2006 Alumni Hall of Fame Inductees

 

  Wayne Adkison ’70

Moss Point native Wayne Adkison returned to his hometown to open his dental practice, but Hattiesburg and The University of Southern Mississippi still hold a special place in his heart.

Adkison attended Southern Miss as an athletic scholarship recipient. He lettered in football as a defensive end for three consecutive years from 1966 to 1968, and was an M-Club and Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity officer. He was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, and was recognized in Who’s Who in American Colleges & Universities.

After graduation, Adkison served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. He went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy and a medical doctorate degree in dental medicine from the University of Mississippi.

In 1982, he moved back to Moss Point and has practiced general dentistry since that time. He started his own dental practice, Riverside Dental Care, PLLC.
Adkison’s dedication to Southern Miss is extremely evident in his commitment to both the Alumni Association and Golden Eagle athletics. He has served as an officer in the Jackson County Alumni Chapter and as a member of the Association’s Board of Directors. Adkison, a Life Member of the Association, is also a longtime member of the Eagle Club and is currently serving as secretary of the Southern Miss Athletic Foundation. He is a member of the Circle of Champions, a group that financially supports Southern Miss athletics programs, and a member of the M-Club Hall of Fame.

In the community, Adkison is associated with a number of civic and church organizations. He is a past president of Moss Point Rotary, Moss Point Active Citizens group and Dantzler Memorial United Methodist Men group. He is also a member of Young Men’s Business Club, Dantzler Memorial United Methodist Church, where he serves on the administrative board, and the Moss Point Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal.

Adkison is married to the former Vicki Ramsay ’69. The couple has three children: Laura, Andrew and Alan. Andrew attended Southern Miss and Alan is currently a sophomore at the University. The Adkisons recently welcomed their first grandchild, Olivia.

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   Mark Cumbest ’75

Mark Cumbest is the broker-owner of Cumbest Realty, Inc., a company he started in 1975 after graduating from Southern Miss.

Mark serves as the Fourth Congressional District Representative on the Mississippi Real Estate Commission, currently serving as the commission’s vice chair. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he was appointed by Governor Haley Barbour to the Governor’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal.

In 2002, he was selected as one of the “Top South Mississippi Community Leaders” and was inducted into the Roland Weeks Leadership Hall of Fame in the inaugural awards program sponsored by The Sun Herald and the Journal of South Mississippi Business. In 2005, he was named “Who’s Who in Mississippi Business” by the Mississippi Business Journal.

He was the youngest person ever to be inducted into the Mississippi Realtor Hall of Fame. He was the 1997 Mississippi Realtor of the Year and national president of the Realtors Land Institute in 1995. In 1991, he was named Land Realtor of America. He holds the Accredited Land Consultant Designation of the Realtors Land Institute, and is a member of the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials.

Today, his active involvement with the University includes serving on the Campaign Committee for the Restoration and Expansion of the Ogletree House, the Real Estate Council of The University of Southern Mississippi Foundation and the President’s Advisory Committee. He also serves on the USM Gulf Coast Development Advisory Committee, and is a member of the Business Advisory Council of the College of Business. Mark is a long time Eagle Club member and an avid Golden Eagle football fan. He and his wife, Pam, are members of the Honor Club Associates for Excellence and are contributors to the Ogletree House Campaign at the Supporting Gift Level. While at USM he majored in real estate and insurance, was president of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity and was a member of Rho Epsilon Real Estate Fraternity.

His significant commitment to Southern Miss might only be exceeded by his love for the Gulf Coast as evidenced by his civic, community and political involvement. He is a founding board of directors member of the Gulf Coast Business Council. Mark serves in a number of leadership positions at Caswell Springs United Methodist Church and is active in the Mississippi United Methodist Conference. He just completed a three-year term as board of directors chairman of the United Methodist Hour, a radio and television ministry based in Hattiesburg.

Mark met his wife, Pam ’75, at Southern Miss, and they have been active annual members of the Alumni Association for 32 years. They have been married for 28 years and have two sons. Grant, 19, is a student at the University and Reid, 15, attends East Central High School. The family lives in the Cumbest Bluff Community of Jackson County.

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Ricky Mathews ’84, ’92

For more than 20 years, thousands of Southern Miss alumni have turned to Ricky Mathews and his publications as their source for news.

