This past Friday, Delta Council held its annual meeting at the Bologna Performing Arts Center on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland. It was a star-studded affair with business and political leaders attending from all over the state.
For those unfamiliar with Delta Council, this entity is the Mississippi Delta’s top economic development firm. Every day they better the lives of Deltans by working to shape legislation that is pro-Delta whether that is in the capitol in Jackson or in our nation’s capitol in Washington. Without Delta Council, the Delta would be far less in a variety of ways.
My first encounter with Delta Council goes back to my childhood when I attended my first annual meetings with my late grandfather, Scott Morrison who was the mayor of Shelby for 41 years, and my great-uncle, the late J.W. Thomas. I must have been around eight at the time and while I don’t remember much about those early meetings, I do remember the large crowd with most of the men dressed in seersucker suits including my grandfather and great-uncle. Now that I think about it, I think I was wearing a seersucker suit as well.
Then, Delta Council did not cross my mind again until 1997 when I started sister publication, Delta Business Journal. My longtime friend in Jackson, Mike McCall who was publishing The Catfish Journal at that time, suggested before I published the first edition of the DBJ that perhaps I should introduce myself to Chip Morgan who was and has been running Delta Council for years. I took Mike’s advice and made an appointment with Chip.
On the designated day, we sat down at the small table in Chip’s office in Stoneville and I briefed him on my idea of a monthly business journal for the Delta. I also showed him copies and provided him with an overview of the business journal I had been publishing in Jackson for a number of years, Jackson Business Journal. I sold that publication in 1997 for the sole purpose of moving back to the Delta and starting Delta Business Journal. Chip listened patiently. Then, after my briefing he asked a few questions.
The idea of a pro-business publication for the Delta struck a chord with Chip and later with other Delta Council members. Chip’s advice was significant in helping me launch Delta Business Journal.
Fast forward 19 years and the DBJ has been the leader in promoting the Delta’s entrepreneurs, businesses, ag industry and just about everything else. From that one business, our other businesses were created: Coopwood Communications (our marketing firm), Delta Magazine (our lifestyle magazine for the region), The Cleveland Current (Cleveland’s only locally owned newspaper), and RainWater Web Design (our website design and hosting company). Our businesses employ and have employed many people over the years.
So, as I sat in the audience at the BPAC on Friday and listened to Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas deliver the keynote address, I reflected on all of those memories and my close association in the early days with Delta Council. Today, my life is overloaded with nearing the end of raising children, running several businesses, trying to get out of debt, serving on numerous boards, and a million other things in between. I now run into Chip maybe once a year at an event. But for many years, we worked closely together and I’ll never forget the important role he (and Frank Howell) played in helping me establish my businesses which in turn I hope has helped my community, the Delta, and Mississippi.
Thank you, Chip and Frank.
Scott Coopwood is a seventh-generation Deltan who lives in Cleveland, Mississippi with his wife Cindy and their three children. Scott is the publisher and owner of Delta Magazine, one of the South’s leading lifestyle publications, the Delta Business Journal, the first business publication in the Mississippi Delta; and Cleveland’s weekly newspaper, The Cleveland Current.
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