bell tower, fall 2010

5 Meet Numa / 10 Library Plans / 18 Teacher Appreciation / 30 Lion Files

FAL

L/

WIN

TE

R2

01

0

The Alumni Magazine of the University of Arkansas - Fort SmithBell TowerBell Tower

Survivor of two downings

behind enemy lines, the

WWII ace would be dead a

year after coming home

Pierce McKennon’39

TRAGICHERO

C1_UAFS_FW10:covers 1&4 10/27/10 12:36 PM Page C1

COVER PHOTOGRAPH courtesy of Fort Smith Air Museum

This fall, nearly 350 residents of the brand-new Lion’s Den are living it up in comfy loungeswith big-screen TVs; slick, stainless kitchenettes; sunlit study rooms; high tech laundryfacilities with machines that—get this—actually send text-messages when clothes aredry; an airy dining hall serving seriously good food; and a big, grassy courtyard perfect forthrowing a Frisbee or kicking a soccer ball around. Between the Lion’s Den complex andSebastian Commons apartments, more than 700 students now live on this traditionallycommuter campus, which is feeling warmer, tighter-knit, and more animated than ever.

KA

TW

ILS

ON

’96

C2_UAFS_FW10:toc & letters 10/27/10 12:39 PM Page C2

IN THIS ISSUEFALL / WINTER 2010 volume I, number 2

15 18

2 FROM THE CHANCELLOR A place you can be proud of

3 @UAFORTSMITH Alumni letters

4 GRAND + WALDRONstrategic plan | top nurse | meet Numa |Lion Rifles | alumni art | IT advances |new programs | library addition

11 5Q Dr. Ragupathy Kannan, passionateconservationist

12 SENSE OF PLACE Math-Science 240

14 WHAT’S IN A NAME? The Fullerton Administration Building

15 EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITY Dr. Rager Moore, choral director/farmer

16 LIONS LOWDOWNwomen’s tennis | Womack Awards | Blake Branham | summer camps

fea t u re s

18 TEACHER APPRECIATIONWhy local principals love UA Fort Smith-trained teachers—and how theUniversity is changing public education in the region. By Zack Thomas withphotos by Kat Wilson ’96

24 TOO GLORIOUS TO LASTBy the time of his tragic death at 27, Pierce McKennon ’39 had already lived morethan a life’s worth. By Bobby Ampezzan

28 ALUMNI + GIVINGnew alumni director | class notes | Speakman’s legacy | Mardell ChristelloMcClurkin ’58 | alumni-run magazine | Mike DeSanto ’08 | new Foundationwebsite | Fred Davis III ’70

5

01_UAFS_FW10:toc & letters 10/27/10 12:39 PM Page 1

2 BELL TOWER fall/winter 2010

From the Chancellor

When I arrived at theUniversity of Arkansas– Fort Smith in 2006,I was surprised tofind that, although

our Foundation was communicating witha number of former students, there wasno organized alumni association. Changingthat was high on my priority list as a newChancellor.

We hired our first Director of AlumniAffairs, Anne Thomas, and started the longprocess of tracking down all 48,000 of youand building a community that each of youcan feel like you’re a part of—whether youattended Fort Smith Junior College, Westark,or UA Fort Smith; whether you got yourtechnical certificate and went to work, fin-ished your associate degree and transferred,or earned a four-year degree; whether youcame here as a studious 18-year-old, an ath-lete with D1 aspirations, or a working adulttaking night classes toward a better life.

That process has been intensely reward-ing. We’ve created a highly interactiveonline community, a variety of young alumniprogramming, a student alumni association,and an alumni travel program. Early thisyear, we hosted a series of regional recep-tions in Tulsa, Dallas, and NorthwestArkansas, and we’re looking forward tothem again this winter. In April, we debutedBell Tower, edited by Zack Thomas. And justbefore this issue went to print, we markedanother major milestone—our first-everAlumniWeekend on campus, spearheadedby Elizabeth Underwood, our new Directorof Alumni Affairs.

Far more rewarding than what weconsider our accomplishments, though, isthe reception we’ve had from you. DuringAlumniWeekend, I heard several folkssay things like, “Next year, I’m bringing 10people!” Others volunteered to serve as local

coordinators for regional receptions in theirhometowns. Others wanted to know howthey could help with next year’s event. Andall had a great time catching up with eachother and their University.

What we’ve learned over the last fewyears is that an institution’s alumni aremore important even than we imagined.Without you—even a single one of you—this University would not be exactly whatit is today. We honor you for that, and ineverything we do, we strive to make thisa place you can be as proud of as we are.

PAUL B. BERAN, Ph.D.Chancellor

A Place You Can Be Proud Of

^̂Bell TowerFall/Winter 2010Volume 1, Number 2

The University of Arkansas – Fort Smith

CHANCELLORPaul B. Beran, Ph.D.

VICE CHANCELLOR FOR UNIVERSITYADVANCEMENT

Marta M. Loyd, Ed.D.

DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI AFFAIRSElizabeth Underwood

EDITORZack Thomas

CONTRIBUTORSBobby Ampezzan, Erica Buneo,

Liz Synder, Leslie Yingling

PHOTOGRAPHERKatWilson

ART DIRECTORJohn Sizing

www.jspublicationdesign.com

ADVISORY BOARDDr. Paul B. Beran, Chancellor;

Dr. RayWallace, Provost; Dr. Marta M. Loyd,Vice Chancellor for University

Advancement; Dr. Arleene Breaux,Vice Chancellor for University Relations;Dr. Lee Krehbiel, Vice Chancellor forStudent Affairs; Anne Thomas,

Development Officer

BELL TOWER is published semi-annually by the

University of Arkansas – Fort Smith Alumni

Association, P.O. Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR 72913,

for alumni, friends, and faculty of the University.

Tel: (877) 303-8237.Email: [email protected].

Web: www.uafortsmithalumni.com.

SEND ADDRESS CHANGES, requests to receive

Bell Tower, and requests to be removed from the

mailing list to [email protected] or UA Fort

Smith Alumni Association, P.O. Box 3649, Fort

Smith, AR 72913.

LETTERS ARE WELCOME, but the Publisher

reserves the right to edit letters for length and

content. Space constraints may prevent publica-

tion of all letters. Anonymous letters will not be

published. Send letters to belltower@uafortsmith.

edu or Bell Tower Magazine, P.O. Box 3649, Fort

Smith, AR 72913.

Views and opinions expressed in Bell Tower do not

necessarily reflect those of the magazine staff or

advisory board nor of the University of Arkansas –

Fort Smith.

Contents ©2010 by the University of Arkansas –

Fort Smith.

^Find Us on theWeb!Can’t wait six months for your next issue of Bell Tower? Visit us atwww.uafortsmithalumni.com/belltower for exclusive web-only content!

ZACKTHOMAS

Working the chow line at theAlumniWeekend pancake breakfast,where seniorstaff did the serving.


http://www.jspublicationdesign.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.uafortsmithalumni.com


http://www.uafortsmithalumni.com/belltower

UA Fort Smith BELL TOWER 3

@Belltowermag

AGOODMANOn August 27, 1951, Ireturned from Korea andwas separated from activeduty with the Army. I immedi-ately returned to Fort Smith andenrolled in Fort Smith Junior College.When I was enrolling, Dr. [E.T.] Vines

inquired whether I would be interestedin earning a little money. The next week agroup of men and I went to the old gliderplant off Midland Boulevard and begantransferring furniture, mostly desks andtables, to the college. These had been storedat the empty plant temporarily while thecollege was renovated.It is hard to believe the difference

between the college then and UA Fort Smithas it exists today. Dr. Vines would be soproud of the progress that has been made.He was a good man and a hard worker. Itwas sad that he died an untimely death.

JIM MOSELEY ’52Fort Smith

OLDMAINMEMORIESDuring night school in 1957-58, chemistrywas taught in the top-floor attic of the OldMain building. There were probably only sixor eight of us in the class, several of whomwere also GIs from Fort Chaffee.Our instructor was just a couple of years

older than we were. His teaching approachwas, “Guys, we aren’t going to the next chap-ter until everyone gets the one we’re workingon. We don’t have to be at the end of thebook by the end of the semester.”We indeed learned and were bright

enough to figure out howto make coffee in the labbeakers! After all, isn’tthe proper combination of

ground coffee, water, and tem-perature just applied chemistry?

Similar dormer windows were alsoon the back of the building overlookingthe parking area. I recall looking out thosewindows and watching the girl who wouldbecome my wife park her car and head into

Tom Fullerton’s history class, which hap-pened to also be my next class!Thanks for the memories.

HARRY FOSTER ’58Seguin, Tex.

I attendedWestark the first time in the fallof 1964, and I remember taking Freshman

English taught by BetsyAltman and Economics taughtby Mrs. Pryor in the Old Mainbuilding. I can still hear thewooden stairs squeaking.At that time, the student

lounge was located at one endof a long, woodenWorldWarII-vintage building moved fromFort Chaffee. The snack barand bookstore were at theother end. You could buygreat chili fries or “bluebooks,” which cost 5¢.The only other brick

building I can remember was the Fine ArtsBuilding [today’s Ballman-Speer] whereI took Art History, taught by James “Pete”Howard.

DON RUTH ’69Temple, Tex.

What a nice surprise to receive the first issueof Bell Tower! On the back cover, you askedfor memories of Old Main. I attended FSJCfrom 1960-62. Old Main creaked and

groaned and its windows could be openedand closed! Most students attended a varietyof classes in that building and then descend-ed the wide front steps into the world. In afuture issue, I would very much like to knowmore about and see photos of the buildingson campus. Keep up the good work!

PHYLLIS YOUNG ’62Lawton, Okla.

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?We’d love to hear from you! Tell uswhat you think of the magazine,respond to an article, suggest an ideafor a future issue, or ask us whateverburning question comesto mind. Email your letter [email protected] or mailit to Bell TowerMagazine, P.O. Box3649, Fort Smith,AR 72913.

Card games in the“surplus”student lounge, 1963.

OldMain in the 1960s,with Holt in the foreground and the FineArts Building (today’sBallman-Speer) between.



JUST BEFORE THE start of the fallsemester, Chancellor Paul B. Beran rolledout UA Fort Smith’s Five Year Strategic Plan:2010 – 2015 in an evening presentation atthe Fort Smith Convention Center.

Eighteen months in the making andincorporating input from across the univer-sity and the community, the plan sets forthUA Fort Smith’s mission and vision and for-mally directs all the activities and resourcesof the institution toward fulfilling them.

UA Fort Smith’s vision is to “be a pre-mier regional university connecting educa-tion with careers.” Its mission is to “preparestudents to succeed in an ever-changing

global world while advancing economicdevelopment and quality of place.”

The plan calls for the mission to beaccomplished by concentrating on sixpriorities, which are in turn supported by24 initiatives and more than 100 specificaction steps.

“We will use [the plan] to set fundingpriorities, to make decisions about a multi-tude of topics, to drive growth that is sureto happen in a reasonable and sustainableway,” Beran says. “It will be a bedrockfrom which other plans are made.”MOREONLINE: See the plan atwww.uafortsmithalumni.com/belltower.

