Three Mississippi State University students died in separate accidents during the summer. Senior construction management major Charles Jordan Nunnery, 21, of Hazelhurst, MS, died Aug. 5 in Hazelhurst.
Nunnery graduated from Copiah Academy in Hazelhurst in 2004.
He was offered a football scholarship at Delta State but decided to come to MSU instead. Nunnery was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order and had plans to go in to the construction business after graduation.
Nunnery was riding in the passenger seat of MSU alumnus Hunter McKinley’s vehicle when an elderly woman backing out of her driveway caused McKinley to lose control of the vehicle. The vehicle swerved off the road and crashed in to a wooded area.
Nunnery died on the way to the hospital from injuries received in the crash.
Copiah Academy High School student Preston Berry, who was riding in the back seat of the car, also died in the crash.
Nunnery is survived by parents Michael and Lucretia Nunnery, and younger brother Michael.
Lucretia Nunnery said he was a hard working, fun loving person who loved the outdoors.
“Charles loved his life. He enjoyed every moment of it,” she said. “He loved Starkville and MSU and he probably did more living in his 21 years than most of us do in a lifetime. If you heard a duck call, Charlie was around. He was a very hard-working person and he never complained about anything. He was so full of life; he was a very loving person.”
More than 1,000 people attended his funeral, she said.
“He was a Christian and an exceptional person,” she said. “Everyone young and old loved Charles.”
Fraternity brother Dan Ratliff described Nunnery as someone who always liked to have a good time.
“He loved to hang out; he was the life of the party,” Ratliff said. “He loved to hunt and fish. He liked to fix things. Charles was a hard worker. He was a very calm and relaxed person. He loved the outdoors and he loved his friends and family.”
Senior software engineering major Jennifer Lynn Robbins, 20, of Ocean Springs, died May 2 in Huntsville, Ala.
Robbins graduated from the Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science in 2003. She met her future husband, John Robbins, in 2001 at MSMS, and the two were married in October of 2004.
Robbins was co-oping with the United Space Alliance Company in Huntsville when she died.
She was riding her bicycle to work when she lost control and was struck by a passing vehicle.
Her husband, MSU student John Eldon Robbins, Mark and Kerry Neumann, and older sister Marilyn survive Robbins.
John Robbins said his wife was a loving and dedicated person.
“She really liked to help people. She had no problems jumping in on something and trying to fix the problem,” he said. “She really loved the job she had in Huntsville. She was very interested in the space program and she really felt like she was contributing something.”
Robbins’s mother said her daughter was a caring person with many talents.
“She was very caring and loving,” she said. “When she was young, she worked with children with Muscular Dystrophy, and for her tenth birthday, she brought them all home with her and celebrated her birthday. She wanted to find a cure someday.
That was Jennifer; she was what she was doing for the future. She was one of a kind.”
Geosciences department Masters student Stuart Ellis Smith, 55, of Virginia Beach, Va. also died in a car accident this summer.
Wife Barbara Smith, daughter Kristen and son Stuart survive him.
Three trees will be planted on campus this fall in memory of all three students.