John Winkle, who joined the UM faculty in 1974, has left an indelible mark on the university during his 39-year career as both an academic and a motivator.

His colleague, John Bruce, chair and associate professor of political science, said that Winkle demonstrated the best practices of faculty across his career, all the while performing extensive service for the department, college and university.

“Without doubt or hesitation, I can say that he has left the largest footprint of any faculty member here in a long time,” said Bruce, who has worked with Winkle for 17 years. “His students think the world of him and routinely mention him when contacted years after graduating from the university. Beyond the work dimension, John is a delightful person, and we have been privileged to call him a colleague and friend over the years.”

Winkle was instrumental in the creation of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College and the honors program before it. In the summer of 1996, he wrote a statement proposing an academic vision for a new honors college, which would be part of a larger document that then-Chancellor Robert Khayat would take to a prospective donor.

“I thought about the need for a unique and transformative experience for each student in a new honors college and I used the professorial model of research, service and teaching,” Winkle said. “I envisioned that each student would write and defend a capstone research thesis in the senior year. I thought it vital that each student understand the importance of giving back to the community in the form of required public service, and I also suggested that students instruct their peers by giving a couple of lectures in introductory classes in their disciplines.”

Two of his three recommendations – the senior thesis and the public service – are components of the Honors College experience to this day.

Winkle also gave his ideas about what would become the Lott Leadership Institute.

“In 1997, I proposed to then-Chancellor Khayat that we consider creating a program in leadership studies,” he said. “He sent Andy Mullins and me to visit colleges and universities whose programs we might model. We returned and submitted a proposal using the model of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. Eventually, because of the chancellor’s leadership, a proposed program became an institute.”

Besides his academic work, Winkle has inspired countless students over the years. He is a recipient of the Elsie M. Hood Outstanding Teacher Award, as well as the Faculty Achievement award, the Random Acts of Kindness Award and the Frist Student Service Award. In 1998, the IHL presented him with the Harrison Governing Boards Award, given to one faculty member in the state system for contributions to higher education in Mississippi.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mills, a former student of Winkle’s who lives in Oxford, called him a fine instructor.

“I worked with him later when I was in the Legislature and he served as adviser to several law-related committees, and we worked together on various pieces of legislation,” said Mills, who took two constitutional law classes and a political science class from Winkle. “He is a good man and too young to retire. He must have a satisfied mind because he hasn’t aged a day since the first day I met him.”

Since 2003, Winkle has been the faculty adviser for the undergraduate mock trial program.

“I will most miss the classroom interaction and the exchange of ideas,” he said. “I challenge my students to think critically. I tell my students that the answer to any question they ask should always prompt another question, for the essence of true learning, I believe, lies in the ability to ask the better question.”

Winkle earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Mercer University and a master’s and Ph.D. in political science from Duke University. He had two visiting appointments at Emory University in 1991 and 1992; and at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1999. His research interests are judicial behavior and judicial lobbying.

He has truly loved his time at the university.

“I have respected the learning process and have encouraged my students to do so. I have cared about my students and have treated them as individuals,” he said.

Plans are under way for the John W. Winkle III Fund for Faculty Excellence.

Winkle’s retirement won’t leave him resting on his laurels, though. Next year, he plans on completing two ongoing research projects for publication.

“Thereafter, I hope to explore several possibilities, such as living abroad for six months, working for nonprofit groups, helping to launch honors programs elsewhere or becoming active in court reform projects,” Winkle said.

Forty-three years later, the retired Silicon Valley computer designer, whose invention design was finally declassified in 1998, is using his engineering experience to teach children in Mount Olive about science and robotics. He also has completed the requirements for a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction at Ole Miss as a graduate fellow at the university’s Center for Mathematics and Science Education, or CMSE. He was among some 3,000 candidates for degrees at Saturday’s Commencement ceremonies.

“I didn’t originally plan on visiting Mississippi,” Holt said. “I was sitting in my driveway in Oklahoma in my motor home that I had just bought to travel the country. I’d sold my house and I had to be out in a couple of days when a friend from Mississippi called and invited me visit his nonprofit ministry, R.E.A.L. Christian Foundation. He said he would have me check out the computers in the ministries. After two weeks, I knew I should stay. I liked helping rural ministries.”

After deciding to stay in Mississippi, Holt met Tony Duckworth of Mount Olive Ministries in Mount Olive. The organization provides children and teenagers with educational opportunities to promote an interest in academics and helps prevent students from dropping out of high school.

