Hendrix Magazine - 2011 Fall

The Hendrix College Magazine Fall 2011 Volume 24, Number 1 Chief Communications Officer Frank Cox ’76 cox@hendrix.edu Editor Helen Plotkin plotkin@hendrix.edu Associate Editor Rob O’Connor ’95 Art Director/Designer Joshua Daugherty Alumnotes Editor/Designer Courtney Johnson ’12 Assistant Editor Natalie Atkins Staff Photographers Joshua Daugherty Courtney Johnson ’12 Hendrix Magazine is published by Hendrix College, 1600 Washington Avenue, Conway, Arkansas 720323080. This magazine is published for Hendrix College alumni, parents of students and friends. Permission is granted to reprint material from this magazine provided credit is given and a copy of the reprinted material is sent to the Editor.

Postmaster, please send form 3579 to Office of Marketing Communications, Hendrix College, 1600 Washington Ave., Conway, AR 72032-3080 501-505-2932 Fax 501-450-4553 Alumnotes submission deadlines: Spring Issue: Feb. 1 Fall Issue: Sept. 1

32 Top Cop Photo by Joshua Daugherty

honor roll of donors

Printed on paper containing 10% post-consumer recycled content with inks containing agri-based oils.

Please Recycle.

The faithful support of alumni, parents, friends and United Methodists ensures that Hendrix can continue to fulfill its mission of changing the lives of those who can change the world. With gratitude for their support, we list the names of those whose generous gifts were received during the fiscal year that ended on May 31, 2011, in the Honor Roll of Donors, which begins on Page 49.

cover story

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U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin ’90 shares how Hendrix prepared him for his political career. Hendrix College has historically prepared students to become leaders in their community and in the world. In this issue of Hendrix Magazine, we celebrate this tradition by looking at current students and alumni who have pursued public service in a variety of ways, from elected office and nonprofit leadership to legal service and law enforcement.

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Lighting the Way

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Service-Minded Students

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Community-Minded Alumni

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Saluting the Generals

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Bridge Builder

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Civil Servants

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Elected Officials

Sociology professor Dr. Lisa Leitz encourages students to make a difference

Stephanie Oshrin ’12 and Hannah Hudspeth ’12 want to make a difference

Hendrix grads give back through activism, advocacy and nonprofit leadership

Several Hendrix alumni serve the state in the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office

Buddy Villines ’69 has built a legacy of linking communities through trails along the Arkansas River

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Alumni News Alumni Voices Alumnotes At Home at Hendrix Campus News Faculty News

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Hendrix Through Time In Memoriam Marriages New Children President’s Message The Village at Hendrix

Tom Carpenter ’74 represents the capital city; Didi Sallings ’83 fights capital punishment

Robert Thompson ’93 and Linda Pondexter Chesterfield ’69 bring Hendrix experience to General Assembly

a message from the president

It’s déjà vu all over again For the third year in a row, Hendrix is first on a list of the nation’s most innovative liberal arts colleges prepared by U.S. News & World Report as part of its America’s Best Colleges website. A survey of college administrators determines who is on the “The 2012 Up-and-Comers” list.

Presidents, provosts and admissions deans were asked to nominate institutions they think have “made the most promising and innovative changes in the areas of academics, faculty, student life, campus, or facilities.” U.S. News also placed Hendrix at No. 12 on a list of national liberal arts colleges “where the faculty has an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.”

We appear on these lists because people across the country are talking about Hendrix and Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning. Other college presidents tell me they are amazed that we were able get faculty support for the Odyssey program and to launch it so quickly – less than two years from concept to program launch. I explain to them that Odyssey was here all along; Hendrix faculty and students have long worked together in close mentoring relationships and handson learning experiences have been available for students who chose to pursue them. What we did quickly was give our emphasis on engaged learning a name, clearly articulate our goals for Odyssey, and find generous, committed donors to build an endowment to fund student projects and Odyssey professorships.

Now that the Odyssey concept has proven itself at Hendrix, other liberal arts colleges are doing more than talking about us – they are seeking

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to emulate our success by developing engaged learning programs of their own. While we are flattered, we are also aware that we must continue to innovate if we want to maintain our position as a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. That’s why the Hendrix Trustees, the faculty, the staff, our senior leadership team and I have been involved in a strategic planning process over the past nine months since our capital campaign ended. We are developing a vision for Hendrix that will include the next iteration of Odyssey, among many other new ideas, goals, and objectives. This vision will keep us at the forefront of American higher education in the 21st Century.

Many of you have contributed to the planning process and all of you will hear more about our plans in the coming months. Thank you for your input and for your support. Thank you, in particular, to those of you who have supported Hendrix financially. The names of those who have contributed to Hendrix during the 2010-11 fiscal year are listed in this publication, beginning on Page 49. I encourage you to review the lists and join me in thanking all those whose gifts help keep Hendrix No. 1.

J. Timothy Cloyd, Ph.D. President

www.hendrix.edu

campus news

Campus News For the third consecutive year, Hendrix College was named the nation’s #1 “Up and Coming” liberal arts college by U.S. News and World Report. College presidents, provosts, and admissions deans nominate institutions that they believe “have recently made the most promising and innovative changes in the areas of academics, faculty, student life, campus, or facilities.”

Hendrix was also named for the first time to this year’s list of “Best Undergraduate Teaching” liberal arts colleges, tying with Kenyon College in Ohio and Macalester College in Minnesota. Institutions on this list have demonstrated “an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.”

Hendrix College is among the 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges to be featured in the Princeton Review’s 2012 edition of its annual college guide, “The Best 376 Colleges.” Hendrix is also one of 135 schools listed in the guide’s “Best of the Southeast” section.

The Princeton Review describes Hendrix as “an academically demanding place” with a “self-selecting” and “well-qualified” student body. Other accolades include “generous financial aid,” “a strong reputation for science,” “campus-centric social life,” and “unwaveringly genial and helpful faculty who love what they do and are very good at it.”

Hendrix is also one of 25 private colleges to be named a “Best Buy School” in the 2012 edition of Fiske Guide to Colleges. Forty-nine institutions (including 24 public colleges or universities) were designated “Best Buy” schools, which all fall into the inexpensive or moderate price category.

According to U.S. government data collected on bachelor degree recipients in the U.S. between 1995 and 2004, Hendrix ranks among the top 40 American colleges and universities in the number of students per capita who go on to earn doctoral degrees. Other top Ph.D.-producing institutions include: California Institute of Technology, Harvey Mudd College, Swarthmore College, Reed College, Carleton College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Grinnell College, Oberlin College, Bryn Mawr College, and Harvard University. Peers in the South include Rice University, Trinity University, Spelman College, Davidson College, Southwestern University, Furman University, and the University of the South – Sewanee.

Washington Monthly magazine recently named Hendrix

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Photo by Courtney Johnson ’12

hendrix takes no. 1 spot for third time, other honors

College to its list of 249 nationally ranked liberal arts col- The 2011-2012 leges that contribute to the public good based on measures Presidential Fellows are (left to right) Michaela of social mobility, research and service.

Fraser ’11, Hendrix presidential fellows Miller Center for Six Hendrix alumni have been named Presidential Vocation, Ethics, and Fellows, a new post-graduate program sponsored by the Calling; Dominique College for the 2011-2012 academic year. Fellows are Kelleybrew ’11, Office of placed with a sponsoring office for two years to gain valu- Career Services; Rachel able work experience, exposure to key campus and com- Siegel ’10, Crain-Maling munity leaders, and the possibility of competitive summer Center of Jewish Culture; Alex Schroller ’11, professional development funds.

The 2011-2012 Presidential Fellows are: Lauren Intramurals and Outdoor Daly ’11, Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Litera- Recreation; and Lauren ture and Language; Michaela Fraser ’11, Hendrix Miller Daly ’11, the HendrixCenter for Vocation, Ethics, and Calling; Dominique Murphy Foundation Kelleybrew ’11, Office of Career Services; Lydia Programs in Literature Nash ’11, The Village at Hendrix; Alex Schroller ’11, Out- and Language. Lydia door Recreation Program; and Rachel Siegel ’10, Crain- Nash ’11 (not pictured) is a Presidential Fellow at Maling Center of Jewish Culture.

Dmitriy Nurullayev ’11 was the inaugural Presiden- The Village at Hendrix. tial Fellow. After completing his course work in December 2010, he worked in the Office of the President.

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Photo by Stuart Holt

campus news Pierre Urisanga ’12, right, discusses undergraduate research at Hendrix with a delegation of Rwandan government and higher education leaders, who visited the Hendrix campus this fall. Urisanga, a physics major at Hendrix, is a Rwanda Presidential Scholar.

rwandan delegation visits campus

a league of our own

Habumuremyi Pierre Damien, Minister of Education for the Republic of Rwanda, and an eight-member delegation of Rwandan representatives visited the Hendrix campus this fall. Damien spoke to Hendrix representatives of the country’s continuing need to rebuild its higher education system in the wake of the 1994 genocide. The delegation toured the campus, met with faculty and staff representatives, and observed the science teaching and research facilities.

In 2007, Hendrix led the creation of the Rwanda Presidential Scholars Program, a partnership with the Rwandan government to enroll Rwandan students at colleges and universities in the United States. The program is administered by Hendrix in partnership with the William J. Clinton Foundation.

The program now includes 129 Rwandan students enrolled at 18 institutions across eight states.

The first four Rwanda Presidential Scholars graduated from Hendrix in May 2011.

Hendrix College is one of eight NCAA Division III institutions in the newly named Southern Athletic Association (SAA). The new conference was formed in the spring and will begin competition in the 2012-2013 academic year.

Fellow SAA members include Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama, Centre College in Kentucky, Millsaps College in Mississippi, Oglethorpe University and Berry College in Georgia, and Rhodes College and Sewanee: The University of the South in Tennessee.

With the exception of Berry College, SAA members competed in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), which also includes schools in Colorado and Texas. Hendrix teams will continue to compete in the SCAC during the 2011-2012 season.

The geographic focus of the new conference will reduce travel time for student-athletes and costs. The season length and number of games will be designed to better allow student-athletes to participate in other co-curricular activities and to minimize conflict with class and examination schedules.

As it joins the new conference, Hendrix announced this spring it will also introduce women’s lacrosse and re-introduce men’s football, which was discontinued in 1961, during the 2013-2014 academic year. All teams will complete at the NCAA Division III level, which does not permit athletic scholarships.

Hendrix is a founding member of the new Southern Athletic Association. The SAA is an intercollegiate athletic conference of NCAA Division III institutions in the South.

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cloyd visits holy land Hendrix President J. Timothy Cloyd was one of eight American college presidents invited to spend a week in Israel as part of an educational program sponsored by Project

www.hendrix.edu

Photo by Natalie Atkins

Photo by Joshua Daugherty

This fall, Hendrix College received a $450,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The grant will support a three-year faculty-led effort to enhance the Collegiate Center component of the College’s curriculum. For more than five years now, the Mellon Foundation has supported academic initiatives at Hendrix, including undergraduate research in the humanities and interdisciplinary courses.

During the summer, Hendrix received a $100,000 grant from The Hearst Foundation, Inc. to provide faculty and program development support for Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning. Through the Hearst Foundation’s grant, the College can support travel for faculty members to develop international study opportunities for students; to attend academic conferences or workshops to gain new knowledge or skills (e.g. interviewing, surveying, technological proficiency, etc.) needed to be more effective mentors of student projects; or to conduct basic research necessary to develop a new area of study.

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campus news new leaders

Hendrix College Hendrix has added three new members to its senior President Dr. J. Timothy Cloyd, left, shakes leadership team.

