{"id":9384,"date":"2023-04-21T15:33:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/?page_id=9384"},"modified":"2023-04-21T15:33:54","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:33:54","slug":"kent-wyatt-oral-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/kent-wyatt-oral-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent Wyatt Oral History"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][divider line_type=”No Line”][vc_column_text]\n

Kent Wyatt Oral History<\/span><\/h1>\n[\/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line”][page_submenu alignment=”center” sticky=”true” bg_color=”#008542″ link_color=”#ffffff”][page_link link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/manuscripts-and-guides\/” title=”Manuscripts & Subject Guides<\/strong>” id=”1682090703612-5″ tab_id=”1682090703613-7″] [\/page_link][page_link link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/guides-to-the-collection-page\/” title=”Collections Portal<\/strong>” id=”1682090703621-5″ tab_id=”1682090703621-0″] [\/page_link][page_link title=”Visit<\/strong>” id=”1682090721550-6″ tab_id=”1682090721551-1″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/visit\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”Make a Request<\/strong>” id=”1682090722571-3″ tab_id=”1682090722572-10″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/requests\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”About Us<\/strong>” id=”1682090723329-6″ tab_id=”1682090723330-8″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments-archives-museum-about-us\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”Yearbooks Online<\/strong>” id=”1682090724116-5″ tab_id=”1682090724117-1″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/yearbooks-alumni-magazines-delta-state-histories\/”][\/page_link][\/page_submenu][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Wyatt, Kent\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 11\/3\/99\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1 of 2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 OH# 272<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Tara Zachary<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is an interview for the Mississippi Oral History Program.\u00a0 The interview is being recorded with Dr. Kent Wyatt in the Capps Archives and Museum building on November 3, 1999.\u00a0 The interviewer is Tara Zachary.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 First off will you tell me your full name and when and where you were born?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Forest Kent Wyatt, I was in Berea Kentucky on May 27, 1934.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 And who were your parents?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Forest Earl Wyatt was my father.\u00a0 Ameta Hammer Wyatt called Duttie was my mother.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 And what did your family do?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well my dad was when I was born he was a coach, high school teacher, and teacher.\u00a0 He moved into high school coaching and principle and administration type activities in high schools in Kentucky.\u00a0 Then my mother did not work, and my father got a position with a college in Ohio.\u00a0 Ryo Grand College in Ohio where he was a basketball coach, and also taught physical education, health physical recreation.\u00a0 From Ohio we moved in 1941 to Lynchburg, VA where my dad was a coach and a physical education teacher at Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, VA.\u00a0 During the war years he was in charge of the housing and activities of a pilot training program for the Army Airforce.\u00a0 Then we moved to Cleveland and went to Delta State University in December of 1945.\u00a0 At that time I was ten or eleven.\u00a0 I entered the Hill Demonstration School in the last half of the fifth grade.\u00a0 At that time I had a brother that was five years younger than I am, and a sister who is ten years younger than I am.\u00a0 She was a baby at that time.\u00a0 Delta State at that time had few buildings.\u00a0 It had Hardy Hall, which is the men\u2019s dormitory.\u00a0 It had the Hill building which were the demonstration school and some other classroom facilities.\u00a0 Taylor Hall a girl\u2019s dormitory.\u00a0 It had Cleveland Hall a girl\u2019s dormitory and Ward Hall a girl\u2019s dormitory.\u00a0 It had Scott Dining Hall.\u00a0 The Broom building was the main academic building and the Library.\u00a0 We had Whitfield Gymnasium, a swimming pool, a power plant to hit the facilities, a shop building, and a garden where they raised food to serve in the dining hall.\u00a0 We stayed in the boy\u2019s dormitory.\u00a0 My family stayed in the boy\u2019s dormitory, Hardy Hall.\u00a0 Since there was only two boys on campus at that time we came. \u00a0At the end of WWII there was almost totally women here at Delta State.\u00a0 We resided in Hardy Hall until G. I. 1, what it was originally called which is now Woolfolk Hall, when that dormitory was built my parents, my brother, sister, and I moved in it.\u00a0 They were the dormitory residence, and they looked after the dormitory as well as dad doing his work here at Delta State.\u00a0 He came as a football coach and health physical education recreational teacher here at Delta State.\u00a0 He remained a football coach for a couple of years, and then he got into administration.\u00a0 He was dean of men and dean of students and that kind of position for several years.\u00a0 I lived in G. I. 1, the men\u2019s dormitory until I was in high school.\u00a0 We probably moved either my sophomore or junior year in high school into a house in Cleveland.\u00a0 Up until that time it was for me ideal.\u00a0 I had a gymnasium right there by me.\u00a0 I could play ping-pong against these college guys.\u00a0 The swimming pool was there.\u00a0 Tennis courts were there.\u00a0 Even though we didn\u2019t have TV back in that day in time I was certainly was very busy with recreational activities and sports.\u00a0 So I grew up in a very loving family and educated family.\u00a0 I could not of had a better childhood and youth during my early years.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Let me ask you where was your mother from?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 My mother and dad are both from Barieha, KY.\u00a0 My mother was considerably younger than my dad.\u00a0 I think she was eighteen when they were married.\u00a0 My dad would have been about twenty-five.\u00a0 Both are from Barieha, KY, and they both knew each other\u2019s families.\u00a0 My dad was coaching there at one of the high school in Barieha.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What were, you said you always had played with the college student\u2019s cause you lived in the dorm.\u00a0 What other children did you play with?\u00a0 And what else did you do?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well let\u2019s go back.\u00a0 When I first came to Cleveland I was in the Hill Demonstration School for half of the fifth grade, and sixth grade was the highest grade they had at the Hill Demonstration School.\u00a0 A lady named Ms. Maud Cane was my teacher there.\u00a0 We only had like seven or eight or nine students in the sixth grade.\u00a0 Johnny Ouzts was there who later worked here at Delta State, Dr. Utes.\u00a0 He was a very good friend and classmate throughout high school.\u00a0 Also I had a lot close friends that played ball with me at Cleveland High School: Bobby \u201cSlick\u201d Macool, Durall Howel, Bob Whitshire, John Worthyton, Roy Brock, and Billy Hartley.\u00a0 I could just go on and on naming good friends through high school years.\u00a0 The Hill Demonstration School of course it was torn down for the location of a new library, same thing done to the Taylor Hall and Hardy Hall.\u00a0 They were both torn down and were adjacent to the Hill Building.\u00a0 The Library now stands where those three buildings were.\u00a0 This archives building is very close to that location.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Do you remember any incidences that your father dealt with when he either dean of men or as a PE coach with all the G. I\u2019s coming back from the war?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well I guess the enrollment at Delta State was probably three hundred or something like that back in \u201945 or \u201946, and then the G. I.\u2019s started coming back.\u00a0 We grew to about 600 to 700 students, and of course that was pretty rapid growth for us.\u00a0 They were all kinds of involvements when you have older men coming back who have been at war.\u00a0 Now coming back and having to fall under certain guidelines that Delta State Teachers College had established.\u00a0 I remember living in the dormitory growing up there would be all kinds of tricks that these older guys would play on the younger normal freshman and sophomore students.\u00a0 I remember they even had cows brought into dormitory.\u00a0 They would take some youngster out, a young freshman out, to some place out in the country, and act like one of those who took him out there got shot.\u00a0 He would come running back in to get help for his buddies.\u00a0 Of course nothing had happened to the individuals, just all kinds of pranks.\u00a0 Nothing was very serious.\u00a0 It was a great environment for me to grow up in.\u00a0 Particularly since I did enjoy sports so much.\u00a0 The gymnasium had a trampoline and other gymnastics equipment.\u00a0 I would go over and watch them.\u00a0 At that time we had the Golden Glove Boxers here.\u00a0 I watched some of that.\u00a0 We played tennis against the college guys and competed against them.\u00a0 It really help me as an athlete because the more you play against better competition the better you get.\u00a0 Then Delta State had the golf course.\u00a0 So as I got older I moved from ping-pong to golf and those kinds of things.\u00a0 I had a great love for Delta State.\u00a0 From the Hill Demonstration School I went to the Junior High School here in Cleveland.\u00a0 From that I went to Cleveland High School.\u00a0 I graduated from Cleveland High School.\u00a0 Actually no one had a better high school experience than I had.\u00a0 It was just a wonderful time in my life.\u00a0 Cleveland High School at that time had some outstanding athletic teams.\u00a0 My senior year my football team went undefeated, and it is the only undefeated team Cleveland High School has ever had.\u00a0 My basketball team took third in the state.\u00a0 I was fortunate to make All-State Basketball team.\u00a0 My baseball team did well.\u00a0 I had some opportunities to have partial or full athletic scholarships to some institutions.\u00a0 I visited about five or six, but I always wanted to go to Delta State.\u00a0 That is where I had grown up.\u00a0 I just felt so comfortable.\u00a0 I knew Delta State had a wonderful math department.\u00a0 Mathematics was my interest in high school.\u00a0 Dr. ElenorWalters as a major professor here in mathematics was what appealed to me as well as coming to Delta State and playing athletics.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Well let\u2019s back up a little back to when you first came.\u00a0 What was Cleveland like at that time?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Cleveland was this in 1945, and it was very small.\u00a0 Seems to me it was like 4000 population.\u00a0 There were no four-lane roads.\u00a0 The main street was Sharpe Avenue.\u00a0 That was the only place we had many stores.\u00a0 It was quite different from the way it is now.\u00a0 We had very little traffic.\u00a0 I can remember at Delta State when the men started coming back to school there was still very few automobiles on campus.\u00a0 These guys started coming back and getting the G. I. Bill, and some of them could have a car.\u00a0 It was highly unusual for a student back in those days to have an automobile.\u00a0 Today, you about have to have an automobile in order to go to college.\u00a0 Coming to Delta State was very natural and easy for me.\u00a0 While my high school had been so great, my college experience was also.\u00a0 I served as president of my class for several years.\u00a0 My freshman year I played and lettered in football under Gene Chadwick.\u00a0 Then I played basketball under John Ray Ricks and lettered in basketball.\u00a0 I played tennis since my dad was coaching tennis.\u00a0 I decided to play tennis instead of baseball.\u00a0 I played baseball in high school.\u00a0 I certainly enjoyed playing tennis.\u00a0 After my freshman year though football and basketball seasons overlapped so much I had to make a decision.\u00a0 I chose to play basketball instead of football.\u00a0 Well, that gave me some free time that fall, and up until then I had seen Janice Collins on campus.\u00a0 We were both freshmen together, but we did not date.\u00a0 So of course she was elected cheerleader.\u00a0 The cheerleaders were all elected, and one of the men or boy cheerleaders was declared ineligible because of some reason.\u00a0 So they were going to have a selection for somebody to replace him.\u00a0 I was elected to be a cheerleader for the football only.\u00a0 I think I had underlying motives so I could get to know Janice better.\u00a0 That was the start of our relationship our sophomore year here at Delta State.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What kind of social activities did you all have both in high school and in college?\u00a0 What kinds of things did you do for fun?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well the delta has always been a social area.\u00a0 There was a lot of dances and parties, and back in our time when you went to a dance you danced with a lot of people.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t just dance with whom you took to the dance.\u00a0 In fact if a girl if she had to dance with the same guy for a whole dance she felt that she was stuck with him.\u00a0 You broke at dance and had a good time.\u00a0 We also had a lot of parties in homes.\u00a0 Of course we did not have TV during my high school years.\u00a0 We did have socials together.\u00a0 You really kind of had a group of ten or twenty close boys or girls that were friends, and we all kind of socialized together.\u00a0 College was pretty much the same way.\u00a0\u00a0 We had a lot of \u201csock hops\u201d back and those kinds of things in high school.\u00a0 In college they were a little bit more formal dances, but we still broke and danced with other people when you went to a college function.\u00a0 They tried to have a lot of different things on Fridays and weekends because back then students didn\u2019t have the transportation necessary to go home every Friday and every weekend and come back on Monday.\u00a0 There was usually something going on campus that would be of interest.\u00a0 A lot of athletic events were social events to attend the athletic events.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What kind of relationship when you were a student even though you are from Cleveland.\u00a0 What kind of relationship did the students have with the town as far as going maybe to the movies and going to the churches?\u00a0 What kind of relationship was that?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 The churches in Cleveland have always been highly supportive and sought after Delta State students.\u00a0 They provided transportation for us to Sunday night, Sunday, and Sunday evening activities at the churches.\u00a0 We had our BSU and Methodist Student Union.\u00a0 So we had those on campus at that time.\u00a0 They were pretty active.\u00a0 They would have noonday services, and a lot of people would attend.\u00a0 We have always been well served by the churches in Cleveland.\u00a0 Then the Cleveland community supported Delta State back then as it does today.\u00a0 I said many many times no institution that I know of anywhere has a better report with the community than Cleveland and Delta State has.\u00a0 That is a real plus for the University and a plus for our students.\u00a0 The Chamber and the businesses and every entity I know of is very proud of the University, and pleased to have the student body here.