NATCHEZ &8212; Political and business leaders who knew Clinton Bristow and worked with him during the past 11 years described the Alcorn State University president&8217;s death as a loss not just for Alcorn but also for Southwest Mississippi.

Butch Brown, executive director of the state Department of Transportation, was Natchez mayor in 1995, when Bristow was named Alcorn president. On Sunday, Brown recalled some of the projects conceived and carried out between the university and the city, especially the business school program.

Brown remembers Bristow as a man always ready to accept new ideas. &8220;He bought into Natchez. He believed in his &8216;communiversity&8217; concept.&8221;

Bristow&8217;s concept was to use the resources of Alcorn to help develop the area surrounding the university through economic, cultural and educational partnerships with communities such as Natchez.

Fred Callon, president of Callon Petroleum, said Bristow was a &8220;true visionary. He saw how business and education could work together. He knew the future of Alcorn and Southwest Mississippi were tied together.&8221;

Callon described Bristow as &8220;an absolutely amazing individual with a tremendous love for Alcorn. He was a dynamic, articulate man and he will be sorely missed.&8221;

Brown said that under Bristow&8217;s leadership, Alcorn began to recruit more white students, broadening its image from that of the traditionally black university.

&8220;He knew he could grow the communiversity concept by having a more even racial mix, and he achieved that, even going around the world to recruit students,&8221; Brown said.

&8220;I think that has been one of his best achievements. That was a way for Alcorn to find its right role in Southwest Mississippi, and he invested in that in dollars, time and philosophy.&8221;

Brown spoke to Bristow by phone only a few days ago. &8220;We (MDOT) were working on a lighting project at the entrance to the campus at Lorman, and it had taken a couple of years for us to get to it,&8221; Brown said. &8220;But we were finally ready, and I called him to let him know.&8221;

Natchez attorney Brent Bourland, who has been a member of the board of directors for the Natchez-based Alcorn School of Nursing, said Bristow&8217;s vision made a lasting impact on Natchez.

Bourland and Fred Callon approached Bristow with a proposal a couple of years ago, and Bristow jumped on the idea, Bourland said.

The result of that meeting was the establishment of the Alcorn technology center at the corner of Franklin and Walls streets, a specialized incubator set up to assist start-up businesses through technology sharing.

Today, the center &8220;is ready to start growing. And the strength of the technology center is that it was a teamwork concept,&8221; Bourland said.

&8220;Dr. Napoleon Moses has been a part of that team and is as committed as Dr. Bristow was. There should be no interruption,&8221; Bourland said.

&8220;Dr. Bristow was a real leader,&8221; Bourland said. &8220;He could just as well have led IBM as Alcorn.&8221;

A mark of his leadership will be the legacy of leaders he left to carry on, including Moses, vice president of academic affairs, Bourland said.

Steve Wells, associate dean for the graduate business programs in Natchez, agreed, saying Bristow&8217;s leadership will continue to be evident in the years ahead.

&8220;He has developed good leadership and a good staff, and the university will continue to move forward,&8221; Wells said.

When Wells came to Alcorn, the graduate business program at Natchez was at the top of Bristow&8217;s list. &8220;It was one of his first major projects&8221; soon after he became president, said Wells, who arrived only a few months after Bristow.

&8220;We started plans for the project in 1996 and had first classes in 1997,&8221; Wells said. The new building formally opened in March.

&8220;He really pushed the Natchez programs,&8221; Wells said. &8220;He had a vision for the role of the university to be broadened to he entire region and even to the world beyond.&8221;

Wells said Bristow&8217;s impact is visible in new buildings on the main campus in Lorman but that the president saw Alcorn &8220;spreading its wings and broadening its outreach, especially in Natchez.&8221;

Bristow&8217;s approach helped the city and county in many ways, County Supervisors President Darryl Grennell said Sunday.

Grennell, who also teaches microbiology at Alcorn, said Bristow helped Natchez by introducing the MBA program.

&8220;That has been a major asset to the community, from an economic standpoint, as a resource for businesses and in brining students to come here to go to school,&8221; Grennell said.

Grennell said he and Bristow were close from the time Bristow arrived at the University.

&8220;It is just hard to believe,&8221; Grennell said. &8220;He&8217;s truly going to be missed.&8221;