By Dr. Rebekah Ray
MSU Delta Research and Extension Center

STONEVILLE – Mississippi State University will honor a 1950 graduate and longtime professor and administrator when a new building is dedicated at the Delta Research and Extension Center.

The facility will be named the Verner G. Hurt Research and Extension Building in recognition of Hurt’s contributions to agriculture.

Hurt received a doctorate from Oklahoma State University and returned to MSU in 1960 to teach agricultural economics. In 1987, he became director of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, a position he held until his 1996 retirement.

“Naming this facility in Dr. Hurt’s honor is certainly fitting,” said Greg Bohach, vice president of MSU’s Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine. “He served the people of this region and state in an outstanding manner for more than 40 years. His dedication to agriculture was obvious to all who worked with him, and we are pleased to name this facility in his honor.”

The new energy-efficient, single-story building will house offices, laboratory space, research and work areas, a conference room and the center’s 30,000 volume library.

The dedication ceremony will take place at the new facility at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 30 and will include tours of the new building. The public is invited.

Special guests participating in the day’s festivities include MSU President Mark Keenum, MAFES Director George Hopper, MSU Extension Service Director Gary Jackson and Delta Research and Extension Center head Steve Martin.

“We are excited to be moving into the Hurt office building. This space has been much needed for many years. We are thankful to Drs. Keenum, Bohach, Jackson and Hopper for securing funding. We are also excited to have the opportunity to honor Dr. Hurt for his many years of agricultural leadership in Mississippi,” Martin said.

Covering more than 4,800 acres, the Delta center is one of the largest single agricultural research units in the world.