When Jess Brookhart's students say they're overworked, he can tell them from experience that things could be a lot worse.
Brookhart, an associate professor of accounting at Mississippi Valley State University, knows about hard work. When he was earning bachelor's and master's degrees from Mississippi State University in the 1970s, he was holding down multiple jobs and raising a daughter. He also spent about four years in the Air Force.
So, he says, when students complain, "I say, 'Honey, I've been there, done that.'"
He has taught at Valley since 2002. His colleagues have elected him vice president of the Faculty Senate for the second consecutive year, and he also is popular with students. "Every class every semester is maxed out," he says with a smile.
Brookhart, who says he is "59 and holding," grew up in the Delta. He spent some of his youth in Greenwood with his mother, Jane, who worked at Pemberton Manor nursing home. His sister, also named Jane, was once director of the Leflore County libraries. He has relatives in Greenwood, Clarksdale and Cleveland.
He attended several colleges before settling in at Delta State University, but by that time, the college bills were a strain on his mother. His father had died in July the year Brookhart graduated from high school.
"It was a struggle for her, and I just got to feeling guilty about it," he said - although, he added, "I'd finally started really doing well at Delta State."
So in 1969, although his mother begged him not to, he joined the Air Force. He worked on jets, specializing in navigational electronics, even though he had no experience in electronics before beginning his training. He served until 1973, including about 1½ years in Thailand.
His days in Thailand were long - "They were constantly running bombing missions out of there," he recalled - but he was out of harm's way. Besides, he said, "you did your part for your country."
While there, he met a Thai girl he knew as Nit, whom he eventually married and brought back to the United States after his discharge. But she had trouble adjusting to American culture, and after about three years, she returned home.
That left him to raise their daughter, Nina, in Starkville while attending Mississippi State. He also had a work-study job in the university's accounting department and managed an apartment complex.
People assume it was a struggle to raise Nina, he said, but he loved it - selling Girl Scout cookies, buying dresses for her, and everything else. "I thoroughly enjoyed that time," he said. "I guess, frankly, it sort of kept me grounded a little bit."
Eventually, he found he could do only so much. At the urging of some professors, he enrolled in the doctoral program at the University of Arkansas, but he had to withdraw after one semester and enter the work force. He remembers his car broke down on the way to Arkansas, he didn't have enough money for repairs, and he had to carry Nina in one arm and groceries in the other.
Since his return to teaching, his stops have included Mississippi State, the University of Mobile and Troy State University. He completed a doctorate in 2002.
For 10 years at Troy State, he taught at military bases stretching from New Orleans to Key West, Fla., and he spent the summer of 2000 teaching at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He moved back to Mississippi to be nearer to his mother.
Nina, now named Nina Kohler, owns Sweet Potato's Unique Boutique, a clothing store in Kohler, Wis.
She married into a prominent family, too. Her husband, David Kohler, is president of Kohler Kitchen & Bath Group, and his father, Herbert V. Kohler Jr., is chairman, CEO and president of its parent company, plumbing giant Kohler Corp. She met David Kohler while she was working at Ferguson Plumbing in Jackson, and they got together again at a training seminar in Wisconsin and a trade show in New Orleans.
She eventually left Ferguson to take a job with U.S. Sen. Trent Lott in Washington, D.C., and suddenly David Kohler "wound up having a whole lot of business in D.C. about that time," Brookhart recalled.
"He's an extraordinary businessman, and he's a great guy," he said.
Brookhart goes to Wisconsin every two months or so to see them and his three grandchildren. He also hunts with David Kohler at Eagle Valley, a 1,440-acre place on the Wisconsin-Iowa border owned by the Kohler Foundation.
Given their common interests, it's not a surprise that the two men talk about business often. Brookhart reads a great deal about current events, particularly as they relate to the global economy, and he said he and his son-in-law learn from each other.
"Dave and I are constantly bouncing stuff off of one another," he said. "And I like that, because I can bring that back to the classroom."
Brookhart speaks with great pride about his daughter and son-in-law. "She's just a wonderful human being; both of them are," he said. "They'll do a lot of good for a lot of people before their days are done."
He hasn't had contact with Nina's mother since she left. When Nina was about 10, she began to ask about her mother and wrote her a letter, but it was returned as undeliverable.
Brookhart remains passionate about education, and he plans to remain at Valley until he stops teaching. He is chairman of the faculty advisory committee for the university's Master of Business Administration program, which he designed.
"The university's been very good to me," he said.
He stresses ethics in his classes. As a student of history, he knows Certified Public Accountants have a very important role, because they must attest to the fairness of financial statements.
"If you can't trust the book, then you don't invest in the corporations and stocks and bonds and so forth - which is what happened after the collapse in 1929," he said.
Since October, he has been renting a home on Wright Street in Greenwood. Before that, he lived on the Jordan plantation in the town of Carter.
His other interests include sailing, environmental causes and blues music. He loves the works of B.B. King, Mississippi John Hurt and Furry Lewis.
"Growing up in the Mississippi Delta, you like the blues," he said. "I did, anyway."
At one time after moving back to Mississippi, he thought he would live in Jackson. But he likes this part of the state.
"I wound up having a whole lot more fun in the Delta than I do in Jackson anyway - having grown up in the Delta," he said.
