OXFORD, Miss. – Seven alumni are receiving the University of Mississippi Alumni Association’s highest annual honors this weekend as part of Homecoming 2013.
Inductees into the Alumni Hall of Fame are Haley Barbour (JD 73) of Yazoo City, David W. Houston III (BBA 66, JD 69) of Aberdeen, Dick Molpus (BBA 71) of Jackson, Carol Ross (BAEd 82) of Oakland and Stephanie Saul (BA 75) of Port Washington, N.Y.
Created in 1974, the Hall of Fame honors those select alumni who have made an outstanding contribution to their country, state or to the university through good deeds, services or other actions that have perpetuated the good name of Ole Miss.
Jan Griffin Farrington (BAEd 65) of Ridgeland will receive the Alumni Service Award for service to the university and the Alumni Association over an extended period. Lucy P. Priddy (BSCvE 02) of Vicksburg will receive 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 will host a reception for the honorees at 6 p.m. Friday (Oct. 25) in the Gertrude C. Ford Ballroom at The Inn at Ole Miss. A dinner for the award recipients follows at 7 p.m.
Barbour, former governor of Mississippi, is a founding partner of the BGR Group in Washington, D.C., and is of council with the law firm of Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada in Ridgeland. Barbour began his political career in 1968 and would go on to serve as White House political director under President Ronald Reagan and as a member of President George H.W. Bush’s campaign.
From 1993 to 1997, Barbour served as chairman of the Republican National Committee. In 2003, he made history as the second Republican governor elected in Mississippi since Reconstruction. As governor from 2004 to 2012, Barbour realigned economic development, enacted tort reform and balanced the state’s budget. He resides in Yazoo City with his wife, Marsha. They have two sons and four grandchildren.
Houston served as the United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi from 1983 to 2013. Before assuming the bench, he was a partner for 11 years in the Aberdeen law firm of Houston, Chamberlain and Houston. He also served as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, Tampa, Fla., and New York.
At Ole Miss, Houston was a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Omicron Delta Kappa, Beta Gamma Sigma, Beta Alpha Psi and Sigma Chi Fraternity. He served as Associated Student Body Judicial Council Chairman. In 2011, Houston was the recipient of the Mississippi State Bar Association Judicial Excellence Award. He retired from the federal bench in 2013 and joined the law firm of Mitchell, McNutt & Sams in its Tupelo office.
Molpus is founder and president of Molpus Woodlands Group, a timberland investment management organization headquartered in Jackson. Molpus has had a long career in public service and business. In 1980, he became executive director of the Governor’s Office of Federal-State Programs under Gov. William F. Winter and worked as part of Winter’s team to pass the historic Mississippi Education Reform Act of 1982.
He was elected secretary of state of Mississippi in 1983 and ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic nominee for governor in 1995. After his third term as secretary of state, he began Molpus Woodlands Group, which manages more than 1.5 million acres of timberland across 17 states. Molpus and his wife, Sally, founded Parents for Public Schools, which has spread to 17 chapters across 12 states.
Ross is head coach of the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. Before joining the Sparks, Ross spent three seasons an assistant coach with the Atlanta Dream, WNBA finalists in both 2010 and 2011. Earlier, she amassed a 324-161 record in 16 seasons as a head coach in the Southeastern Conference.
Ross spent 12 seasons (1990-2002) at Florida before returning to Ole Miss from 2003 to 2007. During her run at her alma mater, Ross compiled a 77-50 (.606) record and guided the Lady Rebels to three NCAA Tournaments and a WNIT appearance. A four-year starter for the Lady Rebels from 1978 to 1981, she became the fourth women’s basketball player inducted into the UM Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001. She is a native of Oakland.
Saul is a reporter for The New York Times and a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in journalism. Saul attended public schools in New Albany. At Ole Miss, Saul was on the staff of the Daily Mississippian and the yearbook. She was a member of Phi Kappa Phi academic honor society and Kappa Delta social sorority.
After graduating in 1975 with a B.A. in journalism, Saul joined The Clarion-Ledger as a reporter. A succession of reporting jobs at other newspapers led her to The New York Times in 2005, where she is a member of the newspaper’s investigative reporting team. She lives in Port Washington, N.Y., with her husband, New York Times reporter Walt Bogdanich, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner. They have two sons.
Farrington of Ridgeland is executive director of Medical Support and Development Organization Inc. Farrington graduated from UM in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education. She married the late Dr. Jeff Hollingsworth (BS 65) and lived in New Orleans, Durham, N.C., Washington, D.C., and Sunnyvale, Calif., before returning to Jackson. In 1987, she married Lawrence Farrington (BBA 58) and their mutual love for Ole Miss led them to become more and more involved in different areas of the university.
She is past president of the Ole Miss Alumni Association, past chair of the UM Foundation and past chair of the Ole Miss Women’s Council for Philanthropy. She serves on the executive board of the Alumni Association and the UM Foundation Board. Farrington is a member of the Ole Miss Alumni Hall of Fame and served as president of the National Delta Delta Delta Foundation. She and Lawrence live in Ridgeland. They have six children and 11 grandchildren.
Priddy is a research civil engineer at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg. Her research is focused on expedient pavement repair, evaluation and construction technologies and has developed new pavement repair techniques for airfield and roadway bomb craters. She is the author of numerous technical articles, papers and reports and served as liaison to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology in 2010-2011.
Priddy graduated from the university with her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2002 and completed her master’s degree in civil engineering from Mississippi State University in 2005. She is completing her Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. While at Ole Miss, she served as the president of the Engineering Student Body. She has continued to be active in the School of Engineering as a member of the Engineering Advisory Board from 2007 to 2012. Priddy is a member of Gibson Memorial United Methodist Church and personal hobbies include cooking, fishing and wine tasting.