Baptist Leader and Biology Professor Among Mississippi College Graduation Speakers

Dr. Ted Snazelle

A longtime Baptist leader, Jim Futral, will be the keynote speaker at Mississippi College’s Spring 2014 undergraduate commencements on the Clinton campus.

The executive director-treasurer at the Mississippi Baptist Convention since 1998, Dr. Futral speaks to commencement ceremonies at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on  Saturday May 10 at the A.E. Wood Coliseum. The Fort Smith, Arkansas native is the former pastor at Broadmoor Baptist Church.

A graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Futral is the former president of its alumni association. He’s led churches in Mississippi and Texas.

Spending the last 34 years as a Mississippi College biology professor, Dr. Ted Snazelle will headline the spring’s graduate school commencement on Friday May 9.

The graduate school ceremonies begin at 7 p.m. in the A.E. Wood Coliseum. The chairman of the MC Department of Biological Sciences from 1996 to 2002, the Kentucky native is the former vice president and president of the Christian university’s Faculty Senate.

Currently, Snazelle is serving for the third time as senior professor for the university’s London Semester Program. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Belmont University in Nashville. He received his master’s in 1968 and a doctorate in 1970 in plant pathology at Purdue University.

A Clinton resident, Dr. Snazelle will retire and wrap up 44 years as a college professor as of July 1, 2014.

MC nursing professor Sandra Robinson is booked as the keynote speaker at the School of Nursing commencement at 2 p.m. on May 9 at Swor Auditorium. She joined the MC nursing faculty in 1999.

Robinson earned her associate degree in nursing at Meridian Community College and continued her education at William Carey University where she received her RN-BSN. After several years of nursing practice, she received her MSN at the University of Mississippi School of Nursing. A former Hinds Community College nursing instructor, Robinson has special interests including gerontology and long-term care.

Among this year’s MC retirees, the Vicksburg resident expects to travel to Alaska and the Texas hill country to photograph bluebonnets.