Grand+WaldronCAMPUS NEWS AND NOTES

”“I never learned anything from talking.Learn to listen; you might be surprisedwhat you hear.—NEAL PENDERGRAFT, attorney, entrepreneur, cattleman, and musician,speaking at a May 8 commencement ceremony


Strategic Plan FormalizesUniversity’s Priorities, Direction

Top Nurse Fort SmithWHITNEY WEBB ’10 isn’t one of thosepeople who decided in second grade whatthey wanted to be. In fact, she didn’t reallyfigure it out until well into her college career,when she transferred to UA Fort Smith in2007, chucked her pre-dental major, andentered the brand-new Bachelor of Sciencein Nursing program.

It was clearly the right decision. Threeyears later,Webb, carrying a perfect 4.0, wasnamed one of the top five nursing studentsin the nation as part of the Student Nurseof the Year competition sponsoredby StuNursemagazine. The honor isbased on academic performance,community involvement, and dedi-cation to the nursing profession.

“I’m really loving whatI’m doing,” she says of hernew job in the ACE (acutecare of the elderly) unitat Washington Regionalin Fayetteville. “I lovehelping people. That’swhere I get my high, justtaking care of somebodylike I’d want to be takencare of.”

Remarkably, Webb wasa member of the BSN pro-gram’s first graduatingclass. “I actually had towait a semester for thebachelor’s program tostart,” she says. “But itwas worth it. I was look-ing for the best nursingprogram I could get into,and when I visited UAFort Smith I was justblown away. The technol-ogy was amazing, andthe teachers werejust excellent.They’ve reallyinvested something.”

KA

TW

ILS

ON

’96

ZA

CK

TH

OM

AS

Chancellor Paul B. Beran

04_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 12:43 PM Page 4

http://www.uafortsmithalumni.com/belltower

ON A GORGEOUS, BREEZY APRILafternoon at the Stubblefield Center, UAFort Smith and the Fort Smith communitywere first introduced to Numa, a 15-foot,2,000-pound bronze sculpture commis-sioned with funds from estate gifts madeby Pearl D. Raney and Sally McSpaddenBoreham.

Numa is intended not only to serve asa dramatic embodiment of the University’sspirit and culture, a piece around whichtraditions will be built, but also as a show-piece and symbol for the greater Fort Smithcommunity, to which UA Fort Smith owesso much gratitude for more than eightdecades of support.

Over the years, the University’s mascot,like the institution it represents, has takena variety of forms. They have ranged fromsnuggly to savage, realistic to modernistic,but Numa is hands-down the most impos-ing incarnation in UA Fort Smith’s 82-year history. Stop by the corner of Waldron Road andKinkead Avenue for a quick visit next time you’re in the area.

^

While Numa may be the first majorcommissioned outdoor sculpture onthe UA Fort Smith campus, he won’t bethe last. The UA Fort Smith Foundationrecently created the Numa Society tohelp raise funds for additional pieces.Fifty charter members were invited togive $3,000 each (or pledge $3,000over three years) to be used specif-ically for sculpture. Of those, 37 chartermemberships remain available.

As a commemorative gift, chartermembers will receive one of only 50limited-edition, numbered bronzemaquettes—miniatures of Numaon black granite bases. Contact theFoundation at (479) 788-7020 [email protected] tolearn more.

Numa Says HELLO

STEVENJO

NES ^̂

points of prideSpotlightArtistIn March, Jazz Band Director Dr. RyanGardner was named Spotlight Artist of2010 by Music for Autism (M4A), an inter-national nonprofit that enriches the livesof autistic children through autism-friend-ly, interactive concerts. The concerts areheld in roomy halls that allow audiencesto respond freely to the music throughspontaneous dance and movement in anenvironment that celebrates individualdifferences. Additionally, the music itselfmay have a significant therapeutic effect,according to researchers. The SpotlightArtist honor is reserved for “extraordinarilytalented and gifted musicians who havemade a significant commitment to sup-porting the work of M4A and aided inthe charity’s expansion.”Hear Gardnerperform at www.gardnertrumpet.com.

GoldMedal DesignErica Buneo’s elegantly simple logo for thefictional Dos Gatos Inn & Spa, created forTravis Brown’s Identity Design course, wona gold award in the Fort Smith ADDYs (theAmerican Advertising Federation’s awardsprogram), then a silver in the regionalcompetition, and finally one of just 16 stu-dent golds in the national ADDYs. Buneoearned her associate degree in May 2009and is on track to graduate with a bache-lor’s in 2011. Surprisingly, she got interest-ed in design only after earning a bachelor’sin history in 1992 and then working for 10years in publishing and law. She still hasher research and writing skills, though; infact, she contributed two stories to thisissue of Bell Tower.

Superior SkillsGraphic design major Lois LaBuda andIT major Dennis Guzman both broughthome bronze medals from the SkillsUSANational Championships in Kansas Cityin June. LaBuda was third in the post-secondary Advertising Design contestand Guzman third in post-secondaryComputer Maintenance Technology.Twenty-two other students from UAFort Smith and theWestern ArkansasTechnology Center (a UA Fort Smithprogram for area high school students)earned awards in categories ranging fromWelding Fabrication to Medical Math andPrepared Speech to 3D Visualization andAnimation. The SkillsUSA Championshipdraws some 6,000 of the country’s bestcareer and technical students, whocompete in more than 90 events.

‘Visionary Leadership’Dr. Carolyn Mosley, dean of the College ofHealth Sciences, was inducted recently as


(continued on page 7)

AnApril unveilingceremony drew

hundreds tomeet Numa.

05_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 12:44 PM Page 5


http://www.gardnertrumpet.com


Exceptional ProfessorsTHE PUSH BY RandyWewers ’58 to recognize Lucille Speakman and otherrevered faculty members (see p. 29) got us wondering which professors you all remem-ber most fondly. The names of some of them—Luella Krehbiel, Dr. Sidney Blakely (left,celebrating accreditation by the North Central Association), Dr. Hattie Mae Butterfield,Tom Fullerton, and of course, Speakman—are woven deeply into the University’s his-tory.

But there are of course hundreds of other UA Fort Smith faculty members whomade the same kind of impressions on their own students—who showed them how tosee things in ways they’d never considered before, or worked with them outside theclassroom when they needed a boost, or administered a healthy dose of reality whenit was called for, or steered them in a new direction that turned out to be exactly right.

Did you take a class from one of those exceptional professors? Tell us about it,and we’ll share your story in the next issue. Mail to [email protected] Bell TowerMagazine, P.O. Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR 72913.

TELL US ABOUT IT

HERE’S THE GAME: stand still asa statue while supporting an 11-poundrifle with your off hand, its stockpressed against your cheek. Throughthe rear peep sight, steady the frontsight over a dot roughly the size of theend of a mechanical pencil lead. At 10meters, you can’t actually see it—noteven close—so just visualize it there atthe center of the black target circle.Now draw and hold a breath, clearyour mind of everything but thesight-picture—whatever youdo, don’t over-think it—and squeeze the triggerwith robot precision.

In a match,members of theLion Rifles, UAFort Smith’s airrifle club, make 60of these shots eachover the course of anhour and forty-five min-

utes. It demands monolithic focus, intenseconcentration, and a surprising amount

of physical stamina. In addition toraising and holding the rifle, shoot-ers wear heavy, stiff pants, jackets,and gloves—imagine a whole out-fit like a dentist’s x-ray apron—tohelp steady themselves.

This spring, at the first-evernational championship for colle-

giate club teams—as opposed toNCAA varsity teams—the Lion

Rifles finished fourth, behind Clemson,University of Michigan, and Illinois State,but ahead of the likes of Michigan State andPurdue. Their top-scorer, Morgan Welch,shot 535 out of a possible 600, averaging ahair under nine points per shot. The nine-point ring, by the way, is about the sizeof a small pea.

Shooting at the time for NortheasternState University’s ROTC team, new LionRifles member Kelli Trammell, who trans-ferred to UA Fort Smith this year, shot aremarkable 561, the fourth best score inthe championship.

On the MarkAir rifle club finishesfourth in nation

Precision shooting isultimately amental

game, but heavy, stiffclothing and 11-pound

riflesmake itmorephysically demanding

than it looks.

Grand+Waldron

Ten-meter air rifle targets (above, shown actual size) are almost comically small.

ZA

CK

TH

OM

AS

(TO

P)

06_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 12:44 PM Page 6


^̂


a fellow in the National League for Nursing’sAcademy of Nursing Education. Academyfellows are nurses who have made “enduringand substantial contributions to nursingeducation”and are expected to “continue toprovide visionary leadership in nursing edu-cation.” Mosley is one of just 19 new fellowsnationwide inducted this year. “They serveas important role models to anyone aspiringto make a difference in nursing education,”says NLN President Cathleen M. Shultz, “andultimately to the delivery of healthcare inthe U.S.”

PrizeWriterTanya Gentry ’09 took first place in theInformal Essay category of an undergradu-ate writing contest associated with thisyear’s Southern Literary Festival, held atthe Mississippi University forWomen inColumbus. The essay, “Jenny’s Café,”originally appeared in the 2009 issue ofApplause, UA Fort Smith’s annual creativearts magazine (which celebrated its twenti-eth anniversary this year). Six Applausestaffers attended the conference andaccepted the award for Gentry. Since 1937,the Festival has been hosted annually bymembers of a broad coalition of Southerncolleges and universities. Read Gentry’sessay atwww.uafortsmithalumni.com/belltower.

Chapter RecordIn July, members of UA Fort Smith’s chapterof Phi Beta Lambda—the national organiza-tion for students preparing for careers inbusiness—received a total of 15 awards atPBL’s National Leadership Conference, lead-ing the state of Arkansas for total numberof awards received by a chapter and settinga school record for number of awards at aPBL national conference. Students compet-ed in disciplines like impromptu speaking,financial services, hospitality management,international business, and accounting.More than 1,700 students attended theconference in Nashville.

Mark ofDistinctionUA Fort Smith’s College of Educationearned high marks from a board of examin-ers sent to campus in April by the NationalCouncil for Accreditation of TeacherEducation. NCATE accreditation—a markof distinction the College has held since2005—indicates that a program has under-gone rigorous external review by profes-sionals and that its students are ready tohandle the demands of the classroom fromday one. That’s no secret to school princi-pals throughout the region, who snap upUA Fort Smith-trained teachers as fast asthe university can produce them.

^

(continued from page 5)

Art Department RetrospectiveIN EARLY OCTOBER, UA FORT SMITH opened its largest-ever exhibit of alumni art, curat-ed by longtime art professorDon Lee and including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture,and design by 25 artistswho studied at UAFort Smith (orWestark) between 1972 and 2006.

Among theworks shown: Junichi,metallic fabric and dye, byArleneWilson ’88, one ofthe firstWestark graduates to go on to a top-tier art school (Rhode Island School ofDesign)andwho later studied under famed textile designer Junichi Arai in Japan; Economy FoldingTable and accompanying oil-on-canvas paintings byKevin Arnold ’99, who alsowent onto the Rhode Island School ofDesign, earning hisMFA in 2010, andwho currently teaches atUAFort Smith as an adjunct facultymember; an untitled pencil sketch by Brad Neely ’97,creator of the web series Baby Cakes and The Professor Brothers, who has consulted ontwo seasons of South Park and is now developing his own animated TV series for Fox;and Fragments in Green, oil and damar on canvas, byMichael Moss ’96,who nowpaintsfull-time in a 100-year-old building in SanAntonio that he plans to open soon as a gallery.

