Rory Lee Named Mississippi College's 2011 Alumnus of the Year

Dr. Rory Lee

Rory Lee spent 33 years in Christian higher education successfully guiding the paths of thousands of gifted and extremely talented young people pursuing their career goals.

Since 2004, the Mississippi College alumnus has accomplished a great deal as executive director of the Baptist Children’s Village that maintains eight campuses across the Magnolia State.

For his dedicated service to his alma mater, and tireless work to make a difference in the lives of so many people, Dr. Lee was named Mississippi College’s 2011 Alumnus of the Year.

“This honor is particularly meaningful because to a great extent my most meaningful relationships had their genesis at Mississippi College,” said Lee, a 62-year-old Clinton resident. “Growing up in a family and within a community that valued the importance of faith, work and honor prepared me for the Mississippi College education that literally changed my life.”

Lee’s lengthy resume includes service as president of Louisiana College in Pineville and William Carey University in Hattiesburg. That followed an 11-month stint as interim president of Mississippi College amid challenging times after holding down other key administrative posts for decades on the Clinton campus.

Colleagues and friends say Lee is a superb choice for the award that comes during the Christian university’s 2011 Homecoming on the Clinton campus October 20-22.

“Dean Rory Lee, as I still call him, is one of a handful of people who should be given the permanent title of Mr. Mississippi College,” says MC trustee Andy Taggart, a Ridgeland lawyer. “Rory exemplifies all that is best about MC, and his legacy of service and devotion will continue to pay dividends for good well into the future.”

Ron Howard, the vice president for academic affairs, also dishes out high praise for the 1971 Mississippi College alumnus.

“Few alumni reach the level of loyalty and service to their alma mater that Dr. Rory Lee has achieved,” Howard said. As MC’s interim president and vice president for institutional advancement, Lee exhibited “exceptional leadership to the university during very challenging times,” he added.

Lee leads the Baptist Children’s Village that’s opened doors for over 33,000 children to receive residential services during its 113-year history. With headquarters in Ridgeland, the village serves young people between the ages of two and twenty. Presently, the Christ-centered ministry serves 300 children every year.

For the past seven years, the ordained Baptist minister has welcomed “the opportunity to provide a self home for children when they have been orphaned, neglected or abused or when families cannot care for them,” Lee said. “This has been especially gratifying.”

Retired MC administrator Doc Quick of Clinton fondly recalls the days back in the late 1960s when he first recruited Lee to take his talents on and off the high school football fields in Prentiss, Miss. to become a Mississippi College Choctaw.

Quick, who then served as MC’s admissions director, believes his recruitment efforts led to big dividends for Mississippi College for generations to come. “I think he (Lee) is an excellent choice for Alumnus of the Year. He’s been so faithful to Mississippi College. He’s a true Choctaw,” said Quick, a 1955 MC graduate. “I believe all of the alumni will be very pleased.”

Lee began his administrative career at the Christian university while earning his master’s degree in counseling at MC. During those two years, he served as an admissions counselor. From 1973-78, he worked as dean of men, later took on other assignments, including dean of admissions, and director of development who led major fund-raising campaigns. Lee also found his calling off the Clinton campus as bivocational pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Hazlehurst from 1976 through 1993.

The recipient of a doctorate in higher education from the University of Mississippi in 1984, Lee is a devoted family man who’s active in church and community affairs. Dr. Lee and his wife, Janet, a wedding planner with the company A Perfect Match, raised two children, Lauren and Lacey.

Lauren Lee Ryan works at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson as a nurse practitioner who runs a research program. Lacey Lee is in the retailing business in New York. Both daughters, like their parents, are Mississippi College graduates.

Today, the hundreds of children and families Dr. Lee interacts with at the Baptist Children’s Village are quite a blessing to the Mississippian. “Just as during my years in higher education, the years at the Baptist Children’s Village have afforded me the pleasure of knowing wonderful children and young people who also will make positive contributions.”

But it was his undergraduate education at Baptist-affiliated Mississippi College that helped get a young Rory Lee pointed in the right direction in life. “While the academic lessons I learned were significant, the virtues of integrity and service to God and mankind that were taught at MC were even more essential,” he said. “The delicate balance of imparting knowledge and instilling values has been a hallmark of Mississippi College.”