Three generations of Northsiders follow their passion for history at Millsaps
Many people in the same family often work in the same professional field or have similar interests. For Bill Crim, his son-in-law Silas McCharen, and his granddaughter Sarah Lloyd Stevenson, that is definitely the case.
All three share a love of history and Millsaps College.
Bill Crim was graduated from Central High School in 1948 with hopes of attending the University of Mississippi. His father was against the idea. Instead he attended Millsaps College.
At Millsaps Bill was able to set the standard for the coming generations in his family.
Bill had always enjoyed history. It was at Central High School where he really began learning about history in a classroom setting.
He fondly remembers visiting his grandparents in Washington D.C. and visiting museums, especially the Smithsonian.
“I enjoy history… (History) follows a pattern. I like Civil War history. The fact that it’s close (recent). There are people who have parents or grandparents who served.”
Bill himself has relatives who served in the Civil War.
While at Millsaps the late Dr. Ross. H. Moore, who was chairman of the history department from 1930 to 1970, was one of Bill’s professors and present at his oral exams.
Bill was graduated from Millsaps in 1954 with a degree in history.
He then joined the Air Force and completed flight school. He served in the National Guard reserve and was part of the military for 16 years.
“I was a pilot in the National Guard… I was what they call a ‘weekend warrior.’ It worked out very well. I was very pleased. And the national guard squadron out of Jackson was made up of Mississippi people, and I had some friends in there who were contemporaries.”
While in the National Guard, Bill became the president of Dan Bottrell Insurance Agency where he worked in surety bond insurance for 40 years.
Now, Bill enjoys hunting, golfing, fishing and reading. He still tries to read history when he can.
“Not as much as I should,” he said. “I enjoy history, because it, to me, relates so much to what’s going on now. It’s amazing…”
Silas McCharen, who is married to Bill’s daughter Sallie Lloyd, grew up in Birmingham and attended Indian Springs School.
“(Millsaps) had an excellent reputation back in those days as a small, kind of backwater liberal arts college, which, at the time, I thought was super. So I applied, got in and went.”
Silas always loved history. “I was fascinated by the past. In high school, I came to understand that you really can’t function in this world unless you have a solid grounding in what’s happened before.”
Silas’ history interest in college was military history of 20th century America. Now, his interests mainly lie in the military history period leading up to WWI, including the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Like Bill, one of Silas’ teachers was Dr. Moore who also was on the panel for his oral exams for his 1979 graduation.
Silas was the second recipient of the Ross H. Moore History Award, which was not created until 1978.
“He was really a super, super teacher,” Silas said. “He was quite a knowledgeable historian and really inspired lots of people.”
Silas, now an attorney at Daniel, Coker, Horton and Bell P.A., says he still tries to make learning a daily part of his life.
“Learning is a lifelong endeavor, and I will continue to study and learn until I die.”
Sarah Lloyd Stevenson is the third generation to follow in her family’s footsteps. After graduating from Jackson Prep in 2006 she attended Millsaps where she double majored in English and history.
“I felt like I was cheating the system for a while — I love history and English. Getting a degree for reading books and learning history? I love to do that anyway. I had friends studying chemistry and finance, and the work was tough and not fun. I thought, ‘I get to learn stories and histories and politics,’ which has always been a passion.”
She also studied politics and now she is able to apply that to her current position working with the United States Secretary of State.
One of her favorite historical eras is the Revolutionary War. However at Millsaps she enjoyed studying the Cold War era.
Being from and learning in Jackson was an inspiration to Sarah Lloyd.
“It’s interesting to me to recognize just how great a resource it was to be in Jackson, Miss., with Civil Rights, pursuing social movements like Prohibition and the Civil War. On the English side, we have great English scholars because of William Faulkner and Eudora Welty.”
Sarah Lloyd was graduated in 2010, and like her father received the Ross H. Moore History Award.
(photo) Silas Macharen, Sarah Loyd Stevenson, Bill Crim