Junichi,Wilson ’88

untitled,Neely ’97Fragments in Green,Moss ’96

Economy Folding Table,Arnold ’99

07_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 4:15 PM Page 7

http://www.uafortsmithalumni.com/

SOMETIME IN THE EARLY 1970s—no one recalls exactly when—state Rep. B.G.Hendrix heard that Strauss Distributors,Inc. in Little Rock was buying a new com-puter, and talked the company into donatingits old punch-card setup toWestark.Hendrix andWestark President Shelby

Breedlove borrowed a pickup and droveto Little Rock, where they were pho-tographed with Strauss’s Jake Barrowbefore hauling the World War II-eramonster back to campus.

The IBM Type 31key punch on the leftin the photo translatedletters and numbersentered via the key-board into patterns ofholes punched in stiffpaper cards. The otherpunch, which nearlyhid Breedlove in the photo, could duplicateexisting cards and punch out pencil marksto create new cards.

A lot has changed since then. Today, viathe new Arkansas Research and EducationOptical Network (ARE-ON), UA Fort Smithboasts data transfer rates of around 10 giga-bits per second. For perspective, thatmeans a typical 5 GB, DVD-quality motionpicture downloads in around four seconds.A new “cloud-based” computing system

incorporates highly redundant virtualservers that are connected via a 10 gigabitnetwork to shared, centrally managed

storage in excess of 30terabytes (about 30 bil-lion kilobytes, or roughly500 million printed pagesworth of information).

New “thin clients”replace bulky PC work-stations across campus.In the cloud model, these“thin” workstations—which use less energy,run cooler, and hold upbetter than PCs—serveprimarily as portals to the“cloud” itself, where datais stored and processed.That means techs nolonger have to visit indi-vidual workstations;

instead, updates—new applications, forexample—can be “cloned out” to hundredsof workstations within a matter of hours.


Grand+Waldron

“It’s right in the middle oftown, but it’s kind of likeyou’re in a different worldwhen you’re there on thegrounds,” says junior Englishmajor Leslie Hassel (secondfrom right) of Rowan Oak,

the 32-acre estate where William Faulkner lived and wrote inOxford, Mississippi.

Getting a firsthand glimpse of that world helped Hassel andother students in a Maymester course called “Faulkner’sMississippi” come to better terms with the author’s famously

challenging work.“Just seeing what he saw when he waswriting,” says Hassel,“made his work come alive.”

Rowan Oak has been preserved exactly as it was inFaulkner’s time—a sort of Graceland of American literature.And although Faulkner would have trouble recognizing muchof Oxford, its old courthouse square remains surprisinglyreminiscent of Jefferson, seat of the fictional YoknapatawphaCounty, where much of Faulkner’s work was set.

MORE ONLINE: Check out the video the class made abouttheir trip to Oxford at www.uafortsmithalumni.com/belltower.

SNAPSHOT

Information Technology, 1970-present

Forty years after B.G. Hendrix andShelby Breedlove (top, left and right)scored a hand-me-down punch-cardsystem for Westark, cutting-edge“thin clients” (above) are replacingPCs across campus.

08_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 12:45 PM Page 8


New ProgramsCome OnlineDemand drives steady addition of

majors, minors, certificates

OVER THE LAST THREE YEARS, UA Fort Smith hasadded bachelor’s programs in theatre, organizationalleadership (a“completer”program forworking adults whohave already completed lower-division courses), studio art,and,most recently, a bachelor’s in media communicationand a technical certificate in diesel technology. Provost RayWallace spoke to us about how programsmake the cut,what else is on the horizon, and the happy coexistence ofstudio art and diesel technology on a single campus.

What we’re looking at: We look to see where there’s anobvious gap in our offerings, where we have enough facultyand enough resources to offer something different that is indemand. There’s a fine line, though. Let’s say we had demandfor a major in philosophy. While in and of itself an importantmajor, it doesn’t really fit with our role, scope, and mission.When we look at a program, what we’re looking at is not onlythe academic rigor and importance of the subject, but also itsmarketability within the community, state, and beyond.

Down the road: In the College of Applied Science andTechnology, there are faculty members working on an anima-tion technology degree. It will be an exciting program, but wewanted to research it fully. With the downturn in the economy,I can’t agree that something go forward until I’m absolutelycertain that it will help our students find work. We’re alsobeginning to look more closely at graduate programs in health-care administration and nursing. Down the road, we’ll be look-ing at graduate education programs.

Smart programs: Completer programs [like the BSOLand the Bachelor of Applied Science] are very smart—smartfor an area and for a state that don’t have as many four-yeardegree recipients as they could. And there’s another way oflooking at it. We’ve got a better chance of graduating, say, aworking 32-year-old with two semesters to go than we do ofgraduating an 18-year-old with four or five years to go. We canhelp that person probably stay in the area, maybe get a promo-tion, and at the same time graduate from us.

A good indicator: The fact that we’re adding programs asdivergent as studio art and diesel technology is a good indica-tor of what we are. We haven’t lost sight of our two-year andour certificate programs, even as we’ve begun to offer morecourses in the sciences and the liberal arts. That’s what a uni-versity should be—a growing, vibrant entity—and that’s whatthis is.

Majors and Minors Added, 2002 – 2010BA Liberal Arts (discontinued 2010)BS Early Childhood EducationBS Accounting (reconfigured as BBA 2009)BS Business Administration (reconfigured as BBA 2009)AFA Associate of Fine Arts (discontinued 2007)BS Information TechnologyAAS IT: Web Development and NetworkingAAS IT: Networking

BSN Nursing (online completer for RNs)BAS Applied ScienceBS Biology w/ Life/Earth Science Teacher LicensureBS Middle Childhood Education: Math and ScienceBS Mathematics: Teacher LicensureBME Music EducationAAS Law Enforcement AdministrationAAS Crime Scene Investigation

BS Chemistry w/ Physical/Earth Science Teacher LicensureAAS Administrative Professional and Office TechnologyBS Imaging Sciences: ManagementBS Imaging Sciences: Diagnostic Medical SonographyBA History/Historical Interpretation (discontinued 2009)BS BiologyBS ChemistryBS English w/ 7-12 Teacher LicensureBS History w/ 7-12 Social Studies Teacher LicensureBS MathematicsAAS Early Childhood Education

AAS Workforce LeadershipBA HistoryBA EnglishBA MusicBA PsychologyBA Rhetoric andWriting

BS Graphic DesignBS Criminal JusticeAAS Criminal JusticeBS Middle Childhood Ed.: English Lang. Arts/Social StudiesBSN NursingBA SpanishBS Spanish w/ 7-12 Teacher Licensure

BS Marketing (reconfigured as BBA 2009)

BA Studio ArtBA TheatreBS Organizational Leadership

Minor Business AdministrationMinor EnglishMinor Creative WritingMinor HistoryMinor MathematicsMinor PsychologyMinor SpanishMinor SpeechBBA AccountingBBA MarketingBBA Business AdministrationMinor Historical InterpretationMinor BiologyMinor ChemistryMinor Criminal JusticeMinor IT-Database TechnologyMinor IT-Web DevelopmentMinor MusicMinor PhilosophyMinor Political ScienceMinor Rhetoric andWritingMinor SociologyMinor Studio ArtMinor Theatre

Minor AnthropologyBA Media CommunicationTC Diesel TechnologyBS Animation Technology (pending)

2002

2003

2004

2005

’07

2008

2009

2010

2006

09r1_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/28/10 11:22 AM Page 9

IN 1987, WHEN IT was completed,today’s Boreham Library was a state-of-the-art facility—29,000 square feet of sound-proofed, humidity-controlled, student-cen-tric real estate complete with spanking-newCD-ROM technology, and, not long after itopened, an automated checkout system to

replace the old manually stamped cards.But things have changed in the interven-

ing 23 years, and UA Fort Smith—now pri-marily a four-year institution with twice thenumber of students it had in 1987—has out-grown its library.

Raising funds to expand the current

library was one of five designated prioritiesof the UA Fort Smith Foundation’s currentcapital campaign, and preliminary planswere unveiled this fall.

Those plans show a roughly 40,000square-foot addition along the south side ofBoreham with what looks like several acresof south-facing glass to flood the stacks andreading areas with natural light. A dramatictower marks the entrance at the southwestcorner, where wide stairs face the ReynoldsBell Tower and the Campus Green.

Impressive as the renderings are, theplans are equally so. They call for increasingtotal seating from 384 to 920, including214 computer stations, and creating spacefor roughly 52,000 new volumes. A 24-hourstudy area and computer lab welcomenight-owls, and an on-site café servescoffee, refreshments, and snacks.

The addition will also house theInnovation and Entrepreneurship ResourceCenter, a complex of high-tech teleconfer-encing spaces, conference rooms, mentoringand instructional rooms, team work rooms,and interactive presentation venues availablefor community use and devoted to advanc-ing economic development in the region—a key part of UA Fort Smith’s mission.


The Next Big StepUA Fort Smith plans major library addition

Grand+Waldron

This isn’t the first time that the institution now known asUA Fort Smith has outgrown a library.

After Fort Smith Junior Collegemoved to Grand andWaldron in 1952, its 6,000-volumecollectionwas crammed into a singlesmall room in the AdministrationBuilding. It wasn’t ideal, but with onlyabout 100 students, it was tolerable.

By the late ’50s, though,with enrollmenttopping 500, the one-room librarywasno longer cutting it, and administratorsstarted planning a new one. Completed in1960, the Holt Library (left) was named tohonor the parents of donorMelanie HoltSpeer, who gave $50,000 toward it.

Holt servedwell for two decades, but by the ’80s it wasfull to burstingwith 40,000 volumes. Its other shortcomings—a cranky ventilation system, echoing tile floors, noisy steelshelving built bywelding students—weremadeworse bythe crowding.

In 1985,Westark’s administration set aside $2.6millionfor a new library (below) that was completed in 1987. It wasnamed several years later, when Roland and Sally Borehamgave $1 million to create an endowment for purchasing booksand equipment.

Remarkably, librarianWilma Cunningham kept the libraryin operation throughout the transition, even asmaintenanceworkers, students, and volunteers trundled tens of thousandsof volumes between the two buildings on dozens of book cartsborrowed from public school libraries.

MA

HG

AR

CH

ITE

CT

UR

E(T

OP

)

Extensive south-facing glass on the planned library additionwill flood the interiorwith natu-ral light. The existing library is visible at far right in this view fromnear the light atWaldronandAlabama.

10_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 12:45 PM Page 10


1Your gut feeling—is there any ivory-billed woodpecker out there?

Yes. We have very clear evidence from theChoctawhatchee River basin in the panhan-dle of Florida. There are huge, circular holesin the trees, and there’s not another creaturein North America that consistently makessuch big, perfectly circular holes. And thebird has been seen again and again by pro-fessors like me. So yes, but the question is,is it a viable population? That’s what weconservationists worry about. Of course,until we get a photo, the skeptics have everyright to keep questioning the existence ofthis bird, re-appearing from the woodsafter 65 years of oblivion.

2You’ve visited some of the planet’smost spectacular landscapes and

ecosystems. What’s the most awe-inspiring place you’ve seen?

My field site in the southern Western Ghats[a mountain range running along India’swest coast] is one of the most spectacularplaces on earth, not only because of the lushrainforest and the landscape—the sheerbeauty of it all—but also the thrill of workingthere in tiger and elephant and king cobracountry. I had many a thrilling encounter

with wildlife, including two close encounterswith tigers. There are also hundreds of tribalvillages there, and they are the most simple,most primitive, most happy, most wonderfulpeople on earth.

3How do we draw the line betweenspecies that are naturally expanding

their ranges and species that are “inva-sive?”