Frank Cox ’76 was named executive vice president hands with Israeli and chief communications officer. A 30-year veteran of President Shimon Peres the advertising, public relations and media business, Cox during President Cloyd’s owned his own marketing communications consulting trip this summer to company before accepting this position. Prior to that, he Israel. served as president and CEO of the Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods agency in Little Rock. He was named Advertising Person of the Year in 1997 by the Arkansas Advertising Federation and he has served on numerous boards in Central Arkansas, including the Hendrix College Board Hendrix recently welcomed three new of Trustees.

Tom J. Siebenmorgen ’76 was named executive vice members to the senior president and chief financial officer. Siebenmorgen spent leadership team: (left nearly 20 years in leadership roles at Leisure Arts, Inc. to right) Frank Cox ’76, in Little Rock, including chief financial officer and chief Tom Siebenmorgen ’76 and David Hinson.

Photo by Joshua Daugherty

granted

Courtesy photo

Interchange, an educational institute of AJC, the American Jewish Committee.

President Cloyd met with political leaders including Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

The trip included visits to institutions such as Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and AlQasemi College, the first Islamic academic college authorized by the Israel Council of Higher Education. Participants learned about Arab-Jewish coexistence at the Peres Center for Peace and about strategic and security issues in northern Israel while touring the country’s northern border. They discussed human rights issues with Judge Aharon Barak, former president of Israel’s Supreme Court.

“I think we have the potential to form some exchanges,” Cloyd said. “I also see the potential for some of our students to go on a study tour like this one. I think this kind of experience would be beneficial for our students.”

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 5

Courtesy photos

campus news The Hendrix College Board of Trustees recently welcomed five new members: (left to right) Rev. Ellen R. Alston ’82, Dr. Charles Chappell ’64, Dr. Joe G. Hollyfield ’60, Rev. Roy P. Smith ’77, and William H. Wilcox.

operating officer. Before joining Leisure Arts in 1981, he spent three years on the senior audit staff at Ernst & Whinney in Little Rock. A native of Conway, Siebenmorgen was awarded the Mosley Economics Prize at Hendrix, where he was a member of the swim team and played water polo. He earned a master’s in business administration with an emphasis in finance and accounting from Tulane University in 1978.

David J. Hinson was named executive vice president and chief information officer. Most recently, Hinson was the vice president of engineering at Orlando, Fla.-based IZEA. Prior to joining IZEA, Hinson was President of Sumner Systems Management, where he supervised the creation of custom software solutions and mobile and social application experiences for a broad range of industries and disciplines. Hinson is an alumnus of Tennessee Technological University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.

five join board of trustees The Hendrix College Board of Trustees welcomes five new members this fall.

Rev. Ellen R. Alston ’82 of Alexandria, La., is the district superintendent for the Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. Alston is an alumnus of the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.

Alston was in the first-year group from Hendrix to attend the Oxford program and is very interested in opportunities for students to study abroad.

Dr. Charles M. Chappell ’64 of Little Rock, Ark., is a professor emeritus of English at Hendrix College. Chappell earned his master’s degree and doctorate from Emory University. He joined the Hendrix faculty in 1969. He attends Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, where he is an elder, session member, and serves on the adult education and personnel committees.

Dr. Joe G. Hollyfield ’60 of Shaker Heights, Ohio, is the chair of ophthalmic research and the Llura and Gordon Gund Professor of Ophthalmology Research at the Cleveland Clinic’s Cole Eye Institute. An alumnus of Louisiana State University and the University of Texas at Austin, Hollyfield completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Utrecht’s Hubrecht Lab. Among his many professional service activities, he serves as director of extramural research for the Helen Keller Eye Research Foundation,

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where he is on the selection committee for the organization’s Helen Keller Laureate award. He is a member of Hope for Vision’s scientific advisory board and is a coorganizer of the biennial International Retinal Degeneration Symposium.

Rev. Roy P. Smith ’77 of Russellville, Ark., is the senior pastor at First United Methodist Church in Russellville. He is an alumnus of Duke University Divinity School and a Paul Harris Fellow in Rotary Club International.

William H. Wilcox of Addison, Texas, is the CEO and member of the board of directors of United Surgical Partners International. Wilcox is an alumnus of Vanderbilt University and Tulane University and the father of William B.T. Wilcox ’12. He has held numerous senior leadership roles in health-related businesses and has served on numerous boards, including most recently Concentra Inc. and Good Shepherd Episcopal School.

and the medal goes to Hendrix will present Odyssey Medals to six alumni at a special 2011 Founders Day convocation on Thursday, Oct. 27, at 11:10 a.m. in Staples Auditorium. Odyssey Medals are awarded to alumni whose life achievements exemplify the ideals of Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning. Through their personal and professional accomplishments, Odyssey Medal winners have demonstrated the value of liberal arts education and hands-on learning.

The 2011 Odyssey Medal Winners are: Wendy R. Anderson ’93, who works for the U.S. Department of Defense, will be honored for Global Awareness; actor William Ragsdale ’83 will receive the Odyssey Medal for Artistic Creativity; media personality Tommy Sanders ’76 will be recognized for Special Projects; Benjamin Schumacher ’82, a pioneer in quantum information theory, will receive the Odyssey Medal for Research; retired FBI special agent and administrator William C. Temple ’73 will be honored for Professional and Leadership Development; and Surgeon General Dr. Joe Thompson ’84 will receive the Odyssey Medal for Service to the World. Hendrix will also honor Bill Fox ’60, senior vice president emeritus at Emory University, who received the 2009 Odyssey Medal for Professional and Leadership Development.

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campus news Photo by Nelson Chenault

student accolades

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The Hendrix College Choir performs the The Hendrix Choir will present on-campus performances annual Candlelight of the 47th Annual Candlelight Carol Service Thursday, Carol Service in Greene Dec. 1-Saturday, Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 4 Chapel. at 4 p.m. in Greene Chapel. Reservations are required for these performances and can be made by calling 501-450-1495 beginning Monday, Nov. 21.

This spring, Sarah The 2011 tour performances will be presented at Thompson ‘12, left, and Highland Park Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas, on Colin Hoy ’12 received Dec. 15 at 7:30 p.m. and St. Paul United Methodist Church the 2011 Goldwater in Little Rock on Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m. No reservations are Scholarship. Annie required for tour performances.

Greenaway ’12 was also For more information, call 501-450-1243 or visit named a Goldwater www.hendrix.edu/candlelightcarol.

Scholar.

Photo by Courtney Johnson ’12

This spring, five Hendrix seniors received Fulbright Scholarships: Gina Gordon ’11 will teach English in South Korea; Jayce Hafner ’11 will spend a year in Trinidad and Tobago researching connections between the carnival culture of the Caribbean, indigenous theatre, and the possibilities for theatre to effect political change; Colleen Mayo ’11 will teach English in Korea; Tyler Schroeder ’11 will teach English in Germany; and Dietlinde Heilmayr ’10 will teach English in Austria. Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It is designed to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”

Three Hendrix students were awarded the 2011 Goldwater Scholarship from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program: Sarah Thompson ’12, Annie Greenaway ’12, Colin Hoy ’12; and Erik Istre ’13 received honorable mention. The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program is widely considered the most prestigious honor in the U.S. conferred upon undergraduates studying the sciences. Dr. Todd Tinsley ’98, assistant professor of physics, served as the College’s Goldwater Scholar adviser.

Tinsley was named a Goldwater Scholar in 1997.

Greenaway was also selected as a 2011 Truman Scholar by the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. The honor recognizes students “with exceptional leadership potential who are committed to careers in government, the nonprofit or advocacy sectors, education or elsewhere in public service.” The scholarship will provide Greenaway financial support for graduate study, leadership training, and fellowship with other students who are committed to making a difference through public service.

candlelight carol

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Environmental restoration project provides healthy habitat, living lab, and park-like playground A once-polluted stream is now an 18-acre environmental, educational, and recreational wonderland, thanks to a collaborative effort between The Village at Hendrix, environmental studies and biology faculty at Hendrix, environmental engineers, the City of Conway, Southwestern Energy Co., and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

Located on the eastern and northern border of The Village, Hendrix Creek Preserve will manage storm water and prevent flooding within a 500-acre watershed area. Through controlled stream flows and selective plantings of native species, water will leave the environment cleaner than when it enters. The watershed will also collect and retain storm water to recharge the local aquifers.

While most water management issues are resolved by installing drain pipes on city streets, The Village wanted to create a natural and educational solution, according to Lydia Nash ’11, a Presidential Fellow who now works for The Village.

Constructed wetlands will provide nesting places for migratory birds and waterfowl, creating an outdoor classroom and living laboratory for student research, while a series of trails and boardwalks that wind through the improved habitat will provide a tranquil space for public recreation as well, Nash said. Hendrix Creek Preserve was recently approved for up to $122,640 in grant money from the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department’s Arkansas Recreational Trails Program.

In Other Village News Despite a softer national real estate market, construction and home sales remain strong in The Village. Twenty one homes have been sold now, and three homes are for sale and currently under construction.

Hendrix kinesiology professor and head swimming coach Jim Kelly and biology professor Dr. Mark Sutherland and their families are among the new residents of The Village. In addition to Hendrix celebrities, American Idol winner Kris Allen and his wife Katy are currently building a home in The Village.

The Village is also pre-selling its first set of two-story townhomes in two styles: a 2,300-sq.-ft., three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom model, which features a two-car garage; and a 1,473-sq.-ft., two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom model with front and back courtyards. Both models will have 11-foot ceilings downstairs and will come standard with a Viking oven, range and vent hood.

On the commercial side, Iberia Bank will open a mortgage operation this fall in The Village.

For more information on The Village at Hendrix, contact Beth Tyler at 501-730-5048 or tyler@thevillageathendrix.com or visit the newly redesigned website at www.thevillageathendrix.com.

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Photo by Joshua Daugherty

the village at hendrix

Paradise Found

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faculty news

Faculty News

In addition to their work in the classroom, Hendrix faculty members engage in research and professional activities that expand their expertise and enrich their teaching. Here is a small sample of the professional activities of Hendrix faculty. See the full list at www.hendrix.edu/hendrixmagazine.

Carl Burch, associate professor of computer science and natural sciences area chair, presented “Logisim and circuit simulation: Future directions” at the SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education in Dallas, Texas.

Chris Camfield, assistant professor of mathematics, presented “A Look at the BV Space as an Extension of the (1-1) Newtonian Space in Metric Measure Spaces” at the 7th International Conference on Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems in Tampa, Fla. Andres Caro, assistant professor of chemistry, received $611,861 from the National Institute of Health’s IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence for 2010-2015.

Irmina Fabricio, instructor of Spanish, presented “Magical Realism: distinctive and deictic in the narrative of García Márquez” at X Congreso Internacional de Literatura Hispánica in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Nancy Fleming, professor of music, co-published “The Odyssey Program at Hendrix College,” in Experiential Education: Making the Most of Learning Outside the Classroom.

Melissa Gill, assistant professor of art, exhibited work in Disguise at Rueff Galleries, Dept. of Art and Design at the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Anne Goldberg, associate professor of anthropology, and Maxine Payne, Judy and Randy Wilbourn Odyssey Associate Professor of Art, published “Art and Oral History: Applying Anthropology in Rural Costa Rica” in Practicing Anthropology, Vol. 33.

Karen Griebling and John Krebs, professors of music, (as part of the Cross Town Trio) released Music for the Cross Town Trio. The CD features two compositions by Griebling.

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Joyce Hardin, professor of biology, was awarded the Exemplary Teacher Award for 2010 from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church.

