Major Commitments Push Ogletree House Campaign Near $3 Million Goal
5/31/07

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The Southern Miss Alumni Association’s Ogletree House Campaign has moved significantly closer to the completion of fund-raising efforts as a result of three major commitments in May.

Topping recent pledges to the $3 million campaign, which will help fund the complete restoration and expansion of the home of the Alumni Association on The University of Southern Mississippi’s Hattiesburg campus, are $225,000 from Max and Susan Draughn, $125,000 from Gene and Karen Carlisle and $75,000 from Drs. Jon and Christy Thornton. Their pledges have helped push the campaign past the $2.65 million mark, more than 88 percent of the goal.

"We are truly excited about the announcement of these major gifts and the progress of the campaign to this point,” said Lou Ann Poynter, who along with Dr. Aubrey K. Lucas co-chairs the campaign. “We look forward to the successful completion our fund-raising efforts this summer and invite all Southern Miss alumni to make a gift to this important project before it is too late."

The Association expects to conclude fund-raising efforts this summer, with the 18-month construction project set to begin in January 2008. The restoration and expansion of the 95-year-old facility will increase the size of the structure to 12,000 square feet. The Ogletree House, which served for a number of years as the University President’s home, is named for Powell Ogletree, who was alumni director at Southern Miss for 34 years until his retirement in 1987.The Draughn’s $225,000 commitment, the result of a reallocation of a portion of an open pledge made to the University, is the second at the campaign’s Major Gift Level. The parlor in the new facility will be named in their honor.

Max Draughn, the CEO and president of Cypress Pharmaceutical, Inc. in Madison, is a Life Member of the Alumni Association, serves on The University of Southern Mississippi Foundation’s board of directors and will join the Alumni Association’s board of directors in July. He is also a member of the Southern Miss 100, a legislative advocacy group of influential University alumni. Previously, Draughn, a Petal native and 1984 graduate of Southern Miss, was a member of the Alumni Association’s Presidential Transition Team and in 2004 was named the College of Business’ Distinguished Entrepreneur. He says the campaign will help move the University into a new era.

"We believe the Ogletree House Campaign is an important project for Southern Miss,” Draughn said. “We’re happy to support it.”

Susan Draughn, a Hattiesburg native and Baylor alumna, was a member of First Baptist Church with Powell Ogletree and his wife Frances some 20 years ago.

"I thought highly of Mr. Ogletree and love his wife dearly; they are very special people,” Susan said. “Occasionally, we still take our kids to visit her when we are in town.”

The Draughns are members of the Eagle Club and are significant contributors to the College of Business. They reside in Madison and have three children—Owen, Case and Stephen.

The $125,000 commitment from Gene and Karen Carlisle adds to their lengthy list of contributions to the institution. The conference room in the new facility will be named in their honor.

Over the years, the Carlisles have committed more than $6.4 million to the athletic department, including a $5 million commitment to the ongoing South End Zone expansion project at M.M. Roberts Stadium. Carlisle is a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame, the M-Club Hall of Fame, and the field at M.M. Roberts Stadium was renamed Carlisle-Faulkner Field after a gift from the Carlisles allowed the athletic department to replace the turf.

Gene Carlisle is the founder of the Carlisle Corporation, which operates more than 100 Wendy’s restaurants, three Holiday Inn Hotels, a Hampton Inn and various apartment complexes. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1964. He is the former chairman of the College of Business’ Advisory Council and currently serves on the boards of directors for both the University’s Foundation and the Athletic Foundation. Carlisle, a Life Member of the Alumni Association, chairs the campaign to raise funds for the College of Business’ new building and was named the college’s Distinguished Alumnus in 2002. In 1999, he and Karen donated a Wendy’s restaurant to the University, which promptly leased it back to the Carlisle Corporation, with the University collecting nearly $100,000 to use for scholarships. In 2001, the University sold the restaurant back to the Carlisles for $700,000, further benefiting Southern Miss.

The Carlisles reside in Memphis. They have three children—Courtney, Chance and Chase.
Like both the Draughns and Carlisles, Drs. Jon and Christy Thornton have established a significant record of dedication to Southern Miss. The Life Members of the Alumni Association are both 1988 graduates of the institution and are members of the Athletic Foundation’s Circle of Champions, which is reserved for donors to the athletic department who have pledged at least $100,000 over a 10-year period.

Currently, Christy serves on the Athletic Foundation’s board of directors, while Jon has served on the University Foundation’s board of directors. Jon serves on both the external advisory board for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the College of Science and Technology Dean’s Advisory Council. Christy also serves the college as a liaison between students and physicians for the Stephen Hatten Externship Program.

"Our primary reason for contributing to the campaign is to preserve the Ogletree House as we remembered it from our time on campus,” Jon said. “We also wanted to recognize (Alumni Association executive director) Bob Pierce’s importance to the University. To me, he embodies what is good about the University—his selfless dedication to the Alumni Association.”

The Thorntons, who in addition to sharing Southern Miss as their alma mater, both also earned medical degrees from the University of South Alabama. The Thorntons reside in Hattiesburg, where Jon is a nephrologist at Hattiesburg Clinic. They have three children—Micah, Noah and Claire.

"Hattiesburg has always been a special place to us,” said Christy Thornton, who met her husband in 1986 when both were Southern Miss students. “We were excited to have the opportunity to move back to Hattiesburg, and we’re hopeful that our kids go to USM as well.”

The reception room in the new Ogletree House will be named in their honor.

The Ogletree House, which is one of the five original buildings on the Hattiesburg campus, opened in 1912 and served as the home for the first five presidents of the institution until 1975. In 1976, the Alumni Association, utilizing a campaign chaired by Hattiesburg physician Lamar Gillespie and with the faithful service of Ogletree, launched an effort to raise $200,000 to build a new home for the University’s president. Given that the Alumni Association would generate the funding for a new president’s home, the University allocated the existing structure to the Alumni Association for use as the new Alumni House.

The Association moved from its offices in the Student Union (now McLemore Hall) into the Alumni House in November 1975. On August 20, 1987, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning approved a request from then Southern Miss President Lucas to have the facility named the Ogletree House.

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