Robert Lee Long, Jr., a retired professional consulting engineer, has died at the age 95 at his home in Pontotoc, Miss.
A native of Starkville, he was a 1947 graduate of Starkville High School where he was a standout player on the state championship Yellow Jackets varsity football team, achieving All-State status during his high school athletic career. An accomplished athlete, he lettered in four sports: football, baseball, basketball, and track.
While at Starkville High School, he was named valedictorian of his graduating class, and additionally, “Most Intellectual Boy” and “Most Likely to Succeed.”
Among his academic honors, he was selected as the American Legion Boys State Representative at the Mississippi State Capitol in 1946, as a rising junior at Starkville High School.
While a young man, he worked on his family’s dairy farming operation, Longwood Farms Dairy in the Hickory Grove community near Starkville, before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force. He later became a civil engineer upon graduation from Mississippi State University in 1955 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering.
He was a lifelong Methodist. His father, the late Rev. Robert L. Long, Sr., was a longtime Methodist minister and a former assistant football coach at Mississippi State.
As a U.S. Air Force veteran, he served his country during the Korean War era. While in the Air Force, he was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Ariz., Perrin AFB in Denison, TX and Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX.
He served as the former senior bridge engineer for the Mississippi State Department of Transportation during a career that spanned 32 years. He helped design numerous prize-winning bridges during his professional career, including the Biloxi Back Bay Bridge in the Gulf of Mexico and the new Mississippi River Bridge in Greenville.
He was the former President and CEO of Long Engineering, Inc. and served as Vice President of Guest-Long Consulting Engineers in Brandon and as Assistant Rankin County Engineer.
His long career as a consulting engineer included managing partner of the Jackson office of Hazelet-Erdal Consulting Engineers, headquartered in Chicago and as an engineer on staff at Michael Baker, Inc., in Jackson. Long was also a licensed land surveyor.
An avid hunter and outdoorsman, Long was the former president of Wood Acres Hunting Club and served on the board of directors for Karnac Hunting Club in Port Gibson. He was a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and Wild Turkey Federation.
Among leisure activities, he enjoyed hunting wild turkey and deer, along with riding horses.
He also raised champion beagle dogs and enjoyed boating and duck hunting on the Ross Barnett Reservoir.
He served as member of the Founding Board of Directors for Madison-Ridgeland Academy, which was established in 1969, and was the principal architect of the baseball diamond at the school.
He was preceded in death by his parents, the late Rev. Robert L. Long, Sr and Lucy Mhoon Wilkerson Long; four sisters, Mary Antoinette Elizabeth Reynolds of Winston-Salem, N.C., Lucy Jones of Baton Rouge, La., Marjorie Barnhardt Smith of York, Pa., an infant sister Ann Long; a brother William L. Long of Sanford, Fla.; paternal grandparents, Daniel Robert Long and Mary Virginia Smith Long Moore of Winona, and William Mhoon Wilkerson and Hallie Belle Stevens Wilkerson of Memphis and Starkville. He was also preceded in death by his wife of 39 years, the former Norma Jean Tullos Bridgeman of Pontotoc; survivors include a son Robert Lee Long, III, (Laura) of Southaven; a daughter, Melanie Anne Long McGee of Brandon; a stepdaughter Littie Long (Vaughn) of Pontotoc; two granddaughters, Laura Anne (Annie) Long of Southaven and Maggie Long Arnold (Tyler) of Pontotoc; three great grandchildren, Maeda, Hattie and Ike Arnold of Pontotoc and several nieces and nephews. His beloved feline, “Miss KittyKat” also survives him.
A former Madison County resident, he was formerly married to the late Mary Sylvia Davis Long for 30 years, a union from which were born two children, Melanie Anne Long McGee and Robert Lee Long, III.
While in Madison, he was a member of the Board of Stewards at Madison United Methodist Church.
For the past two decades, he has made his home in Pontotoc, where he attended First United Methodist Church of Pontotoc.
Funeral services are at 12 p.m. Thursday, March 21, 2024, at First United Methodist Church of Pontotoc with visitation beginning at 11 a.m. Burial will be in a family plot in the Bluff Springs Methodist Church Cemetery near Winona at 3 p.m., surrounded by the deep woods once inhabited by his ancestors. Tutor Memorial Funeral Home of Pontotoc is in charge of arrangements.
Helping to carry our father to his eternal rest, pallbearers are Vaughn Long, Tyler Arnold, Jackie Cruse, Paul Townsend, Jeff Robinson and Mark Robinson.
“The greatest gift our father gave us,” said son Rob after his father’s passing, “was the constant reminder of the Biblical teaching to count our blessings daily. We are blessed to have had him in our lives.”
