Warrior Magazine December 2019

Irons

relationships. Football made men out of us. And I learned that when tough things come along, I can just tell my self, ‘I played junior college football. I can do anything!’” And he did. Irons beat the cancer and returned to MSU to complete his degree in Industrial Technology in 1972. He began his career with AMBAC Industries in Columbus as a methods engineer. He then went to work for Rockwell International in Tupelo where he served in various capacities includ ing industrial engineer, shift supervi sor, consulting industrial engineer and operations manager. He was chief industrial engineer with Eljer Plumb ingware in Tupelo before returning to Philadelphia in 1992 to take an engineering position with Chahta Enterprises in Choctaw. He purchased Philadelphia Dry Cleaners in 1994 and was owner and president until his retirement in 2012. After a year and half of retirement during which time Irons said he was able to “catch up on his sleep,” he went back to work part-time as a cou rier for The Citizens Bank of Philadel phia. These days he is officially retired and belongs to the coffee club at Strib ling Drug Store, where he says he and Nowell and a few other retired folks “work out all the world’s problems.” Irons remains an active member of the East Central Community College

family as a lifetime member of the Alumni Association and a member of the Warrior Club. He most recently served as a team captain for the fun draising campaign to build Warrior Hall, a new football operations center located near the north end zone of Bai ley Stadium, and was instrumental in the project’s completion. In addition, he has made various contributions to the scholarship fund at East Central. Active in his community, Irons also supports the Philadelphia High School Athletic Booster Club and the Missis sippi State University Alumni Associa tion and Bulldog Club. He is a past member and officer of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers, and a past board member of the Philadelphia Chamber and Main Street Association. He currently attends First United Methodist Church in Philadelphia where he serves as an usher captain and has served on the missions auc tion team, finance team, and staff par ish committee. Irons is married to the former Betty Margaret Stribling of Philadelphia and they have three children: Jenny Irons and husband, George Hobor, of Maplewood, N.J.; Dan Irons and wife, Karen Bretz, of Westerville, Ohio; and Mary Margaret Irons Massey and hus band Will of Louisville. They have four granddaughters.

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lenged us to be better students and will remain in my memory forever. Dr. Charles Wright, Dean Denver Brackeen, Dean Jim Lightsey, and Dean Clayton Blount all helped me a lot in my duties as SBA president.” Following his graduation from East Central, although he had a couple of senior colleges show interest in him playing football at the next level, Irons decided to forego an athletic career to concentrate on a degree in engineering at Mississippi State University. He and his friend, Sam Nowell, who also attended East Central and played on the basketball team, were room mates and engineering majors at MSU and where Irons remained involved in the game he loved as a member of an intramural football team. However, he would soon have to completely give up playing the sport he loved, even intramurals, as just a few weeks into the semester after hav ing numerous severe nosebleeds, Irons was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his nasal cavity that required sur gery and cobalt radiation treatment. “It was a difficult time in my life for sure,” he said. “Football impacts people in different ways. I learned to play on a team. I got really close to the players and formed some great

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