H. Dean Cotten

Funeral services will be held at 2:00 PM, Thursday, August, 16th, in the Chapel at Broadmoor Baptist Church in Madison, MS. Visitation will be held at the Wright and Ferguson Funeral Home in Ridgeland, MS, August, 15th, between the hours of 5 and 7 PM and 1:00 PM Thursday at the chapel at Broadmoor Baptist Church prior to the service. Interment will follow the service at Parkway Memorial Cemetery located on Highland Colony Parkway.

Mr. Cotten was born December 4, 1937, in McComb, MS, to Sheblon and Alma Rushing Cotten. He was a graduate of the 1955 class of McComb High School. He spent the next 10 years working as a telegraph operator for the Illinois Central Railroad. He then accepted a position as the Executive Director of the Marion County Chamber of Commerce and served on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce where he received the highest award as Junior Chamber International Senator. This honor placed him in the 1965 edition of “Outstanding Young Men of America”. Following his first Chamber of Commerce job, he continued his success for the next 9 years in other various Chamber of Commerce executive and leadership roles in several states.

In 1974, the Mississippi Trucking Association, a non-profit, voluntary trade association comprised of motor carrier and allied members, hired him as its new President. At that time, the Association had only a $53,000 annual budget. Upon his retirement in December of 2006, the Mississippi Trucking Association’s combined bank balances totaled more than 25 million dollars.

He founded the Mississippi Trucking Association Insurance Agency, a political action committee and a worker’s compensation program along with numerous other councils and committees. He served as President of the Mississippi Highway Users Conference, National Chairman of the American Trucking Association’s Executive Council, President and Founder of the Mississippi Association of Workers Compensation Self-Insurers and also President and Founder of the National State Trucking Association Worker’s Compensation Conference. He was honored with the Kid’s Chance award presented by the Mississippi Worker’s Compensation Section of the Mississippi Bar.

As the Association’s lobbyist, he successfully managed the passage of numerous legislative proposals. He also represented the MS Trucking Industry before the MS Congressional Delegation in Mississippi and also in Washington, DC. Under his leadership, the MS Trucking Association was recognized as the #1 trucking association in America.

During his tenure, he was appointed by three different governors to serve on various committees and task forces. Upon his retirement in 2006, the H. Dean Cotten Scholarship Foundation was established, which assists in sending numerous children of truck operators to college. He was proudly inducted into the McComb, MS High School Hall of Fame in 2010.

Cotten was blessed with a magnetic wit and charm that was endearing to all that knew and loved him. He always had a positive “can do” attitude and a generous spirit that led him to help and mentor not only family members, but friends in the work place. He will be missed by all.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his son, Christopher Smythe Cotten, one brother and one sister.

Survivors include daughter, Becky Cotten Mercier and her husband Col. Peter A. Mercier, six grandchildren, Adriana, Austin Dean and Spencer Mercier, Lacie Cotten Clark (Will), Kayce Cotten Saik (Damon) and Payton Cotten, three great-grandchildren, Joseph Clark and Avery and Lake Saik. He is also survived by his sister Bette Cotten Burrows and by his beloved companion Anna Russom Grantham, affectionally known as “Grandmaw”.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the H. Dean Cotten Scholarship Foundation, c/o Mississippi Trucking Association, 825 North President St., Jackson, MS 39202.

Online guestbook www.wrightferguson.com