Jon C. Turner (Alpha Upsilon–Mississippi ’75) received the Alumni Service Award for service to the university and the Alumni Association over an extended period. Jon was recognized by the Ole Miss Alumni Association at the Distinguished Alumni Gala held Thursday, September 26 in the Gertrude C. Ford Ballroom at The Inn at Ole Miss during Homecoming 2024.
Jon C. Turner is a retired partner from the Jackson office of BKD/FORVIS, where his public accounting experience with several firms spanned over 40 years and multiple industries. He is a member of the Mississippi Society of CPAs and was selected as the winner of the 2013 MSCPA Public Service Award for his community and statewide civic involvement.
Turner, a Belzoni native, began his career with the international accounting firm of Peat Marwick Mitchell, now KPMG, in Jackson. He then joined a local firm that later became Smith, Turner & Reeves, which grew into one of the three largest CPA firms in Mississippi. After serving over 20 years as the managing partner of that firm, Turner guided the 2008 merger of his firm and two other Mississippi CPA firms with BKD, garnering him the title “father of BKD Mississippi.”
Turner is a past president of the Ole Miss Alumni Association and has served multiple terms on its executive committee and on the boards of the University of Mississippi Foundation and the UM Athletics Committee. Turner served as a co-chair of the Ole Miss First Campaign and on the steering committee for the campaign to construct the Inn at Ole Miss. He served three terms as an appointed member of the Inter-Alumni Council for Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning.
Turner was a co-founder and president of the Rebel Club of Jackson that grew into the school’s largest booster club and later served as president of the Central Mississippi Alumni Club.
Turner has been active as an advisor to Kappa Alpha Order and was awarded its highest honor, the “Knight Commander’s Accolade” by the group’s national organization and honored as “Alumnus of the Year” by the active chapter, who later named the award for him. At KA’s 150-year celebration in 2015, he received the Distinguished Service Award, recognized as being the most impactful alumnus in the history of the Ole Miss chapter. Turner and his wife, the former Pam Mills, reside in Jackson. They have two daughters, who are also Ole Miss grads, and six grandchildren.
“Ole Miss truly is a family and the campus and Oxford have remained a hub for our extended family through the years,” said Turner. “Ole Miss is very much a part of who I am and is a large piece of our family fabric. And as the Alumni Association is the glue for that fabric, I am deeply honored to receive its award for serving the university.”
