To Frank B. MacKnight, Class of ’42, one of The Reflector’s own:
It seems as if I had known you forever, but it was late in life that I came to appreciate fully your humanity. The Pictish-Scottish DNA was quickly recognizable by me, another from the Highland Clans. MacKnight: Nil Durum Volenti!
At Mississippi State College in 1938 we first discovered our mutual background of rich culture and Southern eminence. Poverty and the Great Depression necessitated our taking N.Y.A. (National Youth Administration) jobs on the College Farm at the high wage of twenty-five cents an hour. You soon got a promotion to sports writer for The Reflector. I got a change of venue to the Agricultural Extension Service as mail boy and janitor, but at the same wage.
Our college years consisted of interaction at the Y.M.C.A, classes, and college functions. I lived in “Polecat” Alley, but somehow you missed that freshman living quarter we called the snake pit. You joined a fraternity and were active in campus affairs, while I attended Mr. Ben Hilbun’s Sunday school class. We shared a common interest in sports, and I tried pitching for the baseball team, losing out to the great David “Boo” Ferriss! There was the occasional visit to the “W,” (Mississippi State College for Women at Columbus) and its sea of pulchritude.
We went on to serve in World War II and came back to live the American Dream. We were, and are, The Greatest Generation. You had a career in U.S. business, as I escaped to academia, Berkeley and the West.
We rediscovered our friendship in 2002 at our Mississippi State University 60th Class Reunion. MSU: no longer just a “cow college!” Our Lifetime Class President, James “Rusty” Newman, and a dozen other classmates were there. We again probed and argued social, political and religious matters, but always agreed that man is a worthy representation of God’s effort. You endured major bouts with heart bypass and cancer of the colon and thyroid, surviving like the Gaelic fighter that you were. Our mutual universes melded, but we never solved the “big problem!”
You impressed me as a true descendent of James Arthur MacKnight, one great, intrepid pioneer, American. That biographical novel about him, “Little Mormon Jim,” is a classic, and its last lines are poignant and fitting for us all: “They were not afraid. They had youth, health, strength and love. With these assets they could dare all for the sake of one another.”
Your last words to me in a rasping, passionate voice whispered, “Jimmye, I want you to know life has all been worthwhile.”
Bon voyage, Frank Barnett MacKnight! We salute you, mighty Bulldog!
Jimmye Hillman, 1942 graduate MSU graduate, is a professor emeritus in agricultural economics at the University of Arizona at Tucson. He can be contacted at [email protected].