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What kind of rules were there that you all had to abide by especially that may be different from now?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well another area I guess we can talk about a little later would be well let\u2019s talk about the rules.\u00a0 The boys had a very few rules, but the girls had very stringent rules.\u00a0 For example, a freshman girl living in the dormitory, and there was very little place in Cleveland for people to live.\u00a0 There were very few apartments.\u00a0 Students did not just live off campus unless they had relatives or parents in Cleveland area.\u00a0 Almost all the student body lived on campus.\u00a0 The freshman girls could have one night a week in which she could have a date, and she had to be in by ten thirty.\u00a0 Then a sophomore could have two nights a week in which she could have a date.\u00a0 The junior could have three nights and a senior four nights.\u00a0 Then you would have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday you could have dates.\u00a0 There were a lot of restraints there on the activities of the girls.\u00a0 Therefore it also had an affect of the boys.\u00a0 Hopefully that was to help us study.\u00a0 Now if you were going to the Library or something of that nature or some other school function you could check out and that didn\u2019t count as one of the nights out for the girls.\u00a0 The girls also had some type of demerit system.\u00a0 If they had left a coke bottle in the room, for example, they would get a demerit.\u00a0 If they did something or didn\u2019t keep the rooms right, or didn\u2019t come in on time.\u00a0 If you got in after the door closed they were in bad bad trouble.\u00a0 They could not ride in a car unless it was a double date, and if they went any place outside of Cleveland they had to have special permission and written notification from home that it was okay for them to do that.\u00a0 They were a lot more requirements on the women at Delta State than there are today.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Well did you live in the dorm?\u00a0 Or did you still live, your parents were living by this time they probably have a house?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Yeah, by then we had a house.\u00a0 My last couple of years in high school we had a house.\u00a0 I lived at home.\u00a0 I commuted back and forth.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Who were some of the most influential teachers that you had?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Dr. Elenor Walters of course had a tremendous impact on my life because she was head of the mathematics department, and she taught most of the upper level courses in mathematics.\u00a0 I was a double major.\u00a0 I got two majors one in mathematics and one in health physical education and recreational.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course my dad taught me some course in health physical education and recreational, but Ethel Cane was head of that department.\u00a0 She also taught me many courses, and she was a very strong strict teacher.\u00a0 You learned an awful lot in her courses.\u00a0 Roy Wiley taught me some courses, and he was a good teacher.\u00a0 Dr. Young taught in Psychology.\u00a0 Dr. Williams taught me history.\u00a0 Dr. Wart Williams\u2019 son Wart Williams was a great writer.\u00a0 He wrote many books, and some were made into movies.\u00a0 Not only were good teachers, but they set good examples for us to learn from and follow.\u00a0 They had a lot of interaction with us as students, and that is still what we want at Delta State is for faculty to have that opportunity to be with students outside just the classrooms situation.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What about Dr. Kethley?\u00a0 Do you remember him?\u00a0 What was he like?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Of course, Dr. Broom is the only president that I did not have the opportunity to know because he died the first year he was president of Delta State in 1925.\u00a0 Dr. Kethley, I got to know very well particularly as class president.\u00a0 I had an opportunity to interact with him.\u00a0 Then he seen me grown up here on campus.\u00a0 In fact his daughter, Brookie Kethley Dossett, was teaching some swimming classes in the swimming school when I was in the eighth grade, and she ask me to come and help her teach some of these little kids classes.\u00a0 Through that opportunity I started working the swimming pool and worked there as a lifeguard and teacher every summer in high school through college.\u00a0 So I was at the pool every summer, and I enjoyed that.\u00a0 That was a great oppurtunity for me that President Kethley\u2019s daughter involved me in.\u00a0 Dr. Kethley my last two years or so at Delta State was a very sick person.\u00a0 He had bad arthritis, and he was confined to bed for quite a bit of that time.\u00a0 Of course he retired the following my senior year, 1956.\u00a0 Dr. Ewing came then in 1956.\u00a0 So I had a relationship with Dr. Kethley, but because of his health he wasn\u2019t involved, as most presidents would be during my junior and senior year.\u00a0 Ms. Virginia Thompson was his secretary, and she took on a big load of his.\u00a0 Hugh Smith was the business manager at that time.\u00a0 He did also.\u00a0 The administration took over the slack that might of happened because of his illness.\u00a0 He did resign or retire after that year.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What kinds of things did you do as class president?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 We would have different activities during the year.\u00a0 We would have dance and some different kinds of programs that the class would sponsor.\u00a0 We had an advisor, and normally our class had H. L. Nowell for our advisor.\u00a0 H. L. would always help get involved with us.\u00a0 If we wanted to put on some kind of program or dance it would be the best on campus, and in anything that might come up that the administration wanted input from about what\u2019s going on, on campus.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Was there when you were a freshman was there hazing?\u00a0 What kinds of things did you all have to do?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Oh there was bad hazing.\u00a0 In fact my freshman year I was going out for football, and I was not staying in the dormitory.\u00a0 So this was before college started, and I was going out for football.\u00a0 Then they cut all of our hair.\u00a0 They would cut everything except one long strand right in the middle of my forehead.\u00a0 It looked like you had a pigtail on the front of your head.\u00a0 Cleveland High School was playing their first football game.\u00a0 So three of four of us guys that had gotten through with football practice, and we went down to see the ballgame.\u00a0 My mother was sitting by my dad at the ballgame, and my dad had told her that they were shaving heads.\u00a0 I walked by and she said I hope he doesn\u2019t look as bad as he does and that was me.\u00a0 So the guys got their heads shaved.\u00a0 The reason why they shaved the freshman\u2019s head was in order to give the upperclassman a better chance with the new freshman girls coming in.\u00a0 Make the guys look bad so that the upperclassman could have the first shot at the freshman girls.\u00a0 The biggest initiation that we had at Delta State was the M club initiation.\u00a0 It was quite long, and it actually it was too severe.\u00a0 Of course we did away that many years ago.\u00a0 If you lettered in a sport then you would be eligible to be inducted into the M club, which was our athletic club.\u00a0 Then they would have initiation one night, and they would take you to the Whitfield gym.\u00a0 They would have the windows covered, and they would strip you down.\u00a0 They would run you through different kinds of gymnastics.\u00a0 They would pop you with belts and paddles.\u00a0 Then they would let you put shorts on, and they would blindfold you.\u00a0 They put glue in your hair and all kinds of stuff.\u00a0 Then they take you all in a big truck, and they would start out.\u00a0 They would put one person out here, and another out there, and another out here.\u00a0 I thought well I have lived in Cleveland, and they were not going to lose me.\u00a0 When that truck turned the corner I was going to know exactly where I was all the time.\u00a0 They got out on the highway, and they went in a circle.\u00a0 Then they went some place else. Then went back in a circle.\u00a0 I was lost.\u00a0 They put F. L. Stephenson and I out together.\u00a0 We got out and took our blindfolds off.\u00a0 I had no idea where we were.\u00a0 We were in a cotton field.\u00a0 There were no lights anywhere.\u00a0 They were on a kind of old dirt turn road.\u00a0 So we decided we better follow this road a little ways.\u00a0 It has to go somewhere.\u00a0 We finally saw some electric line.\u00a0 We said, \u201coh my goodness, there has to be a house somewhere around here.\u00a0 So let\u2019s go find out where we are.\u201d\u00a0 So we walked I guess a mile or so, and came upon a house this was near midnight.\u00a0 The dogs started barking.\u00a0 We were scared, and it was cold.\u00a0 We hollered at the house, and a guy came out.\u00a0 Thank goodness the parents lived there and this guy was there was too.\u00a0 He had gone to Delta State, and he knew what was going on.\u00a0 They let us come in, and let us use the phone.\u00a0 They let us sit by a fire for a minute or two and warm up some.\u00a0 We were by the Greenville Airport.\u00a0 That is where we were.\u00a0 Then of course if you made it back home then every thing was fine, and you were a member.\u00a0 Next day you had a dinner, a banquet something of that nature.\u00a0 That was some of the hazing that took place.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 So they were not fraternities and sororities?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 No fraternities or sororities at Delta State at that time.\u00a0 They did not come until the mid 60\u2019s, and Janice, my wife, and I were both honor initiates.\u00a0 As they were starting fraternities and sororities.\u00a0 The group that I was initiated with became Kappa Alpha, and Janice was KD, Kappa Delta.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Now didn\u2019t H. L. Nowell have a lot to do with getting the KA?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Yes he did.\u00a0 It was the first group that was organized, and it had some outstanding men in it.\u00a0 You have from a colony first, and then you petition some fraternity or sorority after your colony is up and going and well organized.\u00a0 This group decided to go Kappa Alpha.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 So you graduated in \u201956.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Graduated in \u201956.\u00a0 The biggest tale I could tell was that Janice and I then decided we would get married our senior year.\u00a0 At that time Delta State was on a quarter system.\u00a0 So between quarters you had a week off.\u00a0 The quarter was the first week in March where the spring quarter started and the winter quarter ended.\u00a0 The basketball season ended a week before that.\u00a0 Of course I was playing basketball.\u00a0 I would go to talk to Coach Ricks, and I tell him that Janice and I planned on getting married.\u00a0 After Christmas in 1956 our basketball team at Delta State really came together.\u00a0 We won almost all of our games, and by so doing we were invited to play in the regional NIA tournament or SIAA.\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember now.\u00a0 It is equivalent to the NCAA today.\u00a0 It was Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama regional.\u00a0 Well the regional tournament was going to be played on Friday and Saturday night, and I was scheduled to get married on that Sunday.\u00a0 Well that meant if it was played in one of the other institutions, it was going to be four teams in it.\u00a0 I would not be there for rehearsal.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what I was going to do.\u00a0 Anyway the tournament was selected to be at Delta State, and Troy was in it.\u00a0 University of Southern Mississippi was in it, and Southeastern Louisiana was in it.\u00a0 The first game on Friday night we played Troy, and if we had lost then we would have been out of the tournament.\u00a0 Then we would have had the rehearsal dinner, and everything would have gone fine.\u00a0 But we won, so that meant I had rehearsal dinner at about four or five in the afternoon on Saturday.\u00a0 We had rehearsal for the wedding, and then our game was at eight o\u2019clock.\u00a0 I think that was one of my best games.\u00a0 I think Janice was pulling for us to get beat, because if we had gotten beaten then we would have got married on Sunday and gone to Mobile for our honeymoon.\u00a0 Though if we won then I had to be back here on Monday to practice basketball to get ready to go to the National tournament.\u00a0 We won.\u00a0 We beat University of Southern Mississippi pretty heavily that night.\u00a0 So I get married on Sunday, and we have a short honeymoon in Greenwood, and then back to Cleveland.\u00a0 While school is out I am practicing basketball every day.\u00a0 After practice on Friday the coach says \u201cOkay you guys in the morning be up here at eight o\u2019clock with you clothes packed.\u00a0 We will load up we have a bus that is going to take us to Memphis, and we will fly to Kansas City.\u00a0 We will be playing on Monday night in Kansas City in the national tournament.\u201d\u00a0 So all of us get there, and we have our girlfriends and our wives.\u00a0 They are glad to see us go, but they are unhappy to see us go too.\u00a0 So it was kind of mixed emotions there.\u00a0 The manager comes out and said \u201cCoach said don\u2019t you all pack up any of the playing gear just come on in and sit on the benches.\u201d\u00a0 We said what.\u00a0 He said just come up and sit in the bleachers until everyone gets here.\u00a0 So we did, and Coach Ricks came in and told us that we were not going to be able to go to play in the national tournament in Kansas City.\u00a0 The governor has forbidden us to go, because if we win the first round then we would be playing a team that would probably had a black athlete on it.\u00a0 The governor was not going to let us go and play against a black athlete.\u00a0 You were talking about some unhappy folks.\u00a0 We did everything we could to try to get that changed, but the governor would not let us go.\u00a0 The president would not let us go, and Dr. Kethley was a very sick person at that time.\u00a0 The team met with Hugh Smith and some others, and we contacted some board members.\u00a0 We were still not allowed to go.\u00a0 I remember the coach saying, \u201cNow we will do anything you all want.\u00a0 We will have a big banquet.\u00a0 We will give you jackets.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s over it\u2019s over, and it was very disappointing.\u00a0 So we were the first public institution in Mississippi that was not allowed to participate in a national event because it would have put us against a black athlete.\u00a0 After that for ten years State, Ole Miss, Southern, none of them were allowed to go.\u00a0 Mississippi really missed out on a lot of great opportunities.\u00a0\u00a0 Then Dave McCarthy had a basketball team that was supposed to go play in the national tournament one year, and they did not get to go.\u00a0 The next year they were supposed to go play in the NIT, and he took his team over in Alabama.\u00a0 He hid them out.\u00a0 The governor had a summons for his arrest, but they could not find him to give the summons to him in Mississippi.\u00a0 They flew out of Alabama to New York, and played in the NIT.\u00a0 That was the first time Mississippians had played against black athletes since 1956 when we were prohibited from doing something.\u00a0 Thank goodness that ended all of that problem.\u00a0 So that was kind of an historic thing.\u00a0 It was not a good thing but a terrible thing.\u00a0 The athletes were very unhappy about it.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 I could image.