Dionne Jackson, assistant professor of education, presented “Authentic inquiry and science teachers’ epistemological beliefs: A multiple-case study” at the annual international conference of the Association for Science Teacher Education in Minneapolis, Minn.

Randy Kopper, Nancy and Craig Wood Odyssey Professor of Chemistry, copublished “Release of Soluble Protein from Peanut (Arachis hypogaea, Leguminosae) and Its Adsorption by Activated Charcoal” in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Jeff Kosiorek, assistant professor of history, published “Transcendentalism” in The Early Republic and Antebellum America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History.

Kim Maslin-Wicks, associate professor of politics, presented “The Evolution of Ontic and Ontological Loneliness in the Work of Hannah Arendt” at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Political Theory in Portland, Ore. Matt Moran, Judy and Randy Wilbourn Odyssey Associate Professor of Biology, presented “Praying mantids: Big arthropods producing big effects in food webs” at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America in San Diego, Calif.

Karen Oxner, associate professor of economics and business, co-published “LIFO Usage in Energy Firms” in Oil, Gas and Energy Quarterly, Vol. LIX, No. 3.

Jennifer Penner, Julia Mobley Odyssey Associate Professor of Psychology, presented “Teaching Animal Behavior in the Field and Abroad” at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Animal Behavior Society at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va. Andrew Scott, assistant professor of classics, published “Laconian Black-Figure Pottery and Spartan Elite Consumption” in Sparta: the body politic.

Allison Shutt, associate professor of history and social sciences area chair, published ‘“I told him I was Lennox Njokweni:’ Honor and racial etiquette in Southern Rhodesia” in the Journal of African History, Vol. 51.

Damon Spayde, assistant professor of physics, received a $135,254 grant from the National Science Foundation to support “RUI: Testing the Standard Model at Jefferson Lab” (2011-2014).

Mark Sutherland, professor of biology, published Guidelines for Premedical and Medical Students Providing Patient Care during Clinical Experiences Abroad.

Todd Tinsley, assistant professor physics, was selected as one of eight scholars for the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics at UC-Santa Barbara.

Daniel Whelan, assistant professor of politics and international relations, presented “Is a Sustainable, Developed, and Post-Ethnic Rwanda Reliant on Democratic and Human Rights Deficits?” at the 2011 International Studies Association Conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Robert Williamson, assistant professor of religious studies, published “Pesher: A Cognitive Model of the Genre” in Dead Sea Discoveries, Vol. 17.

Shin Yu Pai, Hendrix-Murphy Foundation associate director, published Adamantine, Hybrid Land, and Nearly Invisible.

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Sociologist in Service

Photo by Joshua Daugherty

dr. lisa leitz shares passion for public service with students From the age of 4, Michigan native Lisa Leitz thought she wanted to be President.

She followed her interest in public service to the Gerald R. Ford Institute for Leadership, Public Policy, and Public Service at Albion College. Though most students in the program focused heavily on politics, Leitz found her home in sociology.

“For me, it was a discipline that brought together economics, politics, and psychology,” she explained.

In fall 1997, she participated in a peace studies program and lived in the Middle East.

“I came to see that people weren’t buying into the Oslo Accords,” she said. “I got a real sense of the importance of social change at the grass-roots level, and that really solidified, for me, that I’m a sociologist.”

Leitz graduated from Albion in 1999 and started graduate school that fall at Ohio State University. In graduate school, she worked with at-risk girls who were physically fighting each other. She left school for a semester to serve as the assistant director of the Great Lakes Colleges Jerusalem Program, the same program she had participated in as an undergraduate student.

In Ohio, she met David Dufault, today an F/A-18 F Super Hornet pilot in the U.S. Navy, whom she married. She earned her master’s in 2001 and in 2002 transferred to the University of California, Santa Barbara for her Ph.D. In 2004, she moved to Florida with her husband – one of 10 moves in six years – and helped register voters.

She also worked for the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign in Pensacola, where she met the late Elizabeth Edwards. At a campaign program, Leitz introduced Edwards

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and sat on a panel with her. Leitz inspired Edwards to develop a team of military mothers and spouses to travel the country for the Presidential campaign. While traveling to political swing states, Leitz and this team were covered in more than 250 media stories.

The experience was “reinvigorating,” said Leitz.

Traveling with military spouses and families gave her a new research direction and dissertation topic – veterans and military families in opposition to the war.

“It’s a really novel and important segment of the peace movement,” she said.

Her experience with veterans and military families also reaffirmed her call to public service.

“It really solidified that I want to be an academic whose work changes our culture for the better,” she said Leitz joined the Hendrix faculty in 2009 after completing her Ph.D. “I really wanted to get back to a liberal arts college,” she said. “I just love actively facilitating students’ interest and growth on various topics.”

And she’s done precisely that.

Last year, she helped with a student mission trip to Poland, where they toured former World War II concentration camps. The trip was funded by the Hendrix Miller Center for Vocation, Ethics, and Calling.

This summer, Leitz and three Hendrix students undertook a research project, conducting qualitative interviews with 30 Arkansas military veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to assess their access to benefits. The project was funded by Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning. Her

student research assistants included Benjamin Thomas ’12, Alison Pope ’12, and Alison Selking ’11.

The research, she hopes, will help bridge the divide between civilians and the military. She also intends to use the project as an example in her course on research methods.

Later this year, Leitz will present the findings, along with excerpts from her forthcoming book titled Fighting the War Inside Out, at the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces & Society. Leitz presents often – about four conferences a year – and is an elected councilmember of a section of the American Sociological Association devoted to the study of peace, war, and social conflict.

In addition to mentoring students’ public service and research projects, Leitz contributes to interdisciplinary programs in American Studies, film studies, and gender studies.

She would like to see the College eventually develop interdisciplinary programs in peace studies and Middle Eastern studies.

Leitz received a faculty leadership grant in 2009 from Project Pericles, a national organization devoted to increasing civic engagement at undergraduate institutions. The grant allowed her to develop a community engagement assignment in her course on gender and sexuality. Through the grant, students developed a new student organization, planned a rally at the state capital for reproductive rights, and sponsored a conference on sexual assault.

“Challenging students to take what they learn in the classroom and do something about or with it ... That’s the potential I see sociology having,” she said.

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 11

Photo courtesy of the Hendrix College Archives

1976 The Student Senate now includes 21 members representing student classes, residence halls, and the off-campus student community. The Student Senate meets every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. during the academic year in the Campbell Dining Hall in the Student Life and Technology Center. Dr. Karla Carney-Hall, Vice President for Student Affairs, and Jim Wiltgen, Dean of Students are the Student Senate advisors.

Desh Deepak ’12, a physics major from Nepal, is the 2011-2012 Student Senate president. The Senate’s goals and platforms for this year include diversity, communication, and sustainability awareness.

Photo by Joshua Daugherty

2011

hendrix through time

1976-77 Student Senate listening to faculty advisor, Garrett McAinsh. The Student Senate used to meet on the second floor of Hulen Hall.

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Courtesy photo

Courtesy photo

at home at hendrix:

Highlighting Alumni Faculty and Staff

David Sutherland ’81 David Sutherland is neither millionaire Bruce Wayne nor the Caped Crusader. He was once, however, a hero to an admission counselor, a prospective student, and a parent who were trapped by a bat in a lecture hall in John Hugh Reynolds Hall.

Dr. Warfield Teague told Sutherland to grab “the bat net.”

David came to the rescue and, thankfully, everyone escaped safely.

David’s love for Hendrix extends to every aspect of the College, from the students to the maintenance crew to the pecan court and the turtle pond. He first came to Hendrix in 1977 as an 18-year old boy from Newport, Ark. Fifteen years later, he returned to the College as a faculty member.

He now holds the titles of Associate Provost, Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Hendrix-Murphy Programs in Literature and Language.

As a student, David spent all four years in the same room on the third floor of Martin Hall in Chinatown/Deadend. He participated in band, orchestra, Pi Mu Epsilon and the Society of Physics Students. He acknowledges a certain “nerd factor” to his college interests; in fact, he’s rather proud to be among the nerdy. His involvement in Pi Mu Epsilon continues. He recently completed a three-year term as national president of the mathematics honor society, during which time, the number of PME chapters grew by 24 chapters.

He graduated with honors and a degree in mathematics. He then attended graduate school, receiving a master’s degree and Ph.D. from North Texas State University in Denton, Texas. After completing his coursework, he moved to Nashville and served as an assistant professor of mathematics at Middle Tennessee State University for six years.

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David and his wife of 25 years, Pebble Jones Sutherland ’85, met at Hendrix through their involvement with Arkansas Governor’s School. They have three children Susanna ’12; Clay, a senior at Conway High School; and Reid, a sophomore at Conway High School.

He currently teaches one mathematics course each semester; supervises the Murphy staff and chairs the Murphy program committee that makes programming decisions; and assists the Provost in working with faculty on various projects including grant projects and new faculty orientation.

During his time working at Hendrix, David has created “quite a stir” with his email messages– some intended and others not. Several years ago, he sent individualized emails to faculty members stating that they had been appointed to a North Central Accreditation committee to prepare for the next ten-year report. In the message, he told them the group would meet every two weeks for the next ten years! Imagine the chaos and confusion on behalf of the faculty until they realized it was a joke.

But the joke was on him during the earlier years of email when he accidentally emailed his salary letter to a class of students. Understandably so, David was more than a little embarrassed at his error.

Outside of work, David enjoys reading (Pat Conroy, Richard Russo and Kazuo Ishigura are among his favorite authors) and gardening (particularly his orchids). When asked about his best gardening tip, David responded, “When the naked ladies bloom, be sure to post photos on Facebook.”

Photo by Stuart Holt

By Natalie Atkins Assistant Editor

Left: Marjorie Threet Whitmore ’81, Jamie Myers ’81, and David discuss music on the front porch of John Hugh Reynolds Hall.

Middle: David and Dr. Dwayne Collins, professor of mathematics, cook for students on a Miller Center mission trip in Birmingham, Ala.

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Building a Better Backyard stephanie oshrin’s odyssey for women and children

Photo by Joshua Daugherty

By Rob O’Connor ’95 Associate Editor

Stephanie Oshrin ’12 can’t forget the thirdgrade boy she met while volunteering one summer at a women’s shelter in her hometown of Hattiesburg, Miss.

He was struggling in school and needed help. When Oshrin discovered the boy couldn’t read, she worked with him every day until he progressed from “See Spot Run” to books on sports, his favorite subject. She took him to the library, a place he had never been before but could now enjoy, in part, because of what she did.

“I’ll always remember him because it was the best feeling I ever had,” she said of the opportunity to help a child learn to read.

Oshrin continues to help children at the Women’s Shelter of Central Arkansas, where she volunteers two to three times a week and routinely sees seven to 10 kids and their mothers who live at the shelter.

An estimated 1.3 million women in the United States are victims of domestic violence each year. During the 1960s and 1970s, shelters like the one in Conway where Oshrin volunteers were developed to offer safety and support to women and children. In addition to food and housing, shelters offer support groups and counseling services.

“I tutor and help with art, but the art projects we do are a part of therapy,” she said.

“Even though we do plenty of really fun things together, my main purpose is to facilitate children’s group.”

In her three years of serving at the shelter, Oshrin has experienced a cycle of emotions.

“Some of my happiest and most cherished memories of the past three years come from the shelter, but I have also lost many nights of sleep over the things I have seen there,” she said.

The opportunity has also offered her perspective both on the difficult circumstances that women and children face and the role that she can play in their lives.

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“I can’t change the fact that the women and children have been harmed by those who were supposed to protect them,” she said. “But I can prove to them that someone cares enough to show up week after week.”

