When Eddie Mack Morgan Jr. was hired in 1975 by Delta Council, he had 3,000 business cards printed with the nickname that he had gone by as a kid growing up in Oxford and as one of the big men on campus at Ole Miss: Chippie.
When B.F. Smith, the executive vice president who hired Morgan saw the cards, he promptly dumped them in the trash can and told Morgan from now on he was to be known as “Chip.”
Smith, a Delta legend, apparently thought his newly hired protege needed a more mature-sounding moniker if he was going to represent the regional economic development organization.
Seven years later, Smith would pass the torch to Morgan, and now Morgan is getting ready to do the same to Frank Howell, his longtime second-in-command.
Morgan, whose tenure as Delta Council chief has run one year longer than Smith’s 35, will retire at the end of this year. Friday’s Delta Council annual meeting — marked as always by a big-name speaker, lots of cotton finery, and a catfish luncheon on the grounds — was his last to orchestrate.
It was a bittersweet occasion, not only because it was Morgan’s swan song, but it also signified the end of another era — that of recently retired U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran.
Delta Council understood the 80-year-old Cochran, who stepped down after 45 years in Congress due to his declining health, would not be there for the accolades. Instead, one of the green upholstered chairs on the stage’s front row of dignitaries was left empty to symbolize where Cochran would have sat had he been able to attend.
“For the first time in a half-century, he’s taking care of himself rather than the people in this room,” Morgan said in his tribute to the longtime federal lawmaker. The two had worked together closely for decades to ensure that Delta farmers were taken care of when Washington set farm policy, and that the region got its share of flood-control, highway, education and health- care dollars. You can always tell when it’s election time in Mississippi. The stage at Delta Council gets flooded with those who hold statewide elected positions or hope to. I counted at least 11 on the front row Friday — with only Gov. Phil Bryant, who is term-limited, not running for anything this year or expected to next year. Cochran, though, was one of the few politicians who would regularly show up even in non-election years.
When B.F. Smith retired, Delta Council pulled out all the stops. Four speakers, including then-Gov. William Winter, took to the podium to sing Smith’s praises.
Friday’s tribute to Morgan was more subdued. The lone speaker, R.B. “Dick” Flowers, a Tunica County farmer who was the first to serve as Delta Council president after Morgan’s promotion, said something about him, though, that echoed what was said about B.F. Smith at his 1983 send-off.
Morgan, according to Flowers, never wanted credit for what got accomplished.
I didn’t know Smith well. I was just getting my feet wet in the Delta when he was exiting the stage.
But I’ve had the pleasure to work with Morgan over the years, and I’ve never gone away from an interaction with him that didn’t elevate my esteem for his intelligence, management skills and gentlemanly manner.
Just as Smith steered Delta Council’s leadership to expand its focus beyond agriculture, Morgan took it even further in that direction, with initiatives that concentrated on workforce development, higher education, adult literacy and greater access to health care. Under his leadership, Delta Council has become not just a promoter of farming’s interests in the 18-county region it serves but an engine for economic and community development on the whole.
There’s not much that Delta Council does that would be considered controversial. For the last few years, though, Morgan has also served on the state College Board, the body that oversees Mississippi’s eight public universities. The College Board does take flak from time to time, especially when it comes to hiring and firing university presidents.
I have been critical of the College Board myself over the top-secret system it uses to hire presidents. Rather than take offense, though, Morgan has tried to see whether I had a legitimate point. When he didn’t think I did, he would try to educate me. His operating principle has always been that if people are given enough factual information to understand a complicated subject, and if you get in the same room with them, then more often than not they will come to the right conclusion.
One of the appealing things about the Delta Council annual meeting is its familiarity. For decades, a fixture of the gathering has been Chip Morgan, sitting to the side of the stage, a hefty three-ring binder in his lap, checking it to make sure everything goes according to plan.
It will take a while to get used to not seeing him up there.
Contact Tim Kalich at 581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