\u00a0 Anything else about being a student that we haven\u2019t touched on?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Oh gosh I am sure there a lot of things there that we could reminiss about another time.\u00a0 Delta State was small, but it had a great faculty.\u00a0 It provided to those students that were here with a spree decor.\u00a0 It is a very close group today because of the relationships that were developed here, and because of the faculty we had that worked with us and provided us with a very quality education that helped us be highly successful.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 So after you graduated what did you do?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Janice and I were married, and then we were back at Delta State for the remainder of the semester.\u00a0 I am employed in Mobile at University Military School there.\u00a0 It was a college preparatory school, and Janice taught elementary school in the Mobile public school system.\u00a0 So we go to Mobile for four years, and I am coaching junior and varsity football, varsity basketball, and tennis.\u00a0 I was teaching mathematics.\u00a0 The school that I taught in was one of the finest prep schools anywhere in the south.\u00a0 We were there for four years, and enjoyed Mobile.\u00a0 We had our daughter, Tara, born in Mobile in 1957.\u00a0 During that period of time, I had to serve six months in the military.\u00a0 That was during the summer of 1957 to December 1957. I had a six-month obligation, and I was in the military during that period of time.\u00a0 Janice stayed in Mobile and taught while I was in the military.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Where did you go?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I went to Fort Benning and Fort Jackson.\u00a0 Fort Jackson was in South Carolina, and Fort Benning is Columbus, GA.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 And then in 1960 you left?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 While I was in Mobile I also commuted back in forth to University of Southern Mississippi working on my masters degree in mathematics, and I finished that in the summer of 1960.\u00a0 Also we were contacted then, well actually Janice and I were in Cleveland for Mardi Gras, and Mobile had a Mardi Gras vacation.\u00a0 So we had a week off, and we came home.\u00a0 My sister gets back to school, high school, a little late.\u00a0 The principle asked her why is she late, and she said \u201cWell my brother, Kent, is here and we just got here.\u00a0 We were really not late back\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 He said, \u201cTell Kent to call me I want to talk to him.\u201d\u00a0 So I did, and he wanted me to come down and talk to him about being the basketball coach at Cleveland High School.\u00a0 There is something very special about coming back to alma mater, even though I was in a perfect situation down there.\u00a0 I made more money down there.\u00a0 It was still a big enticement to come back to your alma mater as a coach and teacher.\u00a0 We also had Tara was a year old then.\u00a0 We felt like it would be good to bring her back with the grandparents.\u00a0 Janice\u2019s mother was still here in Cleveland.\u00a0 My mother and dad were here, and Janice of course they worked it out so she could teach also.\u00a0 So we did come back in 1960 to Cleveland High School.\u00a0 I was in the Cleveland school system as a coach, teacher, and an administrator for four years before being offered the Alumni Secretary at Delta State.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Now is this during the time you went to Ole Miss?\u00a0 Or was it after?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 No while I had my master\u2019s degree in Cleveland High School.\u00a0 I did not continue my studies until I came to Delta State as the Alumni Secretary, and I came to Delta State in 1964.\u00a0 Pretty much immediately begin going one night a week over to Oxford.\u00a0 There were three of four others on the faculty that were going over.\u00a0 We would carpool.\u00a0 We would pick one night like Tuesday night or Thursday night.\u00a0 Where we could go over and take a course, and get started in it.\u00a0 I would go over in the summer time, and take four courses in the summer.\u00a0 Work it out like that.\u00a0 On a doctrine agree, you have to do a residency of half a year.\u00a0 I was able to work that; Dr. Ewing was very accommodating to me.\u00a0 He had some federal money for any university enhancement.\u00a0 Some of that was to be used for degrees for the faculty and staff.\u00a0 He allowed me to have one of those which allowed me to gave me a kind of a sabbatical even though I have only been at Delta State two or three years.\u00a0 So I did spend the time necessary on Ole Miss campus to do my residency.\u00a0 I finished my doctrine in 1970.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Well how did you come back to Delta State as an Alumni Secretary?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Delta State was growing.\u00a0 After Dr. Ewing came to Delta State he had been a president of a community college, Copiah-lincoln Junior College.\u00a0 He started recruiting junior college students and the baby boom and all that.\u00a0 Delta State was growing pretty rapidly.\u00a0 Got to the place where we needed someone to full time to look after alumni activities and alumni events.\u00a0 H. L. Nowell was doing that kind of part time as well as all of the other functions on campus.\u00a0 So they decided to hire a full time person.\u00a0 Dr. Ewing had a committee, and they recommended me or he contacted me.\u00a0\u00a0 He ask me if I would be interested, and I was certainly was.\u00a0 So that is the way I got to Delta State and work in higher education was as an Alumni Secretary at Delta State.\u00a0 They funded the office well.\u00a0 Dr. Ewing provided a secretary, and he got us going.\u00a0 That was back in 1964.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What did you do as Alumni Secretary?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 First we started trying to communicate with all those alumni we had out there and find them.\u00a0 No one really had a real good record system on the alumni that were out there.\u00a0 So we set up a record system.\u00a0 We started the publication, a quarterly publication.\u00a0 Then we of course we had the chapters established all over Mississippi, and throughout the south.\u00a0 We had a number of Delta State people.\u00a0 We would go and have a chapter meeting with them there.\u00a0 We developed Homecoming more extensively, and we adjusted the business meeting on Homecoming to a business luncheon.\u00a0 Which helped draw the crowd and it got us a big turnout.\u00a0 So those are some of the things we did.\u00a0 The main thing was supporting the graduates of the institution making friends with them and keeping in contact with them about Delta State.\u00a0 Then a few years later we formed a foundation.\u00a0 Dr. Ewing ask me to work with Billy Alexander, a lawyer here in Cleveland who also had a lawyer, Johnson, who worked with me in drawing up all the guidelines that were necessary to establish a foundation to have it legal.\u00a0 So with the foundation on board we started a bigger drive for fundraising.\u00a0 Of course Boo Ferris was hired as the first foundation director in addition to the Alumni person at Delta State.\u00a0 That is kind of the way it grew.\u00a0 That was between \u201964 and 1970 that those activities took place.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Okay so then how long were you an Alumni Secretary?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Okay I was an Alumni Secretary for four years.\u00a0 It might have been five.\u00a0 It was \u201964 to \u201969.\u00a0 I guess it was five years.\u00a0 Dr. Ewing as Delta State continued to grow had a position administrated assistant to the president position.\u00a0 Let me back up and tell you a couple of things.\u00a0 I was as the Alumni Secretary of course I traveled quite a bit.\u00a0 Dr. Ewing would go with me to some of these events with me.\u00a0 He got to the place where he had to go to Jackson, and he would like me to go and drive him.\u00a0 While he was in meetings I could contact Alumni and do some Alumni work too.\u00a0 That worked well.\u00a0 That is the way we got to know me better, and I got to know him better.\u00a0 One day the dean of students, dean of men, dean of student\u2019s position was open.\u00a0 He called me in and said \u201cMr. Wyatt would you like\u201d this was before I finished my doctrine.\u00a0 He said, \u201cWould you like to be the dean of men, dean of students.\u201d\u00a0 Dr. Ewing, I really enjoyed being Alumni Secretary.\u00a0 I love what I am doing, and if you were asking me to take the dean of men position I would certainly do it.\u00a0 But if you are asking would I prefer to stay where I am or be the dean of students or dean of men, I would rather stay where I am.\u00a0 He said, \u201cI thought you were too smart to want this dean of men position.\u201d\u00a0 Too many problems dealing with the dean of men, dean of students.\u00a0 So that was an opportunity he offered me, and about a year later the administrative assistant to the president came open.\u00a0 He offered that to me, and of course I jumped at that.\u00a0 So I was his administrative assistant for two years, and it was during that time, well the first year that I finished my doctrine in 1970.\u00a0 I got to work with him very very closely for two years.\u00a0 He retired, and Dr. Lucas comes in 1971 as president.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What was Dr. Ewing like?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Dr. Ewing, many describe him as being from the old school.\u00a0 That was a hands on approach to administration.\u00a0 He was very involved in almost all the decisions, certainly all of them that were importance to the university.\u00a0 He was a hard worker.\u00a0 He expected others to work hard to.\u00a0 He did a wonderful job at Delta State.\u00a0 He took Delta State when it was really going down.\u00a0 As I said Delta State\u2019s enrollment back in 1948 or so was six or seven hundred.\u00a0 The time I graduated in 1952 we were down to four hundred students.\u00a0 Dr. Ewing came in with a lot of drive and good judgement.\u00a0 He made a lot of great decisions that helped in making Delta State grow.\u00a0 He also knew how to work with legislators.\u00a0 I learned a great deal from him about what to do to establish relationship with legislators and the leadership within the legislator.\u00a0 Of course that is very beneficial to the university.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Do you think, I have seen stuff in the Sillers papers and letters to and from Kethley, but do you think Ewing was more the as the way we think of it today the relationship with the political leaders started with him or?\u00a0 Do you see that develop?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well of course I didn\u2019t have much involvement with the legislators, neither did my dad during Kethley era.\u00a0 Actually I would say Dr. Ewing enhanced significantly Delta State\u2019s repore with the legislators when he became president at Delta State.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What are some of the changes you saw from when you were a student to about 1969-1970 as far as student body, expectation of conduct, behavior, rules?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Of course the biggest change, and most positive is we went from an all white institution to a racially mixed institution.\u00a0 I am very proud of the way Delta State went through that period.\u00a0 We had a couple of incidences that are regrettable.\u00a0 We came through it far better than any institution that I know of that during that crisis time.\u00a0 So that is the biggest change that I have seen.\u00a0 As far as behavior the worst thing that happened that I have seen was the drug culture.\u00a0 The drugs coming into the college age group.\u00a0 When I was in school there were no drugs.\u00a0 There was alcohol, but there were no drugs.\u00a0 There was no marijuana or hard drugs.\u00a0 Drugs came from the older group down through the colleges to the college age group.\u00a0 Now it is in the of course the high school and the junior high school.\u00a0 By the time a kid comes to college he has had the experience with it, or he doesn\u2019t want to have an experience with it.\u00a0 If he has an experience with it, he probably is not going to go to college.\u00a0 There is some decision made now before knowledge about drugs takes place before a student comes to college.\u00a0 As that was coming down through the college age group from the older age group.\u00a0 I saw some really sad things take place when the student\u2019s involvement with drugs when they did not know how bad they were going to be.\u00a0 That they needed to watch them, and they didn\u2019t know what the problems would be with drugs.\u00a0 That was a bad time too.\u00a0 Student behavior and the students had so much latitude now.\u00a0 Of course back when I was in school, the school was held to be in place of the parent.\u00a0 Therefore, the schools, the elementary-secondary, and colleges could do certain things because they were standing in place of the parent making the young person behave.\u00a0 Then as that was declared illegal and you no longer have that protection by the law.\u00a0 As the women got comfortable rights, which means same regulations and rules as the men had, that is when I saw a lot of change in behavior patterns and what institutions could do or try to have students to behave the way they should behave.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 So everybody knows what happened at Ole Miss.\u00a0 It was a big thing when it was integrated.\u00a0 Do you remember the first steps of how Delta State had African American students?\u00a0 How that came about?\u00a0 You were Alumni Secretary then.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think the first, yeah I was Alumni Secretary when that took place.\u00a0 The first was through recruiting athletes.\u00a0 Some other students wanted to come for a better education, and that was fine.\u00a0 At the time well a couple years after we had African Americans on campus there was a time in our country during the Vietnam War during political activities and so forth.\u00a0 That is just became a mandate that the black students do some kind of demonstration on behalf of the rights of not just their rights but all black rights.\u00a0 We did have one set in activity in which most of the black students on campus participated in at that time.\u00a0 We would have a hearing, and all kinds of legal ramifications there to make sure that everything was done appropriately.\u00a0 I am very pleased with the relationship that has developed since then with our black students and all students.\u00a0 They get along well together.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What about maybe do you remember what happened on campus both when Martin Luther King was assassinated and John F. Kennedy?\u00a0 Do you remember what the reactions were to those?\u00a0 \u201964 or \u201963 you would not have been here?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well \u201963 when he was I think<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 I think it was \u201963 because he was starting to campaign.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Four yeah<\/p>\n

