Hall of Fame: Alumni Association Names Top Alumni of 2017

The Ole Miss Alumni Association honored seven distinguished alumni with its highest annual awards as part of Homecoming 2017. Created in 1974, the Hall of Fame honors select alumni who have made an outstanding contribution to their country, state or the University of Mississippi through good deeds, services or contributions that have perpetuated the good name of Ole Miss.
Inductees into the Alumni Hall of Fame for 2017 are Don Frugé (BBA 67, JD 70) of Oxford; Walton Gresham III (BBA 71) of Indianola; James E. Keeton (BA 61, MD 65) of Jackson; Tom Papa (BBA 57) of Jackson; and Mary Sharp Rayner (BAEd 64) of Oxford.
William F. Winter (BA 43, LLB 49) of Jackson received the Alumni Service Award for service to the university and the Alumni Association over an extended period. Candie L. Simmons (BBA 02, MBA 15) of Ridgeland received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award, which recognizes alumni who have shown exemplary leadership throughout their first 15 years of alumni status in both their careers and dedication to Ole Miss.
The Alumni Association hosted a reception for the honorees on Friday, Oct. 13, at 6 p.m. in the Gertrude C. Ford Ballroom at The Inn at Ole Miss. A ticketed dinner for the award recipients will follow the reception at 7 p.m.

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Don L. Frugé

Don L. Frugé is chairman and CEO of Frugé Capital Advisors LLC, an independently registered investment advisory firm. He is also of counsel at the Frugé Law Firm PLLC of Oxford.
A 1963 graduate of Meridian High School, Frugé received his Bachelor of Business Administration and Juris Doctor degrees from the University of Mississippi followed by a Master of Laws degree in taxation from New York University in 1971. He joined the UM law faculty in 1971 and has continued to teach courses in estate planning, taxation and nonprofit organizations.
For 22 years, Frugé oversaw the growth of the University of Mississippi Foundation. During that time, the university endowment grew from $8 million in 1984 to over $420 million when he retired in 2006, ranking it 35th nationally in endowment per student at public universities.
Frugé has served UM in a number of capacities, including professor of law, executive director of development, vice chancellor for university affairs, vice chancellor for university advancement, head golf coach and as president and CEO of the UM Foundation. He serves as chairman of the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation (2005 to present), a board member of the UM Foundation, a member of the Joint Committee on University Investments (1984 to present) and professor emeritus of law.
A member of Phi Kappa Phi Fraternity, Frugé was named Alumnus of the Year, Beta Alpha Psi in 1991 and Law Alumnus of the Year in 2013. Frugé is an Eagle Scout and a former member of the Boy Scout Council.
Frugé and his wife, Mary Ann (BA 66, MA 70), are active members of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Oxford.

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Walton Gresham III

Walton Gresham III serves as president of Gresham Petroleum Co., secretary of Double Quick, secretary of Delta Terminal, and director and member of the executive committee of Planters Bank & Trust Co.
He is active in his community and profession and is a past president of Delta Council, the Indianola Rotary Club, the Indianola Educational Foundation and the Indianola Chamber of Commerce. He is chairman of the Community Foundation of Sunflower County, and is past president of the Mississippi Propane Gas Association and Mississippi Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Stores Association. He also served as the Mississippi director of the National Propane Gas Association.
A longtime volunteer leader, Gresham’s passion is to promote economic development and a better infrastructure in the Mississippi Delta and the state of Mississippi.
A graduate of Indianola High School and the University of Mississippi, Gresham has served on the UM Alumni Association board of directors as well as the UM Foundation board. He was a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity and has remained active as an alumni volunteer.
Gresham is married to the former Laura Ethridge (BAEd 71) of Oxford, and they have two daughters and five grandchildren. He is a lifelong member of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, serving in all offices over
the past 45 years in addition to being a licensed lay reader.

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Dr. James E. Keeton

Dr. James E. Keeton served as the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine from July 2009 to February 2015. He retired in January 2017 and holds emeritus status in these roles and as professor of surgery and pediatrics.
During his tenure, Keeton oversaw planning of and secured funding for a new, state-of-the-art School of Medicine building on the UMMC campus that is allowing UMMC to expand its medical class to train more physicians for Mississippi.
Keeton was also instrumental in planning the construction of the $25 million University Heart Center, the $68 million Translational Research Center and a $23 million public-private project to create housing close to campus for students and faculty. On the immediate horizon is a major expansion of the Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital that will significantly advance pediatric health care in the state of Mississippi.
He shepherded UMMC through a $90 million, multiyear effort to implement an enterprise electronic health record that culminated in conversion from paper to computer records in a single day in June 2012.
Also under Keeton’s watch, UMMC’s liver transplant program was re-established after a 22-year hiatus, and Medical Center surgeons performed Mississippi’s first pancreas transplant.
Keeton was named the 2014 Distinguished Medical Alumnus by his peers. The award is given to alumni who have made distinctive contributions to the field of medicine.
The Columbus native is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and certified by the American Board of Urology. He and his wife, Jona (MSN 90), live in Jackson and have two children and seven grandchildren.