Mathews is publisher and president of The Sun Herald, the Journal of South Mississippi Business, South Mississippi Outdoors, the Stennis News and other print publications in South Mississippi where 25 years ago he began as a summer advertising and circulation intern. He has held various positions in the newspaper’s advertising, circulation, production, operations and marketing departments and was vice president and marketing director when named president and publisher in 2001. Under his leadership, The Sun Herald earned a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2006.

Following Hurricane Katrina, Mathews was appointed by Governor Haley Barbour to vice chair the Governor’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal. He also serves on the executive board and co-chairs the tourism committee for the Gulf Coast Business Council. He recently received the Award of Valor from the National Association of Minority Media Executives for his work at The Sun Herald in the weeks and months after Hurricane Katrina.

The south Mississippi native is known as an involved member of his community. Mathews has served in various leadership positions for the Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce and the United Way. He is a past president of the Friends of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, the Mississippi Wildlife Federation and is past chairman of the board of Goodwill Industries. He has served on numerous boards of South Mississippi community organizations.

He is currently the chairman of the Community Advisory Committee of the Knight Foundation, which is playing a significant role in the South Mississippi Hurricane Katrina recovery effort.

Mathews’ dedication to the University is evident from his 20 years as an active member of the Association. He currently holds a seat on the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors. In 2003, he served as the speaker for the Fall Commencement Ceremony.

Mathews is married to the former Ann Barhonovich ’87 of Biloxi. The couple has three children: Victoria, Justin and Jordan.

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   Danny Mitchell ’70, ’71

Danny Mitchell received his bachelor’s degree from Southern Miss in 1970 and his master’s degree in public relations a year later. Today, he is one of the most highly regarded public relations practitioners in the South and one of the University’s most dedicated alumni.

He is currently the chairman and chief executive officer of GodwinGroup in Jackson, one of the South’s oldest independent advertising agencies. Mitchell has worked as a public relations and communications officer for the Jackson Municipal Separate School District; was a managing partner for WSDL-AM and WVSL-FM in Slidell, La.; served as assistant director of public relations for Mississippi University for Women; and was a public relations consultant for Wilson / Mitchell Public Relations in Columbus.

His work with the GodwinGroup should be very familiar to Southern Miss alumni, as the agency has been behind the athletic department’s brand “Anyone. Anywhere. Anytime.,” as well as the University’s “Freeing the Power of the Individual” campaign.

But Mitchell’s dedication to the University does not stop at shaping its image. He has served the Alumni Association in a number of capacities, notably as president in 2005-2006 and currently as past president. Mitchell has served as president of the USM Foundation and currently serves on the Southern Miss Athletic Foundation’s board. He is also a member of the Eagle Club and the USM Foundation’s Honor Club.

The Association previously awarded Mitchell with the Outstanding Service Award in 1993 and the Continuous Service Award in 2002.

Mitchell has served as president of the Public Relations Society of America (Mississippi chapter), the Public Relations Association of Mississippi and the Southern Public Relations Federation. He has also served on numerous boards of directors for various civic and nonprofit organizations.

Mitchell and his wife, Patricia ’70, are Life Members of the Alumni Association. The couple has three children: Benjamin Ferrell ’01, Emily and Amy.

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   Corky Palmer ’77

Carlton “Corky” Palmer’s commitment and service to The University of Southern Mississippi is immeasurable. Since he became head baseball coach in 1997 his record-breaking teams have attracted national attention.

Palmer has taken the Southern Miss baseball program to an unprecedented level with the best five-year run in the school’s history. With three straight 40-win seasons from 2003 to 2005, a 39-win season in 2006 and a fourth-straight NCAA Tournament bid – a first in school history – Southern Miss looks to be firmly established as a program headed in the direction of becoming a perennial power.

A Hattiesburg native, Palmer started his baseball career at Hattiesburg High School and furthered his reputation as a starting catcher and team captain for legendary Southern Miss coach Pete Taylor.

After graduation, Palmer put his extensive knowledge of the game to use as a coach. At Columbus’ Lee High School and Columbia High, his teams consistently won conference titles and appeared in the state playoffs. In his six years at the high school level, his teams posted an impressive 102-52 record.