Thanks to a grant she received from Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning, Oshrin is helping the shelter redo its backyard so that the kids will have a safe place to be active.

“I knew I wanted to help them through Odyssey and leave the shelter better than when I found it,” she said. “I found out what they really needed was a better backyard.”

“I want to fix the backyard because it is often the only place that the children can get away from what has happened to them, and it is the mothers’ oasis from a crowded house,” she said. “The children deserve a world that is full of love and safe from abuse. I can’t give them that, but I do have the resources to give them a swing set, a garden, and a place to ride their bikes.”

But a building project was a bit out of her element, she said.

“I’m good at organizing people and ideas,” she said. “But as far as construction goes, I need a lot of help.”

She is currently assembling a group of Hendrix students to help put together playground equipment and complete the project.

Oshrin is indeed good at organizing people and ideas.

In January 2011, she helped organize the state’s first Rally for Reproductive Justice on the steps of the Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock. The rally brought together more than 250 reproductive rights advocates on the 38th anniversary of the U.S Supreme Court’s Roe v.

Wade decision.

The seven-member planning committee for the event included Oshrin, who chaired the committee, and fellow Hendrix students Daniel Williams ’12, Hailey Travis ’12, and Leigh Ann Jensen ’11.

The rally was sponsored by the Arkansas chapter of ACLU, Planned Parenthood of

Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma, and the Little Rock chapter of the National Organization for Women, a group Oshrin worked with the previous summer as an intern in NOW’s national office in Washington, D.C. Through the event, she connected with Hendrix alumna Maria Jones ’77, president of the Little Rock chapter of the American Association of University Women, which also co-sponsored the event. Serendipitously, Oshrin was living in Jones’ former room in Galloway Hall.

“There was definitely some really good social justice mojo going on there,” Oshrin said.

One of the rally’s speakers was Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former Surgeon General of the United States, who commented to Oshrin that it was the first time she had witnessed an event of this magnitude in Arkansas.

“The energy was just astounding,” said Oshrin, who attributed the event’s strong attendance to the intergenerational audience of older women’s rights advocates and younger, college-age activists.

Oshrin clearly represents the latter group and believes she and her classmates can play an important role in social change.

“I think college students have special resources and skills, and we’re capable of giving back,” she said. “Why wouldn’t we use the time we have to give back?”

In addition to her work on the rally and at the women’s shelter, Oshrin has worked with Hendrix education professor Dr. James Jennings’ Above the Line project, helping thirdgrade students in the Delta learn basic skills to improve their standardized test skills. This summer, she studied for five weeks in Stellenbosch, South Africa with ISEP’s Nation Building and Development.

“Hendrix has given me the opportunity to learn outside the classroom and that’s where I’ve learned the most,” she said.

An international relations major and gender studies minor, Oshrin plans to go to graduate school, likely in public service.

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A Vital Voice

philosophy major finds support for service at hendrix

Photo by Peter Howard

By Rob O’Connor ’95 Associate Editor From the Feminist Club and the Philosophy Club to Dance Ensemble and Young Democrats, Hannah Hudspeth ’12 was born to be involved.

“Hendrix is absolutely a cultivating environment for people who want to make a difference,” she said. “Hendrix appeals to people who are interested in public service because there are so many opportunities to create service projects, and students get to choose something they are passionate about.”

A native of Berryville in northwest Arkansas, near Eureka Springs, Hudspeth has also been a member of the Campus Kitty Committee and has served as an Orientation leader. This year, she is a member of the President’s Ambassadors team.

It’s precisely the level of activity she anticipated – inside and outside the classroom –at Hendrix.

“I wanted to go to a small school,” she said, adding that she had read Loren Pope’s Colleges That Change Lives. “I knew that I’d learn better in a smaller classroom with more access to professors.”

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She originally looked out of state and visited St. Olaf College in Minnesota. In the end, Hendrix was closer to home – about two and half hours away – and offered the best financial assistance package, she said. The absence of -20 degree weather didn’t hurt either, she added.

After her freshman-year Journeys class with former visiting philosophy professor Dr. Aaron Simmons, Hudspeth combined her curiosity for big questions with her call to public service. She became a philosophy major and politics minor, taking courses in ethical, feminist, and political theory, as well as seminars on philosophers and political thinkers such as Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger, and Simone De Beauvoir.

Hudspeth has pursued her passion for public service through hands-on learning experiences. She interned one summer with former U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder and worked with homeless men and women at the Bethlehem House, a homeless shelter in Conway.

In the summer of 2010, Hudspeth interned at Vital Voices Global Partnership in Washington, D.C., an NGO that focuses on international women’s issues, such as access to education, microfinance and microlending. This

summer, she volunteered with the National Organization for Women.

Each activity was supported in part by fellowships and grants she received from Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning, the Hendrix Miller Center for Vocations, Ethics, and Calling, and Project Pericles.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do any of that without the funding options,” she said.

The most important support she received was from Hendrix faculty members, she said.

“My desire to be active in practical areas like homelessness and women’s issues has been supported by my professors and the school,” she said. “Faculty members are challenging and supportive ... they challenge me to go out into the world and make a difference.”

After graduation, Hudspeth wants to pursue a master’s degree in theological studies at John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C. “I’m not finished with philosophy,” she said. “I’m not ready to stop asking questions at that level right now.”

Not surprisingly, Hudspeth has also considered getting a master’s degree from the William J. Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock in, naturally, public service.

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 17

The Contemporary Congressman

By Roby Brock ’88

In my profession, it’s a rare occurrence to interview a subject who is both a Hendrix graduate and a U.S. Congressman. As a matter of fact, I can count the occasions on one finger.

When you add to the equation that the Congressman is also a contemporary classmate from my days on the Hendrix campus, well, let’s just say this type of interview doesn’t happen every day.

Tim Griffin ’90, make that Rep. Tim Griffin, the newly elected Republican Congressman from Arkansas’s 2nd Congressional District, was swept into office in November 2010 by a wave of voter discontent that turned the state’s political establishment on its head.

The raspy-voiced conservative stumped throughout central Arkansas campaigning against the newly enacted health care reform law and calling for lower taxes, less government regulation and attention to the nation’s debt and deficit.

He won handily with nearly 58 percent of the vote over Democratic nominee Joyce Elliott, Green Party candidate Lewis Kennedy, and Independent Lance Levi. Griffin became only the second Republican elected to represent the 2nd District nearly 25 years after former Rep. Ed Bethune (R) served as Congressman in the early 1980s.

Griffin’s election was a significant pendulum swing for the 2nd District, which had

18 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

been represented by liberal icon, Rep. Vic Snyder (D) for 12 years.

Griffin, 43, quickly ascended into relevant leadership positions with the new Congress.

In his first term, he was asked to serve on the Majority Whip team, which rounds up votes for House Majority Leader, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio).

He also received three committee assignments – a rarity for a freshman – on the House Committee on Armed Services, Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Committee on the Judiciary.

A BRIEF BIO Born John Timothy Griffin in North Carolina, Tim was raised in south Arkansas in Magnolia, where he graduated from high school.

His mother was a schoolteacher and his father was a Baptist preacher, which genetically explains Griffin’s cadence and comfort level on the campaign trail. He can deliver a “fire and brimstone” recitation of the country’s ills at a Tea Party rally or a town hall with constituents. Conversely, he can diffuse angry voters with a call for reason and level-headed discussion.

Now married, Griffin and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Little Rock with their two young children, Mary Katherine, 4, and John, 1.

His career path after graduating from Hendrix with a B.A. in Business & Economics in 1990 involved a trip to Oxford, England, before completing law school at Tulane University in New Orleans.

From there, Griffin’s career took a decidedly partisan slant. He worked on investigations into the Clinton administration with a special prosecutor and later with the House Committee on Government Reform. He was deputy research director for the Republican National Committee during the contentious Bush-Gore election of 2000, ultimately serving as a legal adviser during the Florida recount of votes.

During the early 2000s, he held various political posts and eventually worked in the Bush White House as a special assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the Office of Political Affairs.

Griffin also served his country for more than a decade. He is in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps and holds the rank of major. He served in Iraq in 2006 with the 101st Airborne Division.

One of his military legal cases, U.S. v. Mikel, drew national interest after Private Nicholas Mikel attempted to murder his platoon sergeant and his unit at Fort Campbell, Ky. Mikel pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

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Those experiences and relationships set Griffin up for a short-lived and controversial stint as a U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas. When it appeared that several U.S. Attorneys were removed by the White House to make way for “political” appointments, the national uproar led to Griffin’s resignation in 2007.

He spent the next few years practicing law and in public affairs consulting.

Griffin and I returned to the Mills Center on the campus of Hendrix College late this summer to discuss how his college experience shaped his professional and political life.

Appropriately, we sat in the replica of Rep. Wilbur Mills (D) office in the Mills Library, a treasure trove of Arkansas and American political history.

Griffin holds the Congressional seat that Mills filled for nearly 38 years.

The walls are lined with photographs and memorabilia from Mills’ service in Washington. Pictures with Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon recount the power that emanated from Mills’ zenith of influence as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which dictated American tax policy.

Griffin could spend hours combing through the photo and paper collections, but I reminded him we had an interview to get

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Photo by Joshua Daugherty

A CONGRESSIONAL CONNECTION

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All of those adventures whet his appetite for politics.

“The collective experience of that and going to law school, where arguing is the order of the day, that all helped pushed me in that direction.”

Photo by Joshua Daugherty

THE POLITICAL BUG

U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin ’90, left, and Roby Brock ’88 recall fond Hendrix memories in Martin Hall, where Griffin lived on campus. Brock lived in East Hall and, later, in Martin. through before his next appointment, a town hall in Searcy on the debt ceiling crisis.

DRAWN TO HENDRIX There were several reasons Griffin decided to attend Hendrix College in the fall of 1986. It was close to home where he had a girlfriend, he felt certain he wanted to study in state, and the money was right.

At the time, any minister’s son or daughter was eligible for a half-price tuition grant at Hendrix, and Griffin also qualified for an academic scholarship in the same price range.

He had to choose between the two financial offers.

“I thought with the scholarship I’ve got to keep my grades at a certain point, but with the grant, I get it no matter what. I’ll go with the grant,” Griffin concedes with a chuckle.

Don’t read that the wrong way. Griffin wasn’t and isn’t a slacker. When he entered Hendrix, he was determined to graduate in three years and move on toward an M.B.A. elsewhere.

“There was a part of me that was a ‘man in a hurry’,” he confides. “Once I got here, I started to realize that college was a great thing. It wasn’t something to be rushed. It was something to be enjoyed. You should do internships, go different places. In the end,

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the four-year path worked great for me.”

Griffin took the “go different places” philosophy to heart.

He spent his junior year in Oxford, England, on the Hendrix exchange program, and he credits that period as one of the most influential in his life.

“That Hendrix-in-Oxford year changed my career path and my life in so many ways,” said Griffin, who recalled intimately studying literary giants like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

The opportunity to travel beyond Oxford to the European continent aided in his curiosity about the world. He visited Berlin when the Wall still existed between East and West. Ultimately, he returned to Oxford after his senior year at Hendrix to continue his studies before law school at Tulane.

Griffin came to Hendrix with conservative credentials, but he wasn’t locked into a particular party label. While not extremely active with either group, he joined the College Republicans and Young Democrats and listed them both on his résumé during college and shortly thereafter.

“It was a good conversation starter in job and internship interviews,” he joked.

Still, Griffin was engaged in political discourse through college at Hendrix and abroad. He noted that Hendrix’s reputation was evolving in the 1980s – “the era of Alex P. Keaton and Family Ties,” as he called it.

