The recent front page article on Hinds Community College recognizing the Vicksburg Warren Campus faculty stirred many memories for me. I offer my congratulations and appreciation to Dr. Clyde Muse, HCC president.

Sharp Banks and William Bruce set up this project. I was given the responsibility of organizing the Hinds Community College effort in Vicksburg and Warren County in 1973. No one individual could prepare plans and drawings for construction, write curricula for multiple programs, order shop and classroom equipment for 17 job-skill programs and numerous classroom offerings, interview and recommend for employment 130 teachers and maintenance personnel and do labor surveys while inspecting the construction effort.

I was given the green light to hire an assistant director and a lead counselor within the first year of operation. Those two individuals — Albert Hossley and Bobby Barlow — are to be commended. Local school officials involved were Charles Peets, Robert Pickett, Donald Oakes, and attorney George Rogers.

A Joint Advisory Board was set up with representatives from the Warren County Schools, the Vicksburg Public Schools, and Hinds CC Board of Trustees. This was the first time in Mississippi that three school systems came together for a joint operation.

After the success at Vicksburg, several other districts followed the example set locally. The Vo-Tech Center also was the first time Vicksburg and Warren County students met together in classes prior to combining the two school districts. The Joint Board members were David May and Mollie Boa from the county, Crawford Mims and Florence Sherard from the city, and Ted Kendal and Ethan Porter from Hinds CC. This group met monthly until all problems were solved. Dr. Robert Mayo retired shortly after signing the agreement between all parties, so Dr. Clyde Muse provided the leadership in building the Vicksburg Warren Campus. Kellogg Bobb and James Jefferson joined the Joint Board soon after it formed.

To accommodate Mississippi State Department of Education guidelines, a Vo-Tech Advisory Council was organized. Representing business and industry were chairman J.E. Blackburn, A. H. Brown, Louis Cashman, Luther Warnock Sr., Eva Loyacono, O.J. Bori, Clyde Donnell, Walter Hallberg, Wright Lassiter, Ernest Boykins, Donald Cross, James Sellers, Walter Gibbes and Tom Money. Joe Loviza was secretary.

An outstanding faculty was employed which reads like a Who’s Who in Warren County: Jim Newman, Hazel L. Milner, Faye Wilkinson, Lee Waring, Jane L. Flowers, Joy Mihalyka, Terri J. Abraham, Carl Kelly, Herman Schultz, Benny Blansett, Carl Dew, Dottie B. Murray, Chuck Schneider, Henry Middleton, Burkett Martin, Glenda LaGarde, Janice N. Strickland, Elsie Hossley, Gail Bischofberger, Bertha D. Hull, Joyce McAnear, Jan Whatley, Julius Johnson, Bob Gordon, Andrew White, Becky Chenault, William Mathews, Dorothy Pickett, Louis Kelly, JoAnne Franco, Elnora Smith, Frances Lanier, Loraine Eikert, Chris Antoine Sr., Chris Antoine Jr., Preston Reilly, Jack Ross, JoAnne Wright, Donna Schreiner, Diane Still, George Chappell, Charles Schafer, Clyde Sartor, John Harrison, Tom Pokrefke, Billy Reed, Frank Ferguson, R. A. Logue, Ray Renfroe, John Weatherford, Thomas Parker, Tommy Maples, Ken Grogan, Billy Smith, Harvey Harris, Jim Park, Johnny Williamson, Delbert Huskey, Tommy Lee, Ronnie Bunch, Roy Bailey, Michelle Rumbley, Grace Cochran, Georgia Derman, Joyce Franklin, John Thomas, Jeanne Deen, Charles Craft, Virginia Johnson, Rosie Johnson, Linda Ratliff, Leslie S. Baylot, Pat Theriot, Jack Cooper, Jim Horn, Jane Mathews, Myra Applebaum, Charlie Mitchell, Karen Gamble, Betty Bexley, Anita Hossley, Bonnie Bruce, Sharlott Valentine, Marian Banks, Donna Cochran, Betty Jackson, Benny Terrell, Charles Selmon, David Chaney, Bo Bryan, William Fuller, John Kolb, Tom Scott, Georgia Dent, Mary Warren, Emily Long, Richard Templeton, Fred Groome, Seymour Brock, Mary Nosser, Gordon Cotton, Betty Kelly, Sandra Huffman, Doris Lewis, Gwen Knox, Martin Pace, Wilsey Kelly, Andrea S. Newman, Larry Cooley, Johnny Kinnebrew, Helen Fairley, Buddy Strickland, Joe Johnston, Clarence Lomax, Ruby Johnson, and other part-time teachers in business and industry.

It took a lot of work by many educators, but it paid off by our students winning 1,400 competitive events, by 5,000 of our students gaining employment, by Vicksburg Warren Vo-Tech Center attracting dozens of conferences and meetings which supported local businesses, by giving GED certificates to hundreds; by attracting a multi-million dollar payroll which turns over seven times in local businesses, it is a win-win situation.

The largest Vo-Tech Center in Mississippi for secondary students has now evolved into a complete campus for our community with degree-granting capability and through the Consortium of Higher Education started in 1979, we can teach classes toward master’s degrees in business and engineering, and a Doctorate of Engineering with cooperation from Mississippi State, Texas A&M, University of Mississippi, Jackson State, Alcorn State and LSU.

Every time I see a former student working in the community, I feel a sense of pride from a “job well done” over the last 35 years. Under the leadership of Banks, Bruce, Mayo and Muse, the great faculty and staff on the Vicksburg Warren Campus of Hinds CC has produced a good labor force.

God has blessed our community with a good vocational, technical, and academic campus which can only get better. Let’s get behind the local educational effort and celebrate the groundwork of all educators who helped build Hinds CC in Vicksburg.

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Joseph L. Loviza is retired dean at the Hinds Community College Vicksburg campus and former Vicksburg mayor.