Ribbon Cutting Spotlights MC Accounting Classroom

Tony Huffman's admirers poured on the praise during dedication ceremonies at Self Hall, home of Mississippi College's School of Business.

As an MC student in the early 1980s, Huffman was a “really smart young man” who stayed active in the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity, said accounting professor Sandra Parks. As a successful certified public accountant, Huffman made it a point to return to his alma mater to speak to MC business students, she noted.

The owner of Huffman & Company, CPA, P.A., Huffman was back on the Clinton campus with family members for Wednesday's special occasion.

As President Lee Royce, School of Business Dean Marcelo Eduardo and others looked on, Room 307 in Self Hall officially became the Tony Huffman, CPA and Terrell E. Wise Accounting Classroom.

MC leaders celebrated Huffman's many career and civic accomplishments. An outstanding MC business student, Huffman won national awards during his four years as a member of the Christian university's track and cross country teams.

“When Tony came into the room, the whole room lit up,” said MC accounting professor Jacky Jones, who was one of his instructors at the School of Business starting in 1981.

Since earning his bachelor's degree in business administration, the 47-year-old Pensacola native has shined in the business world. He was the MC School of Business Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 1999 and MC's Young Alumnus of the Year in 2004. He founded his Flowood-based firm in 1991. With ten staff members, the company serves 1,500 individual and small business clients.

“I attribute a lot of my success to MC,” Huffman told well-wishers. “This is an honor.”

But the MC graduate also commended the late Terrell Wise, a Pensacola native and founder of Wise Construction Company in 1948. His company built commercial structures throughout the Southeast, including banks, churches and stadiums. His favorite project was the renovation of the Mississippi Governor's Mansion in 1975.

Wise, who died at age 88 in July 2008, was “the patriarch of the family,” Huffman said. “Mr. Wise was an entrepreneur. He was a fine gentleman.”

Later in the afternoon, Huffman joined members of the two families for ribbon-cutting ceremonies at the high-tech classroom.

“This was really a wonderful day for us,” Eduardo said.

The newly named classroom is part of a series of improvements at Self Hall since 2007 such as upgrades of its lecture hall and the installation of new technology.