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Trustee Ralph Barnes Receives Mississippi College Award of Excellence


Ralph Barnes

Ralph Barnes has stayed focused on Mississippi College’s building renaissance every step of the journey.

The construction boom in recent years is something the Canton businessman follows with keen interest as chairman of the MC Board of Trustees Building Committee.

Whether it’s the three-story parking garage, a new bookstore, Pimento’s café, improvements at Robinson-Hale Stadium, or the baseball team’s Rice Field House, the MC building drive is a big story on campus.

For his faithful service on the university’s Board of Trustees and with the school’s Foundation Board, Mississippi College leaders will recognize Barnes with its Award of Excellence this fall.

The president, owner and managing partner with Adcamp, Inc. in Jackson since 1989, the Mississippi State University graduate will receive the honor at MC’s 2014 Homecoming dinner. The October 17 event begins that Friday evening at 6 p.m. in Anderson Hall on the Clinton campus.

The Award of Excellence is a tribute to the men and women providing distinguished service to the 5,063-student Christian university. They’re goal-driven people who succeeded to promote Mississippi College’s best interests. The Fall 2013 award recipient was gifted composer, extraordinary musician and retired MC professor James Sclater of Clinton.

Serving his third term on MC’s Board of Trustees (including work on the business affairs and executive committees), Barnes is a busy executive in the construction business. Barnes is serving his 20th year as secretary of the Mississippi Asphalt Paving Association. He serves on the National Asphalt Paving Board of Directors and is a member of the Mississippi Road Builders Association.

Selected to be the newest recipient of the Award of Excellence is an achievement the Mississippian will always cherish.

“I am truly humbled and honored to receive the Award of Excellence from Mississippi College, this very special place we all love,” Barnes says. As an MC trustee and Foundation Board member, “I know I have received more blessings from this service than any amount of time or effort I contributed.”

Being part of the leadership team at the Baptist-affiliated university, he said, “has resulted in tremendous growth in my Christian life.”

Over the years, he’s contributed to the university’s annual Scholarship Dinner, the Circle of Champions outside Robinson-Hale Stadium, and other projects to boost America’s second oldest Baptist college.

He’s got many admirers sharing his passion for the Blue & Gold.

“I am grateful to Mr. Barnes for his service to the Board of Trustees, for his professional contracting work on behalf of the law school and his leadership in the business community,” said former MC Law Dean Jim Rosenblatt, now a professor on the Jackson campus. “If a company is reflective of its owner, Mr. Barnes must be a real super guy.”

Ralph Barnes has several MC connections. His wife, Betty Jeanne, received her master’s degree in 1978 at Mississippi College. Two of the couple’s three children, Bradley and Megan, attended MC. Ralph Barnes is a deacon at First Baptist Church of Canton.

Asked to identify the things he loves about MC, Barnes said it’s “the people I’ve had the privilege of working with,” and the institution’s Christian environment. “The individual attention that Mississippi College provides to students is outstanding.”

For more information on the 2014 Homecoming Dinner, contact Lori Bobo of the Office of Alumni Affairs at 601-925-3252 or lbobo@mc.edu.