Wouldn’t the world be a whole lot less interesting if Memphis wasn’t in it?

That’s how Chairman’s Circle investor Russ Wigginton describes his passion for Memphis, the hometown he eventually chose after he came here to attend Rhodes College.

Russ has lived in many different places: Louisville, Evansville, Nashville, Youngstown, Boston.  He attended graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  After that, a fellowship brought him back to Rhodes and back to Memphis.  And he’s chosen Memphis as his home ever since.

“I came back to Memphis by choice,” he said.  “I was working on my dissertation, and I had a fellowship offer from Rhodes.  But I also had another fellowship offer, at Duke.  And obviously I intended to accept that.  It was Duke, after all.  So I respectfully declined the fellowship at Rhodes.  But Jim Daughdrill, president of Rhodes at the time, invited me back to visit Rhodes, to walk around campus and see some old friends.  I decided I should at least accept his invitation to visit.  Things changed when I got here.  I saw an opportunity at Rhodes and being back in Memphis.  I felt this was where I was supposed to be.  But then I had to call Duke.  Duke kept reminding me how lucky I was to get the offer.  Rhodes was telling me how lucky they would be to have me.  That difference mattered.

“Being back in Memphis was interesting, appealing to me,” he said.  “I wanted community that was distinctive from my job.  There’s no disconnecting from your job in a college town like Durham, where Duke is.  When I was at Rhodes, I wanted to be all in.  But when I was in Memphis, I wanted to be all in.  It’s not like I drew the short straw and came back to Memphis.  I 100 percent came by choice.”

Russ majored in history at Rhodes.  “I also took a lot of business courses,” he said.  “Rhodes didn’t offer minors, but those business courses would’ve amount to a minor at another school.  And I had the influence, the flexibility and the encouragement of my dad, who worked in HR.”  Those fields of study laid the foundation for his career.

Russ worked for marketing research firm Yacoubian Research for three years as an undergrad.  “During a lot of the interviews I had when I got out of college, they were intrigued that I had worked in marketing research.  I was used to completing surveys by phone, getting opportunities to engage with people in short intervals so we could get information.  Once I started working in sales and marketing, being a history major helped a lot.  I worked for Oscar Mayer, where I studied trends and patterns of the past and used that information to justify my quarterly advertising promotions.  My competitors were reacting week to week, and I was thinking quarterly.  That long-term view based in my education in history gave us an advantage in the market.

“What I wasn’t predicting was what I would do for the long haul.  But I knew working in sales and marketing would serve me well,” he said.  “I found myself often in these liaison roles between people and between organizations.  I like engaging with people, connecting with people.  That combined with a few leadership roles, and I started to branch out.  It’s not like I overthought where my career was going.  I was just trying to get some professional footing where I had some affinity and just let the future unfold.”

Leadership came naturally to Russ.  He was president of the Black Student Association during his junior year at Rhodes.  During his 23 years at Rhodes, he had a different job every four or five years.  “It’s not like I planned it that way,” he said.  “It’s just how I move.  I like challenges.  I like the journey, the goals.  The journey is as important as the destination.  Then I’m ready for the next journey.  At Rhodes I had the opportunity to take all these journeys.”

But now he’s president at the National Civil Rights Museum, and this is where he plans to spend the rest of his career.  “This will be my last full-time job,” he said.  “There’s a symbiotic relationship between the city and the museum.  Opened in 1991, the museum honors a pivotal moment.  It’s recognition of a place and an era our city struggled with and struggled through.  It’s the motel and the city struggling with the taint of where Dr. King was killed.  The museum set the stage for us to take a tragedy and make it something that could feed our spirit.  And not just in Memphis, but to take that and transfer it to the rest of the county and the world.

“The Museum has served as the town square for our city.  A place for everybody,  A place where differences get minimalized or deemphasized, where we become simply members of the Memphis community.  There are only a few special places where that happens.  Maybe Grizzlies games, Tigers games, at Live at the Garden or Tom Lee Park.  And at the National Civil Rights Museum.  We need each other.  We rely on each other.  It’s a ‘we’re all in this together’ kind of situation,” he said.

With its reach, the National Civil Rights Museum has lots of opportunities for partnerships.  And Russ said the Chairman’s Circle is one of the museum’s most valuable.  “We are intentional about our partnerships, and we consider them in various tiers of possibility,” said Russ.  “Real intentionality is that top tier, the partnerships where we strategically work together in ways that are mutually beneficial.  I would put the Chairman’s Circle in that top tier because it’s a natural way for us to be in space and conversation where supporters and the museum can have win-win opportunities.  It’s important.”