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Tom Papa

Tom Papa was born and raised in Helena, Arkansas. He graduated high school from Subiaco Academy in May 1947 and joined the U.S. Armed Forces where he proudly served in the Navy. He went on to graduate from the University of Mississippi with a Bachelor of Business Administration. While at Ole Miss, Papa was an active member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity. He is often heard saying that some of his fondest memories are from his time spent as an undergraduate at Ole Miss.
After graduation, Papa returned to Jackson to work for the Internal Revenue Service. Shortly thereafter, he began his private practice accounting career at Touche Ross & Co. where he later retired. Upon retirement, Papa helped form the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation and served as president for many years.
In 1998, the Ford Foundation awarded the University of Mississippi $20 million to design and build the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts on the Oxford campus. Through his work at the foundation, Papa has been instrumental in the foundation’s support of the university, including gifts to the new state-of-the-art science building under construction on the Oxford campus and the UMMC Mind Center.
Papa lives in Jackson with his wife, Gayle. He is the father of two children and grandfather of four.

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Mary Sharp Rayner

A native of Grenada, Mary Sharp Rayner graduated from Ole Miss in 1964 with a Bachelor of Arts in Education. She taught history, speech and English for several years in the Jackson and Memphis public school systems. After she and her husband, Jim (MD 66), moved to Oxford, she worked in his ophthalmology practice as a front office manager.
Since moving to Oxford in 1971, Rayner has been active in her community, church and the university. She was on the founding boards of Yoknapatawpha Arts Council and the first Oxford Little Theatre. She has served on the boards of the Chamber of Commerce, United Way, Baptist North Mississippi (advisory board), Oxford University Bank and LOFT.
She has been active in her collegiate sorority, Delta Delta Delta, serving in many advisory capacities locally and as a national officer. In her church, Oxford University United Methodist, she has served on various committees and the administrative board numerous terms.
She served as president of the Ole Miss Alumni Association from 2002 to 2003 and as a member of the board for the campaign to expand and renovate The Inn at Ole Miss. She was chair of the Ole Miss Women’s Council from 2007 to 2009.
She volunteers her time with several local organizations, her church, the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation board of governors and the Ole Miss Women’s Council. She remains active in the Ole Miss Alumni Association as a member of the board of directors.
Rayner and her husband have three children: Roane (BAccy 90), Whitney and Bradley (BBA 00, BBA 02). She loves spending time with her four grandchildren: Mary Morgan, Sharp, Lila and James.

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OUTSTANDING YOUNG ALUMNI AWARD

Candie L. Simmons 

Candie L. Simmons is a senior vice president and regional marketing director for Regions Financial Corp. in Jackson. In this position, she provides marketing and advertising support for the bank and its lines of business throughout the state. Additionally, she develops relationships with media and purchases advertising in these markets, and serves as the community and public relations representative for this region.
A native of Ocean Springs, she is the youngest African-American on the bank’s Mississippi Executive Leadership Team and youngest senior vice president in Mississippi. In 2017, she was selected for Regions Financial Corp.’s prestigious Leaders at All Levels III Class.
Simmons was picked by the Mississippi Business Journal to be included in the 2009 “Top 40 Under 40” and 2013 “Top 50 Leading Business Women,” where she placed in the top 10. She is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., where she just completed her second term as treasurer for her local chapter and was voted 2013 Soror of the Year.
She serves as the financial project chair for Beta Delta Omega Chapter and the area cluster coordinator for the Southeastern Region – initiated into Theta Psi Chapter at Ole Miss. She was also selected for the 2018 American Heart Association Executive Leadership Team and chosen as a 2017 Champion of Change and a Woman Making a Difference in Madison County for the Madison County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.
Simmons is an active volunteer with the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi and serves as a board member for the Cure Sickle Cell Foundation and Make-A-Wish Mississippi. She is also a member of the International Community Ambassadors Network.

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ALUMNI SERVICE AWARD

William F. Winter 

William F. Winter served as governor of Mississippi from 1980 to 1984. Prior to that, he was elected to the offices of state representative, state tax collector, state treasurer and lieutenant governor. He served as chairman of the Southern Regional Education Board, Commission on the Future of the South, National Civic League, Kettering Foundation, Foundation for the Mid-South, Mississippi Department of Archives and History and Ole Miss Alumni Association.
Winter was a member of President Clinton’s Advisory Board on Race and was instrumental in the founding of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi. He was awarded the Profile in Courage Award by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.
Winter is a fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation. In 1998, he was the recipient of the Mississippi Bar’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
His credentials within the academic community are longstanding: Jamie Whitten Professor of Law and Government at the University of Mississippi School of Law (1989); Eudora Welty Professor of Southern Studies at Millsaps College (1989); fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University (1985); and president of the Ole Miss Alumni Association (1978).
Born in Grenada, Winter served overseas as an infantry officer in the Pacific in World War II. An attorney in the Jones Walker law firm in Jackson, he is married to the former Elise Varner (BA 48). They have three daughters, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

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By Jim Urbanek

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This story was reprinted with permission from the Ole Miss Alumni Review. The Alumni Review is published quarterly for members of the Ole Miss Alumni Association. Join or renew your membership with the Alumni Association today, and don’t miss a single issue.

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