Alumnus career, gift, enable students to find their paths
Bill Hudnall has made changing lives his life’s work. As a school counselor, he helped hundreds of young men and women land scholarships, locate jobs and navigate challenges. His work has made an impact every day.
During his career, every moment mattered, and now, thanks to his planned gift, those moments always will. His estate will create three endowments in the Hudnall family name to help others follow the path to service and excellence that so captured and rewarded him.
“You think many times as a counselor, ‘What impact am I having on these kids?’ but, countless times over later years, I’ve run into former students who’d say something that blew me away,” Hudnall said. “They’d mention how I had really helped them get through a tough time, or that I’d made a big, lasting difference in their lives with an interaction I only remember as minor. That, more than anything, told me I’d been in the right profession. It also tells you something about how far a small kindness can go.”
Hudnall grew up in the Prairie community north of West Point in northeastern Mississippi. He graduated high school at 16, started college at Itawamba in Fulton, then transferred to Mississippi State.
“MSU allowed me to blossom,” Hudnall said. “I matured a lot, and the family at Mississippi State had a great deal to do with that.”
Hudnall’s undergraduate education led him on a path toward coaching but, as he traveled that road, something didn’t feel just right. A conversation with a friend led him to consider the role of counselor.
“You think many times as a counselor, ‘What impact am I having on these kids?’ but, countless times over later years, I’ve run into former students who’d say something that blew me away… That, more than anything, told me I’d been in the right profession. It also tells you something about how far a small kindness can go.”~ Bill Hudnall
“My friend was a school counselor and he tried to explain the job and the career by describing the sort of people who go into it,” Hudnall said. “Finally, we reached a point in the conversation where I knew in my heart the candidate he was describing was me.”
As he looked into the career path, he saw he could do a job that would make a lasting difference for people. At that time, in the late 1960s, one of the foremost institutions for graduate studies in counselor education was in Commerce, Texas, so he enrolled at East Texas State University. There, in a small town 40 miles northeast of Dallas, he met Karen Kern, who he married and treasured for 52 years. Both earned degrees from ETSU, and the two later returned to Mississippi State where each earned further degrees.
Hudnall ultimately completed his doctorate in counseling and guidance at Mississippi State in 1979, and the two spent the largest share of their careers with the students of Cooper Independent School District, located 90 miles northeast of Dallas. While Bill was a counselor, Karen taught elementary school and, later, served as the school’s librarian.
The Hudnall Family Undergraduate Endowed Scholarship in the College of Education will help students pursuing an undergraduate degree. The Hudnall Family Graduate Endowed Scholarship in Counselor Education will help those seeking to follow the career path Hudnall chose. The Hudnall Family Excellence Endowment in Baseball will assist the growth and development of the Bulldog baseball team.
“It’s hard to explain to people what it means to have had the experience of growing up and growing into the Mississippi State family,” he said. “There’s an atmosphere and a spirit at MSU that just doesn’t exist many other places. It’s been important to me and an important part of who I am all my life.”
By Kevin Tate, Photo Submitted
