A History of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College

On Sept. 5, 1911, the Harrison County School Board established the Harrison County Agricultural High School, an action which marked the beginning of the present Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. As an inducement to locate the school at the little town of Perkinston, a number of prominent citizens donated 566 acres of land and $626. Their efforts were successful, and with one building (Huff Hall), the institution began operation on Sept. 17, 1912. On June 5, 1916, Stone County was formed from the northern part of Harrison County, and the school continued under the dual support of both counties.

Realizing that a new educational concept, the junior college, was ideally suited to the needs of Mississippi, the Legislature in 1924 enabled the counties to cooperate with the state in offering education beyond the high school level. One of the first junior colleges to be organized was founded in conjunction with the Harrison-Stone Agricultural High School. Jackson County added its support to the coming institution in the summer of 1925, and the new institution opened on Sept. 14, 1925, as the Harrison-Stone-Jackson Agricultural High School and Junior College, offering the first year of junior college work. Sophomore classes were added in the 1926-27 session, and the first student finished on May 20, 1927. On July 15, 1942, George County added its support to the institution, which then took the official name Perkinston Agricultural High School and Junior College.

With the addition of career-technical programs in the World War II era, the institution began a new phase of development, which resulted in the demise of the agricultural high school. The administration desired to divert the resources formerly expended on the agricultural high school to junior college academic and career-technical programs, so the AHS was discontinued in May 1962.

On May 10, 1962, Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett signed into law House Bill 597, which created the Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College District serving the people of the counties of Harrison, Stone, Jackson and George. In September 1965, Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College became the first multi-campus junior college in the state of Mississippi when two branches of the college were built on the Gulf Coast -- the Jefferson Davis Campus in Handsboro and Jackson County Campus in Gautier. Later, the George County Occupational Training Center, the Harrison County Occupational Training Center and the Keesler Center were added to the multi-campus district. In 1985, the West Harrison County Occupational Training Center began operation.

To clearly reflect the comprehensive nature of the college, the name was changed on Oct. 1, 1987, to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

In the spring of 1991, the college relocated the Harrison County Occupational Training Center to Intraplex 10 with the opening of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Center. Established as a joint partnership between Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Mississippi Power and the Harrison County Development Commission, the center continues to serve as a training facility in support of the economic development activities on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In 1996, the campus without walls concept was introduced resulting in a fourth campus called the Community Campus.

Chief Executive Officers, 1912 to Present
At its establishment, the chief executive of the progenitor of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College was designated a superintendent. The practice of calling the chief executive of the institution a superintendent continued until 1941, when the Board of Trustees officially designated A.L. May as president.

The following individuals have served as the chief executive officers of this institution:

James Andrew Huff 1912-17	Claude Bennett 1917-20	John Jefferson Dawsey 1920-21
Thomas Ira Cook 1921-22	J.H. Forbis 1922-24	Jefferson Lee Denson 1924-29
Cooper J. Darby 1929-41	Albert Louis May 1941-53	J.J. Hayden Jr. 1953-85
Barry L. Mellinger 1986-98	Willis H. Lott 1998-Present