Retired Art Professor Kenneth Quinn Receiving Honorary MC Doctorate

Kenneth Quinn

An award-winning art professor with a heart for his alma mater, Mississippi College, Kenneth Quinn will soon become the recipient of an honorary MC doctorate.

MC leaders will salute Quinn’s notable career and award him the honor at the Christian university’s graduation ceremonies on December 16 in the A.E. Wood Coliseum.

The Jackson native’s art work detailing the basketball arena also known as the Golden Dome are among many university landmarks he’s painted over the years. Other Clinton campus masterpieces range from Provine Chapel to Nelson Hall for the talented Mississippi artist who specializes in water color.

Getting a doctorate is a well-deserved honor for Quinn, colleagues say.

“He’s worked hard for it,” says retired Art Department Chairman Sam Gore. “I believe his work is above doctoral expectations.”

When Gore was the Art Department’s only full-time professor and worked out of the basement of Ratliff Hall in the late 1950s, he remembers a skinny young man named Kenneth Quinn who went to work for him and he stayed for four years. “Ken was a talented student from the beginning,” Gore said of the 1961 MC art graduate.

A few years later, Gore and Quinn were roommates at Illinois State University. Gore was pursuing his doctorate at the time, and Quinn worked towards his master of education in art degree that he received from Illinois State in 1964.

Quinn spent 30 years as an art teacher at Whitten Junior High in Jackson before teaching for 15 years at Mississippi College.

The 1957 Murrah High graduate has received a good bit of recognition for his art pieces, but he’s also been valuable as a wonderful friend and mentor to many in Mississippi College circles.

“He is and always will be the best friend I have ever had in my life,” says Michael Hataway, the graphic design coordinator and assistant chairman of the MC Art Department.

When he was an undergraduate on the Clinton campus, Hataway did his student teaching with Quinn in the Jackson public schools and immediately was impressed with his talent and creative teaching methods.

Today, Quinn “is still one of the kindest persons I know and is talented in all aspects of art and life,” Hataway said. “He continues to help in his MC office with his love and willingness to advise people with the problems they have in everyday life.”

Awards are nothing new for Quinn.

In 2006, the Mississippian received the Order of the Golden Arrow Award at MC’s Homecoming. In 2004, Quinn was named the university’s Professor of the Year by the Student Government Association. In 2005, he donated the Kenneth M. Quinn Mississippi Regional Art Collection to the Christian university and was featured in “Mississippi Magazine.”

When asked about his many Mississippi College art pieces, Quinn said they represent his thank-you note to the university’s faculty and staff members. “It is like saying thank you very much to MC for this wonderful tenure.”

Now it’s fitting to thank Quinn with an honorary doctorate for his many contributions to Mississippi College.

“Finally, we can call him Dr. Quinn,” said MC Art Department Chairman Randy Miley. “He’s been an ambassador for this school for many years. He deserves it based on the amount of work he’s done.”