TZ: or \u201964.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember on campus anything taken place then.\u00a0 When Martin Luther King was assassinated there was some services and that kind of thing, but no bad behavior no disturbances of any kind.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Well let\u2019s see, and so you became an administrative assistant to Dr. Ewing?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Right<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 And tell me again some of the things you did as that?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Okay legislative activities would be one of the main things that were assigned to me, but I also had a lot of areas reporting to me.\u00a0 The Alumni Foundation reported through me.\u00a0 The Public Information reported to me.\u00a0 Anything that was kind of external that didn\u2019t fall under regular place would report to me.\u00a0 The new computer systems were in.\u00a0 We did not have much computer going on then, but it reported to me.\u00a0 Institutional Research reported to me.\u00a0 Police and Security reported to me.\u00a0 I had those kinds of responsibilities in addition to most anything that Dr. Ewing wanted to give me to handle.\u00a0 Legislative activities were one of the biggest ones.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Do you remember any particular issues, activities, or incidences that you dealt with in that position?\u00a0 Maybe with the legislature or anything you dealt with?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 In that position not when Dr. Ewing was there but later on we dealt with name change.\u00a0 When I was at Delta State we were Delta State Teachers College.\u00a0 Then my senior year it was changed to Delta State College.\u00a0 My class was the first class to graduate from Delta State College.\u00a0 Janice was the first Miss Delta State.\u00a0 I was proud of that.\u00a0 I when I was administrative assistant to Dr. Ewing we felt that we needed to be an university.\u00a0 We put a big effort into getting that done.\u00a0 We took students to Jackson.\u00a0 We did a pretty lobbying effort on that.\u00a0 The vote to make us an university was unanimous.\u00a0 That was big back then.\u00a0 In addition to that all the other four-year institutions that were still colleges they rode in on our coattail.\u00a0 They said well if Delta State was going to be an University than we should to.\u00a0 They all became universities to.\u00a0 Getting a person from Delta State on the board of trustees was one of the biggest pushes we had.\u00a0 This was when Dr. Lucas was president.\u00a0 Bill Waller , Governor Waller, was elected, and we worked with him.\u00a0 Of course Travis Ede, and Red Parker was a \u201956 graduated with me.\u00a0 He had been a very strong supporter of Bill Waller, and was able to be appointed to the board of trustees of higher learning.\u00a0 He was the first Delta State graduate that would be on that board.\u00a0 That was very important to Delta State to have someone there.\u00a0 When Dr. Ewing retired, and Dr. Lucas came.\u00a0 He came to us from the University of Southern Mississippi where he was an administrator.\u00a0 He was a shining star a leading young administrator in Mississippi.\u00a0 So we were very fortunate to have him.\u00a0 You talk about Dr. Ewing\u2019s style.\u00a0 Dr. Ewing was a wonderful administrator, but Dr. Lucas had a totally different style than him.\u00a0 I enjoyed working with Dr. Lucas.\u00a0 When Dr. Lucas came as presidency I was assistant to the president, and the about the first week he was there I went in and talked with him.\u00a0 I told him that if there is any one position that a president ought to be able to name who he wants in that position it ought to be his administrative assistant.\u00a0 While I didn\u2019t want to leave Delta State and I would hope that he would have some place else on campus for me.\u00a0 I was certainly ready to step down and let him pick a who he wanted to be administrative assistant.\u00a0 He would not listen to that, and he wanted me to stay on.\u00a0 I did.\u00a0 I was his administrative assistant then for four years.\u00a0 While he was here.\u00a0 Then when he goes to the University of Southern Mississippi I become president of Delta State.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 We were last talking about Dr. Lucas.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Aubrey was a wonderful administrator.\u00a0 He was very bright.\u00a0 He was knowledgeable in so many different ways.\u00a0 Many people refer to him as the Renaissance Man, and he certainly is.\u00a0 We had a great repore right from the start and developed into the closest friendship.\u00a0 He was certainly instrumental in my becoming president at Delta State.\u00a0 When he left to go to the University of Southern Mississippi.\u00a0 I learned an awful lot from him by working with him during the four years that he was president at Delta State.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What do you think he taught you?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well, he taught me how to get along with people.\u00a0 He helped me establish priorities in ways of administrating the university.\u00a0 He was very disciplined person.\u00a0 He kept a diary daily of the activities that took place.<\/p>\n

Tape 2 of 2<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I think Aubrey helped me grow in my administrative techniques and learning how to administer a university.\u00a0 He taught me how to hire good people and put them in the right place.\u00a0 Then how to allow them the freedom to do their work.\u00a0 He was just a bright, brilliant person, and who I enjoyed association with.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 So he left in \u201975?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Dr. Lucas left on July 1, 1975.\u00a0 I was named president back in January or February of\u00a0 \u201975.\u00a0 I decided it would be good training to go to the Harvard Institute on Education Management, and that was taking place right during the transition in June and the middle of July.\u00a0 So I was gone some of the last month that Dr. Lucas was president of Delta State to Harvard.\u00a0 I came back, and for the first few days of my presidency.\u00a0 Then I went back to Harvard for a couple more weeks.\u00a0 Then I returned to Delta State.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 How were you, what was the process by which you were selected?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 The board of trustees established a sub-committee of their board to make the decision, and to recommend to the full board for their vote or concurrence.\u00a0 Travis C. Red Parker was the chair of that committee since he was a Delta State graduate on the committee.\u00a0 It was certainly appropriate that he chair it.\u00a0 Then they established on campus student groups and faculty groups, and alumni groups to provide information to their committee.\u00a0 Then of course I went down there to be interviewed for the position, and fortunately was selected to be the president.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Before we get into your presidency, I wanted to ask you what were some of the events or things that happened during Dr. Lucas\u2019s term that you remember?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 We talked about the name change from college to university.\u00a0 Of course the women\u2019s basketball program was started during Dr. Lucas\u2019s reign at Delta State as president.\u00a0 That first year, well 1974 or \u201c75, his last years as president was the first year we won the national championship in women\u2019s basketball.\u00a0 Those were some wonderful times.\u00a0 It made great memories for that athletic department at Delta State.\u00a0 Aubrey Lucas also was very strong in the academic field.\u00a0 He helped Delta State become a lot better respected academically through his leadership.\u00a0 That would be part of his legacy on how he strengthened the University academically.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What kind of things did he do added programs?\u00a0 During his term they added the educational specialist degree?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Right, we did add some new programs, but I think the main thing was his ability to work the accrediting agencies.\u00a0 I know that one time we were having a difficulty with NCATE, National Council Accreditation for Teacher\u2019s Education.\u00a0 During their review he was able to work with them.\u00a0 He put in place programs that would make us stronger.\u00a0 He was hiring faculty that was qualified in different fields.\u00a0 He just provided better and stronger academic program.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What do you remember about Margaret Wade?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well Margaret Wade I have known and loved since I was in junior high school.\u00a0 Margaret Wade was the coach at Cleveland High School, and always Cleveland High School\u2019s girl\u2019s basketball team was one of the finest women\u2019s basketball team in Mississippi.\u00a0 Back in 19, I am going to mess up the years, but in the late or middle 40\u2019s, in the middle late 40\u2019s her women\u2019s basketball team played in the finals, girl\u2019s state championship three years in a row.\u00a0 They lost all three years and came in second all three years by some total of five points.\u00a0 I believe that is correct.\u00a0 They lost one game by one point and two games by two points.\u00a0 It might have been they lost two games by one point and one game by two points.\u00a0 Anyway all those games were very close.\u00a0 So Cleveland High School had a great reputation in women\u2019s basketball.\u00a0 As I came up to Cleveland High School in the ninth grade I am starting on the boy\u2019s basketball team.\u00a0 Of course she had an office full of pictures and memos of wins that the Cleveland\u2019s girl\u2019s teams, and men\u2019s teams, and others that had performed.\u00a0 I used to hide out in her office.\u00a0 Well visit her office, and visit with her quite a bit.\u00a0 I just got to know Margaret Wade very well.\u00a0 Then when my dad as head of the health physical education and recreational department at Delta State was in need of someone to teach primarily women\u2019s sports, he hired Margaret Wade to come and teach for us at Delta State.\u00a0 Then when women\u2019s basketball started back up in 1972 or 3, Margaret Wade was already working for us and had a tremendous coaching experience.\u00a0 My dad, Dr. Lucas, others, and I talked with her about whether she would like to continue to coach in college.\u00a0 She did want to.\u00a0 Thank goodness what a phenomenal success she was.\u00a0 The first two years of my presidency she won the nationals championship both those years too.\u00a0 So that was three years in a row we were just the dominant power in women\u2019s basketball in this country in the world.\u00a0 Margaret was a wonderful lady.\u00a0 We used to call her queen because the city of Cleveland had recognized her many years ago at the Charity Ball as the Queen of the Charity Ball.\u00a0 So we called her not just coach but Queen Margaret also.\u00a0 She was a very good friend.\u00a0 She was a wonderful individual.\u00a0 She was a tough disciplinarian with her basketball team.\u00a0 She expected them to perform the way she asks them to, and they did.\u00a0 She knew basketball in and out, inside and outside, and she was a wonderful coach.\u00a0 She has the Wade Trophy named for her.\u00a0 The Wade Trophy is the equal to the men\u2019s Hiesman Trophy for football.\u00a0 It goes to the most outstanding women\u2019s basketball player in the country.\u00a0 It is awarded each year.\u00a0 I have been to different wonderful events in New York City at the Plaza, at the Waldorf-Astoria, at great hotels where the banquet is held that this trophy is awarded at.\u00a0 It is just a tremendous event great recognition for Delta State, Cleveland, for Mississippi.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What were your expectations or thoughts, as you became president?\u00a0 What was your plans or vision for the University?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 As I look back on that time as one progresses up from one position to another position particularly one of this magnitude of leadership you have some concerns about capability, preparedness to do this role to handle this role.\u00a0 While I had the greatest of love for the Delta State and knew I had the vitality and energy to put forth whatever effort was needed there was some concern as to how I would be received and that type thing by others at Delta State and in Mississippi.\u00a0 Going to Harvard for that month and half was a big help to me because there we were interacting with other presidents of other institutions, and other vice presidents from all over the country.\u00a0 You come away knowing you are as well prepared as any of them.\u00a0 That was reassuring to me.\u00a0 I guess some of the things I thought would have be important would be try to keep in perspective that the decisions that I made as president would be made in what I perceived to be in the best interest of Delta State University.\u00a0 An institution that I love, and an institution and a position to me there was no higher position.\u00a0 There were opportunities to have my name like that of Dr. Lucas of The University of Southern Mississippi had his name go forward to other Universities throughout the country for different positions, but I never wanted that.\u00a0 The presidency of Delta State to me was the premier position in higher education.\u00a0 So my desire was to make Delta State the best it can be, and involve those who knew Delta State and were knowledgeable about the institution in those decision-making processes.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Do you remember at what point before actually going or applying or being in the process of being chosen president that you realize that is what you wanted?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well my position even at the time that I was being considered was that I really wanted what was best for Delta State, and if there was someone else that was better and perceived to better than I was certainly going to support that individual.\u00a0 Though if I was the one that most people thought should be president then I certainly was going to do all I could to live up to that opportunity.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What were some of the early challenges that the University had that you had to deal with?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well the first big challenge I had was I guess about November.\u00a0 Mr. Smith came to me and told me that the revenue generated by student fees we had not met.\u00a0 Therefore we were going to have to make some budget adjustments in mid year in order to live within the revenue we had.\u00a0 Of course we had to call a faculty-staff meeting at the first of the second semester and explain to them the situation.\u00a0 Of course that is never pleasant thing to do when you have to reduce budgets in the middle year, cut out travel, cut out equipment, and cut out any supplies or money that might still remaining.\u00a0 Something though had to be done in order to get within our revenue.\u00a0 From then on our budget projections were such that we would be within our revenue.\u00a0 Except the years that the state of Mississippi had terrible short falls in their revenue, and therefore they had to reduce their allocations to the institutions of higher learning, particularly Delta State during the middle of the year.\u00a0 That was some really tough times, but that was later on in my presidency in 1986 or 7 along in there when we had those terrible budget cuts.\u00a0 In fact we had to delete from our budget fifty-six professional positions in one year because of the short fall in state revenue, not because of student fees or student enrollment.\u00a0 It was because the state just did not have the money to live up to the allocation that was alloted to us.\u00a0 When you have to terminate people that is the toughest job anybody could have particularly people that were productive and doing just what you wanted to happen.\u00a0 Though you just don\u2019t have the money to continue that position.\u00a0 To do that we involved all aspects of the University, we had a pretty large committee.\u00a0 We had some sub committees.\u00a0 We talked about the direction of the University, and did a lot of long range planning.\u00a0 We decided on certain areas that at that time were felt that we could probably do without.\u00a0 Without decimating the University.\u00a0 Those position then were eliminated.\u00a0 Thank goodness we have been able to replace most of those in the past few years.