In 1985 and 1986, Palmer served as an assistant coach at Southern Miss and then moved on to Meridian Community College, where in 10 seasons his teams posted a 409-160 record, earned five Mississippi-Louisiana Conference titles, four district and regional championships, three trips to the Junior College World Series, and in 1996 advanced all the way to the title game.

In 1997, then-Golden Eagle Head Coach Hill Denson lured Palmer away from Meridian for an assistant’s role, and on Denson’s retirement following the season the search for a new coach went no further than Palmer, who was introduced as Southern Miss’s 12th head baseball coach.

Palmer is a member of the Eagle Club, and in 1998, he was elected to the M-Club Hall of Fame.

Palmer and his wife, Debbie ’75, have been married for 30 years and reside in the Hattiesburg area. The couple has been active annual members of the Association for the past 16 years.

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Liz Payne ’68

As a Life Member of the Alumni Association, Liz Payne has shown her pride for the Southern Miss community through many philanthropic efforts.

Each year since 1994, one athlete from a Southern Miss female athletic team receives the Elizabeth Newell Payne Endowment. She served as co-chair of the Founders Society and is a member of the advisory council for the College of Education and Psychology. She also serves on the Campaign Committee for the Restoration and Expansion of the Ogletree House. Her most notable gift was joining with her husband, Larry, and other family members to make the construction of the Payne Center possible and to provide a very significant planned gift to the University. The Payne Center supports a comprehensive recreation and fitness program for the entire University and has been named by the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Administration as one of the finest facilities in the nation. Liz and Larry also have had a strong influence on their children, on their friends, and on many USM alumni to support Southern Miss financially. In 2005, the Alumni Association honored her with a Continuous Service Award.

Liz has a strong interest in international goodwill which stems from her faith and her years of living in another country. She is part of a committee of Christian volunteers and physicians of the Honduran Medical Scholarship Fund. The group’s goal is to prepare deserving Honduran students for medical school by providing full scholarship support for an undergraduate degree from Southern Miss. She makes it a priority to travel to Honduras each year on a medical and dental mission.

Liz and Larry live in Hattiesburg. They have three sons: Jimmy ’94, Keith ’98 and Arlys Silva ’06.

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Hon. James Smith ’65

As the longest serving member of the Mississippi Supreme Court, Chief Justice James Smith has been a key player in shaping the lives of Southern Miss alumni and thousands of other Mississippians for more than a decade.

The Pelahatchie native studied his way through Hinds Community College and The University of Southern Mississippi and was awarded a Juris Doctorate degree from the Jackson School of Law at Mississippi College in 1972.

Beginning in 1973 and continuing until 1980, he was prosecuting attorney for the city of Pearl and was also Rankin County Prosecuting Attorney in 1976. From 1977 to April 1982, he served as district attorney for the 20th Circuit Court District. From April 1982 until his election to the Mississippi Supreme Court, he was county court judge for Rankin County. He was elected to the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1993, and became Chief Justice in April 2004.

Southern Miss honored Smith’s dedication to the University in 2004 when they invited him to speak at the Summer Commencement Ceremony.

Earlier this year, the Alumni Association’s Law Constituent Society, Juris Sodalitas, honored the Chief Justice with its inaugural Distinguished Public Service Award.

Smith also serves on the Presidential Transition Team, an Alumni Association committee charged with assisting in the Institutions of Higher Learning’s search process for the University’s ninth president.

Smith has received numerous awards for his work with children. He is the recipient of the 1996 Hinds Community College Alumnus of the Year Award. He is a Fellow of the Young Lawyers and a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar. Smith is a member of the Southern Miss, Hinds Community College and Mississippi College School of Law alumni associations. He has been recognized numerous times in Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World. He has been recognized by Law Dragon, Inc., as one of “America’s Five Hundred Leading Judges.”

Smith is a tree farmer and avid outdoorsman, well known for his contributions to deer and wild turkey conservation projects. He served three years in the United States Army and four years in the Army Reserve.

Smith is married to the former Kathy Morris of Scott County. He has two daughters, Margaret Shannon Eaves of Jackson and Amanda Smith Treadway of Flat Rock, N.C. He has three grandchildren. Kathy has two children, Katherine Murray and Samuel Murray. They reside in the Andrew Chapel community in Rankin County.