Warner Alford Retires as Alumni Association Executive Director

On June 30, Executive Director of Alumni Affairs Warner Alford will retire from what he has often referred to as the family business.

“I fell in love with Ole Miss as a freshman in 1956, and the university and its alumni have always seemed like a family to me,” says Alford, who was named executive director in 2004.

Alford was UM athletics director from 1978 to 1994 and also has served as executive assistant for development for the UM Foundation, coordinator for external programs for the Trent Lott Institute and worked with the Ole Miss First Scholars Program.

His responsibilities for the Alumni Association included planning, coordinating and directing activities to develop alumni participation in association and university programs. But he says the biggest surprise after accepting the position was learning that he would be charged with helping raise $20 million for The Inn at Ole Miss Expansion Campaign. With the new eight-story tower and ballroom expected to open in late summer, Alford has literally been able to see that charge come to fruition.

“Seeing the Inn at Ole Miss tower near completion makes me so proud of our alumni and their generosity,” he says.

Alford says the successful Inn campaign and the increase in minority participation in the Association are the two things he is most proud of during his tenure.

" “It is fair to say that in our history, no project has demonstrated the love and affection Ole Miss people have for the University more than the Inn at Ole Miss,” says UM Chancellor Robert Khayat. “Warner and Kay are two of the truly loved people who have been integral to the life of Ole Miss.

“Warner and I have been friends since 1954, and I have watched with great admiration his development through the years both as a family person and as a professional,” Khayat says. “Central to his work has been his extraordinary affection for Ole Miss and his passion for the well being of the University.”

Alford has expressed that affection in his desire to assist and support all aspects of the Ole Miss community, particularly the human aspect.

“Warner was always available to talk, and he always was the personification of a southern gentleman,” says Robert Peel, a Pharmacy major and scholarship recipient to whom Alford served as a mentor. “He would always treat you the way an adoring father would treat a child. First, he would ask you how you were doing and compliment your efforts. He would give advice and stern encouragement, and finally he would always ask if he could do anything for you.”

Alford says over the past four years that he really has come to appreciate how much of a positive impact an active alumni association can have on a university. He is often heard expressing these feelings to alumni.

“You can have a good university without alumni support, but only with alumni support can it be a great university,” he says and notes that Ole Miss is a great example. “Our total number of alumni is small compared to other SEC institutions, so we need a high percentage of active members to balance that out.”

Rose Flenorl, president elect of the Alumni Association, says Alford’s interpersonal and leadership skills have always made a positive impression on those he is around.

“To be a great leader, people must trust you, and Warner is a great leader,” says Flenorl. “He builds trust, he builds teams, he builds believers. I could never imagine 30 years after he mentored me as a student that it would be him to ask me to serve the university as Alumni Association president."

Alford will remain in Oxford and says he will miss the daily interaction with alumni and friends and association staff members.

“We will still be supportive of the university, but now I will be available to attend more activities and athletic games my grandchildren are involved in,” he says.

Senior Associate Director Tim Walsh, who has served on the alumni staff since 1990, has been named interim executive director effective July 1.

The Alumni Association is hosting a retirement reception for Alford in the Butler Auditorium of the Triplett Alumni Center on Friday, June 27 from 3-4 p.m.