Joe Frank Sanderson

co-founder of Sanderson Farms

Sanderson

Joe Frank Sanderson ('47) of Laurel, co-founder and chairman of the board of Sanderson Farms Inc., died Dec. 28, 1997. He was 72.

A Jackson native, Sanderson was an Air Force veteran and graduated from Mississippi State with degrees in business and accounting.

He was director and chairman of the National Broiler Council and of the Mississippi Poultry Association. He was director of the Southeastern Poultry and Egg Association and president of the Business and Industry Political Education Committee.

He was a past president of the Mississippi State University Foundation and a trustee of Millsaps College. He also served as a member of the board of trustees of the Laurel Separate Municipal School District, president of the Laurel Chamber of Commerce, and president of the Jones County United Way.

Sanderson was named to the Mississippi Business Hall of Fame in 11991 and received the Mississippi Business All-Star award from the Mississippi Economic Council that same year. He was the Mississippi Philanthropist of the Year in 1994, and in 1995, the Laurel Junior Auxiliary named him Humanitarian of the Year.

He was the Mississippi State University Alumni Association's Alumnus of the Year in 1991.

Sanderson provided a substantial portion of the funding for the $19.2 million Joe Frank Sanderson Center, an indoor recreation facility slated to open this spring at Mississippi State.