Griffin may have been outnumbered with his conservative positions, but there was plenty of tolerance for debate on campus.

“At the time, I may not have completely understood what a positive impact a diversity of views would have on me and my thinking,” he said. “I found that I had to either change my views or equip myself and understand why I believe what I believe.”

That exercise has served him well in his political journey.

“I was never put off by people disagreeing with me. I had been educated in that crucible and I think it helped me, even today,” Griffin said. “I have no problem speaking with groups that disagree with me and engaging in debate with people who disagree with me. I think a lot of that goes back to my time here and I see that as an extraordinarily positive thing.”

Griffin credited his Hendrix education as an important cornerstone for his success.

He cited the college’s emphasis on writing and the personal attention he received from professors.

He recalled learning accounting fundamentals from Ms. Eloise Raymond, history classes with Dr. David Larson, and economic debates with Dr. Tom Stanley.

“I think the diversity of classes, the subjects

Scan the QR code with your phone or visit the following link to watch the interview between Griffin and Brock in the Rep. Mills replica office.

www.hendrix.edu/griffininterview www.hendrix.edu

(D), is term-limited.

Griffin is mum on his prospects today. “I’m focused on re-election at this time,” he said curtly.

At some point, he will have an office full of working papers to archive.

Could Hendrix be the beneficiary of another 2nd District Congressman’s work?

“I would never compare myself to Wilbur Mills,” Griffin said. “But I would love for Hendrix to have them. Hendrix holds a special place in my heart.”

He said he’s had a brief conversation with Hendrix College President J. Timothy Cloyd, who suggested in jest that if Mills wasn’t big enough, then perhaps Griffin’s papers could be housed in his college dormitory, Martin Hall.

Griffin laughed at the notion, “I have great memories of Martin Hall, and it was not studying Congressional papers, I assure you.”

that you take at a liberal arts school like this are so important, particularly in the early years of college that lay a foundation that allows you to be successful in your later years,” said Griffin.

MORE TO COME In previous conversations with Griffin, he and I have discussed his future political ambition. Only in his first term, it’s a bit taboo to think too far ahead.

Clearly, Griffin would like to continue serving in Congress. He’s already ramped up his 2012 re-election bid although no opponent has surfaced yet.

If he’s re-elected, the 2014 cycle could be a pivotal fork in the road for Griffin’s public service career. Among Arkansas politics, his name circulates as a potential challenger to U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor (D) or as a GOP candidate for Governor when the current officeholder, Mike Beebe

A man of history

the country from his place on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, he likely thought of the place he once called home – Hendrix College, Martin Hall, and the Buhler Library.

If I could have reached Wilbur for comment about his time at Hendrix, I can hear him offering advice of hard work and commitment to education. He would likely echo the sentiments of alumni who laud the brilliance of our faculty. He would remind us that people do not find Hendrix but that Hendrix finds them. Wilbur would instill in us a passionate hope for a better tomorrow because as students of one of the nation’s best liberal arts college we have a duty to change the world.

wilbur mills’ legacy inspires research, odyssey project

By Taylor Kidd ’11

[Editor’s Note: As a Hendrix student, Taylor Kidd developed a deep interest in U.S. Rep. Wilbur D. Mills ’30. Mills’ life and career became a research topic for Kidd, an American Studies major, in an Arkansas Politics course taught by Dr. Jay Barth ’88 and, later, in an Odyssey project.]

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Photo courtesy of the Hendrix College archives

In the fall of 2007, I stepped foot onto a wet, fall-colored Hendrix campus. It was my first exposure to the place I would later proclaim as the happiest place on earth. My campus walk was led by Mary Kate Crumpler ’08 and she knew her Hendrix history, including the story of U.S. Rep. Wilbur D. Mills, which caught my imagination and continued to hold my interest throughout my time at Hendrix.

Most of us know the story of Mills’ fall from grace alongside showgirl Fanny Foxx. If you don’t know the story, Fanny wrote a great exposé that can be found in the Mills Archives on the Hendrix campus. However, the story of Mills that seems to inspire the most is his commitment to the people of Arkansas, and specifically, Arkansans who suffered from alcohol and drug abuse. Mills’ commitment to substance abuse rehabilitation is his most shining legacy because it is the most representative of a man who embodied the spirit of the Hendrix motto, “Unto the Whole Person.” The Wilbur D. Mills Treatment Center in Searcy, Ark., is likely the most lasting and important legacy of Wilbur’s service to our nation and the state of Arkansas.

I think that Hendrix was as much a part of Wilbur Mills as tax law and government policy. At Hendrix, Mills was taught the same values that have inspired generations of alumni – including the values of social responsibility and the ability to discern the ethical needs of our time. As Mills memorized United States tax code, rejected an invitation to the young Senator John Kennedy’s wedding to work on an appropriations bill (seriously, “Reject” is scrawled in Mills’ hand across the original invitation), and ruled

Taylor Kidd ’11 is currently pursuing a master’s degree in higher education administration and student affairs at the University of Arkansas.

U.S. Rep. Wilbur Mills ’30 (standing, center) observes President Lyndon B. Johnson at the signing of the Revenue Act of 1964, which cut individual income tax rates by approximately 20 percent, reduced corporate tax rates, and introduced a minimum standard of deduction.

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Following the ‘Do Right Rule’ hendrix and service go hand in hand for derrick smith

Photo by Kirk Jordan

By Julie Janos ’94 Derrick Smith ’97 is fairly diplomatic when discussing his experience as a member of the inaugural Arkansas Lottery Commission.

“Anytime you get an opportunity to serve your state, it’s going to be a positive experience,” he notes, adding, “while maybe not always an easy one.”

As one of the initial appointees serving a two-year term, Smith was secretary the first year and vice-chair the second year. He also served as chairperson of the legal committee both years.

He describes the experience as a “wild ride” given that they were appointed in April, then held their first meeting in May and sold their first lottery ticket by the end of September.

Smith approached his work with the Lottery Commission the same way he approaches everything — with a lot of questions. He first discovered the effectiveness of this approach as a Hendrix freshman.

“I learned that when people are questioning you and challenging you, you either find a better solution or become convinced that your initial approach is the right way.”

He values the process of being questioned and questioning other people because, “at the end of the day, we all want to do the right thing,” he explains. “It’s okay to struggle with the process, as long as you are comfortable that the end result is the right thing.”

While the process itself was not without some controversy, Smith is satisfied with what the Lottery Commission accomplished during his tenure, and in particular, with what the lottery has done and is doing for education in the state of Arkansas.

“You cannot debate the sheer amount of money that is now available to help Arkansans attend college due to the lottery,” he notes, adding, “Long term, it’s certainly a net positive for Arkansas and for education in our state.”

Smith, who decided to attend Hendrix after Georgetown University didn’t work out for him financially, speaks firsthand about the importance of scholarships and financial aid for college.

“Today, my Hendrix education means everything to me,” he says, noting that state, federal and college aid is what made it possible for him to attend Hendrix.

Smith says that the value of Hendrix and the liberal arts to Arkansas cannot be underestimated.

“Just think about the people in Arkansas who have that Hendrix connection and all that they have accomplished,” he says, quickly offering a litany of names of influential government, non-profit and business leaders who are Hendrix alumni.

Smith believes that public service and Hendrix go hand in hand,

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saying, “You just can’t separate the two. That’s part of the value of the liberal arts education.”

Smith considered going into politics at one time but now says it’s “unlikely.”

He says that he has come to realize that there are other ways to serve outside of having “Senator” or “Governor” in front of your name.

Growing up in Marianna, Ark., his role models included then State Senator Bill Llewellyn, Judge Olly Neal and U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater. While he only had a “handful” of conversations with each of them, Smith says he mostly benefited from seeing them, and seeing how they lived, in his community.

“I don’t think it’s always necessary to have a conversation or spend a lot of time with someone in order to have an influence on them. Just being there and being an example of what’s possible works just as well sometimes.”

And Derrick Smith, at the age of 35, sets quite an example. An attorney with the Mitchell Williams firm in Little Rock specializing in governmental relations, insurance regulation and public utilities, Smith serves on the boards of Youth Home, Inc. and of Arkansas Advocates for Youth and Families. He is a commissioner for the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission and is a founding member of the organization 100 Black Men of Greater Little Rock, to name just a few of his commitments. Smith is also active with his firm’s Take Time to Give initiative, which emphasizes the importance of community service, something that “is just part of who we are at Mitchell Williams.”

Smith says his biggest passion in life is his 19-month old son, Andrew, noting, “It’s more fun than I ever imagined it would be.” Like many working parents, Smith struggles to find a balance in everything he wants to accomplish. “My focus right now is on becoming a good father, being a good husband, becoming a better lawyer and continuing to look for opportunities to serve the citizens of Arkansas.”

Doing it all is no small feat, and Smith does not want to make any compromises.

“My wife would tell you I don’t always practice what I preach,” he laughs.

But he believes there is value in the process of always trying to do the right thing.

“That is what you’ve got to strive for, whether or not you always succeed. And I’m certainly working on it.”

Julie Christian Janos ’94 works in the Office of Advancement at Hendrix as a Development Project Coordinator. She and her husband, Aaron Janos ’91, live in Little Rock with their two children.

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Liberal Arts & Law

a powerful combination for change In a state where nearly 20 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, there is no shortage of need for non-profit services and for innovative solutions. Three Hendrix alumnae – all Arkansas natives – are heeding that call.

Although their combined bios could fill this magazine, let the highlights suffice. Fort Smith native Amy Dunn Johnson ’96 has been named the first executive director of Arkansas Access to Justice Commission. Jennifer Keith Ferguson ’93, a native of Hope, serves as deputy director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Family. And Charleston native Heather Larkin ’93 is president and CEO of the Arkansas Community Foundation. They each also graduated from the William H. Bowen School of Law in Little Rock.

With a combined 30 years in the non-profit sector, their impact has already been felt throughout the state. In fact, some of their most powerful contributions have come from projects in which they collaborate.

This spring, the Arkansas Community Foundation released a report called “Aspire Arkansas: A County-by-County Look at Seven Measures of Quality of Life in Our State.” With the help of Ferguson and other data whizzes at Arkansas Advocates and at the Institute for Economic Advancement, they honed in on seven key aspirations of a healthy community. These goals include safety, academic excellence, and civic participation, and each goal is matched with several indicators to show the state’s progress so far.

To get a sense of the state’s K-12 education system, for example, the report compares data on literacy rates, graduation rates, and even the percentage of students who take remedial coursework during their first semester in college. The numbers are shown county by county, which allows residents and local leaders to compare themselves to neighboring communities. Larkin hopes it will help get Arkansans talking and spur them to pursue solutions on a local level.

“It’s based on the premise that better information leads to better community decisions; better information leads to stronger communities,” Larkin said.

The alumnae are also working to implement their own solutions.

The Arkansas Access to Justice Commission, for example, has collaborated with Arkansas’s legal aid providers to develop online, interactive self-help forms. Since 2007, these tools have helped thousands of low-income Arkansans represent themselves in court for simple civil law issues.

“There’s this whole segment of our population who make too much money to qualify for free legal aid, but who still can’t afford lawyers,” Johnson said. By filling out a form with information about their case, they can create and print all the documents they would need in court, including guidance for presenting their case to a judge.

The 17 forms that are currently available cover a variety of family and financial issues, from filing income taxes to filing for divorce.

