Saturday is graduation day at Ole Miss and we are as proud of one graduate as we would be if she was our own.

She is one of our own, actually.

Ashley Crutcher works in The Panolian’s mailroom, making sure that your newspaper gets labeled properly and then bundled properly. She checks our inserts to make sure the right insert gets inserted on the right day and generally keeps the work flowing. It’s a job that she has grown into since she first started here as an inserter when she was a high school senior.
After high school, she went to Northwest and then to Ole Miss, where she will receive her Bachelor of Art Saturday, having majored in psychology.

During her entire pursuit of that undergraduate degree, she has worked here, four nights a week, often until very late hours, neglecting neither job nor school.

In this office, we’re celebrating with her this week, but her story is incomplete without mention of her boyfriend, Chris Nesbit, whose career as a “part-timer” with us parallels that of Ashley’s. He has been pursuing an engineering degree, first at Northwest and then at Ole Miss. He also has maintained a precarious balance between job and school, excelling at both.

Ashley plans to immediately plunge into pursuit of graduate studies that will ultimately lead her to a doctorate. We will be celebrating Chris’ graduation in another semester or two. Both will continue working for us for the foreseeable future, but we expect their work ethics and scholarly efforts soon to carry them far.

Ashley is the daughter of Tommy Crutcher and Sharon Bennett. Chris is the son of Bettye Nesbit and Johnny Nesbit.

When I think about Ashley and Chris I am reminded of the long line of young people who have worked here over the years part-time during high school and college and then distinguished themselves in endeavors far and wide. They predate our family’s tenure in this newspaper that started in 1955.

I like to think of them as our distinguished alumni, among whom Ashley and Chris will become our most recent.