Millsaps College - Bobashela Yearbook (Jackson, MS)

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DR. WILLIAM BELTON ' MURRAH.

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WE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATE THIS THE SECOND VOLUME OF BOBASMELA TO DR. WILLIAM BELTON MURRAH, TO WHOSE JUDGMENT AND ABILITY MUCH OF ' the SUCCESS OF MILLSAPS COLLEGE IS DUE.

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WILLIAM BELTON MURRAH. A few years since, when I was speaking to a school man of much experience in a neigh- boring State in regard to accepting a position in Millsaps College, he said : Accept it by all means; much of your success as a teacher depends on your president. Tl ere is no bet- ter college president in the South than Dr. Murrah. From this point of view I purpose saying something of our president as an executive and as a worthy model for voung men. A native of Alabama, and a graduate of the Southern University, at Greensboro, Ala- bama, he early became indentified with Mississippi, and there is to-day no native Mississip- pian who is more ardently devoted to his State than Dr. Murrah. His closest friends are surprised at times at the intimate knowledge he has of men and measures not simply in the educational and ecclesiastic fields, but also in business and politics. Those who know him best have found that under a very placid exterior he conceals an ability, like that of Secretary Taft, of accomplishing a vast amount of work without appearing to be bjsy, and of forming estimates of things while apparently hearing nothing. He dis- poses of immense quantities of work with an air of beneficent leisure. Soon after graduating from the Southern University he joined the North Mississippi Conference, and was stat ' cned successivfly at Oxfcid, Wircra end Atcidttn. In igg6 he entered upon educational work, and connected himself with Whitworth College. From the position of vice-president of this institution he was called to take full charge of the work at Millsaps College when the College was organized. He is the only member of the Faculty who was with the College at its inception, and in a peculiar sense is entitled to feel that its marvelous success is his life work. Dr. Murrah is one of those men whom the king delights to honor. In 1887 the degree of D.D. was conferred on him b}- Centenary College, and in 1897 he was made an LL.D. by Wofford College. His own Conference has conferred on him every honor in its power, and he is now representing it for the sixth time in the General Conference of his church. In 1891 he was one of the representatives for his denomination to the Ecumeni- cal Conference held in Washington, D. C, and in 1901 he represented his church when the same body met in London. In 1892 he was the fraternal messenger from his church to the Methodist Church of Canada, and in 1898 he was elected General Secretary of the Board of Education of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. One of the bright tra- 6