This Friday the Southern Public Relations Federation and the Mississippi State University Department of Communication will honor three former southern public relations professionals who were inducted this past September into their newly established Hall of Fame. There will be a ceremony at 2 p.m. celebrating this inaugural class of inductees outside the John Grisham room in Mitchell Memorial Library at MSU.
 SPRF is a society of PR professionals, with about 1,300 members throughout four  states. Adam Kelley of Tuscaloosa had the idea for this Hall of Fame when he was serving as president of SPRF, and when he presented it to the board, they thought it was a great idea.  He said he wanted to acknowledge and honor professionals in the realm of public relations who have exemplified an entire lifetime of achievement. Over the years, there have been many awards and recognitions given to these public professionals for small accomplishments, such as honoring them for a successful project. However, this is the first attempt at recognizing them for their continual influence on and contributions to the profession, Kelley said. He said the field of public relations is relatively new, so it is just now getting to the point where it would need a Hall of Fame.
Every year, three to five new members will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the SPRF conference in the fall. In the spring, they will be honored again at a ceremony sponsored by the MSU communication department, and a plaque will be hung in the library. This first group of inductees includes the late Philip R. Forrest, Jr. of Alabama, Rex Kelly of Mississippi and William “Bill” Michelet of Louisiana.
         John Forde, communication department head, has been working very closely with Kelley and the founders of this Hall of Fame project. Forde said he is especially excited about the inductees this year, since he had two of the three as his own mentors as  leaders in the SPRF.
         One of these leaders is Michelet. Among his many accomplishments was his role in the start of the Universal Accreditation Board. Most groups had their own accreditation programs, and Michelet saw a need to make it universal. Therefore, he created a more uniform and effective system throughout the entire field of public relations.
Forde said Michelet was a father figure to him and that he mentored and encouraged a lot of people.
The other inductee who served as a mentor to Forde is Kelly from Gulfport, who is also now retired. Forde and Kelley attended meetings together where they talked about internships and how they needed more chapters in Mississippi. They started chapters in Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Meridian and  Tupelo. Forde said Kelly is well-known in the field and has served as a leader and an officer in many groups.
In his life, Forrest was one of the most integral leaders of public relations both in the state of Alabama and on a national level.  He was the director of public relations for the America’s Junior Miss Pageant for six years where he dealt with some of the largest corporations in the world, and he led the public relations department until his death  in  1983 at Merchants National Bank in Mobile.
Both Forde and Kelley said they are extremely excited to have MSU as the location for the Hall of Fame.
Kelley said, “SPRF “want[s] to be associated with Mississippi State for two reasons:  because of John Forde, who is an expert in the field and a real leader in SPRF […and] because State is a great location. It is centrally located [between the four states included in SPRF] enough so that people can visit it.” He also said he hopes it will become an inspiration to the students here at MSU. John Forde said he likewise considers it an honor to have it at MSU and said the officers loved the location — just outside of the Grisham room overlooking the Drill Field.