History Is Lunch: Ken Cyree, 'Ole Miss Business: The First 100 Years, 1917-2017'

On August 1, 2018, Ken Cyree, dean of the Ole Miss School of Business Administration, and alumni Maj. Gen. Leon Collins, Dick Molpus, and Candie Simmons presented "Ole Miss Business: The First 100 Years, 1917-2017" as part of the History Is Lunch series.

Graduates from the School of Business have become ambassadors, university presidents, technology innovators, financial leaders, sports legends, commodities pioneers, visionary politicians, and forward-looking generals in the armed forces. A new 200-page illustrated history chronicles the century-long journey from the inaugural 1917 semester of the School of Commerce guided by founding dean James Warsaw Bell through the following ten men who led the school and culminating with the eleventh and current dean Ken Cyree. It also tells the story of the men and women who passed through the doors as students.

“This book, surprisingly, has it all—scandal, political intrigue, personality conflicts, and private meetings and letters that have never been made public,” said publisher Neil White. “As if that weren’t enough, graduates of this program have changed not only the way we do business, but also how we live.”

Ken Cyree is dean, the Frank R. Day/Mississippi Bankers Association Chair of Banking, and professor of finance at the University of Mississippi School of Business Administration. He was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 2007 and Outstanding Senior Researcher in 2014 for the University of Mississippi School of Business Administration. Cyree is the director of the Mississippi School of Banking and a faculty member at the graduate school of banking at LSU. He earned his doctorate and MBA from the University of Tennessee.

Dick Molpus served three terms as Mississippi secretary of state. In 1985, he and his wife Sally founded Parents for Public Schools, which now has 17 chapters in 12 states. In 2006 Molpus chaired the Jackson public school bond campaign that raised $150 million for renovations and new schools. A member of the Mississippi Business Hall of Fame, Molpus is the founder and chairman of The Molpus Woodlands Group, a timberland investment management organization headquartered in Jackson. He graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Business Administration in 1971, and in 2013 was inducted into the University of Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame.

Maj. Gen. Augustus L. Collins is the first African American to attain the rank of general in the history of the Mississippi National Guard. He served in the U.S. Army and Mississippi National Guard for more than 35 years and was promoted to brigadier general in 2005. Collins retired in 2016 after serving five years as the adjutant general of both the Mississippi Army National Guard and the Mississippi Air National Guard. He is the CEO of MINACT Inc. Collins earned his BA in business administration from the University of Mississippi, an MBA from Jackson State University, and a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.

Candie Simmons graduated with a BA in business administration from the University of Mississippi in 2002 and worked at the university until 2006, when she began a career in banking. The Mississippi Business Journal named Simmons to its "Top 40 Under 40" list in 2009 and as a top-10 finalist on its "Top 50 Leading Business Women" list in 2013. Simmons serves on the leadership team for the American Heart Association and serves as a board member for the Cure Sickle Cell Foundation, Make-A-Wish Mississippi, the National Ole Miss Alumni Association, and the Community Foundation for Mississippi.