James Merwyn "Jim" McQuiston Jr.

Funeral services for James Merwyn "Jim" McQuiston, Jr. will be held Sunday, February 23, 2025 at 2:00 PM at Colonial Funeral Home in Columbia, MS. Reverend Shane Hoes will officiate and burial will follow at Woodlawn Cemetery assisted by Brant Stringer, Cole Strickland, Luke Strickland, and Brady Strickland serving as pallbearers.

Jim was born April 17, 1934 in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, to James Merwyn and Alice Laeta Perkins McQuiston. He moved to Long Beach, Mississippi in 1942 at the age of 8 years old.

He attended Long Beach public schools and was a member of the boy scout troop 205. In high school he was on the varsity basketball team, a member of the Key Club and the Beta Honorary Club. He graduated Valedictorian from Long Beach High School May 26, 1952.

Jim attended Mississippi Southern College from 1952 through 1956 studying History and Economics. He was the vice-president of Phi Eta Sigma Freshman Honorary Fraternity, a member of Pi Kappa Pi Honorary Fraternity, and a distinguished military student with the R.O.T.C., which he joined in 1952 and attended basic training in Fort Benning, Ga., in 1955 as a Cadet. He was commissioned in the Adjutant General Corps, Army in June of 1956 being in active reserve duty from 1956 to 1964 being discharged with the rank of 1st Lt. He graduated from Mississippi Southern College in June of 1956. In 1957, he studied Economics at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Va., leaving to serve active duty in the Army at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, Indiana. He returned to the University of Virginia and graduated in August of 1960. He began teaching at the University of Southern Mississippi in 1960 where he taught Economics for 40 years. He also taught correspondence courses in Economics from 1966 until he retired in December of 2000.

In the 1964 Presidential Election he wrote a position paper for Barry Goldwater's campaign on Lyndon B. Johnson's budget proposals. He was the state chairman of Academics for Ronald Reagan in the 1984 Presidential Election. His dissertation was an economic analysis of Hugh White's BAWI economic development program which was presented at the Mississippi Academy of Economist meeting in Jackson.

From 1979 to 1987 he was the director of European Studies in Business in Europe. He served as director and taught Economics for 9 years in London and served as director in Vienna, Austria for the year of 1984.

At USM, he was also the faculty adviser for the Economics Honor Society, Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity, and Pi Kappa Alpha social fraternity. He was a founder in 1963 and the president of the Mississippi Academy of Economist for 1967-68. He was an Economic Adviser to a Hattiesburg Law Firm for several years. He was a consultant to Mississippi Manufacturers Association, Mississippi Legislature and other state organizations. He co-authored with Caldwell Daniel writing the “Economic Impact of the Mississippi Test Facility” for NASA. He was honored at USM on March 30, 2010, as a Centennial Legacy Circle charter member.

He was a professional actor in industrial advertisement for the Mississippi Power Company and also acted in a number of productions for Center Stage of Gulfport. Also while living in Orange Grove, he enjoyed sailing his sailboat in the Gulf. He loved reading and studying.

He married Rosemary Fondren in August of 1955 and lived in Hattiesburg and Virginia. In July of 1971, he married Mary Clark Hewes and lived in Hattiesburg and Orange Grove, Mississippi. In this marriage he had four step-children, Hal, Ricky, David and Ginger Malchow. In May of 1995, he married Janine Forbes at Calvary Baptist Church and moved to Columbia, where he lived the remainder of his life. In this marriage he had two step-children, Brant Stringer, “Adrianne”, Jami Strickland, “Brad” and four grandchildren, Cole, “Haley”, Luke, Brady and Kolby Strickland, and one great-grandson, Dax.

He joined Cedar Grove Baptist Church in 2004 and taught Senior Men's Sunday School for 10 years. He joined the Columbia Camp of the Gideons International March 16, 2007 and remained a member until his death. He later joined Calvary Baptist Church August 21, 2018.