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What were some of the areas that were cut?\u00a0 And the flip side of that what were chosen or deemed to be the primary the core purpose?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well we wanted to protect the integrity of the academic programs first of all.\u00a0 Maintain the accreditation by the various departments in academic areas that have national accreditation.\u00a0 We did all we could to maintain those.\u00a0 Educational quality at Delta State is the most vital thing to the institution.\u00a0 If this institution is going to continue to grow and prosper that has to be the number one concern, and it was.\u00a0 We did away with such things as continue education, off-campus instruction.\u00a0 We pulled back in and did that.\u00a0 We terminated some positions in Library.\u00a0 We terminated positions in Public Information.\u00a0 All those kinds of things that we felt like while it was important to the institution, it was not as important as the detriment to the actually class enrollment, class size.\u00a0 Class size did get a larger, but it was still manageable.\u00a0 So we froze a lot of positions.\u00a0 We were able to eliminate several of them.\u00a0 Then some people just were not employed back the next year.\u00a0 Also some people were of the retirement age, and they chose to go on and retire.\u00a0 Then stay and work at the University half time.\u00a0 That was a big savings to the University.\u00a0 Those were some of the things that were done during that very terrible time for all aid institutions in Mississippi.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 When did your father retire?\u00a0 What was the relationship with you being president?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well that is a good story.\u00a0 Of course my dad was working at Delta State as head of the health physical education and recreational department when I was employed as Alumni Secretary.\u00a0 Then when I became assistant to the president he was still in that position.\u00a0 When I was named president of Delta State he was still employed here.\u00a0 I jokingly would like to say I retired my dad, but actually he intended to retire the year after I was president.\u00a0 So I was president one year while he was still head of the department.\u00a0 Then he retired the next year.\u00a0 He was sixty-seven years old, and he was ready to retire.\u00a0 I think that is pretty unusual.\u00a0 You know my dad had taught me here at Delta State when I was a student here, and then I come back.\u00a0 I was president, and he had to report to me.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Let\u2019s see so the budget cuts, the budget problems were a major concern.\u00a0 What do you think what improved the situation?\u00a0 And what was the relationship that you had with the legislator at that time in working through that?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well first of all as we went in to all of that you froze such things as any kinds of capital improvements, any kind of repair or renovations, any kind of equipment purchases, any kind of supplies that were not necessary for the classroom to operate.\u00a0 It was a tough time for Mississippi and for all of us.\u00a0 We of course worked with the legislator trying to impress upon them how severe it was affecting the institutions.\u00a0 At first there were some concern.\u00a0 \u201cWell you all had some fat anyway.\u00a0 It was a good way to down size and get you leaner.\u201d\u00a0 After a year or two of that there was no fat in any of our budgets so the legislator did come back and there was a tax increase that was beneficial certainly in helping stabilize where we were not continuing the downward drain from the institution.\u00a0 We lost some faculty members during that time that we would have liked to have kept.\u00a0 I think with higher salaries we could have kept them.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t have salary increases for a couple of years.\u00a0 One year we decided we just had to give a least three- percent salary increase, and we raised fees significantly.\u00a0 So the student cost were going up up up, and the state share was going down down down.\u00a0 So with no additional state funding we did give a three- percent raise across the board to our people.\u00a0 That made us increase some class sizes and do some other things.\u00a0 So people were doing more than what would normally would be expected of them in the administrative positions, and the secretarial positions, and all that type thing.\u00a0 We just felt like we had to increase salary some.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 During that time was the foundation able to kick in and help some?\u00a0 What was the situation with that?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 The foundation was helpful, but if you look at a salary increase that is not something that is not just a one time shot in the arm.\u00a0 The foundation could help in purchasing some equipment, some needed travel, or some one-time event.\u00a0 To put a salary increase on the foundation would mean that every year it would have to come up with that same amount of money.\u00a0 That is not wise utilization of the usually of foundation\u2019s funds.\u00a0 The foundation was pretty young in \u201987.\u00a0 While they have done very-very well in the last five years or so well that was not that much money being given to Delta State through the foundation.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What has been during your presidency the relationship of the University to Cleveland and to the delta?\u00a0 What was the role you kind of saw it was fulfilling in this region?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well I would say that is one thing I am really proud about is how the delta and even Mississippi now recognizes Delta State as an outstanding quality university.\u00a0 When we were a small teacher\u2019s college it seems like most of the delta felt like we were just a teacher\u2019s college up there.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t look upon us as having the same quality in our instructional programs as perhaps some of the larger universities did.\u00a0 Now that has changed.\u00a0 That perception of Delta State now is that I feel any place I go is that Delta State is a quality institution.\u00a0 That is where I would like for my son and daughter to go.\u00a0 I know there are going to get as could if not better training than would at \u201cX\u201d institution.\u00a0 I very very proud of that.\u00a0 I am not sure if that was you question, but that is an answer to something.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Well I wanted to know maybe what you, we hear a lot now about being a good neighbor in the delta and just the leadership?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well in the last fifteen years we have had an opportunity to become more involved in economic development through the delta.\u00a0 Actually when I was back in school here the economic development was all agriculture.\u00a0 Of course Delta State does not have any role in agriculture because of Mississippi State and the Experiment Center in Stoneville which is run through Mississippi State University.\u00a0 The board of trustees want allow us to do anything in agriculture.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t have much of a role there, but as the delta has become more diverse and with more employment opportunities for our people.\u00a0 Different kinds of businesses, corporations, and industry we have become part of that through Delta Council and through the Chamber of Commerce\u2019s in different towns.\u00a0 So we are providing opportunities and leadership in that area now that we haven\u2019t been involved in before.\u00a0 We have gotten several huge grants to assist.\u00a0 We have a facility now that primarily that is all that it is doing is working to improve the delta through training for elected officials and other economic development opportunities.\u00a0 We have branched out from being just a school to train teachers and a school that was just teaching academic courses to doing a lot of other things to benefit the area, which we live.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What about the Ayers\u2019s case?\u00a0 When did it start?\u00a0 And when did you become aware of it?\u00a0 And what has been your experience in the resolution?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 The first year I was president, 1975, was the first year that depositions were taking for the Ayers\u2019s case, and they took mine that first year.\u00a0 The Ayers\u2019s case is still going on.\u00a0 Of course it is a shame that the Ayers\u2019s case was ever needed.\u00a0 We should have had open access to all who were qualified from the start, but we didn\u2019t.\u00a0 So the Ayers\u2019s case was filed.\u00a0 I think the problem that I had with the Ayers\u2019s case is that it has changed through the years.\u00a0 When they first talked with me and took my deposition, the Ayers\u2019s case was about admissions, open access for all equal opportunity for all.\u00a0 Now of course access is available, and it has changed from this amount of money for this institution to this amount of money.\u00a0 It seems to thrive on itself.\u00a0 The opportunity to settle the Ayers\u2019s case does not look to me in the immediate future.\u00a0 It has been several tries to settle the Ayers\u2019s case, but you could not get the plaintiffs to say what it would take to settle it.\u00a0 What ever you say was not enough.\u00a0 We have had several opportunities; the board has through their attorneys to try to settle the case.\u00a0 It has cost Mississippi untold millions of dollars not only to money going to various historically black institutions, but also what it has cost the other institutions and the historically black institutions to provide data and sources and that kind of thing for the law suit.\u00a0 Of course the lawyer\u2019s fees are certainly up in the many millions of dollars.\u00a0 I believe I am the only president that has testified both times before Judge Biggers that the Ayers\u2019s case has appeared before him.\u00a0 The first trial of course Judge Biggers made a ruling on that, and it went to the fifth circuit court of appeals.\u00a0 It was upheld there, and then it was sent to the Supreme Court.\u00a0 The Supreme Court turned it around and sent it back to Judge Biggers court again.\u00a0 So then several years later we has another hearing before Judge Biggers, and at that time Judge Biggers handed down the decision that we are operating under right now.\u00a0 While I am certainly for equal access and equal opportunity for everyone, it just looks like the Ayers\u2019s case is been alive longer than it was needed.\u00a0 What settlement that is required needs to be worked out done.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What were some of the proposed resolutions?\u00a0 I know at some point there was talk of combining institutions and eliminating institutions.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well the board with the advise from its attorneys looked at ways to meet to what the Supreme Court when they handed back down the decision to Judge Biggers what the lawyers felt the Supreme Court was saying.\u00a0 One way to do that they felt was to eliminate some of the institutions.\u00a0 Then you would not have duplications of programs and duplications of institutions.\u00a0 So the one way was to take Mississippi University for Women and merge it into Mississippi State.\u00a0 Mississippi Valley and Delta State would both be closed, and a new institution would open named Delta Valley University in Cleveland.\u00a0 Judge Biggers and the plaintiffs did not buy that.\u00a0 I think those options are all dead now, and the various eight institutions are recognized as needed by higher education in Mississippi.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What were the thoughts and reactions of the folks here about the possibility of combining?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well I know Valley didn\u2019t like that, and I know Delta State people did not like that.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a really workable and an acceptable solution.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What have been some of the things that you felt were most important and significant contributions of your presidency?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well after twenty-four years on the spur of the moment I think that as a university grows you have to have programs that attract students to your institution.\u00a0 So a big success that we had in my administration is bringing new academic programs to Delta State, and then getting them accredited by their national professional association.\u00a0 We have been successful in getting all of our programs accredited by their national professional association.\u00a0 There are very few schools our size that can make that claim.\u00a0 That is saying the quality in our program is the same as those any wherein the United States.\u00a0 They meet the requirements of these national professional associations, and some of them are very stringent.\u00a0 So that means a awful lot to me that the qualities here and the students coming here can know they are going to get the best education that they could get anywhere in the United States.\u00a0 I would say that is one of my proudest accomplishments.\u00a0 I can go into the music department and be very proud of the band and where it has come from to where it is today.\u00a0 The choral groups are the same thing.\u00a0 Athletics, this past year we won the Gulf South Conference Trophy for the strongest men\u2019s program in the conference.\u00a0 I am very proud of that.\u00a0 Women\u2019s basketball has brought such a claim.\u00a0 Men\u2019s basketball is doing very well.\u00a0 Baseball at Delta State has always has been an outstanding Division 2 program.\u00a0 Then if you look at facilities.\u00a0 Delta State when I was here as a student was woefully behind in facilities.\u00a0 Now I don\u2019t know if a major need that this university has or will have in the near future that it will not meet.\u00a0 Those are things I think that Delta State people and graduates should be proud of.\u00a0 You know you look at where we were with the computers and technology seven or eight years ago to where we are today, and what we have on line for the library is totally finished.\u00a0 We are just way ahead of where we were, and that is good.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What did you do with the legislator as far as the mid eighties when everything was so bad and then to where we are now of really boom funding of what I can see?\u00a0 How did you all work with the legislature to ensure that?\u00a0 And what conditions helped that?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Of course Dr. Leroy Morgan has been my main contact with the legislature.\u00a0 I was working with him.\u00a0 I think what we have stressed since I have been president we always wanted them to know that we tell them is absolute truth.\u00a0 We are not trying to provide them with any information that is anywhere out of line.\u00a0 What we tell them they can believe.\u00a0 They like that.\u00a0 So they have confidence in what you tell them.\u00a0 Through the years we have been able to gain that confidence in the legislature.\u00a0 Also since we have been here for a while and some of the leadership in the legislator has been there for a while they have gotten to know us pretty well, and we have got to know them pretty well.\u00a0 They understand, if we say this is a real need we have at Delta State they are going to do what they can to help us because they want Delta State to be strong too.\u00a0 It is just like all aid institutions.\u00a0 I think that is the accredability of our request to the legislator.\u00a0 Then the interaction we have had with the leadership in the legislature has been vitally important with us.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What changes have you seen in higher education in Mississippi during your participation in administration at that level?