A natural expansion of range is not human-caused. In our global peregrinations, we’veintroduced species that we shouldn’t have.And we are causing climate change—that’sthe consensus among most scientists.Because of that, some species are expandingin their ranges. Unfortunately, they have tobe controlled. Since we know that these arebad things that we shouldn’t do, we shouldat least try to offset the negative conse-quences. We messed with it, so let’s fix it.

4In simple terms, what does “biodi-versity” mean and why does it mat-

ter?

It’s simply the plethora of life out there—notjust the species, but also their interactionsamong themselves and with the planet. Sowhat we’re looking at is an entire picture,

like an intricately woven tapestry. You can’tpull out one thread—“oh, it’s just onespecies, who cares”—and expect the tapestrynot to fall apart.

Why do we have to conserve biodiversi-ty? We are one of those threads. There is nolaw in nature that says what happens to thefrogs, for example, cannot happen to us.Frog species are now becoming extinct inlarge numbers all over the world. We are allsusceptible, and we’d better be careful.

5If you had a group of first-timers youwanted to “hook” on birding, where

in Arkansas would you take them andwhen?

You don’t have to go far to see great birds.Start at the local parks—Tilles, Creekmore,Frog Bayou—in the first week of May. That’swhen hordes of colorful neotropicalmigrants—birds that winter in South andCentral America—are passing by on theirway to the boreal forests of Canada.

I take my students and play a recordingof a painted bunting at Lee Creek near VanBuren. The painted buntings come becausethey think it’s a rival male, and the studentsgo ecstatic. They are stunning birds—arguably the most beautiful in the world.

PASSIONATE CONSERVATIONIST:Dr. Ragupathy KannanWhen the ornithology world was abuzz in 2006 with newsthat an ivory-billed woodpecker—thought extinct for over 60years—had been sighted in the swamps of eastern Arkansas,biology professor and Fulbright scholar Ragupathy Kannanwas part of a team of crack birders hand-picked by Cornellresearchers to wade in after it.

Although the team didn’t turn up the conclusive evidenceit wanted, Kannan reveled in simply being there—paddling

the labyrinthine bayous, slogging through boot-suckingmud, sidestepping cottonmouths, spending whole swelteringdays in tree-blinds, living on trail mix and PB&J.

That enthusiasm for field work—especially in the species-rich tropics—has a way of infecting Kannan’s students, par-ticularly during his popular Maymester field biology coursesin the Caribbean and Central America. “You just show thepassion,” he says, “and they get hooked.”

5Q

KA

TW

ILS

ON

’96

11_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 12:46 PM Page 11


1. Behavioral ecologist: “I had my own lit-tle microscope growing up,” says Dr. AmySkypala, “because I was a nerd.” Whetherthe nerd shoe still fits is up for debate, butshe never strayed far from the microscope,majoring in zoology at Oklahoma, earningher Ph.D. at UNC-Chapel Hill whileresearching parental care in mockingbirds,and then, as a post-doc at Montana Tech in

Butte, slogging through the snow catchingdeer mice potentially infected with deadlyhantavirus.

At UA Fort Smith, where she’s startingher fifth year, Skypala was chosen in Augustby students as one of three “namesakes” forCub Camp, the welcome program for incom-ing freshmen. Namesakes—essentially mas-cots for camp groups—are picked to exem-

plify the characteristics students mostadmire in faculty and staff. High praise foran erstwhile nerd.

2. BIOL 1521:Most students in Anatomyand Physiology I and the co-requisite labcourse are taking them as requirements foradmission to one of the health sciences pro-grams. Most of the rest are biology majorsplanning to go on to medical or pharmacyschool—or taking the course simply forlower-level elective credit. They learn aboutthe structure and function of skeletal, mus-cular, digestive, and reproductive systems aswell as cellular structure and general bodyorganization. Students in A&P II, a directcontinuation of A&P I, also use the lab, as dostudents in Basic A&P, a less in-depth, sin-gle-semester course. So it’s a very busyplace, with classes in session 28 hours aweek during fall 2010.

Sense of Place

MATH-SCIENCE240:the Anatomy and Physiology LabThe roomy, modern A&P Lab was created just last year by knocking out a wallbetween two existing classrooms—the Riley“Pop” Donoho and A. Curtis GoldtrapClassrooms, officially speaking. It’s one of four new labs in the Math-Sciencebuilding opened in response to big enrollment increases for the College of Science,Technology, Engineering and Math—an 8% jump from fall 2008 to fall 2009 andanother 11% in fall 2010.

6

7

2

5

4

12_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 12:46 PM Page 12

3. Torsomodels: They’re not weird orcreepy, even with their gritted teeth and sin-gle, staring eyes. Really. What they are isincredibly expensive—in the neighborhoodof $5,000 apiece. (“I’m totally in the wrongline of work for using my biological knowl-edge,” says Skypala.) Fortunately, the priceincludes three interchangeable genitaliaattachments—female, male, and a Barbiedoll-ish “neuter,” which isn’t the least bitcreepy either. Their makers consider them“unique works of art,” says Skypala, whichpresents a problem, since their many parts—lungs, hearts, digestive tracts, and so on—aren’t necessarily interchangeable.

4. Extremitymodels: “The thing aboutthe legs that can be challenging for stu-dents,” says Skypala, “is that they’re all leftlegs. And the pictures in our book are gener-ally of right legs. I tell them, ‘When you’re a

doctor or a nurse, you don’t get to specializein just one side of the body. Don’t worryabout right and left. Just think medial[toward the middle] and lateral [towardthe sides], and you’ll be okay.’” Curiously,the arms are all rights.

5. Ethel: The university’s only realhuman skeleton, affectionately known asEthel, was originally given to the art depart-ment sometime in the early ’70s by nunsfrom St. Anne’s Academy. Later, the artdepartment gave her (it?) to biological sci-ences. Along the way, says Skypala, “Ethelhas obviously seen some hard times.” She’smissing one lower leg, for instance, and herskull is stored separately. A few years back,a Cherokee student in an A&P lab per-formed a purification ritual on Ethel withsmoke from white sage “smudge sticks”fanned onto the bones with a feather.

6.Microscopes:A&P I begins with his-tology—the study of tissues—which studentsexamine under the lab’s compound micro-scopes. Unlike the microscope Skypalaremembers from her nerd-ish formativeyears, which had an adjustable mirrorfor illumination, these have electric lightsources. “They’re pretty nice,” she says,with maybe just a hint of proprietorship.“I try to remind the students a lot to makesure they handle them correctly and storethem correctly.”

7. Cleaning supplies: There’s no dissec-tion in A&P I lab, but there is in A&P II,where students dissect sheep eyes, brainsand other goodies that are collected whenthe animals are slaughtered and then soldby scientific supply companies that deliverthem in big white buckets. Inevitably, there’ssome splatter. Pass the paper towels, please.


KA

TW

ILS

ON

’96

1

3

13_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 12:46 PM Page 13

IN HIS MID-30s, Tom Fullerton—aschool principal with a wife and four chil-dren—lined up alongside 17- and 18-year-olds and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corpsto help with theWorldWar II effort. In theend, it was only a minor detour from acareer committed to students; the Army senthim to the College of William &Mary, wherehe was trained to teach on troop ships tohelp prepare young soldiers for what they’dencounter abroad.Back home after the war, Fullerton

joined the faculty at Fort Smith JuniorCollege in 1953. He taught socialstudies and coached basketball,and in his second year wasnamed dean of men.By all accounts, Fullerton

was kind and approachable,a lively teacher and a friend-ly colleague, the kind of manwho liked to share a conversa-tion and a smoke. Students’ rec-ollections of Fullerton paint him asgood-humored, offering generous help andforgiving reprimands.In 1956, the editors of the Numa dedicat-

ed the yearbook toFullerton, writing,“For being an out-standing promoter ofeducation when it isthe hope of the world;for the interest hehas shown in eachindividual student;for sponsoring theStudent Board and theFreshman class; forhis willingness to helpthe students in any-thing they undertake;for his easygoingmanner that spreadsa friendly warmth toeveryone; for chaper-oning our parties; weoffer our thanks, oursincere admiration,and this yearbook.”In 1958, Fullerton

succeeded Dr. E. T.Vines as dean of the

college. He would serve as dean until hisdeath in 1965 at the age of 56. In a tribute toFullerton in the 1965 yearbook, his friendPete Howard wrote, “Our dean was a slowman. He talked that way. He moved thatway. He hated his office, but was there everyday. Then you’d see him moving quietlyaround the campus, conversing with stu-dents and teachers … Each of us will remem-ber many things about him. All good.”Just five years after his death, in 1970,

the Fullerton Union, now the FullertonAdministration Building, was named in

his honor. The building replacedthe former student union, an oldbarracks from Fort Chaffee,where Fullerton liked tocheck in with students.Susie Fullerton Smith,

the oldest of Fullerton’s fourchildren, lives in Fort Smithand enjoys meeting locals whoknew her father. “Still today,” she

says, “I run into people who say myfather was the most influential person intheir lives,” she says.—Leslie Yingling

What’s in a Name


TomFullerton (right) in 1964. Six years later,a new student union buildingwas named inhis honor and served as the center of sociallife on campus (above) until 2001,when anew campus centerwas opened and theFullerton buildingwas remodeled to housethe university’s administrative offices.

Fullerton Administration Building

14_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 12:47 PM Page 14

“You alwayshave some

barbedwire with

you … andif you see

somethingthat needs

to be fixed,you stop

and fix it.”

^̂

It’s another good hay year on the 300-acrefarm Rager Moore runs with his brothers-in-law outside Prairie Grove, and the herd is living

easy—grazing on sweet grass, laying up in theoak-shaded glades, cooling off in the ponds, evenenjoying an occasional vocal performance.

“I still sing to ’em every now and then,” saysMoore.“When I was in college and working on thisplace, I’d sing ’em my literature all the time. I’d beon a tractor or in the truck, out here by myself, soI’d practice that way—just singing to the cows.They thought I was nuts.”

No matter how good life gets for cows, though,they never transcend that basic cow compulsion tobreak through fences. So they spend much of theircow free time cruising the perimeter of the farm,a gang of lumbering jailbirds bent on escape.

Keeping them in makes up a big part of Moore’swork on the farm.“You always have some barbedwire with you,” he says,“always have a pair ofgloves, always have a fencing tool, always have afence stretcher, and if you see something thatneeds to be fixed, you stop and fix it.”

At least a couple times a year, the Illinois River—“a living organism,” Moore calls it—undoes much ofthat fencing work, breaking out of its banks androiling over the bottomland, turbid and deadly.

“That’s when you hope your cattle were on thenorth side, on the high ground,” Moore says,“andafter everything dries out, you come back andyou’re fixing fence for a couple of weeks.”

It’s hard, never-finished work, but not withoutits perks. There’s the satisfaction, for instance,of growing and making much of what you need—good, grass-fed beef, sun-ripe vegetables, drinkingwater pumped straight from the spring down thehill, boards and beams milled at a little open-airsawmill on the property, houses and barns raisedby the hands of family and friends.

Beyond that, though, there’s the sense ofalmost-transcendence that comes with gettingso close to a place. Rattling around every day inhis banged-up half-ton Dodge, Moore falls into acertain harmony with this tangled, half-wild bitof land—its weather and seasons and moods, itspossums and deer and ticks and copperheads, wildmint along the field edges and dogwoods in theApril sunlight, rusting relics of other times andother lives turning slowly back to dirt, clear springslittered around with flint tools left by people whocouldn’t have imagined cows, let alone Dodgepickups.“You get out here driving around thefarm,” Moore says,“checking the cows, justreflecting ... it’s a kind of worshipping.”

