Latest news with #NortheastMississippiCommunityCollege
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Drawn to architecture: Robison retires from Pryor Morrow after 45-year career
TUPELO — Long before Rud Robison began his illustrious 45-year career in architecture, he almost took a different path. The Saltillo native was the son of a physician, and the family also owned farmland. "The idea was that my brother and I would grow farming soybeans and hauling grass sod with our grandfather," Robison said. "And that worked great until he passed away when I was 14. So, it fell to my brother and myself to continue to work the farm until we got out of college." When he was 24, Robison spent his last day on the farm. "There's nothing wrong with farming; it's a great way to grow up, and it gives you work ethic and all that," he said. "But somehow I knew it wasn't something I wanted to continue to do." Robison had always enjoyed drawing and creating and building models. As it so happened, the MSU School of Architecture opened the year before Rudd graduated in 1974. The design profession wasn't something he had ever thought about before, but when he graduated from high school, he went to Northeast Mississippi Community College and earned an associate's degree in drafting design technology. He then transferred to Mississippi State in the fall of 1976 and was admitted into the professional program at the MSU School of Architecture. "I had transferred from technical to professional school, and some of the credits transferred, but some didn't," Robison said. "So basically I had to start all over, but going to community college helped me grow so much. I never would have made it had I not gone that route first." The five-year architecture program is rigorous and demanding, but Robison can proudly say that he stood tall in the end. He was one of 126 students who started in architecture school in the fall of 1976, and by the time he graduated in May 1981, he was among just eight who remained from that initial class. Robison had always been fascinated with architecture because of his interest in the arts, but he received little if any art education or training while growing up. In fact, he didn't even know who the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright was until he went to Northeast. "In architecture school, I really found my niche," he said. "One reason was because what you learned isn't necessarily in a book, where you take a test, you pass the test, you pass the course. Architecture school is much more subjective. If you have 25 people in a design studio, there will be 25 solutions to the same architectural problem. All 25 might be great; all 25 might be terrible. Some might be better than others. So it's all very subjective." The romance of college for Robison was found in architecture, and a nearly half-century career followed. "I was very fortunate to do that, and it provided me with a busy career,' he said. 'I've had a few bad days, but many, many great days, and I've never ever been bored.' Robison's inspiration wasn't the Frank Lloyd Wrights or I.M. Peis of the world; it was the leadership at the School of Architecture. That included the founding dean of the MSU program, William McMinn, who would later create the architecture school at Florida International University, and then serve as dean at Cornell University. A professor, Bob Ford, also influenced him. The school brought in architects and educators from across the country that impacted Robison. "We had leaders and educators who came from special places and created a special place, one of the best architecture schools in the country, in Starkville," he said. "And then it sent out students to do great things. What else can you ask for?" Robison said perhaps his greatest influence came from outside of the school of architecture in Gus Staub, who was an architect in Tupelo. Almost a year before he graduated, Robison got a summer job with Staub. That began a relationship that lasted more than 20 years. "He taught me so much; he taught me everything about how to put a building together on paper," he said. "Mr. Staub was quite an artist himself. He taught me so many things, and how to do it well. The most important thing he taught me was what not to do. He guided me, he nurtured me, he taught me how to treat people. He taught me how to present things in a logical fashion. And he taught me to tell the truth, even if you made a mistake, and do it as quickly as you can." Robison said he's proud of many of the projects on which he's worked, but he said he really doesn't have one that he would deem his signature design. "Some of the projects I worked on, most people wouldn't notice," he said. Among his favorites was the redesigned Tupelo Regional Airport in 1980 while he was working with Staub. "It was a nice building and had nice curved brick walls, and it won a state design award from the American Institute of Architects in Mississippi. That was the only project we won a design award for. Then many years later it was renovated and essentially torn down," he said with a laugh. "Some of the things I worked on may not look like much to anybody else," he said. In fact, much of his work over the years involves projects with K-12 schools. Certainly those buildings aren't the sexy skyscrapers for which architects most often receive recognition. But that's never bothered Robison. "One of the most gratifying things is walking in a school that needs a lot of work," he said. "The school board provides a certain budget, we design the project, it gets bid and gets built over the summer. The staff, the teachers, the kids all go home, and they come back and it's got new paint, new bathrooms, it's got heat and air, new lights, windows and doors ... they walk in and they're like, 'Wow.' So you can take something and renovate it. It's just not building new all the time. You can renovate and save money. And those projects are important." Another project that Robison and Staub also collaborated on was what's now the Cadence Bank Arena. "It was about an $18 million project back in the early 1990s, and it was a very successful projects," he said. "I believe it's held up well. It's been well taken care of, and there's been a lot of famous people who have come through there. "I haven't done a lot of projects that weren't fun,' he said.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Yahoo
Death row inmate asks Supreme Court to hear oral arguments
JACKSON – Attorneys for death row inmate Charles Ray Crawford want the state's highest court to hear oral arguments in the latest appeal of his 30-year-old capital murder conviction and death sentence. Defense attorneys with the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel argue that three decades ago, Crawford's attorneys admitted his guilt and pursued an unwanted insanity defense over Crawford's repeated objections before and during the capital murder trial. That act denied Crawford his constitutional entitlement to decide how he was represented. Late last year, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch petitioned the Supreme Court to set an execution date. About three weeks later, the defense team filed a motion for Crawford's third post-conviction relief effort, bringing up the unwanted insanity defense for the first time. 'Before the court executes a person with such a substantial claim for post-conviction relief, … the court should at a minimum hear oral argument on the matter,' lead defense attorney Krissy Nobile said in the motion filed last week. 'All in all, Crawford should not have been forced to undergo a trial in which his own lawyer served as a second prosecutor advocating his guilt to the jury. The issues presented in Crawford's petition for post-conviction relief warrant oral argument.' Crawford, 59, admitted he kidnapped, raped and killed Northeast Mississippi Community College coed Kristy Ray, 20, more than 30 years ago. A jury found him guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to death in April 1994, but legal wrangling over the years has kept him out of the death chamber at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Defense attorneys say disregarding the PCR claim would create a federal due process issue. The state holds the position that the latest PCR is 'barred and meritless' and 'can be viewed as merely a delay tactic.' 'His third PCR motion filed 30 years (after the 1994 conviction and death sentence) is clearly outside the time allowed by law,' and should not be considered, the attorney general argued. Crawford ran out of appeals on the capital murder conviction in 2014, so he appealed a separate rape conviction, which the state used in arguing for the death penalty. The federal appeal was initially denied in U.S. District Court, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to hear the case. The New Orleans-based court heard oral arguments in October 2023 and issued an 11-4 ruling denying the appeal in November 2024. The same day the appeal was denied, Nov. 22, 2024, Fitch filed a motion asking the Mississippi Supreme Court to set an execution date.