24 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

Photo by Tara Manthey

By Katie Rice ’10

Amy Dunn Johnson ’96, Jennifer Keith Ferguson ’93 and Heather Larkin ’93 In response to a suggestion by Arkansas Advocates and other partners, the Justice Commission has recently added a new form to help grandparents become legal guardians of their grandchildren. About 65,000 children in Arkansas are living with their grandparents. But without legal guardianship, grandparents are not allowed to access a child’s educational and medical records.

The website that hosts the self-help forms, www.arlegalservices.org, receives more than 1 million page views per year. It’s a creative solution to an underappreciated problem.

Although none of the women currently work as lawyers, they say their law degrees have been vital to their success in the non-profit world.

“I tell everybody that I think law school is the liberal arts degree of the professional world,” Larkin said.

“Because we are lawyers, we obviously want to research an issue thoroughly, which you do in law school,” Ferguson agreed. “But you also want to be able to analyze and evaluate, and that’s probably where our backgrounds come in the best: making sure that you’re trying to look at the big picture and at short-term and long-term solutions. Because in the end, a lot of social change is going to come through legislation and policy, especially if you’re looking at long-term solutions.”

Katie Rice ’10 graduated from Hendrix with a double major in American Studies and in International Relations and Global Studies. She is now an Admission Counselor at Hendrix.

www.hendrix.edu

Their Odyssey Continues

clinton school experience is a hands-on approach to public service More than a few Hendrix alumni are finding their footing in the field of public service with the help of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service’s Master of Public Service program, the first graduate program of its kind in the U.S. A natural extension of Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning, the program involves traditional coursework, plus three intensive, hands-on projects. Students are required to learn through action, to apply theory to real-world problems both in Arkansas and around the world.

“We’re training people to change the world, not just to serve the world,” said Nikolai DiPippa ’06, who directs the public programs at the Clinton School. “Public administration and public policy degrees are more hands-off. Our MPS students are getting their hands dirty.”

“Basically, we learn how to take an issue in society, look at the needs, assess the whole situation, and then build a logic model,” said Harvell Howard ’03, a 2010 graduate of the Clinton School. “You look at what’s required, what resources are needed, and what outcomes you’re aiming for. Then you put a project plan together, and then carry it out.”

Howard honed those skills in the Arkansas Delta, in Kenya, and then at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, where he worked to coordinate the African-American Male Initiative. He now works full-time as the AAMI coordinator, implementing programs to improve retention and graduation rates at UALR. The Clinton School program shapes its students into leaders in public service because it teaches them how to plan and evaluate new projects.

Howard, for example, came to the Clinton School after three years working for the Choosing to Excel program in his hometown of Conway.

He knew he wanted to help young people to succeed, but the former business and economics major wanted to affect more than one classroom of students at a time.

“Maybe it’s just the philosophy of business, but you try to maximize the profits,” he said. “In terms of service, I try to maximize whatever gift I have in terms of helping people. And I feel I can help more people working on a macro level. I’ve always wanted to do it on a larger scale, to cover more people, to make change in a lot of arenas.”

Anna Patterson Strong ’04 was also drawn to the prospect of largescale change. After several years volunteering at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in her free time, she decided to pursue a combined master’s degree in Public Service and in Public Health.

“I wanted to be able to address the root causes of some of the problems I’d seen while I was there, and the challenges I know the state has been facing,” Strong said.

She graduated from the Clinton School and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in May 2011. For her final project, which she completed this spring, Strong developed a state-wide plan to advocate for school-based health programs for kids.

www.hendrix.edu

Photo by Kirk Jordan

By Katie Rice ’10

Anna Patterson Strong ’04 and Harvell Howard ’03 “It examined the barriers and facilitators to getting healthcare providers on a school campus, because that’s a great way to get preventive care to kids,” Strong said. “I was able to develop a really concise plan: it had high priorities, lower priorities; this is what we need to do; these are the players who need to be involved; and this is why. I wanted it to be something that would not be shoved in a drawer but used to change policies that will make a difference in a child’s life.”

Already, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the organization for whom Strong wrote the report, has used it to apply for a competitive grant.

Strong now works for the Center for Rural Health at UAMS, conducting research for a report on rural health in Arkansas. When she graduated from Hendrix with a degree in math, she foresaw none of this.

“My Hendrix degree provided me with a way of solving problems,” she said. “You have to look at things different ways; you have to be able to write; you have to be able to do numbers; you have to be able to do a little bit of everything in order to look at problems as a whole and make a difference in solving them. So even if I’m not using my math degree every day, I am very glad that I have it.”

Katie Rice ’10 graduated from Hendrix with a double major in American Studies and in International Relations and Global Studies. She is now an Admission Counselor at Hendrix.

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 25

Photo by Kirk Jordan

Arkansas’ Advocates ‘intangibles’ draw hendrix alumni to attorney general’s office

By Julie Johnson Thompson Holt ’84 Nearly 10 percent of the staff at the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office can boast of bachelor’s degrees from Hendrix College. Who knew?

When asked to write 1,000 words or so about the Hendrix graduates who worked in the Arkansas Office of the Attorney General, I thought, no problem. Rob O’Connor ’95 and I could easily tick off at least five of us who earn our livings here. Just in case we had overlooked someone, though, I emailed an officewide call for all Hendrix graduates.

Thirteen people responded! (One — you know who you are, Paul Goldner ’98 — I had

26 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

to hunt down on my own). Add me, and that’s 15 out of the 167 folks who have selected public service careers in the Attorney General’s Office.

OK, full disclosure: Law clerk Chad Owens ’08 ended his temporary role here in August, and Public Protection Department intern Meghan Joiner ’10 has now ventured elsewhere. But that’s still 13 of us employed here – enough, I’d say, to hold our own miniHendrix Huddle. In fact, I would not be surprised if Jack Frost ’72 or another development officer dropped by soon for some one-stop shopping right here in the Tower Building.

When you think about it though, the Office

of the Attorney General is an obvious landing place for Hendrix alumni. The intangibles people love about this office, and public service careers in general, are quite similar to the qualities that drew us to our beloved small liberal arts school in the first place.

“For me, Hendrix represented a cooperative rather than competitive academic environment, in which we were encouraged to achieve by working together,” says Assistant Attorney General Ali Brady ’03, who is one of our lawyers focusing on the long-running Little Rock desegregation case. “That sense of community, cooperation and teamwork is something that I have really appreciated about public service work.”

Kent Holt ’83 agrees. “The collegiality and back-and-forth among colleagues almost makes it seem like I’m back at Hendrix.” A criminal lawyer here for 20 years now, Holt remains in regular contact with the group of guys he met on Hardin Hall’s second floor – “a diverse bunch that has remained close,” he says.

www.hendrix.edu

Hendrix, of course, shines in our memories for its unique offerings – Shirt Tails, Campus Kitty, the Miss Hendrix Contest, the Pecan Grove, Goat Roast and, later, warehouse parties – as well as for small classes and strong and often lasting relationships with professors.

“I will always remember and appreciate the motherly love Dr. Hines was always willing to give,” says Assistant Attorney General Ka Tina R. Hodge ’00. “She was one of the first professors I met when I toured the Hendrix campus, and I immediately loved her.”

Mandy Hull Abernethy ’85, a lawyer in the office’s Civil Department, remembers “a time when I missed an education class because I had strep throat. My professor, Dr. Betty Morgans, called my room to find out why I wasn’t in class. I don’t think students get that kind of personal attention at most schools!”

Most of us agree that our Hendrix experience – in all the permutations – nurtured, if not inspired, our interest in public service as a career.

“Hendrix is ... a very service-oriented place, so it is not surprising that many of us have worked in the public or nonprofit sector at some point in our careers,” says David Curran ’99, a Public Protection Department lawyer who specializes in antitrust law.

Assistant Attorney General Grace Ellen Rice ’71, whose career includes being a staffer for U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers as well as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., before joining the Attorney General’s Office in 2007, says that “the Hendrix experience affirmed my interest in public policy, and my involvement in student government led me to the conclusion that ‘the law’ was how policy changes come about whether in collegiate, local, state or federal government.”

For Assistant Attorney General Shawn Johnson ’98, who spent much of this past summer assisting the Attorney General with his state redistricting responsibilities, “Hendrix helped instill in me a sense of tolerance for alternative viewpoints, no matter how offensive or different from my own. This sort of training is vital in public service.”

And Chief Deputy Attorney General Brad Phelps ’98 says, “Hendrix instilled in me the strong belief that everyone has a responsibility to make the world a better place than where they found it,” a belief which contributed to his decision to join the office in 2003.

Phelps says Attorney General Dustin McDaniel lives by that belief as well.

Bucking family tradition, McDaniel joined the ranks of the Jonesboro Police Department instead of enrolling in law school after graduation from the University of Arkansas. Though law school eventually followed, as did a stint in his father’s law firm, he couldn’t resist the pull back into public service, first as a state representative and, for the last five years, as the Attorney General of Arkansas.

“Dustin has a lot of Hendrix qualities such as a devotion to public service, civic engagement, intelligence and intellectual curiosity,” Phelps adds.

That makes him a natural for leading this office, which daily serves citizens of Arkansas.

For those not familiar with all the Attorney General’s Office does, our staff educates and protects consumers, including utility rate payers; provides legal representation for the state and state agencies in matters ranging from education to the environment; investigates and prosecutes cases of Medicaid fraud and Internet-based child pornography; and supports crime victims. Truly, that’s just an abbreviated list of all that goes on here.

The work, needless to say, is often challenging.

Assistant Attorney General Joe Cordi ’88 has worked here for 15 years and credits Hendrix for arming him with the skills to tackle those challenges. “Hendrix is great at teaching critical thinking, which is an essential skill for practicing law,” he says. “That skill is particularly useful here at the Attorney General’s office because the lawsuits that we handle oftentimes involve complicated facts and unsettled areas of law.”

The intrinsic rewards of working in public service are what will hold many of us here – or in a related role – for years to come.

“Life in public service appealed to me because you’re working for something greater than someone else’s bottom line,” says Assistant Attorney General Lauren Heil ’91.

“The drawback is that I often work long hours for no additional pay, but that really pales in comparison to the opportunity to work here, and particularly in the criminal department, where I get to observe – and learn from – humanity.”

Hodge, a member of the office’s Civil Department, echoes that. “The experience I have gained practicing with this office is invaluable,” she says, adding that “The service our Department and Office provide for this state is remarkable.”

Katherine Rogers ’06, an investigator in the Public Protection Department, sums it up well for all of us: “Just like I felt that Hendrix was the right fit for me, I feel like public service is where I belong.”

Julie Holt ’84 is the Director of Communications for the Office of Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.

Hendrix Graduates at the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office Mandy Hull Abernethy ’85 Assistant AG, Civil

Ali Brady ’03

Assistant AG, Civil

Joe Cordi ’88

Assistant AG, Civil

David Curran ’99

Assistant AG, Public Protection

Paul Goldner ’98

Lauren Heil ’91

Shawn Johnson ’98

Ka Tina R. Hodge ’00

Brad Phelps ’98

Julie Johnson Thompson Holt ’84

Grace Ellen Rice ’71

Assistant AG, Criminal Assistant AG, Civil

Director of Communications

Kent Holt ’83

Assistant AG, Civil Chief Deputy AG

Assistant AG, Civil

Katherine Rogers ’06

Investigator, Public Protection

Assistant AG, Criminal

Network Engineer

www.hendrix.edu

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 27

Photo by Bruce Layman ’12

Buddy the Builder pulaski county judge has a bronze star and a green mind

By Rob O’Connor ’95 Associate Editor Despite his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather being Methodist ministers, longtime Pulaski County Judge F.G. “Buddy” Villines ’69 found a different calling at Hendrix.

“With the exception of serving as president of the Arkansas Conference’s United Methodist Youth Assembly, ministry wasn’t really my

28 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

calling,” said Villines.