“Ray’s attitude about his achievements inspire our kids to dream again,” Duckworth said. “They know that their dreams can become a reality.”

Holt suggested starting a robotics team in Mount Olive to spark an interest in the students, and it worked. During the first-ever statewide high school robotics competition hosted by the CMSE in February, Holt’s group, dubbed Team Purple Thunder, took first and second place in two different categories. Their robotic successes continued from there. In late April, the team competed against 128 other robotics teams from 28 countries in the FIRST World Robotics Championship in St. Louis, placing 13th out of 64 in their division. The team was ranked first among first-time competitors.

“He really inspired us to do well in the competitions,” said Mount Olive ninth-grader Whitney Schreiber. “We’re just a small town that never really gets anything, and he teaches us so much.”

Holt splits his time between Oxford, where he is completing student teaching in mathematics at Lafayette High School, and Mount Olive. Throughout the year, he has made efforts to help his students in Mount Olive expand their horizons. Besides visiting St. Louis in April, Team Purple Thunder visited the Nissan plant in Canton last November. Last March, the team toured the UM School of Engineering and the Center for Manufacturing Excellence.

“When you show students what’s possible, you can see them become excited,” Holt said. “After they saw real engineers program robots to preform tasks to build a truck, they started to realize that they’re doing same thing with our robot on a smaller scale. They realized how much they could actually do.”

Offered at UM since 2010, the Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction is a one-year master’s program designed to help college graduates with noneducation degrees transition into teaching at the secondary level. After hearing about Holt’s robotics program, the CMSE offered him a fellowship that included full tuition, office space at the center and access to a variety of professional development and educational materials to complete the degree.

“Seeing the struggling that the youth have in Mount Olive, I had no idea our after-school programs could grow to this,” Holt said. “Our first goal was to make sure none of our children drop out of high school, and the second one was that their GPA would be a 3.0. Now, nine out of 11 students make straight As. Two of our past students have been accepted to Ole Miss.”

Holt said he hopes his new training will help him instill confidence and ambition into more children, particularly those who have an opportunity to become first-generation college students and who may have never previously considered a career in science or engineering. He hopes that in coming years, he can help grow after-school programs in rural communities throughout the state. All 11 members of Team Purple Thunder planned to visit Holt during graduation on Saturday.

“This degree has been way too much work to say it’s just for me,” said Holt. “Working with youth is my passion. I have students who now say ‘I want to come to Ole Miss to study robotics,’ I consider that a real success.”

OXFORD, Miss. – In honor of Symbols of Faith, Home, and Beyond: The Art of Theora Hamblett, and in celebration of the hometown of Theora Hamblett, the Mississippi Museum of Art invites all current and former residents of Oxford to a day of events and programs in the Art Garden at the Mississippi Museum of Art on Saturday, May 18.

“The University of Mississippi Museum has been very pleased and honored to partner with an institution we admire deeply, the Mississippi Museum of Art, to share multiple Theora Hamblett artworks with Jackson and central Mississippi audiences,” said Museum Director Robert Saarnio. “The Oxford Day celebration further extends the spirit of partnership between our museums, and deepens the links between our two communities.”

The day-long celebration begins at noon, featuring entertainment by Oxford musicians and performers and highlighting the work of area filmmakers and artists. The Athletics Foundation from the University of Mississippi joins the festivities to promote Ole Miss Athletics, and the Central Mississippi Ole Miss Rebel Club will host a tailgate for club members. This event is free and open to the public.

A variety of talented Oxford musicians and performers will provide entertainment throughout the day on the C Spire Stage in The Art Garden, including Oxford Ballet, Dent May, Jimmy Phillips and the Ruminators and the Kudzu Kings. Literary readings are presented by Vox Journal, and the Southern Foodways Alliance will present a series of independent films.

Artwork from Oxford-based Southside Gallery will be on display inside the museum, showcasing the work of talented Mississippi visual artists. Educational spaces and activities are provided by the museum’s education staff and the University Museum, with a focus on the art of Theora Hamblett and upcoming museum exhibitions. The Oxford Convention and Visitors Bureau and representatives of Ole Miss Athletics bring added excitement and energy.

Oxford-themed food options and specialty cocktail selections are provided by The Palette Café by Viking and Chef Louis H. LaRose.

This event is sponsored by BancorpSouth and Southern Beverage.

It is supported by the University of Mississippi Museum and Historic Houses, permanent home to many of Hamblett’s paintings, and the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council.

