Behind the Scenes

By ROSS REILY - Delta Democrat Times

Chip Morgan has spent the last 24 years helping to guide the Delta Council in the right direction

STONEVILLE - Ask former Delta State President Kent Wyatt what Chip Morgan has meant to Delta Council during the last 31 years, and you get a picture painted of a man that the Delta cannot do without.

"I have the utmost respect for Chip and his ability," the current president of Delta Council said of Morgan, the executive vice president of the Delta Council.

"(Morgan) is as knowledgeable about the Delta and our needs and aspirations, and our place in agriculture in world trade as anyone. He guides us in the right direction."

Morgan started at Delta Council 31 years ago, but he took over in 1982 as the executive vice president. He has overseen unprecedented progress in the Delta in that period of time.

Delta Council is an area economic development organization representing the 18 Delta and part-Delta counties of Northwest Mississippi.

It was organized in 1935 by a group of farsighted citizens to provide a medium through which the agricultural, business, and professional leadership of the area could work together to solve common problems and promote the development of the economy of the area.

As for Morgan, he says it is the people, other than him, that make the Delta, and not necessarily Delta Council such a great place.

"We have historically had great leadership over the years," Morgan said from his office in Stoneville. "And just when you think maybe some of our leadership might be ready to retire, there is another group of 40-somethings that crop up and take over."

However, around the year 2000, Morgan said he was concerned about that theory. He was seeing a lot of talented people grow up in the Delta, only to move away and not come back.

"I was worried about a possible pattern," he said. "But around 2002 things began to change, and I am seeing good, solid leaders cropping up everywhere - within your churches, in community activities. And those are our leaders of the future. We are going to be OK."

Flood control

One of the most important things Morgan has been involved with has been the Yazoo Backwater Pump Project, which was a project to install a pump to prevent flood waters from turning homes and crop land into watery disasters, and it was one more step in keeping the Delta's water moving until all areas have the opportunity to prosper without frequent and damaging floods.

That is just one of the projects Delta Council and its board of directors have tackled during a legacy that has lasted 71 years, and was born after the Great Flood of 1927.

But Morgan's legacy is well entrenched. "Chip took what B.F. Smith built before him and made it stronger and more involved," Wyatt said.

As for Morgan, though, his view of his legacy is much like the work he does on a daily basis, understated.

"You know my wife says I am a dull guy," Morgan says with his dry, Southern drawl.

But then he pauses before getting to the real nitty gritty of Delta Council.

"There are 41,000 people employed in the Delta by agriculture. That's more than $600 million in taxes from the Delta every year, and that's not necessarily directly from farmers."

And he points out that Delta Council isn't all about agriculture. When Greenville flooded in 1991, sending water into more than 1,100 homes, it was Delta Council everyone turned to in order to find a long-term solution.

And Morgan was behind the scenes making sure all of the details were taken care of.

"He guides everything in the right direction," Wyatt said.

And that has been the bottom line for Morgan since 1982 and why he has been successful