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITYDr. Rager Moore, Choral Director/Farmer

^

Dr. Rager Moore on the farm.


ZA

CK

TH

OM

AS

15_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 3:15 PM Page 15


At the Top of Their GameComing off a 12-match streak, Lady Lions look dangerousWHEN UA FORT SMITH tennis coach Bob Huckelbury goes recruiting, he probablydoesn’t talk about the fact that the earliest form of the game was devised a thousand yearsago, give or take, by monks as a diversion during overlong religious ceremonies. And it’sdoubtful that any of his players has ever shouted a lusty “tenez!” while serving, as was thestyle in sixteenth-century France.

Though they may be unaware of the strange origins of their sport, or that its name derivesfrom tenez (“take that!” roughly translated from the French), the Lady Lions emerged last sea-son as serious contenders in the Heartland Conference, capping an impressive 19-5 campaignwith a 12-match winning streak.

This season looks even more promising, with six veterans returning at peak performancelevel and rookies Amy Belanger andWhitney Hobson—both ranked among Texas’s top 50singles players under 18—adding depthto the roster. Tenez!

Womack Awards HonorAthletes with Top GradesESTABLISHED IN 2008 by Zero Mountain,Inc. president (andUAFort Smith Foundationboard member) Mark Rumsey, the RebeccaM.Womack Distinguished Athlete Awardsare named for the woman Rumsey calls “hisbrain”: BeckyWomack, vice president andsecretary of the Zero Mountain board ofdirectors since 2001. The annual awards goto the male and female Lion athletes with thehighest GPAs.

A dedicated, humble, and professionalwoman who side-steps center stage herself,Womack is the first to recognize and appre-ciate the qualities of leadership in others.Prior to joining Zero Mountain, she workedin the banking industry and as an assistantto Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts. Shehas also served on the the board of the FortSmith Public Schools Foundation.

The inaugural awards were presentedto golfer Will Fogleman and tennis playerMcKenzie McCullough. Last year’s awardswent to Ethan Adamson and Jena Morrow,both of coach Mark Curlett’s golf team.

The presentation traditionally takesplace on All-Academic Night at theStubblefield Center during basketballseason, when the athletic departmentrecognizes all student-athletes with a 3.0 orhigher. This year’s event is set for Jan. 20.—Liz Snyder

Lions Lowdown UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS - FORT SMITH ATHLETICS

Lady Lions star EmilySingletonwent 24-7last season and inSeptemberwon theWomen’s Open divisionof the Fort SmithAthletic Club’s CityTennis Tournament.

Last year’sWomackAwardswent to golfersJenaMorton and EthanAdamson,withMarkRumsey (left), BeckyWomack (second fromleft) and Dr. Lee Krehbiel, vice chancellor forstudent affairs.

KAT

WIL

SO

N’9

6

Lions Claim NewOnline TerritoryStop by the brand-newwww.uafortsmithlions.com for scores,stats, schedules, analysis, bios, video,photo galleries, polls, andmoreinteractive goodies.While you’re there, sign up to receive scores via textmessage,subscribe to sport-specific RSS feeds, and get the inside line fromADDustin Smithwith the“Ask the Director”feature.

KAT

WIL

SO

N’9

6

16_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 12:48 PM Page 16

http://www.uafortsmithlions.com

FRESHMAN HOOPS STANDOUT andhistory major Blake Branham made a littlehistory of his own last spring when he com-mitted to playing for the Lions. Branham’s

father, Tim, played basketball at Westarkfor legendary coach Gayle Kaundart, andthat makes the pair the university’s firstfather-son athletic dynasty.

For Branham, a nativeof Hackett, the choice ofUA Fort Smith was an easyone. “A lot of it had to dowith staying home, and theother half had to do withdad going here,” Branhamsays. “We had a bunch oftalks about it. After I toldhim I’d like to stay home,he encouraged me to comehere. He said it was a greatplace to go.”

Branham has playedunder his father’s tutelagefor years, includingthroughout his high school

career, where Tim coached Blake’s team. The6-1 point guard credits his father for givinghim the confidence to believe in his abilitieson the court. “One thing my dad taught me,”he says, “is that if you’re good enough, they’llfind you.”

Branham will red-shirt his first year andhopes to see some tournament action in2012, after the Lions transition from provi-sional to full membership in NCAA DivisionII and become eligible for post-season playin the Heartland Conference. “Next year,”says Branham, “if things look pretty good,there could be three more years after that,with hopefully great success.”

And then? Branham admits going prois a goal, but if that doesn’t work out, he’dlike to become a coach—just like his father.—Erica Buneo ’09


Athletic ConnectionsCome summertime, you’d think UA Fort Smith’s coaches and student-athleteswould put their feet up and take it easy for a bit. But you’d bewrong. Instead,they host an extensive series of summer camps for area kids—kindergartnersto high school seniors—in cross country, basketball, baseball, and volleyball.

Hundreds of campers a year not only tune up their running, shooting, hitting,and serving, but also, perhapsmore importantly, have fun, develop self-confidence, and get lots of one-on-one timewith strong, positive rolemodels.

“Our student-athletes and coaching staff are able to connect with theyouth in our community through basketball while developing skills related toboth basketball and life,”saysmen’s basketball coach Josh Newman. Baseballcoach Dale Harpenau puts it more simply: “We look for lots of smiles.”

KA

TW

ILS

ON

’96

High SchoolHighlight

ReelThree-year starter for

Hackett Hornets

18.8 points, 6.5 rebounds,3 steals, 4.5 assists per game

All-Conference, All-State,All-State Tournament

Team honors

Led Hornets to Class 2Astate championship game

VYPE magazine’sTough Guy Award

McDonald’sAll-American nominee

Times-Record All-AreaPlayer of the Year

Red-shirt freshmanBlake Branham and his

father Tim are UAFort Smith’s first father-

son athletic dynasty.

Lion LegacyFreshman point guard following in father’s footsteps

AD

RIA

NN

AC

AR

TE

R

17_UAFS_FW10:G&W 10/27/10 12:48 PM Page 17

“IT’S ATTRIBUTABLE IN PART TO THEfact that we’re such a young university,” saysUA Fort Smith’s Laura Witherington. “Whenwe started to develop these programs, webrought in local school partners in a veryreal way and listened to what they needed.It wasn’t a bunch of academics that had beenhere forever saying, ‘We know what’s bestfor schools.’ The attitude was, ‘We’re goingto prepare the kind of teachers you tell usyou actually need.’”

The “it” she’s talking about is the remark-able achievement record of UA Fort Smith’sCollege of Education and, more specifically,the fact that the 100 to 120 graduates it pro-duces each year are snapped up by areaschools almost before the applause dies downat commencement—and then go on to do allkinds of amazing things in the classroom.

In fact, says Witherington, who heads theWestern Arkansas Education Renewal Zoneheadquartered at UA Fort Smith, the universi-ty is rapidly becoming the major supplier ofteachers in the region. More than 10% of pub-lic school teachers in Sebastian, Crawford,and Scott counties are UA Fort Smith-trained—which doesn’t sound like much untilyou consider the fact that until seven yearsago there was no such thing as a UA FortSmith-trained teacher.

That’s due not just to the involvement ofpublic school partners in the developmentof the programs, but to an ongoing, authenticcollaboration. Public school administratorsand teachers are directly involved in deci-sion-making about curricula, field place-ments, and more via the Teacher EducationCouncil, which meets monthly, and through avariety of other venues for frank, direct com-munication about how the college can betterprepare teachers. The college even goes so faras to carry out yearly “employer satisfactionsurveys” of the school principals who havehired new graduates. Those surveys oftenelicit comments like, “…came into our schoolsystem more prepared than anyone we havehad as a beginning teacher.”


Teacher App18_UAFS_FW10:feature 10/27/10 4:12 PM Page 18


Why local principals love UA

Fort Smith-trained teachers—

and how the University

is changing public

education in the region

Local administrators aren’t the onlyones that like what’s going on, though. Lastyear, the College of Education was namedone of five finalists nationally for theAmerican Association of State Colleges andUniversities’ Christa McAuliffe Award forExcellence in Teacher Education, whichhonors innovative programs that show clearevidence of their graduates’ success improv-ing learning outcomes in the classroom.

Then, early this year, the college wasone of just four institutions in the countryto receive a 2010 Award for OutstandingInstitutional Practice in Student LearningOutcomes from the Council for HigherEducation Accreditation. The award recog-nizes excellence in articulating desired studentoutcomes, tracking progress toward thoseoutcomes, and using the data collected to fur-ther improve the college—in a word, accounta-bility. Unlike the other three winners, UA FortSmith goes a step further, continuing to trackteachers’ performance after graduation.

Finally, in April, the college breezed

AlmaMiddle School’s UAFort Smith-trainedteachers (left to right): SARACRAIG ’07,whoworked as amedical officemanager beforegoing back to school for a bachelor’s inhistorywith teacher licensure and now teach-es 6th and 7th grade special education class-es; ALICIAPEERSON ’08,who teaches 6thand 7th grade language arts; KIMDICKENS’07, 6th and 7th grade social studies;JENNIFERAUSTIN ’08, 7th grade languagearts; DAVIDWILLIAMS ’05, first graduate ofthe biologywith teacher licensure program,whoworked in home improvement for yearsbut“alwayswanted to be a teacher”and nowteaches 8th grade science; JESSEMACY ’08,who actually teaches 10th grade English atthe high school but dropped by themiddleschool to visit; KRISTIN FOGEL IOVINELLI ’09,8th grade science; SAMANTHADOOLEY ’08,8th grademath;MEGANDEAN ’06, 6th gradescience; andAMANDARHODESTEFF ’06,7th grade science.

reciation Text byZACK THOMAS

Photographs byKAT WILSON ’96

19_UAFS_FW10:feature 10/27/10 4:12 PM Page 19

through a rigorous externalreview by the National Councilfor Accreditation of TeacherEducation, which examinedevery aspect of the programsand returned not a single “Areafor Improvement” finding—arare feat among education pro-grams. The NCATE examinersalso found that collaborationbetween the college and schoolpartners was “Target”—itshighest accolade.

Pat Whorton, principal ofAlma Middle School, whichemploys a whole crowd of UAFort Smith-trained teachers,puts it more directly: “Theyput out a good product,”she says.

Degree OptionsSince 2002, whenWestarkbecame UA Fort Smith, the uni-versity has gradually addeddegree programs in the Collegeof Education. The first bache-lor’s degree offered was in EarlyChildhood Education, whichremains a popular major.Candidates like NatashaShoate ’09, who teaches thirdgrade at Cavanaugh Elementaryin Fort Smith, have oftenknown since their own earlychildhoods what they want todo. “They’re so lovable at thatage,” says Shoate, “and I lovewhen I can see their little lightbulbs go off.” It’s something sheapparently sees quite a bit; inher first year, Shoate’s class hadthe school’s highest math scoresfor third-graders on a stateassessment test.

Robert Snyder ’09, on theother hand, is the first graduateof UA Fort Smith’s newestteacher education program, aB.S. in Spanish with teacherlicensure for grades 7-12. It waswhile on a mission to Ciudad


NATASHA SHOATE’09


Juárez, Mexico in 2006 thatSnyder decided to switch hismajor from English. He washired right out of school byHar-Ber High in Springdale,where in his first year hereceived near-perfect scoresin a survey of students.

