JACKSON—Born in Long Beach, Calif., Jim Jeter grew up in the rural East Texas town of Ore City, in a busy household with six siblings. After playing football for a year at nearby Kilgore Junior College, Texas A&M University (TAMU) football coach Gene Stallings recruited him to play for the Aggies.

 

After earning an undergraduate degree from TAMU, Jeter joined the military, earning the “American Spirit of Honor” award as the top graduate of his U.S. Army Basic Training Class of 2,800 trainees at Fort Wood in Missouri. He was also named the top regular Army graduate of a 100-trainee Advanced Infantry Training Class in Fire Direction Control at Fort Sill, Okla., rising to the rank of E-4 in 18 months. After being honorably discharged in 1972, he returned to TAMU and earned a masters degree.

 

In 1978, Jeter returned to TAMU, where he spent 20 years posting impressive numbers and rising to the post of associate executive director of the Texas A&M Association of Former Students. He grew the university’s annual fund from $1 million to $6 million, and its alumni association assets from $7 million to more than $60 million. He raised $15 million required to build and endow the Williams Alumni Center, and created the endowed Diamond Century Club, which now has 1,000 members and has created an unrestricted endowment of $10 million. He was directly responsibility for raising $60 million of TAMU’s original $638 million capital campaign, “Capturing the Spirit,” and was instrumentally involved in three of the campaign’s largest gifts. 

 

At TAMU, Jeter revitalized an almost completely diminished recreational sports program on campus, and built it into one of the nation’s premier programs. He also put in motion the process to build a S3SM student-funded recreational sports building, which required the passage of one of the first campus referendums in Texas requiring students to tax themselves to pay for the building. He also negotiated the largest affinity credit card contract in the United States in 1997: $11 million, with a $5 million upfront bonus, 16 full scholarships, $350,000 unrestricted for student activities, two summer marketing interns, $100,000 in advertising for the TAMU’s Athletic Department, and a commitment to begin hiring A&M graduates.

 

In 1998, Jeter established a consulting firm and two companies—Integrity Online and Dominion Lasercom.

 

In 2002, he joined the Children of Heart Foundation in Round Rock, Texas, as director of development for two of its ministries—Miracle Farm and Gracewood—and established an annual giving program while also raising funds to build needed facilities.

 

While recuperating from injuries sustained in a 2002 car accident, Jeter seriously considered pursuing a prestigious position with Cooks Children’s Hospital Foundation in Fort Worth, Texas. He received a call from former A&M classmate Tito Guerrero, president of Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) in East Texas.

 

“He said, ‘I really need your help here, Jim,’” explained Jeter, who served as the vice president for alumni affairs, and executive director of two SFA-related non-profit foundations.

 

At SFA, Jeter completely rebuilt and reorganized the alumni staff, while improving donor record accuracy by more than 15 percent, and reinitiated membership drives, resulting in two of the university’s best fundraising years ever. He also created the Austin Scholars Program, with $250,000 in endowments, resulting in the recruitment of the first National Merit Scholars at SFA in many years. His team’s efforts resulted in a 50 percent overall increase in giving, a 10 percent growth in assets for the alumni association, and a 20 percent increase in assets for the alumni foundation.

 

Outside the workplace, Jeter flexed his fundraising muscle for various projects. He raised more than $1 million to acquire 20 acres of gift property and build a permanent facility for Brazos Christian School in Bryan, Texas. He also chaired two church committees—$1.5 million building campaign at Parkway Baptist Church and $1 million debt retirement campaign at First Baptist Church—both in College Station, Texas.

 

Jeter relocated to Central Mississippi in May 2008, when he accepted the position of chief development officer and executive director of the St. Dominic Health Services Foundation. He and his wife, Karen, have five children—Katherine, 28, Jonathan, 27, Katie, 22, Colton, 19, and Caylon, 17—and reside in Madison County.