Like him or not, departing Ole Miss Chancellor Robert C. Khayat brought vision to leadership of the school where he earned his undergraduate and one of his law degrees.

In a world with too many glad-handers and too many sourpusses — and far too many who sit back and wait for things to happen — Khayat’s 14 years at Ole Miss have been the precise counterpoint: No job too small. No challenge too great. But don’t jaw about it. Do it.

Khayat, who will retire at the end of June, was provided a house on the Oxford campus. In the morning, hours before the underclassmen even started coming up with reasons to skip their 8 o’clock classes, Khayat was out in his grubbies, walking with a plastic bag in hand. He would pick up litter around the stately academic buildings — and not just the easy stuff on the sidewalks. If someone had tossed a Subway wrapper under a holly bush, he’d retrieve it, even though five decades after he was catcher on the Rebel baseball team and kicker on the football team his knees were in far less than pristine shape.

Three years ago, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced it was taking bids. No matter how many applied, only three venues would be selected for presidential nominees to meet and one for a vice presidential face-to-face.

Putting Mississippi’s name in the hat would mean a commitment to raise millions of private dollars and, if selected, to muster an army of volunteers. A year of staff time would be devoted to prepare for a 90-minute event. No presidential debate had ever been held in Mississippi and there was no reason to suspect one would ever be. “Apply,” said Khayat, who has been around and doesn’t share this state’s collective inferiority complex. We all know the rest of that story. Nielsen said 52.4 million viewers tuned in and saw how Ole Miss looks today in contrast to the grainy images from the bad old days of racial apartheid.

Day in and day out, Khayat has shown himself to be competitive without being overbearing. His humility is real, but he’s not shy.

Indeed, topic one on which he has not been timid is money.

During round after round of tuition increases, the state’s other seven public universities issued predictable statements professing understanding and pity for the added costs to students and families. Khayat didn’t follow that line. Instead, he said a college degree is a valuable thing to have. Obtaining one involves work, sacrifice and expense, he said. Ole Miss wasn’t in the something for nothing business, he indicated. He personally recruited top students, created and taught in an honors college. Nobody outworked him.

He leaned as hard as he could on private and public purses. In the 1980s, one of his predecessors at Ole Miss shocked supporters by announcing he wanted to raise $25 million for an endowment. Few thought that was possible. But Khayat’s total? Since 1995, Khayat has raised almost $775 million.

A chunk of the money came from the now-disgraced Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, a plaintiffs’ attorney now serving time after admitting guilt in an attempt to bribe an Oxford judge. Many have faulted Khayat for declining to join the chorus of people distancing themselves from America’s top superlawyer-gone-bad. Others suspected Khayat supported Scruggs only for his checkbook. But those closest to the situation understood Khayat could hate what Scruggs did without turning against a man who had been his friend.

Khayat also took hits for the athletic department’s decision that the Colonel Reb character would no longer be welcome at Ole Miss sports venues. He was against tradition, they said. During the design and creation of a memorial area commemorating integration of the university, Khayat took hits from those who thought he wanted the events of 1962 soft-soaped. He was too tied to tradition, they said.

In the world of higher education, it’s generally considered inbreeding to select an institution’s leaders from its alumni. The thinking is that such selections stifle innovation, create staleness. Khayat’s time at the helm is proof that at times rules must be broken.

Lots more has been, could be and will be written about the Khayat era. Aubrey Patterson, CEO of Tupelo-based BancorpSouth called Khayat “a transformational leader.” That about sums it up.

Well, one more thing.

Dr. Dan Jones, vice chancellor for health affairs at University Medical Center, said Khayat “increased expectations (and that) lifted every part of the university, and that has led to greater expectations throughout our state.”

Not a bad legacy.

And an instructive one, too.

Khayat expected more, got more. Wonder if that approach applies anywhere else?

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Charlie Mitchell is executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail cmitchell@vicksburgpost.com.