Four Meridian Community College alumni and employees who have excelled in their respective professions and life missions and have elevated MCC’s esteem through their achievements, service, and association with the institution were inducted into MCC’s Hall of Fame on Tuesday.

Inductees are Wilhelmine Damon, Dr. Ray Denton, Anne Dowdle, and Dr. Tajudeen Soyoye.

The Hall of Fame ceremony, a highlight of the College’s academic year and hosted by the MCC Foundation, spotlights the shining examples of MCC alumni and former MCCers.

Wilhelmine Damon

Simply put, Wilhelmine Streater Tew Damon is a legend.

Widely known for her enthusiasm, lively nature, her commitment to her family and community, Damon is energy personified.

Damon is a retired Meridian Community College physical education instructor who continued to teach water aerobics at the College’s Damon Fitness Center well into her octogenarian years. When asked to share a personal achievement that makes her feel proud, she said it was, “To reach 95 and a half years of age with grateful and appreciative thoughts including fond memories and continued maintenance of a positive attitude.”

Damon first came to Meridian Junior College as a student. “I graduated from Meridian High School/Junior College in 1944 and I took some MJC classes while a senior in high school,” she said.

Continuing her education, Damon studied at what was then Mississippi State College for Women, now known as Mississippi University for Women, and earned her bachelor’s degree. “I taught in the Mississippi Delta (Clarksdale) for a year before coming back to Meridian to teach at MHS/MJC in 1949-1950 and 1950-1951.”

After 10-plus years, she returned to teaching at her alma mater. “I was with the first faculty at Stevenson School (in 1964-65) as a separate institution from the high school. This was while the current Ivy building, now known as Ivy-Scaggs Hall, was being completed,” she said.

One of her fondest recollections of the College was when Damon served as co-leader of the parade for Z-Day. Explaining it was “Z-Day we moved” from Stevenson school to the campus location on Highway 19 North. “This was a very special memory because the students actually and literally were involved in the move. Each faculty member had a team of students that arranged for vehicles, packed their office and paraded to the new location and unpacked.”

Damon and MJC colleague James Cameron were named “Kollege Kops” and led on motor scooters the caravan from the old school’s location in downtown Meridian to the new building on Highway 19 North.

She also credits Bill Scaggs, former MCC president, as being a leader for the institution. “He was 10 years younger and an inspiration from the beginning. Some of his outstanding traits: vision, quiet manner but strong leader, leading – but not dictating – open to new and different approaches,” she said.

From teaching a wide array of physical education classes, including dance, tennis, Jazzercise, and swimming, Damon is keenly known for her water aerobics classes. Damon focused on her students, repeating to them the phrase, “keep the water movin’.”

A colleague shared with an audience at Damon’s 80th birthday celebration at the Damon Fitness Center, “regardless of how many students you have taught; you always make every individual feel special.”

Dr. Tajudeen ‘T.J.’ Soyoye

For Nigerian native Dr. Tajudeen “T.J.” Soyoye, getting his immigrant visa to study at Meridian Community College was a call for celebration.

“This was one of the joyous moments in my life as I knew then that my life will change forever for good,” Dr. Soyoye remembered.

As a youth, Dr. Soyoye played basketball worldwide for the Nigerian national team when then MCC Basketball Coach Dennis Helms saw him. “He believed and trusted me to be a good fit for the team he was putting together for the 1997-98 and 1999-2000 seasons,” Dr. Soyoye said.

MCC proved to be a newfound home for him. “I have so many memories from Meridian Community College, but the fondest and best was the communal living where almost everyone knew everyone,” he said. He also discovered that classmates and instructors were willing to lend a helping hand to others in times of need. “Loved it,” he said.

Others were willing to help, including his host family especially Josephine Virgil and Willie L. Brown. “These people are also very instrumental in my success in Meridian and beyond,” Dr. Soyoye noted.

He also holds a deep appreciation for his MCC coach. “He prepared not just me but all of us for the things to come in life after basketball. For him, a good education is a key to success; basketball is just a vehicle. I loved and bought into that idea early on, and it stuck with me,” Dr. Soyoye said.

The MCC Eagles gained a fifth-place finish in the 1999 National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division I national tournament, and Dr. Soyoye earned NJCAA All-American First-Team honors that year.

