Mississippi State's College of Business is holding an open house for the new Dora Rose Herring Suite in the Richard C. Adkerson School of Accountancy.

A reception starts at 2:30 p.m. in McCool Hall's Suite 300.

Emerita Professor Dora Herring, a trailblazer who helped build Mississippi State’s nationally recognized Richard C. Adkerson School of Accountancy in the College of Business, died May 2, 2018. She was 89.

Herring earned an associate’s degree from Bowling Green University before coming to Mississippi State where she would complete three degrees after becoming the university’s first female accounting student. She earned bachelor’s and master’s in 1963 and 1964, respectively, and in 1968, she became the first person in the state—male or female—to earn a doctoral degree in the discipline. She then became the first woman to teach accounting in MSU’s College of Business and the first in the college to specialize in what is now called accounting information systems.

During her career, she was involved in the planning of McCool Hall, home of the College of Business. Named head of the Department of Accountancy in 1988, Herring helped transition the unit to an endowed school and served as its director until her retirement. She was also the first woman to serve as president of the Mississippi Society of Certified Public Accountants.

An active member of the First Baptist Church of Starkville, she was instrumental in the development of its new children’s building. She was also a longtime member of the Starkville Rotary Club and the Starkville Planning and Zoning Commission.