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Honorary Doctorate Goes to Business Leader Leland Speed


President Lee Royce joins longtime Mississippi College supporter Leland Speed following a spring luncheon at Alumni Hall. Speed served 42 years on the MC Board of Trustees.

A business icon, innovative developer and philanthropist with a servant’s heart, Leland Speed will receive an honorary doctorate at Mississippi College.

At the May 7 spring commencement, a Doctor of Business Administration degree will be awarded to the longtime MC supporter. Speed logged an incredible 42 years of service with the Christian university’s Board of Trustees. His achievement set a new standard in school history as the college celebrates its 190th anniversary.

Speed and his wife, Bessie, have been “exceedingly generous to Mississippi College over the years,” President Lee Royce says.

Leland Speed served as honorary chairman of the university’s successful Growing the Vision campaign launched in 2006. What began as a sizable goal to reach $65 million over five years was expanded. The fund drive ended up topping $87 million in 2011. The campaign boosted MC scholarships, academic programs, facilities and the school’s endowment. Speed worked well with Board of Trustees Chairman Don Phillips and other leaders to make it happen.

Leland Speed Library visitors often believe the building on the Clinton campus is named for the energetic leader of Parkway Properties and the Eastover Group Companies. In fact, the landmark along College Street is named for his father, whose initial business clients included the late MC President D.M. Nelson.

Today, MC students continue to receive financial support from a scholarship named in memory of Leland Speed’s brother who died at an early age.

Mississippi College reaped benefits in other ways thanks to Leland Speed’s visionary thinking. MC’s plan to construct a bookstore near the Brick Streets of Olde Towne was expanded as a result of his advice. He suggested adding a restaurant (Pimentos) and upstairs lofts for graduate students. Speed believed the idea would hasten additional developments in the area. He proved to be right.

In 2016, Speed continues to ably serve Mississippi College as leader of the university’s Foundation Board.

First joining the MC Board of Trustees in 1970, the 83-year-old Mississippian loves being a blessing to the Baptist-affiliated university in a variety of ways. “To see MC blossom is a real joy.”

A graduate of Georgia Tech with a master’s at Harvard Business School, Speed will be in good company at the early May ceremonies. A strong supporter of his alma mater for decades, businessman Ed Trehern will also receive an honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree. A 1969 MC graduate and former captain of the Choctaws football team, Trehern is a Pascagoula native.

At the A.E. Wood Coliseum program that Saturday, MC’s Class of 2016 will hear Jim Futral deliver the keynote address. The Mississippian serves as executive director-treasurer of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board.