After receiving his associate in arts degree with academic honors, Dr. Soyoye earned his bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at the University of Missouri, where he played center for the Mizzou Tigers. He later entered the professional basketball arena playing in Europe, but his childhood dream of becoming a physician (his dad was an herbalist) remained a passion.

He studied medicine at American University of Antigua and returned to the University of Missouri to complete his residency. Today he is an emergency room and family medicine physician who holds medical licensures and privileges in New York, Georgia, and Missouri. He and his wife are the parents of five children, three daughters and twin sons.

When asked to define success, Dr. Soyoye pointed elsewhere. “My definition of success is deeply rooted in my faith as a Christian where every success accomplished is seen as by the grace of God.”

Anne Dowdle

“Travel is not reward for working; it’s education for living.”

A new adventure is always on Anne Dowdle’s mind; she has a current passport at the ready. Her next venture: The Five Stans of the Silk Road of Central Asia, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

A great deal of her 22-year retirement from Meridian Community College has been spent venturing to foreign lands. She admits she has learned so much from and about the culture of the 76 countries she has visited.

But before traveling around the world, Dowdle was a trailblazer at MCC. “In 1968, I became the first public relations/publications coordinator at the college, and my ‘staff’ was composed of two work-study scholarship students,” she said.

Dowdle remembered when she began working at what was then called Meridian Junior College, there was one building on campus, Ivy Hall, and Dr. Bill Scaggs served as the College’s leader as dean. “To be honest, I didn’t know what I was doing, but Dr. Scaggs convinced me I could do the job,” she said.

She added that Dr. Scaggs later also persuaded her to expand her role to include fundraising. “Or, as I like to call it, friend raising for the MCC Foundation.”

She recalls her biggest challenge was the Foundation’s $2 million capital campaign in that role. “And thanks to so many business leaders and volunteers, we surpassed our goal,” she said. In working with colleagues and community folks she admired, Dowdle said she tried to emulate their best traits.

Dowdle holds degrees from Mississippi University for Women and Mississippi State University.

Dr. Ray Denton

An advisor encouraged Ray Denton to come to Meridian Junior College in the Summer of 1970 after he graduated from Meridian High to get his core classes under his belt.

That move would connect him to the College for the majority of his academic and professional life.

“Back in the day – and not that there isn’t any today – there were some great teachers,” the now Dr. Denton recalled. “I took my first class, English, from Bob Tiller. Don Gilliam taught the kind of electrical and mechanical theory classes that I fell into. And I enjoyed Jimmy Evans teaching world civilization and history,” he said.

However, it was the theater where Dr. Denton would hit his stride. Speech and theater instructors Jimmy Smith and Ronnie Miller served as mentors and allowed Dr. Denton to get involved in theater. “Not acting, but the technical part of theater, lighting, sound, set building,” he said, adding, “at one time, I thought I wanted to major in technical theater.”

As an active on-campus MJC student, Dr. Denton worked closely with Homer Casteel, painter, sculptor, writer, and teacher who was the chairman of the College’s art department and helped the theater department paint and build flats. “Homer knew my limitations and knew what I was really good and not so good at. He put me in the right place, and I did well in there,” Dr. Denton said.

After earning his associate of arts from MJC, Dr. Denton earned his bachelor of science from the University of Southern Mississippi and returned to Meridian and the College. “Anne Dowdle (a fellow 2022 Hall of Fame honoree) was kind enough to give me my first job as a photographer.” For six months, he would work at the college during the week and The Meridian Star on the weekend until a chance to work at Meridian’s TV station Channel 24 came his way, and Dr. Denton would log in 14 years on full-time status for the station.

In 1995, he came to work at MCC again, initially serving as production center director and retiring from the College’s full-time position as associate dean of learning resources in 2021. “I attribute my success at MCC to the good fortune of having a great staff; we had a good team.”

He also credits colleagues Dr. Bill Scaggs, president of the College, and Billy C. Beal, associate vice president of learning resources, as friends and mentors.

Dr. Denton holds a master’s degree from Lasalle University and a doctorate from Mississippi State University. Today, he continues to work part-time for Channel 24.