Candidates that want toteach at the secondary level canalso choose to major in biology,math, chemistry, English, andhistory, all with licensure toteach grades 7-12. Anotheroption is middle childhoodeducation with an emphasis ineither language arts/socialstudies or math/science andlicensure to teach grades 4-8.

Desire and AbilityAmong the things public schooladministrators say they needfrom their teachers is the desire

to work with diverse studentpopulations—along with theability to do so effec-tively. UA Fort Smithprepares students byexposing them to awide variety of fieldexperiences—not justtraditional student teaching.Through placements likeACCESS: DESTINY, an after-school tutoring program, candi-dates work with students of awide variety of ethnicities andsocio-economic groups. “Thatway,” saysWitherington, “theyknowwhat it looks like,they’re comfortable in anysituation, and often theydevelop the desire tohelp those studentsand go to schoolsthey wouldn’t haveotherwise.”


ROBERT SNYDER ’09

JOEY BERRIOS’07


Joey Berrios ’07, a 10thgrade English teacher at FortSmith’s Northside High—whichhas students of more ethnicitiesspeaking more languages thanany other high school in thestate, along with a poverty rateof more then 70%—feels exactlythat desire. “It’s rewarding,” hesays, “to work with studentsfrom difficult family situations,poverty situations, and see thedifference you can make, seethem jump two or three gradelevels in their reading skills.Sometimes students come back,and they’re in college. That’sencouraging, and that’s whyI want to stay at Northside.”Berrios is just one of four UAFort Smith-trained Englishteachers at Northside.

Breaking MoldsInnovation is also key to excel-lent teaching, and James Perry’06 breaks every mold he can.When he went to the advising

office to change his major toearly childhood education, herecalls, his advisor looked athim and said, “You know that’sall women, right?” She wasn’texaggerating; Perry was theonly man out of 60 studentsin the program. Now, atSunnymede Elementary in FortSmith, he runs what he calls“Mr. Perry’s Boot Camp,” ahigh-energy, camo-curtainedclassroom full of third-graderswho never know exactly whatthey’re going to see next butcan’t wait to see it—stuff likethe “Hulk hands” to demon-strate strong verbs. In his firstyear teaching, Perry won theShelby Breedlove OutstandingYoung Educator Award fromthe Fort Smith Jaycees.

And then there’s KellyBisby Peterson ’07, who led asort of academic revolution atFort Smith’s Northside High,implementing a program toincrease the number of highscores on AP (AdvancedPlacement) exams. The effort,funded by a grant from theArkansas Advanced Initiativefor Math and Science, involvesteacher training, weekendtutoring, and a variety of incen-tives, like pizza and door prizesat tutoring sessions.

In English AP courses,where Peterson oversaw pro-gram implementation, enroll-ment roughly quadrupled.“Instead of saying, ‘You cantake AP if you want to, but it’sgoing to be really hard,’”Peterson says, “we were saying,‘Don’t you want to challengeyourself?’” The answer wasyes. “The entire culture of theschool changed within a year,”Peterson says. “It was amazingseeing these kids walking intothat AP test with confidence in


JAMES PERRY’06

KELLY BISBYPETERSON’07


themselves and in what theycould do.”

Peterson, who has sincemoved to Farmington Highwhere she teaches 11th gradeEnglish, now also works as aconsultant for AAIMS, travel-ing the state to help otherschools increase AP enrollmentand scores.

Adapt as NeededVersatility is important too, andthe College of Education worksto train teachers willing andable to adapt the needs of thestudents. Take Amy Newman’06, the first graduate of theEnglish with teacher licensureprogram, who has taught both

English and speech atMountainburg High School andthis year made the transition tospecial education because shehad come to realize that waswhere she could accomplishthe most. Gregarious and …well,loud, Newman has a record ofreaching students that otherscan’t. Recalling how she got acompletely non-verbal 17-year-old to talk for the first time,she says, “I harassed himall the time.” It wasbecause of that experi-ence she decided togo into special edu-cation. “They’regreat kids,” shesays, “and I

know I can pull ’em up.”

Traditional—and NonWhile the majority of the stu-dents in UA Fort Smith’s educa-tion programs enter collegeright after high school, there arealso plenty of nontraditionalstudents mixed in. Newman, forexample, is a former paralegal.And Cordelia Heffner ’07,worked in insurance offices foryears before entering college for

the first time and eventuallyearning her degree in middlelevel math/science education.

Heffner had wanted to be ateacher ever since volunteeringin her daughter’s kindergartenclass almost 20 years ago, but,as a non-native English speaker(she’s German and moved to theU.S. for the first time at 19), shewas scared she wouldn’t be ableto cut it at an American univer-sity. Eventually, a friend whowas attending UA Fort Smith

pushed her through the appli-cation process.

Ironically, many of Heffner’sstudents at Darby Junior High,where she’s one of two 7thgrade math teachers, face thesame challenges she did—learn-ing in a non-native language.“I have students in my mathclass who don’t speak a wordof English,” says Heffner, whois now working on her master’sin the teaching of English as

a second language, “but Ihave to teach them some-how.” She’s doing prettywell at it, too. When shestarted, 38% of 7th-graders

scored “Proficient” or“Advanced” on math assess-ments. Now, around 70% do.

The region’s schools maysee results like that more oftenin the coming years; enrollmentin the College of Education isup 6.3% over last year,with more than1,100 declaredmajors.

CORDELIAHEFFNER ’07

AMY NEWMAN ’06

ELL TOWER 23



By the time of his tragic death at 27, Pierce McKennon ’39—fearless ace,

Ridge Runner III, the last of Capt. Pierce McKennon’sfamous P-51D Mustangs, carried German crosses repre-senting 20 enemy aircraft destroyed. A pair of parachutemarkings indicated he had survived two downings.

24_UAFS_FW10:feature2 10/27/10 12:22 PM Page 24

THEY WERE THE “SCOURGE OF THE HUN,”the 4th Fighter Group out of Debden, England,responsible for the destruction of more than a thou-sand Nazi planes by the close ofWorldWar II, 20 ofwhich were the handiwork of one man, an erstwhilepugilist and blazing pianist from Fort Smith namedPierce “Mac” McKennon. After the Nazis fell, hecame home a genuine war hero jingling withmedals, miraculous survivor of two downings overenemy territory, and married his sweetheart, thefirst-ever Miss Fort Smith. It was a life that seemedtoo glorious to be real, and in the end it proved tobe exactly that—or at least too glorious to last.

‘Kind of a rebel’Inside the coffee lounge of the Fort Smith PublicLibrary, Pierce McKennon’s only child, a son whois now 62, sifts through a pile of curled photos.He strains to call forth a cogent thesis of the fatherhe never knew.

“I remember reading all his flight logs, but there’sa lot of piecesmissing,” he says. “Flying is, um, it canbe an intoxicating thing.When you’re up there, allthe stuff that’s down here is down here. I guess that’sthe way he felt, and that was probably why hebecame a flight instructor. He could havemade acareer inmusic, I’m sure, but he was kind of a rebel.”

The third and last son of a dentist and a home-maker, McKennon was supposed to be a concertpianist, not a fighter pilot. He was so precocious onthe keys that he was playing dances before he couldC

OU

RT

ES

YO

FF

OR

TS

MIT

HA

IRM

US

EU

M

blazing pianist, dashing beau—had already lived more than a life’s worth.


by B O B B Y A M P E Z Z A N

TooGlorioustoLastTooGlorious

toLast


date, but his talents and tastes ran a different direction than hismother, Inez, hoped. “He was a ‘free spirit’ and loved a party,”recalled Lt. Col. Frank Hessey, U.S. Air Force (ret.), in a letter to theSouthwest Times Record five decades after McKennon’s death. “[He]had an upright piano in his room and played it very well—mostly‘whorehouse’ style.”His taste in music wasn’t the only departure from his parents’

notions. When, as a senior at St. Anne’s Academy in 1937, McKennonwon the Civilian Military Training Corps’ boxing championship inhis weight class, he kept it from Inez. She thought, after all, that he’dbeen on a church trip to Little Rock.“I know a lot about Pierce I wouldn’t want to tell,” said a lifelong

friend, A.W. “Bill” Callan, in an interview with J.C. Hoffman for anunpublished paper. “He was supposed to be a girl, at least in hismom’s thoughts. She dressed him like a sissy when he went to theCatholic school. He rebelled at that.”Before the war, McKennon did follow amusic

scholarship to the University of Arkansas, buthe droppedmusic in his first semester thendropped out altogether at year’s end. Hemovedhome and in the fall of 1938 enrolled in FortSmith Junior College, where he was presidentof the a capella choir and an intramural athlete.

‘Keen to be operational’In 1940, McKennon joined the U.S. Army AirCorps as a “flying cadet.” He was listed at aneven six feet, and underWhat special mili-tary qualifications or occupation have you?responded, “None.” His check pilot agreed;after just a few weeks of training he

“washed out” of the Air Corps. But the 20-year-old wasn’t going togive up on flying that easily. He ran straight up to Canada and enlist-ed with the Royal Canadian Air Force, where they were mobilized forwar and thus somewhat less capricious in their evaluation of pilots.Flight trainingwent better this time, butMac’s wild streak

remained. Onweekends, he escaped the air base inWindsor, Ontario,to play the nightclubs in theMotor City, just across the Detroit River.He brought boogie-woogie to the revelers—“SlowTrain throughArkansas,” or “That Hypothetical, Theoretical Son-of-a-BitchColombo”—and they lapped it up.McKennon could have earned $100 aweek playing the club circuit, a friendwrote his mother after his death.Shortly after the Army Air Corps mobilized in 1942, McKennon

was commissioned—essentially transferring from the Canadian AirForce to the American. His discharge papers from the RCAF includ-ed just two demerits, one back in Canada for flying under the NiagaraBridge for sport, and this simple assessment: “Pilot. Above Average.He is very keen to be operational,” and very soon he was.Between 1942 and early 1944 he scored four aerial kills flying

P-47 Thunderbolts with the 4th Fighter Group. In February of 1944,though, the 4th transitioned to the hot new P-51Mustang, which suitedMcKennon perfectly. His, christened Ridge Runner, was (along withtwo replacements) to become one of the best-known planes of the war.

OnMarch 6, his 335th Squadron hitBerlin in an affair he called “the biggestshow I’ve ever seen.” McKennon’s fifthkill came that day, making him a bonafide flying ace. Hermann Goering wouldlater say he knew his Luftwaffe had lostwhen he saw the red noses of the P-51sover Berlin.

‘Wow, who’s that guy?’The spoils of valor would never be so sweetas when McKennon rotated stateside for abrief furlough in the summer of 1944. Hewas asked to give interviews to all the papersand speeches at civic club luncheons. ButMcKennon really preferred to keep the

On the ground atDebden, McKennonpounded out boogie-woogie and blueslate into the night. Hewas later describedas “a one-manmorale section.”

At Fort Smith Junior College, McKennonwas a popular athlete (above right, in letterjacket). The first time he was shot down,the French resistance smuggled him backto England with forged papers that identi-fied him as a cheese maker named Max.

