STARKVILLE — Hundreds of Mississippi State faculty, staff, alumni, students and friends attended a memorial service Thursday for the university’s President Emeritus Donald Zacharias, who died Sunday after an extended illness and complications from multiple sclerosis.
The service was a celebration of not only his legacy of accomplishments, but also of his revered character, one described as humble and loving, but effective and willing to fight for causes he thought were important.
Zacharias etched his place in MSU history during his 12-plus presidency, which is second in tenure only to the university’s founding president, General Stephen D. Lee.
“General Lee prepared this institution for the challenges and the opportunities of that dawning 20th century. When President Zacharias stepped down, he had well positioned Mississippi State University for the 21st century,” said MSU President Mark E. Keenum.
Keenum recalled his own years as a doctoral student in the university’s agricultural economics department when Zacharias became MSU’s 15th president after leaving a successful presidency at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.
“Donald Wayne Zacharias immersed himself immediately in the life of this campus and this state and became, from Day One, the most fervent and committed proponent of what was now his university,” Keenum said.
Keenum said Zacharias had a direct influence on his own career, and encouraged Keenum to take a position on the staff of U.S. Senator Thad Cochran after finishing his advanced studies at MSU.
“His confidence and guidance made all the difference in my life and my career, and I will be forever grateful to Dr. Zacharias,” Keenum said. He said that during his tenure on Sen. Cochran’s staff, he developed a close working relationship with Zacharias, and together they worked on a model to increase levels of federally directed funding for state universities.
Acclaimed author and MSU alumnus John Grisham also was part of the program. While Zacharias’s tenure as president began after Grisham graduated from MSU in 1977 and finished law school at Ole Miss, he got to know the future author when he was a rookie member of the Mississippi House of Representatives. He said Zacharias would visit the legislature in search of funding for the university.
Grisham lightened the mood by telling how Zacharias had seemed at times the only one interested in speaking with him when his political influence was limited and he had only begun to compose his first novel.
“When he came to town, we’d go out and have long dinners. We wouldn’t talk about politics. We’d talk about important things like college baseball, higher ed history, and books.”
Grisham said occasionally a university president comes at the right place and the right time and leaves a profound impact on his institution.
“As long as this place is here, ‘Dr. Z’ will be remembered, and cherished, not only as a great leader, but also as a great person,” Grisham said.
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