Montgomery Named ICC Alum of the Year

Buddy Montgomery of Pontotoc will be honored as

Montgomery

Itawamba Community College’s 2012 Alumnus of the Year at halftime of the homecoming football game with East Mississippi, which begins at 4 p.m., Oct. 27, at Eaton Field at the Fulton Campus.

Montgomery, president, CEO and board member of the First National Bank of Pontotoc, attended Itawamba Junior College from 1958-60, where he majored in business.

At IJC, Montgomery participated in the work-study program. “It was my job to clean the music department in front of the old football field,” he recollected. “The football players were practicing on one side of me and the cheerleaders on the other.”

Montgomery said he stayed in the residence hall his first semester, but rode the bus from his native Hurricane community the rest of the time he was at IJC. “I was a country boy, not a musician or athlete.”

A 1958 graduate of Hurricane High School, Montgomery earned the B.B.A. degree in banking and finance from the University of Mississippi in 1962 and graduated from the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University in 1975.

Montgomery served six years in the U.S. Army National Guard, primarily in the Pontotoc unit.

His career in banking began in Tylertown, but he has spent 49 of his 50 years in that field with the First National Bank of Pontotoc.

Currently, he is a member of the board and president of the United Way of Northeast Mississippi and member of the Itawamba Community College Foundation Board, CREATE Board and Board of Regents of Barret School of Banking in Memphis, Tenn. Previous board memberships include the Pontotoc Separate School District, for which he was chairman; the Yocona Area Council/Boy Scouts; North Mississippi Medical Center and Health Care Foundation of North Mississippi.

Montgomery’s past civic memberships include Jaycees and Civitan Club, but for the last 25 years he has been an active member of the Pontotoc Rotary Club, for which he has served in several officer positions including president and has been named a Paul Harris Fellow. He is a member and deacon of the First Baptist Church of Pontotoc, where he has served on numerous committees and in various capacities including deacon chair.

Montgomery, his wife of 48 years, the former Elizabeth (Betty) Caldwell, and their two children, Mitch and Mignon, all are graduates of Itawamba Community College, he noted with pride. “ICC has had a great role to play in my family’s life and in our opportunities to pursue the future.”

Mitch and his wife, Jana, are the parents of Ross and Eli; and Mignon and her husband, Scott Williamson, have three children, Lauren, Lydia and Luke.

“I’m so honored and humbled by this recognition,” Montgomery said.