2016 Combined

~~--~-------- -~~~~EK OF _l_.0 fJla. f1LD ECATUR ~ickers reflects on EC i tory boo]( By DemetriusThompson dth0Mpson@newloneo1A1tyappeal com 1n

"l've worked with a great number of wonderiul people who taught there and I had lhe opportunity of teaching people who were extremely successful,'' Vickers said. "East Central has graduated three college presidents, two U.S. Congressmen and the vice-chancellor of Vanderbilt University, Dan Young. There have been more doctors and lawyers than you can count. GQ into any courthouse in these five counties, and most of the people working there graduated from East Central. You can go into any of the schools in East Mississippi, and there's East Central peo ple teaching there." Vickers' interest in writing eventually led an offer to do a weekly column for The Oliou Appeal in 1984, and it ran until 2012. Later Vickers decided that the collection of those columns that focused on ECCC would make for a good book that would tell the his torv of the school during the paSt quart.tr centurv.

During the past 60 years, former East Central Commu nity College English profes wr Ovid Vickers has written about a litany of subjects in a wide range of publications across the south, including The Ne wto11 Coun f]J Appeal. However, one of his fa vorite subjects has always been the progress of the insti tution that gave him his first teaching job and became his home for more than 50 years thereafter. Vickers recently released his second book "Notes on the Margin" a collection of columns about the college that appeared in The l'11 ion Appeal - which merged "ith Tile .Yrwton flgcord to form The Newton County Appral in 2009 - and Tiie .Veslioba Drmocrat. Vickers celebrated the release by "igning copies of the book on Saturday morning during ECCC's homecoming festh-i ties.

Born and reart.:d in south ern Georgia, Vickers went to college in Nashville, Tenn., at Goorge Peabody College, which later became the col lege of education for its next door neighbor, Vanderbilt Universitv. Vickers was drafted into the U.S. Army and spent two years in the military. After he was discharged, he applied for an open ECCC teaching position and started a career that spanned five decades in which be educated thousands of students.

"I dhided it up into four sections, and tbe four sec tions were student body, fac ulty and administration, buildings and grounds and a section that dido't fit into any of those three titled 'and fur thermore,'" Vickers said. "So I gave the manuscript to the college with the idea that if it sold, a.11 the proceeds would go to the ECCC Foundation." The foundation serves as the official body to receive gifts, donations or contribu tions to the college, and its mission is to support and en- - .........

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