He had survived 200-plus combat sorties, a


IDE

NT

IFIC

AT

ION

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

AR

KA

NS

AS

AIR

MU

SE

UM



company of the daughter of a friend of the family’s, Beulah Irene“Bootsie” Sawyer, and, less enthusiastically, her sometime boyfriendBob Rebsaman, himself recently discharged from the Army.“You gotta admit he was a good looking dude,” Bootsie said

recently. “He would stand in front of the phone company waiting forme to get off my shift, and [the other ladies] would say, ‘Wow, who’sthat guy?’ Well, that’s how we felt, both of us, about each other.”It’s hard to imagine a more toothsome suitor. McKennon was

tall and trim with a fighter’s chin and a great coif of dark hair. Hisglance was open and brooding at once, like OrsonWelles’, and whenhis fingers hit the keys women and men too boogied for him. Aboveall, he was an air ace, a real war hero who “never fell in love withhimself,” she says.

‘More nerve than I ever had’Just days after his return to action, a captain now and the command-er of the 335th but perhaps a bit unfrosted by the Arkansas sun,McKennon was brought down by flak on a strafing run overNeuweiler, France. His plane exploded, but McKennon parachutedsafely into a plowed field.A French farmer directed him to a local member of the French

resistance, and by the time the headline “McKennon IsMissing OverFrance,” ran in the Fort Smith paper, the ace was already stowed awayin the attic of an elderly school teacher, with a freshly forged photo IDin his pocket. He even assisted the resistance with sabotage missionsat night, earning another distinction to go with his DistinguishedFlying Cross and AirMedal—the French Croix de Guerre.Smuggled back to England by the resistance and back in command

of his squadron, McKennon wrote his mother in late September, “Ithought being shot down would break my nerves and I wouldn’t everbe any good for combat flying anymore. But it did the very opposite.I feel better and have more nerve than I ever had. Personally, I don’tthink my nerves will ever break—they are too good for that.”

‘You damn fool!’In the spring and summer of 1944, as the airwar heated up, McKennon kept tallyingvictories in the P-51, destroying six enemyplanes in the air and at least two on theground in a period of less than a month fromlate March to mid-April.In his free hours, he continued to bring the

boogie to the boys, which at times was nearly ashazardous as flying, as in a medical report datedNov. 2, 1944: “Laceration, perforation, 1-1/2 inch inlength to the naso-buccal area, incurred when a knife thrown at atarget rebounded at patient’s face ... Officer’s Mess ... 2300 hours.”In March 1945 near Berlin, McKennon was brought down by flak

a second time and again parachuted to safety. This time, he was res-cued by his wing man, Lt. George Green, who landed his ownMustang in a field, strictly against protocol. “You damn fool,”McKennon hollered, “what do you think you’re doing?” The twoditched their parachutes to make more room, wedged themselves

into the one-seat cockpit, and flew 600 milesback to Debden, passing a single oxygenmask between them.OnMcKennon’s very last mission, April

16, 1945, an artillery shell obliterated hisinstrumentation panel, but he got back toDebden. Fine metal fragments had damagedthe cornea of his right eye, but, incrediblyhis vision was back to 20/20 within a year.He had survived 200-plus combat sorties,annihilating 20 aircraft—12 in dogfights—and damaging another nine.

‘It was time to go’OnMay 13, 1946, en route to a new billet asa flight instructor in Arizona, he marriedSawyer in Fort Smith in the First ChristianChurch across from the telephone company.“It is a good thing we married when we did,considering what happened,” she told J.C.Hoffman in a 1996 interview. “Look whatwe could have lost.”The “what” could have been their brief

period of marital bliss, or she might havemeant the unborn boy she had been carry-ing with her for two months when on June18, 1947, the 27-year-old ace was run intothe ground by one of his own students.“Compared to flying Mustangs in com-

bat, or flying jets in Arizona, instructingstudents was like the strafing missions. Noamount of skill could save you from some situations,” wrote C.

Michael Irvin, an Arkansas aviation histori-an and pilot who himself rolled his planeinto the ground at age 31.Mrs. Pierce McKennon gave birth to a

healthy baby boy at the end of the year andnamed him after his father. Four years later, shemarried her earlier crush, Bob Rebsaman,and upon his request, agreed to change theboy’s surname. She could not, however,honor her new husband’s full request; heroldest son would keep the name Pierce.

“I believe in reincarnation, and a dynamic personlike that? He’s already off and doing something else,” says PierceRebsaman. “He was a take-charge, go-after-it kind of person ... afteraccomplishing what he came to accomplish, it was time to go.”

Except where noted, information for this story was gathered largelyfrom James J. Hudson’s “Major Pierce McKennon: Arkansas’ ‘BoogieWoogie’ Playing Air Ace,” published in the Spring 1964 issue ofArkansasHistorical Quarterly.

annihilating 20 aircraft—12 in dogfights—and damaging another nine.

CL

IPP

ING

,M

ED

AL

SC

OU

RT

ES

YO

FF

OR

TS

MIT

HA

IRM

US

EU

M

27r1_UAFS_FW10:feature2 10/28/10 12:49 PM Page 27

1940sWanda Rogers Foster ’48and Jim Foster recently celebrat-

ed their 60th wedding anniver-

sary. Foster was clerk/registrar

at Fort Smith Junior College for

the year after she graduated

and later served for 27 years as

an administrative officer with

the U.S. Marshals Service in the

Western District of Arkansas.

1950sJimmie ’58 and BillieHegmannMcGee ’58weremarried shortly after graduating

from Fort Smith Junior College

and eventually ended up in

Cincinnati. Billie retired from Rilco

Inc., where she spent 25 years in

sales and accounts payable posi-

tions. Jim retired from Cincinnati

Gas and Electric Co., where he

worked in information technolo-

gy. They have two children and

four grandchildren.

1970sCharles R. Preston ’72 isSenior Curator at the Buffalo

Bill Historical Center in Cody,

Wyo., and Founding Curator of

its Draper Museum of Natural

History. Previously, Preston

served as Chairmain of the

Department of Zoology at the

Denver Museum of Natural

History. He has authored four

books and more than 70 articles

dealing with wildlife behavior and

ecology, human dimensions of

wildlife management, and the

role of working scientists as pub-

lic educators and interpreters.

Doris Christopher ’74has served since 2007 as Chief

Administrative Officer for the

Center for Graduate and

Professional Learning at Georgia

College and State University.

Along the way, Christopher

taught full-time at Westark from

1981 to 1990. From 1990 to 2007,

she was at Cal State Los Angeles,

where she was a professor,

department chair, and associate

dean.

Winifred Howe Gover ’75celebrated her 97th birthday in

July. She resides at Cardigan

Nursing Home in Scituate, Mass.

1980sMary Burger ’85was honoredin May as Nurse of the Year by

St. Vincent Health System of

Little Rock.


Alumni+GivingWHAT’S NEWWITHYOU?Let us—and the people you went to school with—know what you’ve

been up to! Please take five minutes to sit down and tell us what you’ve

been up to since your time at UA Fort Smith, Westark, or FSJC. Tell us

about your job, your family, your hobbies, your adventures, your plans—

whatever you want to share with other alumni. We love to get photos

too, and we’ll happily run them in this section.

Be sure to include your name (and your name while you were in

school if it has changed since then) and the year you graduated or the

years you attended. Email your class note to [email protected] mail it to Alumni Office, UA Fort Smith, P.O. Box 3649, FortSmith, AR 72913.

A Very Special Institution

Greetings fromyour newAlumniDirector! Originally

fromNorth Carolina, Ihave lived in Arkansasandworked in the alumnirelations field for the pastseven years. My previouswork has focused ondeveloping studentprograms, providingregional programmingfor alumni, and directingconstituent alumni groups.I look forward to furtherstrengthening the AlumniAssociation here at UA Fort Smith.

I have now been on campus for sevenweeks—enoughtime to get acclimated to the UA Fort Smith environment—and it has been a pleasure to experience Lion culture. I hadthe opportunity towelcome the incoming class of 2014and to see the Campus Green transformedwhen themumswere planted.

I also arrived in time to facilitate our inaugural AlumniWeekend, duringwhich I enjoyed thewarm hospitality of thealumni and guests, some ofwhom live locally and somewhotraveled great distances to return to campus.

I am continually impressed by the talents of our alumniand students. Earlier this month I attended an art exhibitionfeaturing some amazing pieces of alumni work (one ofwhichcame from theMuseum ofModern Art in NewYork). On thesame night I enjoyed a student performance of the playImogen. And it seems that nearly everyweek there’s amusical performance on campus.

All of these talents are treasures thatmake UA FortSmith a very special institution, but the best treasure of allis you—our alumni. I am proud to call UA Fort Smith homeand look forward to serving as yourAlumni Director.

Sincerely,

ELIZABETH S. UNDERWOODDirector ofAlumni Affairs

KATWILSON’96

28_UAFS_FW10:alum news 10/27/10 12:32 PM Page 28



WWW.UAFORTSMITHALUMNI.COM

Lisa Beattie Evans ’86was married in May. She has five

daughters and three grandchil-

dren and works in the house-

keeping department at Sparks

Regional Medical Center.

Juanita Elliot Nave ’88lives in Elizabethton, Tenn., where

she’s working on her master’s in

healthcare management.

2000sQiana ClementsMcGhee ’04was recently promoted to Branch

Manager of Arvest Bank’s Zero

Street location in Fort Smith. She

has been with Arvest more than

eight years and also serves on

the board of the Single Parent

Scholarship Fund of Crawford

and Sebastian Counties.

Kevin Farrell ’06was hiredin October as Coordinator of

Student Activities, Major Events,

and Student Leadership at

Emmanuel College in Boston.

Previously, Farrell had served as

Assistant Director for Student

Access, Transition, and Success

Programs at Purdue.

Maureen LevyAustin ‘06is a teacher at Bonneville

Elementary in Fort Smith. She

has also taught for Polk and

Osceola County schools in

Florida. In July 2009, Austin

presented at the National

Kindergarten Conference in

Las Vegas and currently serves

as a mentor to practicum

students majoring in education

at UA Fort Smith.

Joseph ’08 and SarahBlackford Kilbreth ’08marriedshortly after graduation and cur-

rently live in Wahiawa, Hawaii, on

the island of Oahu, where Joseph

serves in the Army.

When RandyWewers ’58 began trying toreconnect with his alma mater 20 years ago, he

had one simple reason: he wanted to do some-

thing to recognize a professor he’d had by the

name ofMiss Lucille Speakman. But he wasn’tsure exactly what; she wouldn’t have cared much,

he knew, about having a building or a fountain

named after her.

But, as he became more deeply involved

with the University—stopping by frequently while

visiting family in Fort Smith from his home in

Georgia—an idea started to percolate. What

if he could do something to perpetuate Miss

Speakman’s legacy of great classroom teaching—

the vivid, evocative lectures;

the devotion to her students’

success; the clear-eyed

fascination with her world

that generations of alumni

still talk about?

With time, that idea

evolved into the Lucille

Speakman Legacy

Endowment—a fund to help

current UA Fort Smith faculty

members do the same kinds

of things that made Speakman

so admired. Full-time and

adjunct faculty will be able

to apply for grants for self-

guided travel, international

study, curricula development,

and research—all

with the specific

goal of improving

their classroom

teaching.

Wewers is

leading an effort

to raise $100,000

to establish the

endowment,

which, he empha-

sizes, is intended

to honor not just

Speakman, but all

of the professors who have similarly distinguished

themselves in the eyes of those whose opinions

matter most—their students. Alumni can make

gifts in the name of any faculty member, past or

present. A plaque placed on campus—a sort of

“faculty hall of fame”—will bear their names.

