The great college basketball coach John Wooden once said, “Seek opportunities to show you care. The smallest gestures often make the biggest difference.” For Northwest alumnus James Greer, a small gesture by one of his instructors made a huge difference in the course his life would take.
When Greer came to Northwest in 1989, he was not really sure what he wanted to do with his life. He was an English major, and one of his instructors introduced him to Dr. Ann Whitten, who was then director of Public Relations and the journalism instructor. Dr. Whitten and her staff were responsible for overseeing the college’s newspaper and yearbook. Greer volunteered for the yearbook his freshman year and was asked to be editor during his sophomore year. He became editor of the 1991 Rocketeer, which featured the theme “We Leave Our Mark.”
“Dr. Whitten took a risk on me,” Greer said. He remembered that a lot of work was involved in producing the yearbook at that time. “Everything was paper-based. I remember the layout process on those big sheets and cropping photos to fit. It was a lot of fun.” He remembered how hard everyone worked on the yearbook and credited Nancy Patterson, who was then assistant director of Public Relations for her hard work. “We owe Nancy Patterson a lot. She worked hard on keeping us on track,” Greer said.
Dr. Whitten’s influence over Greer did not end with his participation in yearbook. Whitten became a mentor to him, and saw something in him that he did not know was there. “Dr. Whitten changed my life. She picked up on something that I didn’t see. She encouraged me to read works that challenged me and to develop myself culturally,” Greer said. At the time, Greer was in the Air Force ROTC headed to either The University of Mississippi or The University of Southern Mississippi. Greer had applied for a scholarship to Southern Miss, but somehow his paperwork was lost. At around the same time, Dr. Whitten asked him to take a trip to Millsaps College, a private liberal arts college in Jackson. His other instructors, Dr. Carson Holloman and Dr. Lucie Bridgforth encouraged him to go. Greer said he thought that he would never get in or have enough money even if he did. He spent the day there with Dr. Whitten meeting people and walking around the campus. “The next thing I knew, I had a pretty significant scholarship and I was on my way to Millsaps the next year,” Greer said. He feels like that day with Dr. Whitten set him on the right path.
At Northwest, Greer was a member of the Northwest Hall of Fame, which is the highest honor a Northwest student can receive. He was also the Outstanding Student in Sociology and Spanish, was a member of the Northwest Student Senate, Phi Theta Kappa, Student Government and was named a member of Who’s Who Among Students in American Junior Colleges. “When I got out of high school, I had pretty decent grades, but I did not know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. I was afraid when I started college that I was not going to do well. What I learned at Northwest was that I had ‘human beings’ as teachers who talked to me like I was an adult. It was my responsibility to do well, but if I showed an interest, they were going to help me do well,” Greer said.
At Millsaps, he changed his major to European Studies, which involved a lot of one-on-one coursework. He studied two main disciplines while there: Literature and European Accounting. With his degree, he had all of the English classes, but also a number of business and accounting classes. He got interviews with accounting firms after graduation, but ended up working in Norwalk, Connecticut with a consulting firm for a year, and then moved on to work for Time Warner Cable in television finance. After several years he took one year off to work for a Congressional representative in Connecticut, and then returned to television finance, working for Showtime Networks.
Greer received his MBA from Fordham University in New York and also became a CPA. He worked for the firm of Ernst and Young for a couple of years in their Real Estate Group. He had become close to the retired chairman of Lord and Taylor, and after he left Ernst and Young he started his own firm, and this chairman became one of his first clients. He ended up with six or seven wealthy clients, helping them with estate planning, tax work, bill paying, real estate and financial advising, which he describes as being a “personal CFO.” He was working toward obtaining a certificate to become a Registered Investment Advisor and merge with another firm when another opportunity came about. A close friend started working for a very prominent family in California, and Greer was asked to come and work for them as well. Greer explained that many wealthy families will hire people to work for them exclusively in sort of a “single family office.” Greer now acts as the chief financial person for this family, but is unable to disclose who they are.
He visited the Senatobia campus in September, and was surprised by how the campus had grown. “I can still recognize it, but it has been modernized and it looks great. It looks like a diverse and modern college campus,” Greer said.
Patterson, who is now retired from her tenure as director of Public Relations, remembers working with Greer when he was a student. “Jimmy was a great yearbook editor. Because he was actively involved in student life, he was able to bring the whole Northwest experience to his book. He was a pleasure to work with,” Patterson said.
He sums up his experiences at Northwest easily, noting that had it not been for teachers who took an outside interest in him, he probably would not have gone to Millsaps and down the path that he ended up taking. “Northwest was a good experience. It was a lot different than I would have expected, and that experience has served me very well. It was a great foundation. It got me where I am today,” Greer said.
Article courtesy of Northwest Mississippi Community College