Russ points to the impact the National Civil Rights Museum has on Memphis.  “We have a responsibility given who we are to be immersed in the work of the Chamber,” he said.  “We draw a lot of visitors to Memphis.  When people are exposed to Memphis, they can impact businesses of all sizes in this community.  We can be catalyst in that regard.”

Russ sees both personal and professional benefits in his service to the community.  He currently serves on the boards of the Community Foundation, ARTSMemphis, BRIDGES, Code Crew, Tennessee SCORE and Rhodes College.  “I don’t walk into a lot of rooms where I don’t know anyone,” he said.  “I’ve been able to do things in this community because of those relationships.”

Russ encourages Memphians to experience Memphis.  “Depending on what’s happening in your world – or the world – it’s a different experience.  When you travel, you try new restaurants, museums, zoos, galleries.  I want more people who live here to do that here.  It keeps you familiar and appreciative of what we have here.  People do that in another city and they talk about how great that place is.  But if you do that in Memphis, you will have distinct experiences that people in most cities don’t have.  It’s a way to remind yourself there’s a lot here to be appreciated.  If you’re not already inclined to think like that, it’s easy to trickle away from that mindset.”

Russ is married to Tomeka Hart Wigginton, president and CEO of United Way of the Mid-South.  “Tomeka is a native Memphian who has had an interesting and fascinating career.  She has lived all over the country, too.  But we both see Memphis as home.  We’re here by choice.”

The Wiggintons have a son studying clinical and community psychology in graduate school at Vanderbilt following his graduation magna cum laude from University of Richmond.  “School is natural for him,” said Russ.

Russ and Tomeka spend two weeks at Martha’s Vineyard each August.  “It’s a fascinating time when black people from all over the country gather for an annual arts and cultural celebration.  There’s a film festival, artists of all types, professional engagement opportunities.  There’s acknowledgement of the part of the ocean that’s call the Inkwell where African Americans used to be relegated to that part of the beach.  It’s now a sacred spot.  It’s a fascinating experience.  We just love it.  When we leave, we’ve already booked for the next year.”

Russ said he reads Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail at least annually.  “It’s one of the most provocative writings that’s ever been produced in this country,” said Russ.  He enjoys playing golf, whether alone or with others.  “I don’t play nearly as much as I’d like to,” he said.  “I love the camaraderie, but playing by yourself can be therapeutic.”

His parents were his role models.  Like his dad, Russ is the primary cook in his household.  “I grew up watching my dad cook, so I thought that was natural,” he said.  “We even exchanged recipes.”  Also like his dad, Russ collects music.  “My dad was a music collector for 60 years,” Russ said.  “He accumulated about 15,000 albums, most of which he kept in a small warehouse.  I grew up listening to all genres, a real mature mix of music.  I have a rather extensive and eclectic album collection myself, about 500 or so, most that I inherited from my father.  I don’t play an instrument, but my entire collection is pretty special, jazz greats, blues greats.”

And now that he’s been in Memphis for almost 40 years, how does he feel about the city he’s chosen?  “In some ways, the same things that made me come here in 1984 as a college student are the things that excite me today” he said.  “It really is the depth and richness of our culture here.  It’s the combination of our city’s history, the trials and tribulations of that, how all of that feeds into our best days, how we move, the rhythm of the city, how we interact.  How who we are comes through in the arts and cultural aspects of our city.  On our best days, how we show up with the fighting spirit shows up in a powerful way.

“I like the us against the world disposition.  While I don’t love it all the time, all those things that work against us, there’s a dimension that’s good for us,” he said.  “It’s a huge part of what makes us who we are.  Who we are is who we are.  To get over ourselves is good for us to reach our potential.  For us to not be some other city.  Find our voice in who we are.  No one can out-Memphis us.  In my thinking about this city I have landed on a new phrase: ‘Wouldn’t the world be a whole lot less interesting if Memphis wasn’t in it?’  All the dimensions.  We do not fully understand that all parts of this community are an essential dimension to this world in ways that would be a whole lot less interesting.

“We take so many things for granted,” Russ said.  “When things happen, you can’t manufacture it.  You can’t make it be.  It just is.  We can out-Memphis anybody.  Let’s just be Memphis.  Not only is that good enough – It’s better.”