Oktibbeha County NAACP president and political science professor Mfanya Tryman was found dead Wednesday afternoon in his home.
His son Nyerere Tryman, who is a grad student at MSU, found him lying face down in his home. It looks as though he died of natural causes, Starkville Police Lt. Troy Outlaw said. “We’re not suspecting any foul play,” he said.
Tryman left behind family members and colleagues who respected him as a kind man who stood up for equal rights in governmental policies.
Marty Wiseman, a professor of political science and director of the Stennis Institute of Government, said he was a close colleague of Tryman.
Wiseman said he remembered the first day Tryman came to campus about 17 years ago. Wiseman helped him move into his office, and he was the first person to work with Tryman, he said.
Wiseman said it’s hard to remember Tryman without a smile on his face.
Aretha Jones-Cook, director of the Holmes Cultural Diversity Center, said Tryman’s smile was contagious and that she always felt at ease around him.
Cook had talked with him Monday, and she was shocked to hear that he had died. It was a shock to all his colleagues and the community, she said.
Tryman had always provided any support that Cook needed, including some needs at the cultural diversity center, she said.
“I’m going to miss not having this person whom I could call on,” Cook said.
Wiseman said Tryman wrote several books and articles, and that he was a popular professor among students and faculty. “Students lined up to get into his class,” he said.
Tryman was someone you could have a serious conversation with, and Wiseman always enjoyed conversing with him, he said.
“I just enjoyed being around him,” he added.
Wiseman said Tryman had been president of the NAACP for about three years, and he contributed to the discussion of policies, both on the state and local levels.
Tryman was serious about the government and its strengths and shortcomings in equality, and he skillfully analyzed these areas, Wiseman said. “He was vigilant in maintaining that government must never abandon [equality] again as it did in the civil rights day,” he said.
Wiseman heard about Tryman’s death as soon as he arrived from Jackson Wednesday night. He went to Tryman’s house where he met his son, Nyerere. They are not sure how Tryman died, but they believe he may have had a heart attack; Wiseman was unaware that Tryman took medicine for epilepsy, he said.
City coroner Michael Hunt suggested that an autopsy be performed, Outlaw said.
Tryman had refined his diet and had been trying to maintain his health, so his sudden death is a mystery, Wiseman said.
Tryman had recently been ordained a minister, and he preached several sermons before his death. Though she did not know this until this week, Cook said she was not surprised.
“It’s fitting if you know him,” Cook said.
He was a good man, and he leaves a void that is going to be hard to fill, both in the classroom and in people’s lives, Wiseman said.