Griffis

S. Bryce Griffis of Starkville is the new president of the university's nonprofit fund-raising organization.

The longtime university supporter took over as head of the Mississippi State University Foundation following his election at the organization's annual fall meeting on campus in October.

Other new officers on the foundation's board of directors are vice president Leo W. Seal Jr. of Bay St. Louis and treasurer James K. Ashford of Naples, Fla. Seal is chairman and chief executive officer of Gulfport-based Hancock Bank; Ashford, retired president and chief executive officer of CASE Corp.

Griffis, a 1954 business administration graduate of Delta State University and president of Sturgis Timber Co., succeeds Bobby P. Martin of Ripley, chairman of the board and president of The Peoples Bank.

Tom Stogsdill and David Easley of Mississippi State's Office of Development continue as the board secretary and assistant secretary, respectively. Stogsdill is executive director of the office, while Easley is director of budget and finance.

Griffis has served as treasurer of the Mississippi State Foundation board since 1995. He also is a member of the university's Eugene Butler Fellows, a major donor club that recognizes lifetime giving of $100,000 or more.

As foundation president, he leads a nonprofit organization that has helped raise more than $190 million since its incorporation in 1963. In the past five years, more than $116 million has been contributed to the university through the foundation, while the endowment has grown from $79 million to more than $150 million.

In 1997, Mississippi State completed its first major gifts campaign to support a variety of campus priorities. More than $143 million in gifts, pledges, and planned gifts was raised in The Campaign for Mississippi State over a five-year period.

Griffis was a member of the Board of Trustees, Institutions of Higher Learning from 1980 to 1992, serving as president 1986-87. He was Delta State's alumnus of the year in 1986.

He currently is a trustee of Wood College in Mathiston and the Mississippi United Methodist Foundation, as well as chairman of the advisory board for the Starkville branch of Deposit Guaranty National Bank.