“I was into sports in high school,” said Villines, who played quarterback and tailback, and at one time led the state in scoring. He represented Siloam Springs High School in the state’s all-star football game.

Sidelined with a hip injury, Villines declined walk-on offers at other schools and enrolled at Hendrix.

“If I hadn’t made the decision to go to Hendrix, I’d have gone somewhere to play football and been a coach, which would have been OK too,” he said. “But my experience at Hendrix allowed more flexibility to explore what I was called to be and I began to understand that my skills, talents, and calling were in the public arena.”

At Hendrix, Villines found that his family’s church pedigree offered

www.hendrix.edu

an important advantage for his budding political aspirations.

Villines was born in Roxboro, N.C., during his father’s studies at seminary at Duke University. The family moved back to Arkansas when Villines was 5. Before he came to Hendrix, Villines lived in six or seven small towns in Arkansas where his father preached.

“At Hendrix, I realized, having lived in so many places, I knew a lot of the freshmen from around the state,” he said.

Using his established base of friends, Villines ran for freshman class president and won. The next year, he ran for sophomore class president and won. As a sophomore, he ran for Student Senate president. He won that too.

The Student Senate was a member of the Arkansas Student Government Association, a state association of college and university student leaders. Villines was elected president of the association, which held a meeting at Hendrix, where Villines met a number of the state’s political leaders, including U.S. Senators John McClellan and J. William Fulbright, and David Pryor, then a young U.S. congressman.

“After that experience, I decided I wanted to go into elected politics,” he said.

Despite being a Democrat, Villines also became friends with former Arkansas Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, a Republican, and Maurice “Footsie” Britt, a Medal of Honor winner and professional football player who served as lieutenant governor under Rockefeller.

“When I was about to graduate, we visited quite a bit,” he said.

However, when Villines graduated from Hendrix in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in history and political science, he put his political ambitions on hold and pre-enlisted in the Army before graduation.

“It was my decision,” he said, adding that his father was the first adult he ever heard speak out against the war.

Villines went to Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill in Lawton, Okla., and served in the artillery in Vietnam, where he earned a Bronze Star.

After Vietnam, he came back to Little Rock.

He went to law school at night while working as the city’s first zoning enforcement officer and later as administrative assistant to the city manager.

After he graduated from law school, Villines was hired to be the legal and legislative head for the newly formed Department of Local Services, where he oversaw the department’s local government grant program. He later accepted a gubernatorial appointment from David Pryor to head the State’s Manpower job creation and job training program.

www.hendrix.edu

Villines soon went back to city government as deputy city manager, and briefly as acting city manager, just as the city received its first grant to clean up what is now Riverfront Park in Little Rock. The clean-up work was the beginning of a long-term commitment to parks and trails along the Arkansas River and beyond.

“We have such a tremendous responsibility, as a generation, to do things that will enable our children and grandchildren to enjoy the beauty that is here,” he said.

Villines was elected to the Little Rock Board of Directors in 1984 and became mayor in 1989 and county judge in 1991.

“My theme has always been – number one – together we can make a difference,” he said.

Working with the eight mayors in Pulaski County, Villines helped to develop a proposal and held public hearings for the River Project, a comprehensive plan that called for a new arena, an expanded convention center, enhanced parks, pedestrian bridges, a streetcar system, and trails.

“We began talking about ‘place making,’ creating a place for people,” he said. The plan passed with more than 60 percent of the voters’ support. “People voted for it because they thought it was a good idea, and they liked to see us working together.”

Villines has worked on umbrella issues, including the environment, economic growth, and education. Initially, he dealt with those separately but over time began to see them as interconnected.

For example, many companies believe that employees choose where they want to live before they choose where they want to work, so companies look to locate in areas with outdoor entertainment and recreational opportunities, he said.

Villines has also become very interested in “green buildings.” After attending a Greenprints conference in Atlanta, he helped establish an Arkansas chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. The chapter has grown to include more than 200 members, with satellite groups in northwest and northeast Arkansas, he said.

With the Arkansas River Trail running along both sides of the river and connected by Junction Bridge and ultimately by the Clinton Bridge (formerly the Rock Island Bridge) in the east in downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock, Villines and other city and county leaders began to envision a way to connect the trails in the western part of the cities.

It was a big challenge and required a big solution – the Big Dam Bridge.

Eight years in the planning and making – the bridge over Murray Lock and Dam is the longest pedestrian/bicycle bridge ever built

for that purpose.

“It’s a great engineering example and unique in that it was built into a dam not originally designed to have a bridge on top,” he said.

The Big Dam Bridge became an iconic structure and what Villines calls “a pavilion in the sky.”

It’s been great for the economy and health of the cities, too, attracting more visitors to the state, and walkers and cyclists often tell him that they’ve lost weight using the trails and bridge.

“A community needs something to point to and say ‘That is big’,” he said. “They can look at it and see just how big it is and know that if we can do this, we can do anything, and that’s important to the spirit of the community ... to know that big challenges can be overcome and big dreams can be achieved.”

The Big Dam Bridge is not the final jewel in Villines’ crown as Pulaski County Judge.

In July, Two Rivers Bridge, just west of the I-430 bridge and Big Dam Bridge, opened connecting the River Trail to a 1,000-acre natural park, part of which once housed a county penal farm. The park will offer a natural forest with “garden rooms,” he said.

“It’s amazing. Generations can now learn about forest and tree species in a place that once represented failure and lost hope,” Villines said.

Bridges and trails now link 24 parks offering visitors a variety of experiences along a 17-mile journey from the Clinton Presidential Library to Pinnacle Mountain on the South side and Palarm Park on the North side with four pavilions in the sky connecting people and places along its length. And there’s more work to be done. Plans are under way for a southwest ramp of the Big Dam Bridge, Class I trail to Pinnacle Mountain, and the Coleman Creek reclamation project at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This trail has been designated by AAA Magazine as the “Best Trail in the South.”

Villines is also supporting a restoration of McMath Boulevard through MacArthur Park.

The park, he said, is second only to Little Rock Central High School in historical significance.

“The Civil war nearly started there,” he said, explaining that, before Fort Sumter, there was nearly a battle until the Union troops backed off.

Just as he did at Hendrix, Villines credits his family’s church background for his success.

“A church is an operation that involves politics (how people work together),” he said, recalling how he watched his dad get church members to work together. “It’s just a different crowd. I laughed and told my dad I wanted a broader congregation.”

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 29

Photo by Joshua Daugherty

Little Rock’s Litigator city attorney appointment grows into 25-year commitment

By Rob O’Connor ’95 Associate Editor When Tom Carpenter ’74 was appointed to the Little Rock City Attorney’s Office in 1984, he didn’t think he’d still be serving the capital city more than 25 years later.

His law partner was just elected judge, the owner of the building out of which their practice was based sold the property, and Carpenter’s wife Kay was expecting the couple’s first child.

“I took the job thinking I’d be here a year, and I’ve been here ever since,” said Carpenter, who graduated from Hendrix in 1974 with a degree in history and political science. He served as Assistant City Attorney until 1991, when he was appointed City Attorney.

Carpenter said Hendrix shaped his interest in government.

At Hendrix, Carpenter, a North Little Rock native, served as a “town man” representative and parliamentarian in the Student Senate.

He was also a member of the swim team and

30 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

was co-editor of the student newspaper, along with Eric Jackson ’72.

“I’ve come to the firm conclusion that the Senate made the wrong choice that year,” he said, adding that students might have been better off if the newspaper was in the hands of his classmates David Terrell ’74, formerly of the Washington Post, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mary Ann Guinn ’73.

After Hendrix, Carpenter went to law school at the University of Arkansas, where he studied trial practice and criminal law, and later clerked for a year for Darrell Hickman of the Arkansas Supreme Court.

In private practice, Carpenter developed an expertise in death penalty cases, particularly the penalty phase. Just prior to joining the City Attorney’s office, Carpenter was involved in a four-week death penalty court martial at the air base in Jacksonville. It was the country’s first death penalty case after President Ronald Reagan reinstated the death penalty on January 31, 1984. His client was one vote short of acquittal and received a life sentence.

During his tenure with the city, Carpenter has worked closely on the development of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and the River Market, and modification of the Board of Directors representation, including ward representation and a directly elected mayor with significant authority.

His work echoes his Hendrix experience, he said.

“At Hendrix, you get to know a lot of people in a lot of disciplines and talk to people with all kinds of backgrounds,” he said. “That’s pretty much essential to represent a local government.”

“There were so many opportunities at Hendrix to do so many things that are encouraged not discouraged,” he said, citing how students started KHDX radio station while he was at Hendrix. “Hendrix really asks ‘Why not?’”

Carpenter’s Hendrix Odyssey included an independent study in economic history with Burvin Alread ’49 and a summer project called Play and Learn Schools (PALS), an education project for children in low-income housing projects.

“I look at my Hendrix degree with great pride. I just don’t think there’s a better college experience in the country,” he said.

“The ultimate thing in public service is everybody’s important, and the ultimate thing at Hendrix is everybody’s important.”

www.hendrix.edu

Photo by Kirk Jordan

Abolitionist Attorney

state’s chief public defender confronts capital punishment case by case

By Werner Trieschmann ’86 Didi Sallings ’83 fondly remembers her social psychology class at Hendrix taught by Ralph McKenna and says what she learned there “I use every day at my job.”

Sallings, who majored in psychology, is now the executive director of the Public Defender Commission for the State of Arkansas. With more than 160 lawyers who work throughout the state on cases throughout the year, it is, as Sallings likes to say, “the largest law firm in the state.”

Sallings has been in charge of the APDC from the beginning in 1993, when the agency was formed to deal with the inequities in death penalty cases in Arkansas. The longrange plan was for the Defender Commission to take over the public defender functions in Arkansas. When Sallings was tapped to be the director, the new agency had a budget of $300,000. Today, the agency is swelling with employees and the budget is more than $20 million.

www.hendrix.edu

But when Sallings was handed her diploma at Hendrix, she was headed to medical school.

“I was pre-med,” said Sallings. “But then I took the LSAT and did really well.”

Sallings promptly went to the William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

“I was going to go to medical school to save lives,” says Sallings. “And I like to say that is what I am doing now.”

As a young law student, Sallings wanted to work on trials and be in the courtroom. She was told that her best chance to do that was to be a public defender. Her first jury trial was a death penalty case that “we lost but then won on appeal.”

From the beginning of her law career, Sallings has advocated for the elimination of the death penalty. Last year, she received the Abolitionist of the Year Award from the Arkansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

From her vantage point, she doesn’t see the death penalty going away for good.

“I think we are going to have to fight it case

by case,” says Sallings. “There are too many people who want it, at least they think that way until they get on a jury where they have to decide life or death. They go for [the death penalty] against the poor and the disenfranchised. Of course that is not to discount the victims [of the crimes] and their losses.”

There are, on occasion, defendants that present more difficulties than just a tough and detailed case, Sallings said.

“Sometimes you have to defend people that don’t want you to defend,” she said. “Sometimes you have clients who are unable to recognize what is in their best interest.”

She no longer works in a courtroom, and she misses that heady environment. She knows what her agency does is of great importance to the law and society in general.

“It is critical to our system of justice that somebody does it,” said Sallings. “The biggest problem we have is burnout. It takes a certain mindset to do it. You have to believe what you are doing is important and essential.”

Hendrix alumnus Werner Trieschmann is a freelance writer, playwright and instructor. He lives in Little Rock with his wife and two sons.

