About Me

I’m a Mississippian through and through, and proud of it. My heritage is here, going back to the earliest of the territorial days before statehood. I’ve always lived here. I speak with a southern accent, but my southern drawl goes deeper than just the modulation and timbre of my voice, it colors my thinking, my personality, my entire being.

I grew up in the Big Level community of Stone County in the southern bootheel of the state, attending Paramount Baptist Church, Big Level School, Stone High in Wiggins (Class of ’71), and Gulf Coast Junior College in Perkinston. I met Gena Jones, a George County girl from Agricola, while we were at Perk. We were 19 when we married in December of our sophomore year.

The following spring, Gena and I moved to Delta State University in Cleveland, where she worked while I studied business management. Upon receiving my MBA degree in August of 1976, I took a teaching position at Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia.

After 32 years of full-time teaching at NWCC, including five years as the director of the Academic Business Division, I retired in May of 2008 at age 54. Over those years, I taught a number of different business courses, including those in law, statistics, management, marketing, and accounting.

From the early ’80s until 2005, as a sideline to my duties at the college, I maintained a computer consultancy. This business grew and prospered until I was spending almost as much time designing and coding software, building and installing PCs, configuring home and office systems, and training my clients as I was spending at the college.

We put down deep roots in Senatobia. We raised both of our daughters, Leigh Ann and Laura Beth, there. We could have easily spent the rest of our lives there, but it was providential, we think, that upon Leigh Ann’s marriage, she and our son-in-law, Scot, had an opportunity to locate in Hattiesburg. When their children started coming along, we knew it was time for us to get down here, too. The chance to be near our grandsons and also to be within a few minutes of our childhood homes was one of the biggest blessings of our lives.

So, after retiring from our jobs, Gena and I moved to Hattiesburg, where we now reside. Not long after our arrival, I was asked to take the part-time administrator’s position at our church, University Baptist. I held that position for ten years, during which time I continued to teach law-related subjects on an adjunct basis through the Mississippi Virtual Community College. 

In 2019, I decided to give full retirement a try, resigning in December from my part-time positions, both at the church and the college. It was something I’d contemplated for months, but once I made the decision, I discovered I was sleeping a lot better and beginning to enjoy my days a lot more. This new life seems to fit quite nicely—not too tight, doesn’t pinch. More importantly, Gena likes it, our girls like it, and our grandsons like it. Life is good. It’s still full, with church and family, with ballgames and myriad other activities, but the pace of things has finally slowed to be more in sync with my current sensibilities. I like it. In fact, I think my drawl has even slowed a bit. And I’m okay with that, too.

Russell Lott
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
March 2020