[8/21/01] Administrators, students and teachers at Vicksburg Junior High School reacted with shock Tuesday to the Monday death of seventh-grade principal William O. Flowers, who they remembered as a merciful disciplinarian.

Vicksburg Junior High Principal Ray Hume said Flowers, who was 52, worked at the Baldwin Ferry Road school without signs of illness until Thursday, when he went to the doctor complaining of nausea. Doctors were still unsure about the cause of his death Tuesday afternoon, said family friend Ruby Regan.

“It was all so sudden that it still seems awkward to talk about it,” said Hume, principal of VJHS since 1998. “The eighth-grade principal (Michael Winters) and I heard it over the phone yesterday and had to say it over between ourselves a few times before we could really accept it.”

Flowers had worked as seventh-grade principal at 680-student Vicksburg Junior since 1996. Previously, he taught mathematics for 23 years at Kings and Beechwood elementary schools.

A Vicksburg native and 1967 graduate of Rosa A. Temple High School, he had bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Jackson State University.

Rose Smith, who has taught 7th-grade English at VJHS since 1990, said Flowers always balanced his administrative responsibilities with a love for students.

“He was probably ridiculed a lot of times for being so lenient, but he thought that students deserve second chances,” Smith said. “If a student was really a good kid, he’d take that into account when he was disciplining them.”

Students at VJHS echoed Smith’s assessment of Flowers’ style.

“If I had gotten sent to his office, and I never did, he’d say, Well, Devin, I’ll give you another chance,” said Devin Smothers, 13, an 8th-grader at VJHS.

Taylor Powell, also 13 and an 8th-grader, said Flowers, though lenient, always meted out fair punishment.

“He wouldn’t let anyone slide by,” Powell said. “He’d at least give them after-school detention.”

In the wake of Flowers’ death, VJHS has no permanent 7th-grade principal. Robert Reddix, a former principal, has been brought in to help for the rest of the week, Hume said, but he didn’t know when a full-time replacement would be hired.

Flowers is survived by his mother, four brothers and a sister.

W.H. Jefferson Funeral Home has charge of the funeral arrangements for Flowers. They were incomplete this morning.