Endowment established for longtime Northwest employee

by LaJuan Tallo

Senatobia, MS (11/14/2022) — When longtime Northwest Mississippi Community College Inventory Control Specialist Richard Honeycutt passed away in July 2021, the Northwest community lost a wonderful employee, alumnus and friend.

Honeycutt, who died at age 43, was the husband of Stacy Wilbanks Honeycutt, Institutional Research coordinator at Northwest. He and Stacy are the parents of Barrett (23), Jilian (21) and Rosemary (17). He graduated from Northwest in 1999 and began his career there in 2004.

Honeycutt graduated from Hernando High School in 1995 and met his wife in 1997 when he was a student at Northwest. The two were married in June 1998 and had just celebrated their 23rd anniversary at the time of his death.

Family was extremely important to Honeycutt. Their family loved to travel, taking long adventurous trips together, had family game nights, and enjoyed movie marathons watching their favorites and just being together as a family.

"Being a father was one of Richard's greatest joys. It was important to us that our children understood no matter what, we would always be there for them, and as a family we would always stand for each other. He instilled core values in his children to help them become the best they could be and to always keep an open mind and look at the whole picture," Stacy said. She said he wanted his children to go out and see the world and most especially to be happy.

Gloria Morrow, office manager at Northwest's Physical Plant worked with Honeycutt for a long time and spoke on behalf of his coworkers. "Richard had a monstrous intellect and a personality with more facets than a gemstone. He had an insatiable appetite for exotic culinary tastes and flavors. No spice was too incendiary for his palate, and he would share it with us, often with little warning other than a coy smirk as we experienced his 'inferno of the tongue.' He loved to travel, not as a tourist but as an explorer. He would seek out the extraordinary hidden amongst the ordinary sites along the road traveled and, on his return, shared his spoils of discovery with all of us who would listen. However, we believe that his best facet was that if Richard was your friend, he was your true friend. We all miss our 'gem' of a friend," Morrow said.

To describe Honeycutt as a "Renaissance man" would be an understatement if you were privileged to know him. According to his wife, he had a deep love and passion for art.

"Art, in all its variety of forms was a great joy in Richard's life. The art of the written word, the melody or lyrics of a song, movies that transformed you to another place, creating a culinary masterpiece or just the joy of creating art in any media. It seemed like the more difficult and detailed it was, the more he loved it. Amazingly, Richard was completely self-taught. If something caught his interest, he would teach himself how to do it," Stacy said. She added that his love of art was something he shared with his children, and it became a major influence in their lives.

"Richard's ability to find beauty and joy in so many ways was mesmerizing. While I don't think Richard even realized it, his impact on others was huge. This scholarship is a way to share a part of Richard, through the connection of art, with others," Stacy said.

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