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well of course I have been going to the legislators since Dr. Ewing which would have been since 1966 or so.\u00a0 I also have been going to the board meetings with the Dr. Ewing and Dr. Lucas, and now my own.\u00a0 The board structure has changed a little bit.\u00a0 In that they had one member that was a kind of a quayside member that is no longer on the board.\u00a0 They have changed the title, and to some degree the responsibility and power of the executive officer from executive secretary to commissioner of higher education.\u00a0 We have a wonderful system to work through that all eight institutions report to one board.\u00a0 So we do have a central controlling board that can mandate what is necessary to each eight institutions.\u00a0 At the same time since we do have only one board for all eight institutions that gives the institution a lot of autonomy.\u00a0 It allows us to go ahead and do things on campus without having the control of the board at all times.\u00a0 It is a good system, and I think Mississippi\u2019s IHL system is the best in the country.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 One last question, what went into your decision to retire when you did?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Okay, why did I retire when I did.\u00a0 Well I was sixty-five and normally sixty-five is considered retirement age.\u00a0 I would be less than honest if I didn\u2019t tell you that probably was planning in my mind if I could go to the year two thousand and twenty-five years at Delta State that would be a wonderful opportunity and thing to do.\u00a0 As the year progressed last year everything was so good.\u00a0 Delta State was in the best financial situation that it has ever been in.\u00a0 We got the buildings coming.\u00a0 The student body was great.\u00a0 The athletics was good.\u00a0 Music was good.\u00a0 Everything was at a high, and my feeling was that my goodness this is a great opportunity to bring someone in here to Delta State.\u00a0 It was just an attracted position.\u00a0 We would have the best applicants you could find anywhere.\u00a0 I guess my wife says I am a creature of timing, and I felt for Delta State\u2019s own good that the timing was really right last year to begin a search.\u00a0 I think that is certainly has come out that way with Dr. David Potter as president.\u00a0 I think we have a wonderful, capable new leader.\u00a0 After twenty-four years I guess it is time for new leadership.\u00a0 Let me tell you something, this probably has nothing to do with it, but each year we have a group of freshman that we have in different groups.\u00a0 They will come around and visit different parts of the campus.\u00a0 Each groups comes by the president\u2019s office.\u00a0 A year ago I was talking to a group.\u00a0 They ask me how long I have been president, and I would tell them since 1975.\u00a0 How many were you all born in 1975?\u00a0 Not a single hand went up.\u00a0 So I thought then you know it is about time for me to consider stepping down and allowing new leadership to come to Delta State.\u00a0 I just felt like Delta State could not be better off than it is now, and it would attract good applicants and it did.\u00a0 It was just time for me to retire.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What are your plans now?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Stay active, play golf.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 You are involved in the Chamber.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I am on the Chamber board still.\u00a0 I am still on some NCAA committees and activities.\u00a0 Dr. Potter has asked me to work as we bring the new Greenville Center on line to help with that.\u00a0 I probably will be helping with some of the legislator activities this year.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Was there anything else today that you want or we might come back another time on a few things.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Let\u2019s come back on another time.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Okay<\/p>\n

Tape 3 of 3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 November 9, 1999<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I recall that during the first year as president in 1975 that my address to the faculty.\u00a0 We emphasized how important quality at Delta State was, and how we must stand against great inflation even if we have to stand alone.\u00a0 We must maintain the academic integrity and quality of the University.\u00a0 I think that was well received by faculty.\u00a0 I think they worked hard during my twenty-four years as president to maintain those standards that the we outlined back in 1975.\u00a0 During that first year, I remember thinking how busy things were getting set up and getting started. \u00a0Then things kind of smoothed out during the year.\u00a0 Then at graduation time, I thought well boy the week and two weeks after graduation when the campus is pretty much shut down.\u00a0 That will be a down time for me, and the time I will have to play golf and so forth. Actually it turned out to be just the opposite.\u00a0 Since the faculty was not busy that was their opportunity to come visit with the president and to tell the president of their concerns and their desires for the University.\u00a0 So actually the week or so after graduation was probably one of the busiest times for me.\u00a0 That was a surprise. The relationship with faculty was very very important to me.\u00a0 Not having come from the faculty to the presidency, but coming through the administrative position to the presidency, I felt that it was important that I give faculty a major say in the decision making process of Delta State.\u00a0 We developed a administrative advisory council, which had elected faculty of each area of the institution.\u00a0 They were elected by their department and school, and they met with the president and the cabinet at least once a month usually more frequently.\u00a0 That was a group that helped guide the University in policy decisions and direction that it should go.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 You mentioned the cabinet. \u00a0Is that something as far as you know the other presidents had done?\u00a0 Or was that . . .?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well Dr. Lucas started with a group of the administrative leaders that met with him about weekly.\u00a0 I guess the name cabinet while it was pretty much an informal group at first that we just met ever Monday morning at eight thirty or nine.\u00a0 The name grew to be the cabinet even though it is not officially such a body.\u00a0 It was an opportunity for me to have all the administrative heads of every area of the campus meet for an hour or more each week.\u00a0 We made sure we had communications between different areas for example the academic area and the student personnel area and the same thing for the business area and athletic area.\u00a0 It was so we can iron out any problems that we might we were going to face that week, and it turned out to be very productive.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 How would you describe your management style?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 You know I guess it is how people perceive you and how you perceive yourself is many times different.\u00a0 I have tried to be very open with my administration at Delta State.\u00a0 I had, I guess, what is normally called an open door policy.\u00a0 People can drop in and visit with me.\u00a0 I certainly encourage students to do that too because I felt like that the input that I could gain from these kinds of opportunities were very important in decision making for Delta State.\u00a0 I enjoyed the interaction with students, faculty, and a more of a recreational setting and social setting.\u00a0 I think that also shows to the students and the faculty that you are available.\u00a0 They can come and visit with you.\u00a0 In some of my speeches to the faculty and staff, I would make a point that my door was always open to them.\u00a0 They found that they were stymied in their position, and they were not being heard.\u00a0 They were certainly okay for them to come and talk with me about a decision.\u00a0 I would listen to them.\u00a0 If there were some need that needs to be made, changes needed to be made, we go through the more formal process of doing that.\u00a0 At least it gives the person an opportunity to come and talk with the president and tell them of their concerns.\u00a0 They don\u2019t feel like they are locked in and no where to go.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What is the most difficult aspect of being president, administratively for you?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well, I guess tough decision involving personnel.\u00a0 If you have to terminate someone, that is tough because they have family.\u00a0 They have others that are depending on them.\u00a0 When you have to make decisions that are negative toward the individual, that is hard to do.\u00a0 I will tell you the way I was able to handle that in my mind and feel very good about those kinds decisions that had to be made during the years was that I tried to always look at what was best for Delta State.\u00a0 If it was best to make a change, then it was in the best interest of Delta State.\u00a0 It would make Delta State better by making that change.\u00a0 Then I could make that change, and go with it.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Describe a typical day in the life of you as president?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well I guess a typical day would be, I would wake before six.\u00a0 I would be over to the Wyatt Building for exercise somewhere between six fifteen or six thirty.\u00a0 I would exercise for thirty minutes.\u00a0 I would home to the president\u2019s home.\u00a0 I would get dressed and be at office by seven.\u00a0 I am not a big breakfast eater.\u00a0 I would get to the office by eight o\u2019clock.\u00a0 Then during the day, if it was a Monday, we would always have Cabinet meeting at eight thirty or nine.\u00a0 Most days there would be people who had made appointments with me for one reason or another.\u00a0 Then normally during lunch time there would be some luncheon that I would attend whether it would be ODK, Student Government Association leaders that I would have lunch with.\u00a0 It might be downtown with some foundation people usually there was a luncheon engagement with Lyon\u2019s club at noon on Fridays.\u00a0 I was seldom home for lunch.\u00a0 Then back to the office in the afternoon.\u00a0 I was home by five.\u00a0 Then usually there would be some activity at Delta State that we would attend, whether it would be choral group, band performance, athletic event, student government event, Renaissance, some performance put on at the Bologna Performing Arts Center after it was constructed.\u00a0 It was very active.\u00a0 It was something that we enjoyed a lot.\u00a0 I would probably be gone from the campus five days a month. That would include board meetings in Jackson, maybe legislative activities in Jackson, or meeting with alumni in different places throughout the state, or other types of business activities that would take me away from the campus.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 You mentioned the president\u2019s home.\u00a0 What was it?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if this is common any more for there to be a president\u2019s home on campus.\u00a0 What do you think that affect maybe that had on your presidency?\u00a0 You know living on campus, being in the middle of things.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I think the president\u2019s home has great value by being located on or very close to the campus.\u00a0 It means that you are more totally involved with the activities that are taking place there.\u00a0 I think the faculty, staff, students look upon you as more of an interval part of the institution even during off hours when the presidents live on campus.\u00a0 I am aware of a new trend in new institutions where the president\u2019s home are built off campus.\u00a0 As far as having University activities in the president\u2019s home is more difficult to do when it is off campus than it is on campus.\u00a0 So I think there is a real need in a place for the president to be living real close to campus if not on the campus.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What kind of activities would you host in your home?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well we have hosted everything from student groups, Student Association Leaders, athletic teams, cheerleaders, music groups, we had a big Christmas open house, which is not only faculty and staff, but many in the community were invited during the Christmas season.\u00a0 We have had and hosted events that will be entertainment for legislators and for board members.\u00a0 It was seldom a week would go by that there wouldn\u2019t be some activity in the president\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 If you could talk about some of the academic changes that were made during your presidency, I think whenever you took over there weren\u2019t.\u00a0 There were the EDD.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 No there wasn\u2019t an EDD.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Oh okay, I thought that was in the early seventies.\u00a0 So really it became offered more graduate degrees during your presidency.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Right I would say that, you know the one thing that I am very, very proud of is the academic quality of Delta State.\u00a0 I think as I said early, that you have to have the programs that people want in order to attract students.\u00a0 You have to have quality in those programs.\u00a0 We had at Delta State when I became president the master\u2019s in several areas.\u00a0 The masters in Business Administration even.\u00a0 Later on we added the Executive MBA in Business Administration.\u00a0 There is a tremendous need in the delta for doctoral degrees in education.\u00a0 Because of our under graduate education program and our master\u2019s level in educational specialist level program was so strong.\u00a0 The consultants that visits all eight institutions evaluating these programs.\u00a0 Agreed with us that we had the strength there to offer a doctoral program.\u00a0 Therefore the board allowed us to move the EDD degree.\u00a0 Therefore an institution our size that is kind of unusual that you would be abeto doctrine.\u00a0 The need in the delta is so great.\u00a0 The quality of our programs are so good, the board agreed to that.\u00a0 That has been a big program for us.\u00a0 Some other things that we had started that we are very proud.\u00a0 The aviation program, that was a term would be good for us to be able to get that program at Delta State.\u00a0 Actually we were the first institution to go to the board and request that we be allowed to have the Commercial Aviation Program here.\u00a0 That has three tracks to it.\u00a0 One you are actually pilot training.\u00a0 You are teaching people to fly.\u00a0 Second it teaches people to work as a fixed based operator just in the aviation industry.\u00a0 Third, you have the program with the F. A. A.\u00a0 It is a program that the students will go through, and when they come out they would have an opportunity to work in the summers with the F. A. A.\u00a0 Therefore they don\u2019t have to go through the civil service to move into that field.\u00a0 We have a lot of students that choose that.\u00a0 It is a good program.\u00a0 It is not only flight training.\u00a0 It has other majors for it.\u00a0 When we went to the board.\u00a0 The board said well this is kind of a new degree, we will take it under advisement.\u00a0 Well the next month the University of Southern Mississippi came in and requested the same program.\u00a0 So the board said we will have to study and see where it would be best suited.\u00a0 We were able to convince them over the next couple of months that the flying environment in the Mississippi Delta was safer.\u00a0 It would be better to house that program here than at another campus.