MSU mourns loss of Dr. Billy C. Ward, former vice president for institutional advancement
The Bulldog family mourns the loss of former Mississippi State University Vice President for Institutional Advancement Billy C. Ward, who died Feb. 6 at age 84 in Dallas, Texas.
Ward served MSU for 21 years before leaving to head the Swalm Foundation in Houston, Texas, in 1998. Working under the leadership of MSU President Donald Zacharias, Ward was the institution’s chief development officer beginning in 1987, and he played a key role in MSU’s first comprehensive major gifts campaign, which garnered commitments of more than $143 million.
Ward joined the Mississippi State faculty in 1977 as a founding member of the College of Veterinary Medicine. He served as CVM dean from 1983-87.
A native of the Texas Panhandle region, he was a graduate of Texas A&M University and the University of California at Davis.
Upon his departure from MSU in 1998, Ward said he was “proud of the accomplishments of the College of Veterinary Medicine and the university’s advancement division, and I am honored to have had a small role to play in those achievements.
“I will leave with a great respect for the university and its people,” Ward said.