If someone were placing odds on which babies born in the early 1960s in rural Mississippi would later in life attend college — much less earn his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate —  Christopher Gilmer would be the longest among the long shots.

Born to parents who were only teenagers when they had him, and a grandfather who could not read or write, no one in Gilmer’s family had attended college.

Both sides of his family were honest, hard-working people, but the circumstances of life had not made higher education accessible.

Thanks to tremendous support and determination of family and other mentors along the way, coupled with his hard work, Gilmer became his family’s first college graduate.

And he didn’t stop there.

Gilmer, director of Alcorn State University’s Vicksburg Expansion Campus, has resigned to accept a job as vice president of academic affairs at Adams State University in Alamosa, Colo.

The move takes Gilmer a step closer to his career goal of being a college president.

It’s an unlikely outcome for the boy born into relative poverty in Scott County. Because of that, he works to make sure his life and career are an inspiration to others who come from similar backgrounds.

“The message I work to get across is very simple. I am not special in any way. I worked very hard. A whole lot of people sacrificed more than I can ever even know. And if you can put those two elements together, then if I can do it, you can do it,” Gilmer said during a interview at his Alcorn Vicksburg office. “I believe the best thing you can ever give to students or people that you lead, is the example of your own life. That’s not to say the example of my own life is perfection, but what makes it better is that it’s not perfection. I’m willing for students to see all the messes I’ve made and all the things I’ve gotten right. I’m willing to laugh at myself and eager for other people to laugh at me if it gets the point across.”

 

College not in the cards

Gilmer’s mother, Peggy Adams Gilmer, wanted nothing more in life than to attend East Central Junior College, move on to a four-year school from there, eventually ending up in New York and working as a fashion designer.

It was not to be.

“Welty said we can never hope to know where we’re going unless we have an appreciation of where we had been,” Gilmer said. “More than anybody I ever knew, mama wanted to go to college. And she had the ability to do that, the native ability, but she was a victim of chauvinism and prejudice against women and poverty and you know, any number of things. She became a mother early in her life.”

She grew up in rural Leake County, out from Madden, which is near Carthage, the county seat.

“My dad — Charles Gilmer — came from Sebastopol, which is over in Scott County. And my dad wanted very much to court my mother, who was a great beauty, physically and on the inside, but she wasn’t the least bit interested in the man. She wanted to go to school and be a fashion designer in New York City, and all those things, but finally, somehow, she gave in, and the rest is history.

“They were married for a very long time, though I have to say not very happily. But they managed to hold it together until their children were grown and then they kind of called a truce and went their separate ways. Both remarried people who were better partners for them then originally they were,” Gilmer said.

“My paternal granddaddy couldn’t read or write. He made his X, just like the old stories that we’ve heard in our lives. My grandmother graduated from high school and she could read and write. She certainly wasn’t a scholar, but she could read and write so she handled most of their affairs. He would tell her what to do, but she would handle most of their business transactions.”

Perhaps because of his lack of formal education, making certain Gilmer not only graduated from high school, but finished college was important to his paternal grandfather, Carlton Gilmer.

“He had to drop out of school in the first grade to go home and plow. Basically, that man plowed his whole life. I think he was plowing a month before he was in the grave. He never got to go back to school, but he earned such a good name in the community, that despite his first grade education, they appointed him to the school board in Scott County. And my mamaw ran the lunchroom.

“When I was born, my grandfather said, ‘This is the one that’s going to break the cycle.’ ”

The elder Gilmer understood cows meant money, so on the day he was born, Gilmer bought his new grandchild a heifer.

“He took that little heifer and bred her when she was ready and all of her children had children and he had a whole load of cows that he took to the stockyard when it came time for me to go to college,” Gilmer said. “It’s not a lot of money now, but it was a lot of money in 1983 when I graduated from high school — more than I had ever seen by far.

“He took me over to East Central Junior College then — it’s East Central Community College now — in Decatur, the irony being that’s where mama was supposed to have gone 20 years before, and paid for me to go to college.”

His grandfather got his wish and was able to attend Gilmer’s graduation.

“He got to see me walk across the stage, and you would think I had been elected president of the United States. And, you would think nobody else walked across the stage that day. That man, who I had seen cry one or two times in my whole life, who represented strength to me, was just dissolved in tears. He was so excited about it all.”

As it turns out, Chris’s mother graduated from East Central Junior College, at which she was a student for 12 years.

“As a working adult, taking one class at a time, she graduated with her associate’s degree the same year I got my doctorate from USM,” Gilmer said.

 

Destined for a life in education

“I didn’t know that it would be called college professor or college administrator, or that my ultimate goal would be college president. But I knew my life’s work would be about education,” Gilmer said.

“Mama taught me the importance of words. That was the first thing. She read to me before I was even born. She read to me David Copperfield, in its entirety, while she was carrying me in her womb. And she chose that book deliberately because it was about a poor boy who had a lot of odds to overcome. Society had kind of counted her out because of where she came from, and she made it really clear to me that I was not going to be a victim of where I came from. It anything, I was going to find a way to use that as an advantage. So she read to me and taught me the power of words and I learned early on and admired in all the people that I read the power of words. So, I knew somehow that education was going to be a part of it all,” he said.

Gilmer said the most difficult thing he has had to do in his life thus far was the eulogy at his mother’s funeral. Peggy Adams Gilmer succumbed to cancer in 2015.

He said when he stood at the podium at his mother’s funeral, he looked out at his two nieces — daughters of his sister, Holly Gilmer Collums — and said, despite there being a room full of people, “I consider I have an audience of two here today. If anybody else today hears anything that I say, that’s gravy. But I want you two to understand where you come from and the kind of people you come from. Even though I hope you never have to experience it first hand, I want you to be proud of where you come from,” Gilmer said.

 

Other help along the way

In addition to his family, Gilmer has had other mentors along the way. One of those is Sid Salter, chief communications officer at Mississippi State University.

“I met Chris when I was editor and publisher of the Scott County Times and I met him when he was in high school,” Salter said. “He was obviously, even at that young age, a very gifted and talented writer. Chris had a fantastic work ethic and curiosity about journalism and newspapers and was a real joy to work with. We could give him responsibilities that are normally entrusted to adults when he was in high school and college, and he always did a bang up job with whatever we assigned him.”

Salter said as Gilmer progressed through college and graduate school, he discovered a love of teaching.

“My mom was an English teacher and I admired that and admired the concern he had for his students,” he said. “Chris has always thrived in situations that are sort of non-traditional. He’s gone into historically black universities and thrived. He’s gone into small colleges and thrived. He’s not afraid of anything. Being open to those kinds of challenges is indicative of how he will handle this new challenge. Chris is a first-class human being and the university out in Colorado will greatly benefit from having him on their staff. I’m very happy for Chris and I’m sure this will be a good arrangement for the university.”

Gilmer also credits Dr. Aubrey Lucas, president emeritus of the University of Southern Mississippi, among his mentors and role models.

“Dr. Lucas is the longest serving president of the University of Southern Mississippi and one of the finest men I have ever known,” Gilmer said. “He is still a mentor to me, 30 years down the road.”

Gilmer and his partner of 15 years, David Creel, leave for Colorado this week, though they will keep their Vicksburg home and hope to be here part of the year. Both from Mississippi, keeping an anchor in Vicksburg is important to them, Gilmer said.