The fall 2006 Mississippi State University graduation ceremony will offer milestones and memories as eager graduates receive their diplomas next week.
In the long tradition of guest speakers at MSU, Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck and former Tupelo Mayor Glenn L. McCullough Jr. will offer words of wisdom and share life experiences at the commencement ceremonies.
Tuck, an Oktibbeha County native, will speak at the 7 p.m. commencement program on Friday. McCullough will be speaking at the 10 a.m. program Dec. 9.
Tuck holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in public policy and administration from MSU. She is also a graduate of the Mississippi College School of Law.
Since being elected lieutenant governor in 1999, Tuck has been an advocate for public education and serves alternately as chair and vice chair of the Legislative Budget Committee, the body that determines the levels of annual funding for state agencies and other governmental bodies, according to the MSU Web site.
McCullough received his bachelor’s in agricultural economics from MSU in 1977. Before becoming the mayor of Tupelo, he spent four years as the head of the Mississippi office of the Appalachian Regional Commission and was also the president, vice president and sales manager of his family’s steel products company in Tupelo.
Due to a business trip McCullough had to take to Las Cruces, N.M., he was not able to attend his own graduation ceremony.
“This is very special for me to share graduation with the class of 2006, it’s quite an honor,” McCullough said.
While at MSU McCullough was a member of the Elder Statesmen, Agricultural Economics Club and Sigma Chi. He was also a three-year varsity cheerleader.
McCullough said Mississippi State is special because only one out of five people in the state hold a college degree.
“I am confident in the graduates of MSU,” he said. “MSU is a special place because the people make it special. As you grow older, campus becomes more unique, and you learn to appreciate it more.”
President Robert “Doc” Foglesong, who attended the graduation ceremonies of spring 2006 for the Starkville and Meridian campuses as well as the College of Veterinary Medicine, said graduation plays a role in students’ coming of age.
“There is not a time in my life that I haven’t stopped learning,” he said. “We are delighted to have such distinguished people from the Bulldog Nation come to our school and share their wisdom.”