, Covington, Pike, or Barbour.
(At a 1:30 p.m. reception Thursday [Oct. 16], the college will honor Flewellen in McCool's Weathersby Boardroom. The event is open to all.)
Currently valued at $2.2 million, the deferred gift will be used to establish an endowed chair in marketing. It also contributes significantly to a previously established endowed scholarship fund that bears Flewellen's name.
A business major during Flewellen's MSU tenure, the unnamed alumnus praised the former dean's leadership and a deep commitment to students.
"Dean Flewellen was instrumental in my staying and getting through Mississippi State," the donor said. "He kept me smiling and he made sure that I finished. He was genuine and showed sincere interest in me and the other students in the College of Business during his era."
Flewellen said he was "amazed" when informed of the honor, adding, "I would never have dreamed it up and I was just so pleased."
For Flewellen's daughter, the recognition is both understandable and appreciated.
"A lot of deans don't have contact with students, but he always made time even when he probably didn't have it," said Susan Flewellen, also a Tupelo resident. "Any student could go to Daddy; he thought that was important and because of it, he was really able to make an impression on a lot of students."
Lynne Richardson, the current MSU business dean, said the Flewellen Chair will be used to recruit--or retain--an academic scholar in marketing who is widely recognized for excellence in teaching, research and service. The endowment may be used to supplement the university salary or for other appropriate purposes in support of the chair's mission.
William Flewellen received bachelor's and master's degrees from Alabama before earning a doctorate in accounting from Columbia University. While Georgia's dean, he helped create a small business development program that today has evolved to federally supported centers providing assistance for small business owners and entrepreneurs in all 50 states.
In addition to Susan, Flewellen and his late wife of 66 years, the former Tommie Sue Kendrick, are the parents of a second daughter, Mary Jane Framm of Atlanta, Ga., a 1981 MSU graduate.
The Flewellen gift brings MSU's ongoing "State of the Future" capital campaign to more than $444 million.