Life Member - Tribute - Murray Elmo Collum

Elmo Collum, 67, died Sunday, July 19, 2015, at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo after a brief illness.

A member of numerous professional and civic organizations, he was particularly proud of his efforts in coordinating an annual meeting of National Association of County Agricultural Agents hosted in Jackson, Mississippi, which was attended by more than 2,500 county Extension Service personnel from across the nation and spread among 13 venues across the area.

He was especially proud that the conference was conducted without expense to the state or MSU Extension Service.

Mr. Collum traveled the state weekly and was a pesticide application certification specialist with the Extension Service, in cooperation with the Bureau of Plant Industry and Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, for more than 27 years.

During the last dozen years of his career, he also led emergency management efforts for the MSU Extension Service and Mississippi Agriculture Forestry Experiment Stations, helping develop with the cooperation of the Mississippi Board of Animal Health, for which he was always on call to assist the state veterinarian, and Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce damage assessment tools and teams to canvas areas impacted by disasters.

He also trained and coordinated MSU employees that worked in response teams during the Deepwater Horizon incident that affected the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Mr. Collum also helped train MSU Extension Service personnel and first responders across the state in the National Incident Management System Incident Command System, with particular support of Technical Large Animal Rescue training classes for the agriculture support personnel in counties with large animal production capabilities and food system support infrastructure.

During the state’s response and recovery from Hurricane Katrina ten years ago, Mr. Collum coordinated MSU efforts to help the agricultural producers of the state as well as the residents of affected counties needing assistance with companion animals and farm livestock and infrastructure rebuilding.

He also worked in support of local emergency managers and county Extension Service staff and educators as a part of his MSU Extension Service emergency contact duties with the State Emergency Operations Center during numerous weather related events in north Mississippi, including Chickasaw County, Smithville and Louisville tornadoes, natural gas pipeline malfunctions in southeastern Mississippi, and the 2011 flooding incidents in the Delta.

A 1966 graduate of Greenwood High School, where he was a three sport, athletics letter winner, Mr. Collum was a member of First Baptist Church of Greenwood. He was preceded in death by his parents Maebelle Henderson Collum and William Elmo Collum.

He is survived by sisters, Gloria Collum Correro and husband John, and Linda Collum Davis and husband Muse, who will conduct services, all of Starkille; an uncle, Murray Collum of Brandon; five nephews and nieces, Kim Correro Fandel of Tupelo, Chris Correro of Madison, Eliska Davis Counce of McKinney, Texas, Dr. James Muse Davis III of Atlanta, and Will E. Davis of Omaha; eight great-nephews and great-nieces, Peyton, Jonathan and Drew Fandel, Jace and Mae Mae Correro, and Jack, Jonah and Juliet Counce.

Memorials may be made to the Infinite Impact Campaign of the Mississippi State University Foundation on behalf of the Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Stations.