Colleges and schools name Alumni of the Year

Recognized at the Mississippi State Alumni Association's annual alumni awards banquet were the 1994 College and School Alumni of the Year:

• James Worth Bagley of Mountain View, Calif., College of Engineering;
• Dr. H. Rouse Caffey of Baton Rouge, La., College of Agriculture and Home Economics;
• Dr. Lynn A. Cox of Tupelo, College of Veterinary Medicine;
• John Grisham of Oxford, College of Business and Industry;
• James W. Hammond Sr. of Houston, Texas, College of Arts and Sciences;
• Dr. Beverly Dixon Shaklee of Kent, Ohio, College of Education;
• Janet Marie Smith of Baltimore, Md., School of Architecture; and
• Dr. Billy Teels of Manassas, Va., School of Forest Resources.

Bagley

James Worth Bagley received his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from Mississippi State in 1961 and 1966, respectively. He is the president and chief operating officer of Applied Materials Inc., in Santa Clara, Calif., the leading independent producer of wafer systems for the worldwide semiconductor industry. Since joining Applied Materials in 1987 as senior vice president of operations, he had led the firm into the ranks of the Fortune 500 companies.

Before joining Applied Materials, Bagley worked in a variety of management roles with Texas Instruments Inc. in Dallas, rising to the position of assistant vice president in 1979.

Caffey

Dr. H. Rouse Caffey received his bachelor's and master's degrees in agronomy from Mississippi State in 1951 and 1955, respectively. He received his doctorate in agronomy from Louisiana State University in 1959. Since 1984, he has been chancellor of the LSU Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge, La. As chancellor, he administers a statewide agricultural research and extension program involving a budget of approximately $70 million in appropriated funds and approximately $7 million in grants, gifts, and contracts.

The Grenada native was Progressive Farmer magazine's Man of the Year for Louisiana agriculture in 1986, LSU College of Agriculture Alumni Association Outstanding Alumnus in 1992, and LSU Alumni Association Alumnus of the Year in 1993.

Cox

Dr. Lynn A. Cox received his doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Mississippi State in 1983. Following graduation, he practiced veterinary medicine in Kentucky for three years, before returning to Mississippi in 1986 where he opened the All Animal Hospital in Tupelo. Today, he and his partner own and operate three clinics in North Mississippi, as part of the McMillan and Cox Animal Hospitals.

Cox is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Mississippi Veterinary Medical Association, and the American Association of Equine Practitioners.

Grisham

John Grisham received his bachelor's degree in accounting from Mississippi State in 1975. He received his law degree from the University of Mississippi. The best-selling author of A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and The Client also was named Mississippi State's National Alumnus of the Year for 1994. He received both awards at the alumni awards banquet.

Before devoting his time entirely to his writing career, Grisham was a criminal defense lawyer in his hometown of Southaven and was a two-term member of the state House of Representatives from DeSoto County. Two of the author's books have been released as movies, with the movie version of The Client in final production. His forthcoming thriller, The Chamber, is nearing completion, with the film rights already sold to Universal Studios.

Hammond

James W. Hammond Sr. received his bachelor's degree in chemistry and his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Mississippi State in 1935 and 1951, respectively. He received a master's degree from Louisiana State University in 1937. He is retired from a long career in private industry and education, spending 54 years in the professional field of occupational hygiene and disease control.

Hammond spent 31 years with Exxon Company U.S.A., rising to the position of director of industrial hygiene. The Winona native has held numerous teaching positions within the industrial hygiene field, including at Georgia Technological Institute, the University of Oklahoma, Wichita State University, and the School of Public Health at the University of Texas.

Shaklee

Dr. Beverly Dixon Shaklee received her doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Mississippi State in 1985. Prior to that, she received her bachelor's degree in elementary education in 1975 and her master's degree in educational psychology in 1981, both from the University of Kansas. She joined the faculty at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, in 1986 as an assistant professor of elementary and special education and was promoted to associate professor in 1991.

She received the Kent State University College of Education's 1993 Burton Gorman Teacher Impact Award, presented annually to recognize an educator at Kent State who demonstrates a special ability to work effectively with schools. While at Mississippi State, she was the Phi Delta Kappa Outstanding Graduate Student and received the Doctoral Students Association Research Award.

Smith

Janet Marie Smith received her bachelor's degree in architecture from Mississippi State in 1981. She later received her master's degree in urban planning from City College of New York. She is vice president of planning and development for the Baltimore Orioles major league baseball organization, serving as the Orioles' representative for the planning, design, and construction of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the new $105 million baseball park in downtown Baltimore. She also assists in the development of a spring training facility and advises on the planning of minor league parks.

Before joining the Orioles in 1989, Smith was responsible for the management and redevelopment of downtown Los Angeles' oldest city park, Pershing Square. Her work has been cited by the New York Times, New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Esquire, and Architecture Magazine.

Teels

Dr. Billy Teels received his master's degree in wildlife management in 1971 and his doctorate in wildlife ecology in 1975, both from Mississippi State. Prior to that, he received his bachelor's degree in biology from Southwestern State College in Weatherford, Oklahoma. He is a national biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service in Washington, D.C., where he leads the biology program for the service.

While the state Soil Conservation Service biologist in Oklahoma in 1986, he received the Oklahoma Award for outstanding contributions to the profession of wildlife management. In 1983, he received the Wendel Bever Award, presented by the Oklahoma Wildlife Federation to the outstanding wildlife professional in the state.