\u00a0 That is the only unique program that we have at Delta State compared to all the other institutions, eight institutions in Mississippi.\u00a0 It brings students in not only from the Mississippi delta and Mississippi, but all over the nation.\u00a0 So that is a program that we are proud of, and we have been a very safe program.\u00a0 We have never had an accident or any consequence at all.\u00a0 So I am proud of what they have done there.\u00a0 Then the other program is the nurse\u2019s school.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t have nursing.\u00a0 I had a delegation of hospital administrators in the delta come to me and tell me the need for more nurses to meet the health needs of the delta.\u00a0 We went to the board and requested it.\u00a0 We had the president of there association come down and meet with the board.\u00a0 Finally we were able to convince them of the tremendous need that we have.\u00a0 So we were allowed to start a nursing school.\u00a0 Now we not only have the nursing program, but we have the master\u2019s degree in nursing also.\u00a0 So those are a few of the degrees that were added.\u00a0 We have added many more in most every school or college at the University now.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of course we have upgraded the institution from an institution that has schools and departments to colleges, schools, and departments.\u00a0 That also is a strength academically.\u00a0 Those are some things that I am very proud that has taken place during my administration.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Speaking of reorganization, there was a reorganization in 1969 under Dr. Ewing.\u00a0\u00a0 Were you around whenever that was done?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Yes I was here in 1969.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Do you remember anything about that reorganization?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Yes, that time we just had departments and we went to schools.\u00a0 He established deans and departments.\u00a0 That was a good move.\u00a0 At that time we were growing pretty rapidly, or had grown for the last three or four years pretty rapidly.\u00a0 We needed those divisions at the institutions.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 So what we into the thinking of the latest reorganization, going to the colleges?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well the same thing.\u00a0 We are growing academically.\u00a0 Some of our areas needed that separation from college to school.\u00a0 We still have the school of nursing.\u00a0 We have some of our areas that have multi-discipline areas in there.\u00a0 It just fit better.\u00a0 It is more prestigious to be a college than just schools.<\/p>\n

TZ: What has been your experience and relationship with Delta Council during your presidency?<\/p>\n

KW: Well delta of course is the area kind of like the Chamber of Commerce.\u00a0 It has primarily been inactive in agricultural kinds of things, but it has been very active in assisting education, bringing business, bringing highways, bringing the infra-structure that the delta needed to grow and to prosper like we have done like we have done the last several years.\u00a0 I have been connected and participating in Delta Council events because it is always held here on campus since well since we first moved here back in 1946.\u00a0 I can remember some of the great speakers that they have had.\u00a0 I participated in some of those things.\u00a0 Even when I was a student here, there was quite a big event that one day.\u00a0 Then after I became president, I became more involved.\u00a0 I was on the board some.\u00a0 I have been on committees every year.\u00a0 I was a Vice President a year or two.\u00a0 I am pleased with the Delta Council and what it does for the Mississippi delta.\u00a0 They have been very helpful to us in Washington when trying to get new programs and funding for our on going programs.\u00a0 We appreciate that association there.\u00a0 B. F. Smith was of course the long time executive director of Delta Council.\u00a0 He was our graduate.\u00a0 Upon his retirement, we were looking there for an opportunity to do something to recognize B. F. Smith. Also do something for Delta State University Foundation.\u00a0 Ed Kossman and I went down and met with Morris Lewis in Indianola.\u00a0 We talked with Morris about some ideas about giving to Delta State.\u00a0 Through that conversation, I felt it would be something he felt that Morris Lewis felt that Delta Council members would all support would be to establish a chair, a B. F. Smith Chair for economical development here at Delta State.\u00a0 It was very easy for us to raise that million dollars for the B. F. Smith was.\u00a0 So that was another way that Delta Council has really benefited Delta State University.\u00a0 Then since B. F. Smith retirement I have had the pleasure of working with Chip Morgan.\u00a0 Chip has been highly supported of different things that we have done (?) to do at Delta State.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 You have talked a little bit about giving money, endowing the chair.\u00a0 What about the Performing Arts Center?\u00a0 How did that come?\u00a0 Who had the idea for that?\u00a0 How did it get started?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well I have had the Performing Arts Center as the number one need on our campus building construction oh for more than ten years before we were able to get it funded.\u00a0 The legislature and the building commission, Building Bureau and Grounds kind of looked past to other kinds of needs that we would have on campus, but not look favorably upon the Performing Arts Center.\u00a0 After several years of it being on our top list, finally it got on the Board of Trustees top ten list.\u00a0 Then when those were funded that the board had.\u00a0 It was funded also.\u00a0 That was a great, great day for us for Delta State.\u00a0 My feeling was that the delta has such fantastic cultural activities.\u00a0 People who have been involved in theatre, singing, blues, and other things.\u00a0 We needed to have some place here in the delta that all Deltains could kind of come to for different kinds of cultural activities.\u00a0 The Performing Arts Center has certainly drawn those people together.\u00a0 The delta people has supported it tremendously.\u00a0 At the time the building was completed.\u00a0 Our foundation was having its first capital campaign.\u00a0 The building was constructed of course with state monies. Part of the capital campaign we thought it would be good that if we could raise money to supplement the cost of performances.\u00a0 That would be a big boost to what kind of programs we could bring into the delta, and still not have to charge $75 to $100 dollars for a ticket.\u00a0 We very, very fortunate in the way that drive was accepted and responded to by the people of the delta.\u00a0 The chairs that were sold for thousand dollars a chair was a tremendous success.\u00a0 Certain parts of the building were available for fifty to twenty-five, hundred thousand to half million dollars.\u00a0 The building would be named for two million dollars.\u00a0 We were having such great success with that.\u00a0 We contacted.\u00a0 We let people know that some of the things in the Performing Arts Center were available for naming. Of course the Tims here in Cleveland named part of the building for Ms. Tims.\u00a0 McPhersons in Indianola part of the building for there.\u00a0 It was just a great response.\u00a0 Then Roger Malcolm came over.\u00a0 He was talking to me about making fifty thousand dollar gift to the University to the Bologna Performing Arts Center.\u00a0 We were looking for naming opportunities.\u00a0 I took him into the theatre.\u00a0 I told him that the Delta and Pine Land Theatre would be a good fit.\u00a0 Would he consider a half million dollars in naming that for Delta Pine Land, the theatre part.\u00a0 He liked that idea.\u00a0 He said well let me think about it.\u00a0 We had a performance that evening.\u00a0 He said I will tell you before the performance starts.\u00a0 I said well okay.\u00a0 I will see you then.\u00a0 He had came back to the performance.\u00a0 I had told a few people that Roger Malcolm had said that he would give us a fifty thousand dollar gift for the Performing Arts Center.\u00a0 We were working on that.\u00a0 So before the performance, I go up on stage to make the announcement of some gifts.\u00a0 I said, \u201cRoger Malcomn of Delta and Pine Land is going to give five hundred thousand dollars for the naming of the theatre.\u00a0 Charlie Capps was sitting by my wife.\u00a0 He said, \u201cOh my goodness, Kent has made a mistake.\u00a0 It is supposed to be fifty thousand dollars.\u201d\u00a0 Of course the half million dollar gift was very, very well received by all in attendance.\u00a0 Then as we talked to Roger Malcolm about this with the press.\u00a0 He stated that how he would like to see that be a catalyst to get others to give and to continue to give.\u00a0 Then following that.\u00a0 I had the opportunity to talk on the phone with Boo Ferris about his good friend, Nino Bologna, Dr. Bologna in Greenville who might be interested in doing something with the Performing Arts Center.\u00a0 I immediately contacted Nino.\u00a0 He told me that he for a long time had the desire to do something in the performing arts way, and perhaps fund a structure in Greenville for theatre of some type.\u00a0 We talked about how if you do it at Delta State this is something that is going to be here.\u00a0 We are going to maintain it.\u00a0 We are going to have a professional staff.\u00a0 It is going to be well done.\u00a0 We have money to support it.\u00a0 We can just enhance it even more if he would make a gift to it.\u00a0 As we talked about it.\u00a0 The naming of the facility was something I thought would be good.\u00a0 We had established it would be a two million dollar gift to name the facility for someone.\u00a0 I talked with him about that.\u00a0 He had some tragedies in his family with his daughter\u2019s death and his son\u2019s death.\u00a0 This was a way to recognize them.\u00a0 We were very fortunate that Dr. Bologna and his wife decided that they would contribute two million dollars to the fund so that we could have a tremendous endowment that is there forever in order enhance the opportunities for performances in the Bologna Performing Arts Center.\u00a0 That was a great day when we named that facility for Dr. Bologna.\u00a0 I think we are still getting a lot of gifts and financial contributions to the theatre.\u00a0 It has just been a tremendous addition to the delta.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Another development that has had impact all across the delta is the center for Community Development.\u00a0 If you could talk a little bit about how that got started, and the idea behind it?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 The center for Economic Community Development that was part of the out growth of the B. F. Smith chair.\u00a0 We had funding in order to do a national search for the chair holder.\u00a0 We looked at many through out the country.\u00a0 We had consultants to help in that search.\u00a0 We had a couple of people that we interviewed.\u00a0 Some came and worked a little while.\u00a0 Then Jerry Robinson was the person finalized on.\u00a0 Dr. Robinson when he came to Delta State, he was able to get a large grant.\u00a0 We got so involved with the things that were going on with community development aspect that we decided to separate the Economic Community Development into just community development and economic development.\u00a0 B. F. Smith Chair being the economic development area and Dr. Robinson and his grant being the community development.\u00a0 From that we were able to get the Ameri-Corp activities and just all types of funding and other activities taking place that will help community development.\u00a0 We were able to buy a building just adjacent to the campus and renovate it.\u00a0 That is where it is housed.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Who, when was the first idea of it developed?\u00a0 Did somebody come to you with the suggestion, or was it something that you saw a need for in your planning?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 The economic and community development?<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Yes<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well it was when we talked to Morris Lewis, really.\u00a0 We talked about how B. F. Smith had been so involved that type thing.\u00a0 If you are going to have a chair named for individual, you know it would be good to be in the field that he is in that he has done his life\u2019s work.\u00a0 So instead of it being in English or something in that nature, it was pre-appropriate that we look for that chair in economic and community development.\u00a0 All that every bit of this is an outgrowth of that effort.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 In some of the strategic planning that is going on now there is a lot of emphasizes on what is been termed culture of Delta State.\u00a0 What do you think, how would you describe that culture?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Be more specific with me.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Well I think one of that something is idea that they want to develop as a way to recruit and a way put out there with the organizations, values, or how people are treated.\u00a0 How things are done.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I think it is very important the way that people perceive an institution.\u00a0 If parents are going to trust their children to us for education, I think it is great that they know about us and understand who we are and what we are about.\u00a0 Through the years I have seen Delta State always touted as a friendly school.\u00a0 One time, a long time ago, in the fifties and forties, they had the slogan the \u201cFriendly School in Dixie \u201c.\u00a0 I think that the relationship of faculty to students is one of congeniality of friendship.\u00a0 It is almost family like.\u00a0 In fact, I know several faculty have students who come to their homes and study there and eat with them.\u00a0 It is a good atmosphere.\u00a0 I have had the opportunity, of course when I was at Harvard for a summer, to attend and visit many of the elite schools in the North East, the private schools.\u00a0 Most of them are the size of Delta State.\u00a0 They are smaller, undergraduate schools where there is a low student teacher ratio.\u00a0 It is similar what we have had through the years at Delta State.\u00a0 The relationship there is a good academic environment.\u00a0 That is what we want at Delta State.\u00a0 So I think that is the way I have seen Delta State through the years.\u00a0 It has quality education, small class sizes, and interaction of faculty with students, and I think that is where learning takes place.\u00a0 I think it is a good environment.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Was it like that when you were a student?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 It was definitely like that when I was a student.\u00a0 Faculty members were very caring.\u00a0 They worked with us.\u00a0 Dr. Eleanor Walters is a good example of that.\u00a0 So I have of course seen Delta State grow so much that some people think you can\u2019t continue to have that kind of environment.\u00a0 I think we do to a great degree.\u00a0 You passed the students on campus.\u00a0 They still speak to you.\u00a0 They speak to each other.\u00a0 I like that.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Another development during your presidency was the Greenville Center.\u00a0 Could you talk a little bit about why that was put as a priority?\u00a0 What all it has entailed?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well since W. W. II, Delta State has been teaching courses in Greenville.\u00a0 These have been housed in facilities that were not really the best even though they had been in the public school system buildings.\u00a0 We did not have the equipment needed.