DELTA
LEADERS: Kenneth Hood, Dr. Lester Newman, Ed Nixon, and
Barthell Joseph, Jr.
at awards dinner.
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Fourth
Annual Profiles In Leadership Awards banquet proves
to be success
|
|
Event
sponsored by Delta Business Journal features brother of former
president as keynote speaker, proclamation by Governor
Special to the DBJ
The Delta Business Journal held its fourth annual Profiles
In Leadership Awards banquet Saturday night, May 3, at the
Cleveland Country Club during which three Deltans who have
made significant contributions to the region in their respective
fields were honored.
Businessman Barthell Joseph, Jr. of Reed-Joseph in Greenville,
Kenneth Hood, farmer and agriculture leader of Hood Gin Company
in Gunnison and Dr. Lester Newman, President of Mississippi
Valley State University in Itta Bena, were presented awards
by DBJ Publisher Scott Coopwood. Edward Nixon, brother of
former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and President of Nixon
World Enterprises, Inc. in Seattle, WA was the banquet’s
keynote speaker.
The
event, which drew close to 300 attendees, was also attended
by Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove who was on hand to
issue an official State proclamation honoring the evening’s
three awards recipients. Musgrove, who made the declaration
just prior to Nixon’s address, was generous in his praise
for Joseph, Hood and Newman.
“The state is leading the nation in globalization and
there have been tremendous strides in education here,”
Musgrove said, when making his proclamation. “The three
people who are being honored here tonight helped make that
happen.”
Nixon, making his first visit to the Mississippi Delta, also
expressed an appreciation of the efforts made by the three
honorees. In his speech, he noted that the Delta is part of
the true heartland of the nation and that there is a certain
can-do spirit evident in the region.
“Individuals such as the three on stage with me tonight
are the ones who make our society prosperous,” Nixon
said. “People who live here are making it and succeeding
because they choose to be here and they are making a difference.”
Following Nixon’s talk, Coopwood gave biographical sketches
of the honorees and then presented them with their awards.
All three touched on the importance of what the Delta offers
while expressing humble gratitude for the tribute given them.
“We talk about homeland security,” Kenneth Hood
commented. “The best security we can have is having
a safe, abundant food supply at an affordable price. The Mississippi
Delta helps provide such a supply.”
Joseph stated that “We must do whatever we do together.
We must love one another, work together and prosper and be
happy.”
“Education is one of the fastest growing industries
in the state of Mississippi,” said Dr. Newman in his
remarks. “It is therefore important for the state to
go in the right direction as far as our education system is
concerned and we are doing that today.”
Coopwood noted that the Profiles In Leadership Awards was
created to fill a visible need he saw in paying tribute to
those who have done so much for the Delta Business Journal’s
coverage area.
“It is because of the tremendous efforts of those, such
as who we are honoring tonight, that younger entrepreneurs
like myself have had success,” Coopwood said. “These
outstanding leaders made a deliberate decision to stay, work
and prosper in the Delta and all of us are the better for
it.”
Past recipients of the Delta Business Journal’s Profiles
In Leadership Awards include: Roger Malkin, Charlie Capps,
Dr. Kent Wyatt, Henry Paris, Bill Gresham, Aven Whittington,
Willis Connell, Jimmie Dick Carter, Ed Kossman and Dick Flowers.
DBJ
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