Donations from The KBH Corp. to honor company's founder, university researchers

The nation's largest producer of cotton handling equipment has made two substantial pledges to Mississippi State to support faculty development and research at the university.

The KBH Corp. of Clarksdale pledged $100,000 to Mississippi State earlier this year to establish the B.H. Bass Jr. Fund for Excellence in Agricultural and Biological Engineering in honor of the longtime university supporter and founder of the company.

The fund, which recognizes B.H. Bass Jr. for his leadership of KBH since its founding in 1951, will provide annual support for faculty development in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, including professional renewal and faculty recognition, purchase of equipment to support teaching, research, and service; and projects related to expanding or improving cotton production.

President Donald W. Zacharias praised the commitment of The KBH Corp. to the university's research and service functions.

"Mississippi State University is fortunate to have the commitment of such an outstanding organization as The KBH Corp.," said Zacharias. "The support of the company and the entire Bass family is a tremendous boost to our agricultural and biological engineering program.

"The university has a tremendous relationship with KBH, and we look forward to furthering that relationship in the future."

In March, KBH pledged an additional $110,000 to Mississippi State University to support the KBH Research Fund in Agricultural and Biological Engineering. The gift is in the form of proceeds from the sale of automated cotton module builders designed, in part, by researchers at Mississippi State.

The KBH Research Fund supports the work of Dr. Filip S. To, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and M. Herbert Willcutt, an agricultural engineer with the Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service at Mississippi State. In 1993, To and Willcutt teamed to help KBH develop the automated cotton module builder that is saving farmers both time and money.

"We have been extremely pleased with the work of the researchers at Mississippi State University," said Hamp Bass III, president of the company. "The KBH Corp. is pleased to honor both that work and my father's leadership in the equipment manufacturing industry."

The KBH donations are a part of the university's first-ever major gifts campaign, The Campaign for Mississippi State. Gifts to the five-year campaign scheduled to end in June 1997 have reached more than $93 million. The campaign seeks $110 million in support of university priorities.