Dick Molpus

Richard "Dick" Molpus (born September 7, 1949) is a former Democratic Party Secretary of State of Mississippi and President of The Molpus Woodlands Group, LLC (MWG), a timberland investment management organization headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi.^[1]

Background

A Philadelphia, Mississippi native and a 1971 Business Administration graduate of the University of Mississippi, he served for a number of years as Vice President of Manufacturing for Molpus Lumber Company.

In 1980, he was Governor William Winter's first appointee and was selected as Executive Director of the Governor's Office of Federal-State Programs,^[2] an agency in disarray from the previous administration. For his work in reducing staff and bringing managerial efficiency to that troubled agency, he was selected in 1983 as Mississippi's Public Administrator of the Year by the American Society of Public Administrators.^[2]

Dick Molpus was among several younger staff members, including future Governor Ray Mabus, known as the "Boys of Spring" who helped guide Governor Winter's historic Education Reform Act of 1982 to passage.^[2] In 1983, he successfully ran statewide for Secretary of State of Mississippi against seven opponents. He was re-elected by significant margins in 1987 and 1991.^[3] Mr. Molpus took the Secretary of State's Office from an agency that was a tax drain of $200,000 to a profit maker of over $2,000,000 per year.^[2]

As Secretary of State he also served as Lands Commissioner of Mississippi and, in that capacity, supervised over 600,000 acres (2,400 km²) of 16th Section commercial, residential, and timber property that had been set aside in the early 19th century to raise money for the public schools. By forcing renegotiation of some 5,000 below market leases, he increased, by more than $24,000,000, the amount of revenue to the public schools from those properties during his tenure.^[2]

He also successfully led efforts in the Mississippi Legislature for sweeping lobbyist law reform that required lobbyists to report all money spent on public officials. In addition, he proposed and led to passage substantial election law improvements, including allowing citizens to register to vote by mail.^[2]

In 1993, he was recognized by his peers and was elected President of the National Association of Secretaries of State.^[2] As President of that organization, he founded Project Democracy, an effort chaired by former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter to increase voter participation in the United States.

In August 1995, he won the Democratic Nomination for Governor of Mississippi. In November of that year, after a strongly contested race, he was defeated in the general election by the incumbent Governor.^[2]

On January 8, 1996, after completing his third term as secretary of state of Mississippi, Molpus began a timberland investment management organization. Today, The Molpus Woodlands Group, LLC, and its sister operating company manage for investors almost 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km²) of timberland in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New York valued at approximately $1.12 billion. The Molpus companies employ seventy-three people with fourteen offices located strategically across the U.S. Molpus Woodlands and its sister operating company, Molpus Timberlands Management, LLC, are vertically integrated management companies with in-house CPAs, attorneys, foresters, biometricians, and GIS specialists, along with silvicultural and harvesting experts.

Dick Molpus and his wife, Sally, were the founders of Parents for Public Schools, which now has chapters in 25 cities in 15 states across the United States.^[2] That organization steadfastly supports local public schools and works with parents to ensure high standards for those schools. He serves as Development Chairman for the Jackson Parents for Public Schools chapter and is a former President of National Parents for Public Schools. He received from the H. Council Trenholm Memorial Award from the National Education Association in 2004 for his work on behalf of public education.

In 2005, he was honored as an inductee into the Mississippi Business Hall of Fame,^[4] and in 2008, he was honored as a Visionary Public Servant by the Mississippi Center of Justice at their annual Champions of Justice dinner. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Mississippi Economic Council, which is the Chamber of Commerce for Mississippi. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Alliance of Forest Owners and the Wilson Research Foundation, which is the fund raising arm of Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson, MS.^[5] He was Co-Chairman of the successful 2006 Jackson Public School Bond Campaign that brought $150MM in renovations and new schools to Jackson.

In 2007 he became the founding Chairman of the United States Endowment for Forestry and Communities,^[6] a $200MM endowment funded by the U.S./Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement. The endowment is focused on improving forest health and assisting timber-reliant communities in the U.S.

References

1. ^ Molpus Woodlands Group
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} "Early on, Molpus learned life filled with twists and turns," The Mississippi Business Journal, May 30 2005
3. ^ "Molpus family celebrates 100 years in timber business," Jeter, Lynne, The Mississippi Business Journal, May 2, 2005
4. ^ "Mississippi Business Hall of Fame," The Mississippi Business Journal, May 30, 2005
5. ^ "Wilson Research Foundation announces new board members" Methodist Rehabilitation Center, May 19, 2008
6. ^ U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities, Inc. Retrieved on 2009-02-12.

External links

• Molpus Woodlands Group, LLC corporate homepage

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Name	Molpus, Dick
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Date of birth	September 7, 1949
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