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t have the library holdings and those kinds of things that would make the academic offering down there comparable to what you would have on campus.\u00a0 Greenville has for many years talked about that it is the largest city in the country that does not have a two or a four year private or public institution in its city limits.\u00a0 Of course the community college is located about fifty miles away.\u00a0 We are located about thirty-five miles away.\u00a0 I guess the community college is about thirty-five miles away.\u00a0 We are all so, they taught in Greenville.\u00a0 They have an extension there, but it is not the same as having on going institution.\u00a0 So there has been a push for that for many years.\u00a0 The volume of prospected students are there.\u00a0 After a survey was done, Greenville decided to make a real push for a facility there.\u00a0 There legislative leaders from Washington County and Greenville were able to pass a bill in legislature to construct this about twelve, thirteen million dollar facility there.\u00a0 Delta State, we plan to be the lead institution there. Of course the community college, Mississippi Delta Community College, will have to teach the freshman and sophomore courses.\u00a0 Then we and Mississippi Valley will teach the upper level and the graduate courses.\u00a0 I really see this as a win-win situation for Delta State while we might lose some of our students to this facility.\u00a0 I think at the same time some students will start there, and then they will want to come on campus to finish their degree.\u00a0 I think most students who want a college environment will still come to Delta State for that.\u00a0 We will be teaching courses there in the year 2001.\u00a0 The construction is pretty much on time table that was projected for it.\u00a0 We will be hiring a director sometime in February or March of the year 2000.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What has been some of the civic organization and activities that you have been involved in?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Oh me, I better get out my biographical information sheet.\u00a0 Well I have been a member of the Lion\u2019s Club for well since 1962, I guess.\u00a0 I have also been on the Chamber board.\u00a0 I have been on the Industrial Development Foundation Board for Bolivar County.\u00a0 I was on the board and Vice President for several years for the Mississippi Committee for the Humanities.\u00a0 I have been President of Mississippi Association of Colleges.\u00a0 I have been on the Key Committee of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.\u00a0 I have been in athletics.\u00a0 I have been on the N. C. A. A. council.\u00a0 I have been on there president\u2019s council.\u00a0 I was on the committee that selected the new executive director of the N. C. A. A.\u00a0 I have been president of the Community Way Drive.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 United Way<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 United Way Drive, I have worked on the drive many years.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I just can\u2019t remember all these things.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Why did you get involved with these sorts of things?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well I felt like as a Cleveland native first.\u00a0 I have always wanted what was best for Cleveland and certainly for Delta State.\u00a0 I guess like people.\u00a0 I like to interact with people.\u00a0 If they ask me to do something, it is very difficult for me to turn someone down.\u00a0 I hope in my retirement years.\u00a0 I can learn to say no better.\u00a0 I have enjoyed that.\u00a0 I have enjoyed that interaction with people.\u00a0 It is a feeling that you are doing something good for the community or for an organization.\u00a0 Oh gosh, I was president of P. D. K., Phi Delta Kappa.\u00a0 I got to get out my list.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Well, in those roles you had opportunities to see Cleveland change over the years and the delta change probably over the years.\u00a0 What changes have you seen, both in the town and the larger region?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Now the most significant change has been integration.\u00a0 African Americans having access to what whites had previously.\u00a0 Seeing how they have enhanced there economy and most everything else in the delta.\u00a0 That is certainly the biggest change I have seen in the delta.\u00a0 Then of course in Cleveland, I have seen in go from a very small community to a very vibrant, thriving probably the most progressive community in the delta.\u00a0 Then all the new construction and everything in Cleveland and at Delta State has certainly been a big boost to this area.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Why do you think that Cleveland has survived when so many of the other towns in the delta haven\u2019t?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 That question has been asked many times.\u00a0 Of course my response is that Cleveland is very fortunate early on that we did have a couple of very good strong industries in Cleveland that continued to grow and expand, which gave some job opportunities there.\u00a0 Certainly Delta State is the unique aspect of Cleveland.\u00a0 You can look at communities like Indianola that has had similar kinds of industrial base and industry there that significant growth, but they haven\u2019t been able to do what Cleveland has.\u00a0 I think the reason for that is the University is here.\u00a0 I think you can look around at most University towns in Mississippi and other places, Starksville and Oxford and how they have grown because of the Universities are there.\u00a0 I think most anyone would say that Delta State is the catalyst and probably the main reason that Cleveland and the Bolivar County area has done so well.\u00a0 When I grew up for example, Drew and Cleveland were comparable.\u00a0 They were big competitors in the athletic events and that type thing.\u00a0 Then look at what has happened to Drew, and look what has happened to Cleveland.\u00a0 It has been tremendous shifts in population trends and growth.\u00a0 Cleveland has been very fortunate there.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Is there anything, I have a few questions that I wanted to ask from earlier, from your earlier life.\u00a0 Is there anything else from Presidency that maybe we haven\u2019t talked about?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Then my retirement, we have talked about that.\u00a0 The process of Dr. Potter being selected, I am very pleased with that.\u00a0 My major, honestly, my major concern what really is best for Delta State.\u00a0 I think Delta State is just couldn\u2019t be better off than what it is right now.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What are you most?\u00a0 You have answered this not in a direct way just because the way we have gone about.\u00a0 What are you most proud of?<\/p>\n

KW: \u00a0Well my family, my marriage, then my two daughters and their successes in life, and how they have adjusted and well adjusted.\u00a0 I enjoyed life to the fullest.\u00a0 Their accomplishments, Tara she has just done fantastically well.\u00a0 Her husband, Henry (?), and they have two children.\u00a0 She has worked at the University of Mississippi Medical Center since her graduation with a medical library science degree.\u00a0 She has a master\u2019s degree.\u00a0 She is very active in the community.\u00a0 She has been president of the Junior League.\u00a0 Then Elizabeth has been a wonderful, outstanding student.\u00a0 She has been Mississippi\u2019s Ms. Hospitality.\u00a0 Then going through med. School.\u00a0 Now she is an othomologists.\u00a0 She and her husband, Blate Mitchell, are both doctors.\u00a0 I am just very, very of my family.\u00a0 I enjoy them emisely.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Well that gives us back a little bit to some of the questions that I was going to ask about earlier.\u00a0 Getting back on a personal side, what do you remember?\u00a0 You were about nineteen or twenty when the Korean War ended. \u00a0Do you remember, was there any thought that you might ever have to go?\u00a0 What was it like being a teenager while that was going on?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well I remember when the Korean War started.\u00a0 The concern then of a lot of the college students they were going to have to go to war again.\u00a0 Of course I was too young at that time.\u00a0 I was only fourteen or thirteen.\u00a0 I was young.\u00a0 Then growing up through the draft.\u00a0 The draft was the only.\u00a0 All the men had to register for the draft.\u00a0 I did that.\u00a0 In fact, we had two bus loads that left from Bolivar County that went to Jackson for the physical.\u00a0 I was put in charge of these.\u00a0 I guess there was about eighty men, guys.\u00a0 I had to get them to Jackson.\u00a0 We had the papers and all that kind of stuff.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why in the world I was picked, but I was.\u00a0 We spend the night in Jackson, and then we came back the next day for a physical.\u00a0 You know yeah the war was part of life, the men or boys all realize they might have that obligation facing them.\u00a0 Thank goodness the Korean War ended before my time came.\u00a0 I still had the draft to face.\u00a0 I chose, because I was teaching mathematics.\u00a0 That was a critical skill.\u00a0 Did we talk about this earlier?<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 You mentioned briefly that you were in the service.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Because I was teaching mathematics, a critical skill, I didn\u2019t have to be on active duty but six months.\u00a0 I chose that.\u00a0 I was married at the time that I did go in.\u00a0 Every male had to face that responsibility.\u00a0 It was part of growing up. You accepted it.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 What about, you were on campus during Vietnam.\u00a0 Do you remember people, students leaving to go to be in Vietnam?\u00a0 What people in Cleveland and at the University thought about the involvement there?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well I guess I remember more people leaving going to Korea because of the draw up unit of the National Guard.\u00a0 That was a pretty big spread. Where as the Vietnam War was more of drafting people.\u00a0 They had a lottery of who would get drafted and who wouldn\u2019t so forth.\u00a0 Vietnam War wore everybody out.\u00a0 It just kept on going, kept on going, and kept on going.\u00a0 It was so much criticism of it.\u00a0 It got to a place where most every university was supposed to have some kind of demonstration against the war.\u00a0 You would have some students who would get involved.\u00a0 Each institution had to (?) up what they can do and what they couldn\u2019t do.\u00a0 I would say Delta State probably wasn\u2019t affected nearly as much as most other institutions.\u00a0 Usually middle income parents, there children, I am not going to say more patriotic.\u00a0 They accept that better.\u00a0 It seemed like our students not supportive of the war, but accepted as a responsibility.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t nearly as boisterous and outgoing as some other institutions.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Okay, I really don\u2019t.\u00a0 I think we have covered most everything.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Okay<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Is there anything that you would have liked to have gotten accomplished in your presidency that you weren\u2019t able to?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well always have would have wished we could have had better salaries for faculty and staff.\u00a0 Mississippi has been a poor state most of time that I was a president.\u00a0 Now things are looking a lot better.\u00a0 We are paying better salaries.\u00a0 I think that is going to be a real plus for the university.\u00a0 I can\u2019t really think of a major concern that right now about the university.\u00a0 I think we are in good shape.\u00a0 Did we talk about the Capps Building.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 No, why don\u2019t you tell me about that.\u00a0 How that came to be.<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well, we Mr. Capps and me had talked several times about the need for us to preserve the rich heritage of the delta someway.\u00a0 It seems with the new times a lot of this was getting away from us.\u00a0 The site on the Delta State campus would be the appropriate place to have a museum and archives to preserve this heritage.\u00a0 So we had talked about it several times.\u00a0 I had the opportunity to play golf with Mr. Capps and the speaker of the house, Tim Ford, the chairman of the Ways and Means, Charlie Williams.\u00a0 I brought up the idea that it would certainly be good if we could have a building here on campus in order to do that.\u00a0 We really had such other needs right now for other kinds of construction on campus.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t make it a number one priority.\u00a0 It was something that I really did want, and we really needed badly.\u00a0 There could be some other way we could go about getting this building constructed without having necessarily going through the higher learning process, which means it has to go through them.\u00a0 It has to be put on their list.\u00a0 So we talked about it some.\u00a0 Then they kind of said something to the effect, well you know that is something you all really need badly.\u00a0 Maybe we can help you.\u00a0 They said well just leave it to us, and we will see what we can do.\u00a0 I think that is how it was handled.\u00a0 At the end of the next legislative section we had funding to construct the building.\u00a0 I think it would be most appropriate that it will be named to represent Charlie Capps.\u00a0 All he had done for the university through the years and is still doing for Delta State.\u00a0 We have other buildings named for Walter Sillers, Roberts, and other legislators who had strong impact on the university.\u00a0 Certainly it would be deserving that he had one named for him too.\u00a0 Then we took that request to the board.\u00a0 The board approved it.\u00a0 That is how you have your facility named for Representative Charlie Capps.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 How did. . . When was it decided that there would be somebody hired outside the history department or was that a decision?\u00a0 How did the decision of who and what?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 Well I knew all along I wanted a professional person there who had some experiences in archivist.\u00a0 There was some talk as to where it should be located, whether that person should report through the history department or through the library, or report some other way to the Vice President of Academic Affairs directly.\u00a0 The feeling was that it probably would be more appropriate for it to report through the library.\u00a0 That is pretty much connected with the new edition to the library.\u00a0 We were one time talking maybe have some walk way between the two buildings.\u00a0 They are close in proximity.\u00a0 That is kind of the reason we went that way.\u00a0 Of course we wanted a professional person in that position.\u00a0 We were going to let them get after it.\u00a0 Let you get after it, Tara.\u00a0 Then we heard about Tara Zachary, this young lady from Louisiana from L. S. U. that was available.\u00a0 We hired her, and she is doing a good job.<\/p>\n

TZ:\u00a0 Well I am glad this project is part of that.\u00a0 Anything that you can think of that we haven\u2019t covered?<\/p>\n

KW:\u00a0 I can think of a hundred things, but I don\u2019t know where to start.\u00a0 You know I have had a lifetime here.\u00a0 You can figure out other topics sometimes, and we will talk about some more topics.\u00a0 Delta State has changed significantly in facilities, campus, and that type thing.\u00a0 As far as friendliness and quality of programs it has stayed very much the same.<\/p>\n

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