The Mississippi Museum of Art’s mission is to “engage Mississippians in the visual arts.” The museum is located at 380 South Lamar Street in Jackson. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. The museum is closed Monday. For more information about the Mississippi Museum of Art’s exhibitions, programs, and special events, please call 601-960-1515 or 1-866-VIEW ART (843-9278), or visit www.msmuseumart.org.

“The University of Mississippi believes in transformation through service, and we’re honored to see that commitment recognized with this prestigious award,” said Albert Nylander, director of the university’s McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement. “We are working to expand our service-learning and civic engagement efforts so that the university can positively impact the quality of life in communities across the state.”

The university was honored for its participation in the College Corps National Service Program, the UM Big Event and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

The 60 UM College Corps members commit to 300 hours of service per academic year at 12 locations in Oxford and Lafayette County. They were responsible for serving 2,250 meals, tutoring 400 students, reading 200 books with youth and raising $15,000 for partner organizations.

The Big Event, a student-driven day of service in Oxford and Lafayette County, engaged 3,085 students, faculty and staff, who gave 13,100 service hours in one day, serving 5,000 individuals in the community.

The 2012 Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service inaugurated what has become an annual celebration of service and community. In 2012, 87 students, faculty and staff volunteered 435 service hours, tutoring 100 students and working on a project to fight hunger.

“We are proud of our students and their sense of service to the community,” Chancellor Dan Jones said. “Over 10,000 of our students engaged in community service in the past year, and these students collectively gave nearly 478,000 service hours. These students provide tremendous momentum to deepen our future community-engagement efforts.”

“Congratulations to the University of Mississippi, its faculty and students for its commitment to service, both in and out of the classroom,” said Wendy Spencer, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, or CNCS. “Through its work, institutions of higher education are helping improve their local communities and create a new generation of leaders by challenging students to go beyond the traditional college experience and solve local challenges.”

Inspired by the thousands of college students who traveled across the country to support relief efforts along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, CNCS has administered the award since 2006 and manages the program in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the American Council on Education and Campus Compact.

More information about community service efforts at Ole Miss can be found at http://mclean.olemiss.edu. More information on eligibility and the full list of Honor Roll awardees can be found at http://www.nationalservice.gov.

“I believe in you, and I hope you believe in yourselves, too,” Evers-Williams said Saturday as she delivered the main address at the university’s 160th Commencement. “Soar! Not only for yourselves, nor just for the betterment of Mississippi, but for betterment of all mankind. Soar, and be free.”

The widow of slain Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers was surprised with the award after delivering the university’s 160th commencement address this morning to Ole Miss graduates.

The award has only been bestowed twice before. In 2001, Ole Miss honored Jim and Sally Barksdale. Two years later, William and Elise Winter also received the award.

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“I believe in you, and I hope you believe in yourselves, too,” Evers-Williams said today as she delivered the main address at the university’s 160th commencement ceremony. “Soar! Not only for yourselves, nor just for the betterment of Mississippi, but for betterment of all mankind. Soar, and be free.”

Read more.

She spoke Saturday during a commencement ceremony on the university’s main campus in Oxford.

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“I believe in you, and I hope you believe in yourselves, too,” Evers-Williams said during a commencement ceremony on the university’s main campus in Oxford. “Soar! Not only for yourselves, nor just for the betterment of Mississippi, but for betterment of all mankind. Soar, and be free.”

Students in adjunct instructor Jeremy Roberts’ event-planning class spearheaded the space-themed children’s fair, which included visitors from NASA’s Stennis Space Center, the Oxford-Lafayette Humane Society’s annual Best Dressed Pet Contest and activities such as games and face painting.

“We did everything from picking out the food, working with the vendors and setting up the layout to designing the posters and marketing the event,” said Roberts. “It provided students with one of three hands-on, real-world event-management experiences this semester.”

Hundreds of children and their parents came out to the Oxford Square to take part in games and activities ranging from fingernail painting by the Lafayette High School Varsity Cheerleaders to art projects with Oxford’s Studio Whimzy.

After breaking down this year’s Square Fair, students held a debriefing session and began planning the 2014 event, which NHM students will also oversee.

“It was a fun event,” Roberts said. “We did it as a way to give back to the community.”

Students in the NHM 312 course also hosted Miss-I-Sippin’, a fundraiser benefiting the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council and the NHM department in April, and put on a reception for the Mississippi Dietetic Association’s annual conference in Oxford.