Gammill Gallery Dedicated during Celebration Weekend

    On Friday, April 27, the Center opened its doors to friends and family to celebrate two of its staunchest supporters, Lynn and Stewart Gammill. This Hattiesburg couple met while in graduate school at Ole Miss and have maintained an active interest in the institution for decades, seeing their children attend the University and becoming, over time, champions for Center programs and initiatives. Stewart, in his remarks during the dedication ceremony, stated that “it’s been a privilege for us to be associated with . . . the Center as it is a very special place for us.”  The concluding ceremonies for the successful Campaign for Excellence, dubbed by University officials as Celebration Weekend, got off to a good start with the Gammill Gallery event at the Center.

   Accordingly, the day itself was fine. Skies could not have been more blue, and warm air infused with the scent of spring helped to make the garden party on the Center’s brick courtyard a truly inviting place to be. Center Director Charles Reagan Wilson, in his remarks to the gathering of nearly 200 guests, explained that “no one has been more involved with the Center, with good advice, sound judgment, and their abiding presence, than Lynn and Stewart Gammill.”

   Gammill friends and family looked on with pride as former Mississippi Governor William Winter gave the dedication address. “Lynn and Stewart Gammill have demonstrated through all the years that I have known them an unquenchable commitment and passion to identify and preserve the best and noblest elements of our culture,” Winter said. These lifelong Mississippians, he continued, “have recognized and appreciated our historic heritage and the natural wealth and beauty of our state. . . . Without calling attention to themselves, they have done as much as anybody I know to move this whole region in the way that it should go.”  Winter’s remarks, deeply felt, were moving and drew nods of agreement from many in the audience. (For the complete text of Winter’s address, see page ?.)

   Winter’s address followed statements by Senator Thad Cochran and University Chancellor Robert Khayat, who spoke at the outset of the half-hour program. The Senator remarked upon the fact that the Gammills’ commitment to “sponsor and help raise the monies necessary to establish the gallery . . . is really above and beyond what we expect from loyal alumni and friends of the University.” Chancellor Khayat stated, “We thank the Gammills for being great supporters of the Center. . . . Ole Miss is really about relationships and friendships . . . we’re able to celebrate today because so many of you have come together to insure the success of this University.”

   Present in spirit was former Center Director William Ferris, now chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C. Ferris sent his best wishes for the day to the Gammills in a letter Wilson read to the audience. Ferris recalled that it was Lynn Gammill who championed the idea of a state advisory committee for the Center in its early days. It was Lynn, he said, who urged organizers to go outside the University community and involve nonacademic representatives from around the state and region in Center activities. Lynn believed that the Center would reap many benefits from adding the strengths of a diverse board membership willing to lend their assistance to Center initiatives. This early commitment to expanding Center leadership has served the Center well over time, insuring an impact more regional than local, less parochial and more inclusive of many voices, backgrounds, and views.