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 For
many years, University of Mississippi students, faculty, staff,
and alumni have been interested in religious life on campus. A number
of people have served as director of religious life, including Malcomb
Guess, Will Campbell, Linda Ramey, Mary McClain, Polly Williams,
and Nolan Shepard. Others have worked with student religious organizations
as a part of their duties. However, interest in religious life grew
stronger and stronger, and students, faculty, staff, and alumni
wanted a chapel.
In 1975, students chose
the chapel as their charitable project and, with the help of alumni,
raised $12,000 for a Chapel Fund. In 1976, Chancellor Porter L.
Fortune, Jr., appointed a committee to develop plans for an Ole
Miss chapel. Chancellor Fortune charged the committee with recommending
the type of chapel desired and possible sites for its location.
The committee expressed
a desire to build a "traditional chapel" that would be
centrally located and defined its principal function as a "setting
for interdenominational worship services and rooms for prayer, meditation,
Bible study, small discussion groups, counseling, and weddings."
In May 1977, the committee
submitted a final report to Chancellor Fortune. In December 1977,
Dr. Fortune announced the beginning of a $500,000 chapel fund-raising
campaign, proclaiming December 7 as "A Day of Prayer"
on campus for the realization of a chapel at Ole Miss. But it would
be many years before the chapel would materialize.
A building committee was appointed in 1978, and in the mid-1980s an
effort was made to revive the chapel initiative, but private support was not
available.
After being named chancellor in 1995, Dr. Robert C. Khayat was
approached by three alumni committed to funding a chapel: Henry Paris, a
member of the original 1976 chapel committee; his son, LeRoy H. Paris II; and J.
Stacy Davidson. With the commitment of a lead gift, Chancellor Khayat appointed
a new Chapel Committee in February 1996. The mall area west of the J.D.
Williams Library was chosen as the site for the chapel, and symbolic
groundbreaking ceremonies were held September 14, 1996. Subsequently,
another lead gift was provided by Bill and Nancy Yates and family.
Since all of the costs of the Paris-Yates Chapel and Peddle Bell Tower are
from private gifts, construction of the Chapel has been a project of The University
of Mississippi Foundation. The Board of Directors of The University of Mississippi
Foundation formally voted to move forward with construction at its meeting on
April 23,1999.
The new chapel for The University of Mississippi was programmed and
designed by Dale and Associates Architects, P.A., of Jackson, Mississippi, and is
being constructed by W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Company of Philadelphia,
Mississippi. Developed concurrently with a new quadrangle west of the Library,
the Chapel includes a 200-seat sanctuary and a bell tower provided by the Peddle
family of Oxford. The Verdin Company of Cincinnati is the manufacturer of the
carillon, with 36 bronze bells cast in Holland. The carillon will chime the hour and
play appropriate melodies. The Chapel also houses a magnificent pipe organ
handmade by Karl Wilhelm, Inc., of Canada. The organ is made possible by the
generosity of Gene L. Davidson Family and Sandra and Bill Johnson in honor of
Larry and Susan Martindale. The Chapel garden's statue was sculpted by artist Rod
Moorhead through the generosity of James F. and Peggy H. Adams. The
architecture and materials of the chapel maintain the strong, traditional
environment that is so important to The University of Mississippi.
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