College and School Alumni of the Year
CALS Alumnus of the Year
- 2009 - Randy Dismuke
- 2008 - Mrs. Marsha W. Blackburn
- 2007 - Mr. Kyle W. Rushing
- 2006 - Dr. David G. Morrison
- 2005 - Mr. Gary Blair
- 2004 - Mr. Jerry Brantley Slocum
- 2003 - Mr. William T. Hawks
- 2002 - Mr. Glenn L. McCullough, Jr.
- 2001 - Dr. Mark E. Keenum
- 2000 - Ms. Lea Margaret McLaurin
- 1999 - Mr. Turner Arant
- 1998 - Mr. Bobby P. Martin
- 1997 - Dr. Will D. Carpenter
- 1996 - Dr. George Ashby Green
- 1995 - Mr. Charles W. Ritter, Jr.
- 1994 - Mr. Rouse Caffey
- 1993 - Mrs. Ann Collins Chadwick
- 1992 - Mr. James R. Carter
- 1991 - Mr. Rafael Callejas, Jr.
Randy Dismuke
Randy Dismuke is the business strategy lead for Monsanto's new joint Delta and Pine Land business. He joined Monsanto through the D&PL acquisition - he was D&PL's senior vice president focused on the US business with International responsibilities for plant operations, field production and quality assurance.
Randy was raised in Big Creek, Mississippi on a soybean, cotton and livestock farm. He got his start working on the farm and at an uncle's gin in high school before going to Misssissippi State University. He has spent the bulk of his career in small towns like Harrisburg, AR and Scott, MS. In Harrisburg, he worked his way up from a quality assurance agronomist to general manager of Greenfield Seed Company, a D&PL subsidiary, running a retail and wholesale business handling wheat, rice, soybean, sorghum and corn seed and handling grain as a country elevator. Randy returned to Mississippi in 1989 and shifted to a cotton and soybean focus overseeing the first seed production of Bollgard varieties and working with several other functions as we moved toward the launch of cotton technologies. His contributions led to a promotion heading the Deltapine division when the Paymaster and Sure-Grow teams joined D&PL. This formalized his work with the research, technical services and sales efforts for Deltapine Seed now reporting to him. Along the way, he's continued his professional development attending several executive programs including a six-week intensive program at Stanford University.
He has known cotton and grain growers all of his life and maintains close relationships with customers today. You can see him talking to producers almost anytime - whether he's stopped at a roadside store for lunch, gone to church services, school board meetings, athletic events or attending the Delta Council and other organizational board meetings. Randy's equally comfortable working through the sales figures as he is along the turnrow. He's spent a lot of time around the U.S. talking to dealers, distributors and growers developing the business and, simultaneously, his career.
Randy remains based in the Delta, where he and his wife of 30 years Linda (not an MSU graduate but a convert nevertheless) live. The two are busily preparing for their son Caleb's, an MSU graduate, wedding to fiance and future daughter-in-law, Kelly (also an MSU alumni). Their daughter Robin recently graduated high school in Greenville and will attend Mississippi State University in the fall.