| PRCC President
William Lewis presents Lowery Woodall with a plaque naming the Advanced
Technology Center after him. Also pictured are Gray Swoope (left), president
of the Area Development Partnership, and Bobby Chain (center), advisory
board president.
PRCC names ATC for Lowery
A. Woodall
HATTIESBURG - Lowery A. Woodall used a string of adjectives recently when
talking about having the Pearl River Community College Advanced Technology
Center named for him.
Honored, flattered and embarrassed all described his reaction when PRCC
president William Lewis first mentioned the decision of the center’s advisory
board.
“When he called me about this honor, I was flabbergasted,” Woodall said.
“There are so many people who worked on this project.”
But Woodall led the way and forged a partnership between Forrest and Jones
counties on July 13, 1998, after competing bids for advanced technology
funding died in the Legislature, said Gray Swoope, president of the Area
Development
Partnership.
“Mr. Woodall pulled the powers that be together and said we’ve got to develop
a strategy now for the ‘99 session,” Swoope said. Draft legislation was
ready by November and a finished bill was filed on Jan. 5, 1999, that eventually
provided $8 million in funding for centers in Forrest and Jones counties
and required $1 million matches for each.
“There was one man throughout the deal that was there making it happen.
Lowery A. Woodall,” Swoope said.
Site work started this month on the $3.73 million center on Sullivan Drive
in the Hattiesburg-Forrest County Industrial Park. The two-story building
will include the PRCC Workforce Development Center staff offices, three
classrooms, two computer labs, a business incubator and equipment and facilities
for a variety of training programs such as remote sensing, GIS, program
logic control, industrial
maintenance and computer
networking.
The PRCC board of trustees voted earlier this month to honor Woodall on
the recommendation of the advisory board. Woodall, 73, retired in 1996
after 34 years as executive director of Forrest General Hospital where
the outpatient surgery center also is named for him. He has served as chairman
of the industrial park commission since 1980.
“There has been no one who has been more important to this project than
Lowery Woodall,” said Lewis. “He deserves special recognition.”
“His wisdom has always been sought by those who’ve worked with him,” said
Bobby Chain, advisory board president. “There has not been an economic
development effort in the past 40 years that Lowery Woodall has not been
a part of.”
The center, which will provide workforce training based on industry needs,
may be the most important economic development project in those 40 years,
Woodall said.
“I’m very proud to be associated
with folks who are interested in improving the quality of life,” he said.
“This center can do that. This project has been very important for our
community’s future. Having it named after me is overwhelming.”
Added Lewis, “This project will be the crown jewel of our workforce development
efforts in this area. We hope decades from now, the entire community can
say this was a project worthwhile.”
|
