Jackson Jambalaya

Rowan Hurt Taylor died Tuesday, July 18, 2017.   The son of Lillie Belle Rowan and Oscar Bomar Taylor, Rowan was born in Jackson, Mississippi, on January 13, 1925.

Rowan was a graduate of the Jackson public schools. He attended Power School, Bailey Junior High (designed by the father of his friend Bob Overstreet), and Central High School. For an interval during the Great Depression, he was a student in Washington D.C., where his father was general counsel for the Home Owners' Loan Corporation. In D.C., he was lucky to see an FDR inaugural parade from a window in the Willard Hotel restaurant and to attend many a Washington Senators baseball game. Eventually, he studied as an undergraduate at Mississippi State University, where he had the experience of living in "Old Main."

As soon as he was old enough after the outbreak of World War II, Rowan volunteered for service in the U.S. Navy and trained as an officer at the midshipman's school in Chicago. He then served on a destroyer escort in the Pacific and, as a radar officer, helped his shipmates to survive kamikaze attacks.


After the war, Rowan returned home, married, and became the father of two children, Rowan Jr. and Julie. Having received a degree in physics from Mississippi College, Rowan later earned a J.D. from the Jackson School of Law.

He spent his professional life at Mississippi Valley Title, where he became Chairman and CEO after his father retired from those positions. From the start, Rowan was both a business and community leader. He was a longtime member of the Board of Directors of Trustmark Bank, Sanderson Farms, and St. Dominic Health Services. He served as chairman or president of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce, the Jackson Symphony Orchestra Association, the Jackson Junior Bar Association, the Jackson Metropolitan YMCA, the Country Club of Jackson, the United Way of Jackson, the Capital City Commission, and the Mississippi chapter of the Nature Conservancy. Rowan was a founding member of Covenant Presbyterian Church and chaired the Building Commission for the beautiful structure that became its home on Ridgewood Road.



Rowan was deeply grateful for his education in public schools and devoted his time and talents to education in his native city and native state. He served on the Education Committee of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce in 1968-69 and was chosen for the ten-person committee designated to develop a desegregation plan for the Jackson Public Schools. The resultant plan, presented to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, was approved and implemented. Rowan later became Chairman of the Board of the Jackson Public School system. Subsequently, he was appointed to fill an unexpired term on the State Board of Education and then to fill a full eight-year term on that board, which he would go on to chair. In addition to working for grades K-12, Rowan devoted time to institutions of higher learning, serving on the Board of Trustees of Millsaps College and on the Board of Directors for the Development Foundation of Mississippi State University.

Rowan's love of education made him an avid reader of eclectic texts and took him back to the classroom periodically, both throughout his career and after his retirement. He received an M.B.A. from Mississippi College in 1975 and an M.A. in History from Mississippi State University in 1998. He also participated in Leadership Seminars in the Humanities at Millsaps College and met his second wife (Suzanne Marrs) when he took one of those seminars from her.



Rowan was an avid fan of Mississippi State University baseball, bringing Suzanne into the fold, and they enjoyed following the Bulldogs at Dudy Noble Field, at SEC venues, in Hawaii, and on trips to the College World Series. In his fifties Rowan became a marathon runner and went on to complete twenty-six marathons, including five London Marathons, three New York Marathons, five New Orleans Marathons, and five Mississippi Marathons. Rowan's life was enriched by music, particularly popular music from the thirties and forties, and he loved the companionship of his two dogs, both Shelties.

He enjoyed travel and sought to introduce his children and grandchildren to that same pleasure, taking them on trips to New York, Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Mexico, England, and Starkville. He took a float trip down the Snake River and made, along with close friends, fishing trips to the north woods of Minnesota and the Gulf waters of Florida and Louisiana. He took flying lessons and became an instrument-rated pilot. He participated in tours of old ballparks led by Smithsonian guides, and he joined Suzanne on travels to academic conferences in this country and abroad, introducing her to new places along the way. During the last months of his life, travel was no longer possible, but he lived contentedly at the Siena Center in St. Catherine's Village, the beneficiary of loving and devoted care.

Rowan's honors are numerous and include being named: Mississippi College Alumnus of the Year, Mississippi College School of Law Alumnus of the Year, National Multiple Sclerosis Humanitarian of the Year, one of the ten outstanding graduates of the Jackson Public School system selected in 1992, a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar Association, and Honorary Doctor of Public Service by Millsaps College.

The greatest joys of his life were undoubtedly the family and friends to whom he was devoted and who were devoted to him. He is survived by his wife Suzanne Marrs; by his son Rowan H. Taylor, Jr. (Connie) and his daughter Julie Spurlin (Paul); by his grandchildren Katie Taylor, Rowan H. Taylor III (Anna), Mandy Russell (Jonathan), and Suzy Myers (Chris); and by seven great-grandchildren.