Posted on Apr 18, 2006

“It’s another great day for Murray State University and Murray State University School of Agriculture.” That familiar phrase of Dr. Tony Brannon will echo progress once again on Friday, April 21, as the university bestows a new name on what has been known for the past 30 years as the West Kentucky Livestock and Exposition Center. From its beginning, the Expo Center has served as a very important part of Murray State University and the agriculture program. Since the creation of the school of agriculture in 2000, it has become an even more important asset to helping fulfill the mission of the school to provide a quality education for students and a meeting place for agricultural and related events of the region. Last year, a $500,000 renovation project was developed to bring the facility to where it needs to be to meet today’s standards. According to Brannon, who serves as dean for the school of agriculture, the university concurrently received a major lead donation in honor of the facility’s first director, Wm. “Bill” Cherry, to go toward this renovation project. “Fittingly, in honor of this donation and the long standing service of Mr. Cherry to our university and our community, the MSU board of regents voted to name this facility the Wm. “Bill” Cherry Agricultural Exposition Center,” Brannon said. Other individuals and corporations have already been able to provide assistance and make contributions to this renovation project. In recognition of the major economic impact this facility provides to the tourism industry of Murray and Calloway County, the Murray Tourism Commission has contributed additional assistance to make the facility more available for conferences and meetings. Other renovations are planned to improve the aesthetics and functionality of the facility. Brannon says the university and the school of agriculture are extremely excited about the renovations and the opportunity to continue to raise funding to meet the renovation goal. “As one of my former teachers and as a community servant, it will give me great pleasure to drive by or go in this building and see the name “Bill Cherry” on it,” Brannon said. “The one thing that always stood out about Mr. Cherry is that he believed in students and worked hard to provide them an education and use his many connections in the agricultural community to help them get good jobs.”