Oxford — Plotting Ashton Pearson’s career moves on a map form a circle around the southeast. Pearson, since graduating from Ole Miss in 1977 with a degree in mechanical engineering, has worked in Jackson, south Florida and East Tennessee.

But like all good circles, Pearson is back where he started — in Oxford working for Ole Miss, and for that matter, the country.

Pearson, the associate director of the physical plant at Ole Miss, is hard at work preparing the campus for September presidential debate taking place at Ole Miss.

“My wife and I had known for sometime that we wanted to come to Oxford,” Pearson said. “We were planning on retiring back to Oxford.”

Luckily for the Pearson family they didn’t have to wait for retirement. Just over a year ago, in April 2007, Pearson received an offer from Ole Miss to become the associate director of the physical plant.

The offer came months after first applying for the job, and Pearson had almost given up on being contacted about his application.

“My wife was searching the Internet and found the job opening,” Pearson said. “I applied in January and wasn’t contacted until March. I thought they had gone in a different direction.”

The 1972 graduate of South Natchez High School is happy to be back in Oxford since both of his sons, Chip and wife Katie, and Matthew, live in Oxford. Pearson is the son of W.C. and Willie Lee Pearson of Natchez.

In fact, the move has made seeing his younger son Matthew much easier since Pearson is currently living with him.

“When I moved (to Oxford) in April, I moved in with Matthew. We have had a lot of fun living together again,” Pearson said. “When my wife moved down in August we had to clean up a little bit. We’ve always been a close family.”

Seeing family in Oxford is a lot easier now, but the move also puts him closer to his family still living in Natchez.

“Being in Oxford makes it much easier to get home to Natchez,” Pearson said. “We tried to visit at least twice a year before but hopefully we will get there more now that we are a lot closer.”

The job of associate director makes Pearson the second person in charge of physical plant operations. The job duties include over-seeing safety, planning and project management for on-campus facilities Pearson said.

“I traveled a lot after graduation but all those jobs prepared me for what I’m doing today.”

Pearson may have been prepared for the jobs expected of him at the physical plant, but he wasn’t expecting to be working on a presidential debate less than a year after taking the job. When he took the job in April, Pearson said he did not know a thing about the debate. He soon learned that Ole Miss had applied to be a host site but still wasn’t sure what the physical plant’s role would be if selected.

“From April until November all I knew was that Ole Miss had applied be a debate host site,” Pearson said. “When we learned (Ole Miss) had been selected we began to put our game plan together.”

For Pearson and his department that meant making sure all the facilities that will be used for the Sept. 26 debate are up par and ready to handle the demands of hosting the first presidential debate of the 2008 election.

“I’m handling this project just like I would handle any other project. I’m looking at each different venue and breaking down what needs to be done at each,” Pearson said. “Then we put together a plan on how to accomplish everything that needs to be accomplished from a facilities standpoint.

“I get the plan in writing and we stick to the schedule to make the project a success.”

The planning and scheduling started immediately after Ole Miss was named as a debate site, but Pearson’s role increased in February when his work days became 100 percent dedicated to the debate.

“Because of the amount of planning and work that had to be done, it was necessary to devote a lot more time to the debate,” Pearson said. “It was through necessity but I love doing it.”

A typical work day can begin as early as 6 a.m. and end 12 hours later at 6 p.m. but that isn’t affecting Pearson’s morale.

“I can probably get more done in the two hours before the rest of the office starts arriving at 8 a.m. than I can after 8 a.m.,” Pearson said. “The number of hours I work has probably increased some but it is typical — just part of getting the job done.”

Sure Pearson enjoys the work but being able to do it “back home” in Oxford and at Ole Miss makes the long days much more enjoyable.

On top of being closer to family, the Pearson family remained close to many college friends in Oxford even after moving away. And they haven’t missed a home football game in 12 seasons.

Being just down the road from campus will make football Saturday’s easier.