Alumni can expect a note and more details

fromWewers in November. If you’re interested in

getting involved sooner, though, call Development

Officer Anne Thomas at (479) 788-7033.

ALUMNUS SEEKSTO PERPETUATESPEAKMAN’S LEGACY

RandyWewers ’58

Lucille Speakman in 1963.That year, theNuma editorsdedicated the yearbook toher, recognizing her“untiringeffort, dignity, integrity, andscholarship.”

KATWILSON’96


LION FILE


‘Interest and Enthusiasm’

It isn’t easy to find a registrarwhowill teachbowling, sponsor the cheerleading squad, andplan orientation and graduation. But in 1960, UAFort Smith (then Fort Smith Junior College)found it all inMardell ChristelloMcClurkin ’58,who returned to campus towork full-time—andthen some.

In the registrar’s office, transcripts wererolled into the typewriter and each GPAwasmanuallycalculated. Therewere“lots and lots of filing cabinets,”McClurkin says, full of hand-typed records dating to the startof the college.

They oftenworked until 2 a.m., she says, evenwhen thecampuswas running on tuition payments and donations andpaydaymight be twomonths away.

“Therewere very hard-working, dedicated people,”shesays.“It was like a big family. I’ll be forever grateful to FortSmith business people for the generous support that keptit going. They dug deep and contributed—and the averageperson did, too.”

McClurkin says she“just tried to be industrious,”whichis probably how she ended up driving a stationwagon fullof cheerleaders to each ball game and going back to schoolso that the college could offerwomen’s physical education.In the Registrar’s office, she set up a card table with a bigjigsaw puzzle, her friendly version of“take a number.”

She always admired the hardwork and communitysupport that helped the college grow, but, she says,“neverwould have expected the school to bewhere it is today.”

McClurkin left the college after shemarried in 1967 butstayed busywith family, teaching, church, and volunteerwork.“I’m thankful for interest and enthusiasm,”she says.“You can find time to dowhat youwant to do—otherwiseit’s a chore.”—Leslie Yingling

ZACKTHOMAS

Alumni+Giving

DRIVING DISCUSSIONUA Fort Smith grads staff new political mag

When Luke Hobbs ’09 graduat-

ed from UA Fort Smith’s rhetoric

and writing program, he envi-

sioned a life ahead as a freelance

writer. But within a year his name

would be at the top of the mast-

head of Progressive Arkansas, a

free monthly that strives to take

a nonpartisan look at government

and politics in the

Natural State.

Hobbs was working

part-time in Fort Smith

when the magazine’s

publishers approached

him to serve as editor.

He nowmanages a staff

of four writers, all of

whom are also UA Fort

Smith graduates or stu-

dents—Richard Eby ’10,Ashley Eubanks ’10, TonyaLoftin-Gentry ’09, and studentMaria Fox. Lana Loukota ’09is assistant editor.

“We’re proud that our writers

have all come out of the writing

and rhetoric program,”Hobbs

says. “There are some really good

writing professors [at the univer-

sity] who I think have done a very

good job at preparing us for this

sort of thing.”

Currently Progressive Arkansas

is distributed throughout the

River Valley and parts of

Northwest Arkansas, but Hobbs

hopes to grow it into the state’s

premier political news source

and expand circulation statewide.

In addition to the print

magazine, Progressive Arkansas

maintains a web presence at

www.progressivearkansas.com

with an online newsroom that

Hobbs updates daily. The maga-

zine has also sponsored debates

and other events in the commu-

nity that focus on helping voters

to become better educated

about the issues facing them.

“As long as people are getting

good, accurate information,

that’s where we see our role,”

Hobbs says. “We want to provide

facts that will help drive discus-

sion.” —Erica Buneo ’09

Mardell ChristelloMcClurkin ’58 at theWest Central Center

onAging in FortSmith,where she

serves on the board, inSeptember 2010, and

as FSJC registrar


http://www.progressivearkansas.com


LION FILE

In 2006,Mike DeSanto ’08 lost his job at Whirlpool after ayear and a half of work on the production line. What didn’t looklike a happy ending became “the best thing that could havehappened”when his layoff—the result of labor outsourcing—made him eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance, a federalprogram that helps trade-affected workers who have lost theirjobs as a result of increased imports or shifts in productionout of the U.S.

The program helped him and hisfamily get by while he earned his B.S. ininformation technology at UA Fort Smith.It was his third stab at college—he hadattended two other schools before “lifehappened” and he went to work—andbecause of the progress he’d already made,he was able to complete his degree in thetwo years of support that the TAA programprovides. He finished with a 4.0 and aposition on the dean’s list.

DeSanto gained skills and experiencequickly. After only one programming class,he was an easy pick for the programmingteam.“It gave me my first real exposureto programming under pressure,” he says,“and it got my name out there.”

In early 2008, just as he was thinkingabout internship opportunities, a positionopened at Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Corp.,

where he earned a job and climbed the ladder quickly. Heworks as a lead systems analyst, managing programmingprojects and supervising the GIS team.

“I’ve done my best with whatever they’ve given me to do,and the job and every promotion found me,” DeSanto says ofhis work at AOG. It’s amazing to compare that to what he wasdoing before opportunity knocked at UA Fort Smith, he says.“Doors have just opened.” —Leslie Yingling

WWW.UAFORTSMITHALUMNI.COM

Mike DeSanto ’08 at theAOG business office in Fort Smith, September 2010

Alumni Weekend 2010UAFort Smith’s first-everAlumniWeekend, Oct. 15-17, gave theinstitution a chance to do a littleshowing off for folkswhomight nothave been back to campus for yearsor even decades. Fortunately,MotherNature seemed in themood to showoff too, serving up one of those per-fect RiverValley autumn evenings asguests visited over hors d’oeuvresSaturday on the patio in front ofFullerton.MOREONLINE: SeetheAlumniWeekend slideshowatwww.uafortsmithalumni.com/belltower.

‘The Best Thing that Could Have Happened’

ZA

CK

TH

OM

AS

ZA

CK

TH

OM

AS


http://www.uafortsmithalumni.com/


Alumni+Giving

LION FILE

‘What Coaches Do’Fred Davis III ’70 is a true team player, the kind who uses “we”morethan“I.”He got plenty of practice playing basketball at UA Fort Smith(thenWestark) before beginning a decades-long career in coaching and school administration.Davis is now principal of John B. Hood Middle School, the second-largest middle school in Dallas.

Athletics was a likely springboard, he says, because“as a player and a coach, you’re competi-tive and team-oriented, and you know how to work toward goals.”

When he took over at John B. Hood, his goal was to improve what he calls “a neglected school.”His first step was to secure the campus and the school’s best teachers. The school serves adiverse and growing population of students in a crime-ridden area amidst turnover and transition,but, he says, “we’ve built a strong foundation for a good educational environment, and we’vemade steady gains.”

Under Davis’s leadership, students’math and science scores have nearly doubled over thepast five years. Last year, the school moved to a block schedule to maximize classroom time andimpact. “It was our best year yet,”Davis says.

He credits his colleagues—“great people who have worked hard through difficult times”—andcompares himself to a turtle on a fencepost. “You know that turtle didn’t get there by himself,”Davis says.

“The teachers teach,”he says.“My job is simply to set attainable goals and to createmomentumtoward them. That’s what coaches do.”

From high school student body president to college ball player, and high school coach tomiddle school principal, “leadership is all I’ve ever known,”Davis says. “It’s about identifying talent,working with potential, earning trust, building relationships, and motivating people. If you walkand no one follows you, you’re just taking a walk.”—Leslie Yingling

Fred Davis III ’70 atan alumni reception inDallas, February 2010,

and on the court atWestark, 1970

CHECKOUTOURNEWMOBILEAPP

Update your informa-

tion, keep an eye on

our alumni event

calendar, and create

a customized alumni news feed

with the brand-new Alumni

Association mobile app. New

grads will also find tons of useful

(and funny) real-world advice

about work, money, taxes, real

estate, and other fun stuff.

Always over-dress for the first

day of work, for example, and

wait to buy most of your work

clothes until after you see how

everybody else dresses. The

name of the app, which should

be available mid-November, is

UA Fort Smith.

CLICKHERE!Thinking about giving to UA Fort

Smith but not sure what your

options are? Wonder what the

Giving Opportunity campaign is

all about? Want to meet fellow

donors, or see how your gifts

impact the University? Curious

what exactly it is the Foundation

does? Visit the brand-new site

www.uafortsmithfoundation.org for answers to those ques-

tions and lots more.

ZA

CK

TH

OM

AS

32r1_UAFS_FW10:alum news 10/28/10 11:23 AM Page 32

http://www.uafortsmithfoundation

KA

TW

ILS

ON

’96

STILL LIFE—For almost170 years—from 1836 to2005—the Drennen-Scotthouse in Van Buren wascontinuously occupied by asingle family, descendantsof John Drennen, the town’sfounding father.

Had the house everchanged hands it would like-ly have been emptied out, itscontents divided up, sold off,discarded. Instead, for 17decades, history accumulatedliterally layer upon layer.

When UA Fort Smithpurchased the house in2005, the Historic ArkansasMuseum acquired its mostvaluable contents—furniture,art, silver. But the things leftbehind are just as fascinatingfor the stories they tell, themysteries they suggest.

For this image, universityphotographer Kat Wilsonretrieved a tiny fraction ofthe collection from storage—a little boy’s ornate velvetsuit, World War IItrophies, a carven-handledparasol, charcoal drawingsof family dogs, tattered mapsof an earlier Arkansas.

Watch for a feature on theDrennen-Scott house—whichthe University will open as amuseum in the spring—in afuture issue of Bell Tower.

C3r1_UAFS_FW10:alum news 10/28/10 11:23 AM Page C3

IN WHAT PASSED FOR the “regular season”of 1931, the Fort Smith Junior College football teamwent 1-5, scoring 39 points to their opponents’ 89.It was only their second season, but, frankly, thingsweren’t looking much better than they had the firstseason, when the Lions had been outscored 85-43on the way to a 1-4 record.

Somehow, though, despite their losing record,the FSJC gridmen—as the 1932 Numa yearbookcalled them—ended up playing Little Rock JuniorCollege at the end of the season for the ArkansasJunior College Championship. It appears therejust wasn’t much competition; Little Rock andEl Dorado are the only Arkansas junior collegesthe Lions played in their three seasons.

In the showdown with Little Rock, according to

the Numa, “The two elevens were evenly matchedthe greater part of the game, although the mudbothered both.” In the fourth quarter, though, theLions drove 80 yards for the only touchdown ofthe game and the championship.

The following season—and the last for theLions—things started to look up. With the help of afreshman kicker/receiver named Clair Bates, theywent 2-2-2 and shut out Little Rock for the thirdseason in a row. It was hardly a football dynasty,but a championship is a championship.Any particular games, seasons, athletes, or

teams you remember from your time on campus?We’d love to hear your recollections! Drop us aline at [email protected] orBell TowerMagazine, P.O. Box 3649, Fort Smith, AR 72913.

NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDUNIVERSITY OFARKANSAS -FORT SMITH

Bell TowerUA Fort Smith Alumni AssociationP.O. Box 3649Fort Smith, AR 72913

A Look Back

C4r1_UAFS_FW10:covers 1&4 10/28/10 12:47 PM Page C4


bell tower, fall 2010

Documents

student alumni association

alumni travel program

numa lion rifles alumni

pm page c2in

toc letters

library plans

director of alumniaffairs

witha number