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 31

To protect serve and m fits e r o f i n u n ce Poli just fi e n ffi o Matt H

32 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

www.hendrix.edu

By Rob O’Connor ’95 Associate Editor

www.hendrix.edu

incredibly smart people who are doing a great job,” he said.

Police work is the ultimate marriage of theory and practice.

“When it comes down to it, this is public policy at the community and grassroots level,” Hoffine said. “I think it should be required that anyone in law school or abnormal psychology should probably ride with a police officer and see how laws are written and how they’re applied or how they’re written and how they interact with society.”

As a police officer, Hoffine sees the legal process full circle.

“I see it all the way through investigation and arrest to the trial and appeal,” he said.

His experience as an officer in court reminds him of a philosophy lesson he learned at Hendrix.

“You see Plato’s allegory of the cave every day,” he said. “I’m real and I know what I see is real. If a guy is drunk and stumbles into the street, I arrest him and take him to jail. But when he goes to court, his word is equally valid. It’s his word versus my word.”

The public should know that police officers are only there to serve and protect the community, he said.

“We love to do the work we do, but we don’t pick up people for no reason,” he said.

“We’re citizen reactionary. People want us to be there.”

A longtime fan of crime novels by authors such as James Ellroy, Hoffine’s ultimate goal is to work as a detective for the department’s Special Investigations Division and eventually to become a homicide detective.

“I realized I really loved this job and decided to make it a career,” he said. “This is what I am.”

Photos by Joshua Daugherty

Every time Matt Hoffine ’96 steps outside his home, he is on the job, protecting and serving the Little Rock community as a member of the Little Rock Police Department.

Assigned to the city’s northwest patrol division, he works the capital city’s most heavily populated area, patrolling everything in the community west of University Avenue and north of Asher Avenue and Colonel Glenn Road.

A psychology major at Hendrix, Hoffine had never considered police work as a career.

“I had never considered it in my entire life,” he said of his vocation. “I never considered it ... and I never watched Cops.”

Hoffine grew up in Houston, Texas. He originally wanted to stay in Houston and go to Rice University.

“My entire life was Houston, so my dad, smartly, said ‘You need to go away’,” said Hoffine, who sang and played bass guitar in a punk band in Houston.

His first visit to campus sealed the deal.

“A lot of things just fit with Hendrix,” he said. “As soon as you saw it and stepped on campus and saw what it was like you were hooked.”

A high school athlete at St. Thomas in Houston, a Catholic boy’s school, Hoffine was a member of a Texas state championship baseball team. He played baseball for four years at Hendrix, mostly as a left fielder. As a student, he also hosted a radio show at KHDX, the campus radio station.

“I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I was really glad I had the college experience that I did at Hendrix.”

After graduating from Hendrix, Hoffine married classmate Elise Allee ’93, who is now a research associate at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He later enrolled at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, taking classes in biology and geology for three and half years.

“I trapped bears and bats and studied ornithology and herpetology,” he said. “I really enjoyed it, but academic life wasn’t what I wanted to do.”

He got his first glimpse of law enforcement by working in wildlife management one summer for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Lonoke Fish Hatchery.

In 2003, he answered an ad for the City of Maumelle, which was hiring police and fire department employees.

“I had no idea what I was in for,” he said.

Hoffine went to the police academy in Pocahontas, Ark. He also took professional development courses in methamphetamine

awareness so he would be prepared for undercover narcotics work.

His experience in Maumelle taught him that crime can happen anywhere, whether in a capital city or a planned suburb.

“I live in Little Rock, and there are risks,” he said. “To believe you are safer wherever you are is just naïve and uninformed,” he said.

“Crime follows money ... some cultures and communities hide it better.”

After two years in Maumelle, Hoffine joined the force in Little Rock.

“Maumelle is a very good place to learn, but Chief Sam Williams pushed me and said, ‘Hey, you need to go to Little Rock’,” he said.

“Everything that happens in Little Rock happens everywhere. It’s just a matter of scale ...

Maumelle is busy, but Little Rock is non-stop.”

When he checks in for his 3 to 11 p.m. shift Wednesday through Sunday, there are already calls waiting on response.

“You get in the car and go,” he said.

It could be an accident or an assault in progress.

“There’s always a wide scope of things you have to deal with in the same day,” he said.

“It’s not easiest thing in the world to do,” he said. “It takes common sense and a certain mindset to do police work.”

One of the most difficult aspects of law enforcement is the learning curve.

“It’s a very steep curve, and there’s very little room for mistakes,” he said.

Little Rock police officers go through field training with a senior officer for three months before they work independently, he said.

His fellow officers have been as influential as the faculty members he had at Hendrix, Hoffine said.

“I’m really proud because I work with

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 33

From Literature to Law senator celebrates holistic education in elected office

“The longer I was a Hendrix student, the more interested I became in public service,” says Paragould, Ark., native Robert Thompson ’93, whose interest in public service has manifest in a successful career in state politics.

As State Representative for House District 78, Thompson sponsored successful legislation that addressed concerns of recently consolidated school districts and isolated schools; allowed prosecutors to introduce new evidence in sex abuse cases; and created a drug court for Greene County.

Thompson was elected to the State Senate in November 2006 and re-elected for a second term in November 2010. He represents State Senate District 11, which includes Clay, Lawrence and part of Craighead County, as well as his native Greene County. He was chosen by his Senate colleagues to be majority leader of the Senate during 2011-2012.

Thompson first visited Hendrix as a ninth-grade student at a United Methodist youth retreat – staying in the same Martin Hall room he would later live in as a Hendrix student – and then lived on campus for six weeks during Arkansas Governor’s School in the summer of 1988.

He started out as an English major at Hendrix and initially wanted to be a journalist. As a student, he served as editor of The Profile and he took part in an independent study, overseen by his faculty advisor Dr. Alice Hines, at the Arkansas Times. It was an interesting period in the print news business in Arkansas, he said. The state’s two daily newspapers had an intense rivalry, and during his internship the Arkansas Gazette was bought by the Arkansas Democrat.

“It was fascinating to sit there working as an intern and watch that,” said Thompson.

As an intern, Thompson wrote an article on a group of black state legislators in 1892. For the project he interviewed Rodney Slater, the state highway commissioner at the time and who later served in the Clinton administration.

“It was a fantastic experience and meant an awful lot to me,” he said.

As he became more interested in contemporary issues and policy, Thompson became a history major.

“The faculty pushed me in that direction. They were dynamic and their courses were appealing ... It drew you in, and that had a huge effect on me,” Thompson said.

“The class I think about the most is Bob Meriwether’s American State Government,” he said, referring to the late education and history professor, who was also from his hometown. “There was a lot of Arkansas history and a lot of Greene County history in that class, which was really special to me.”

“Dr. Tom Stanley’s History of Economic Thought is something that has informed my thinking about how we should spend our resources,” he said.

“I use what I learned at Hendrix every day and think about it all the

34 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

Photo by Kirk Jordan

By Rob O’Connor ’95 Associate Editor

time as a legislator,” he said, adding that every three or four years, he wishes he could go back and get another major, such as economics, chemistry, or physics. “That sort of holistic education background is invaluable to public service.”

Thompson also interacts with many Hendrix alumni in his role as legislator.

“I have an instant connection with Hendrix graduates because we share a common bond,” he said, citing his work with State Senator Ruth Whitaker ’58 and others.

Thompson also works frequently with Brad Phelps ’98, Chief Deputy Attorney General in the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office.

“We work very closely on legislation,” he said. “Anything with a constitutional issue, he’s the first person I call.”

“Hendrix produces a lot of attorneys and students interested in public service, and a lot of folks who work in state government,” he said. “And I hope that in the future it will continue to produce students who have that diverse experience and liberal arts education ... I think that’s vitally important.”

www.hendrix.edu

Patient Politician

from the blackboard to the senate floor The political life of Linda Pondexter Chesterfield ’69 began in a social studies classroom.

Chesterfield was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 2002. In 2010, she defeated Hendrix politics professor Dr. Jay Barth ’87 for a seat in the Arkansas Senate.

“My teaching career provided me with a built-in political base,” said Chesterfield. “That base was expanded by my union involvement.”

Chesterfield spent 30 years as a teacher. During that time, she held several important offices, including president of the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers, President of the Arkansas Education Association and member of the National Education Association Executive Committee and Board of Directors.

Chesterfield’s interest in politics took off at an early age.

“My grandmother would take me to political events,” said Chesterfield. “Watching the Kennedy-Nixon debates whet my appetite for politics. I was required to watch and discuss the news.”

At Hendrix, Chesterfield was a history and political science major.

“I thought about a career in law, but I became a teacher,” she said.

Her political ambitions took time to rise to the surface and more time before they were realized. She looks back fondly on the day she was sworn in the Arkansas Senate despite a weather system that had dumped ice on the ground the night before.

“I was surrounded by several family members who braved the weather,” recalled Chesterfield. “I longed for my mom to share the day with me as she had shared my first day in the House, but the weather would not permit it. The first day became warmer when I greeted friends with whom I had served in the House and met new colleagues in the freshman class. Chief Justice Hannah swore me in surrounded by my husband, nephew and sister-in-law.”

The biggest surprise of her first days in the Senate came without warning.

“President Pro Tempore Paul Bookout named me one of his four Assistant Pro Tempores of the Senate,” said Chesterfield. “It was an unexpected honor.”

Her time in the Arkansas House also prepared her for the work in the Senate.

“What I have learned most from my role in the legislature is patience,” she said. “The patience to work the chambers to get bills passed. The patience to know that getting my way is not nearly as important as getting the work done while maintaining the collegiality that is critical for working with others. The patience to know that each idea has merit, but not all of them belong in law.”

As a politician, Chesterfield is hopeful when thinking about the ire directed at lawmakers during and after the debt ceiling debate. She hopes a new political class will come about as the result.

“I hope that it has heightened young people’s awareness about how government works,” said Chesterfield. “For good or ill, everyone is now

www.hendrix.edu

Photo by Kirk Jordan

By Werner Trieschmann ’86

paying attention. I hope every one of them will say to him or herself, ‘I can do better than this because I am a rational person who will not allow this country to go to hell in a breadbasket because of political affiliation.’ Anger can become a force for good if it is properly channeled. I hope that this anger ... seeps into the very soul of our young people’s being and motivates them to run for office.”

Chesterfield is the first African-American graduate of Hendrix College and is the inaugural recipient of the Hendrix Odyssey Medal for Professional and Leadership Development.

Hendrix alumnus Werner Trieschmann is a freelance writer, playwright and instructor. He lives in Little Rock with his wife and two sons.

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 35

By Cody Usher Sports Information Director Hendrix College men’s soccer team coach Doug Mello has set a collegiate coaching record for coaching more games as a head coach than any other coach in collegiate history: 1,142 by the end of the current season.

Mello, in his 34th season of coaching, has racked up a combined men’s and women’s record of 690-365-69 for a winning percentage of .645. Mello’s 408 men’s victories ranks 26th all-time in all divisions of NCAA and 10th among Division III coaches. His 282 women’s victories ranks 29th in all divisions and 13th in Division III. In his first three years as the coach at Hendrix, Mello has compiled 22 victories.

“He has really turned the Hendrix men’s soccer program around since arriving a few years ago,” said Ian Evans ’12 from Simsbury, Conn. “He has us playing a great exciting style of play, winning more games per season than Hendrix has in the past 15-20 years. The most exciting part of it is still to come this season.

I think Hendrix will witness the best season ever for its men’s soccer program, and Coach Mello is central to bringing in the players and the style of play that accounts for that transformation.”

“It has been a thrill playing here at Hendrix College for Coach Mello,” said Dylan Reed ’13 from Conway. “His vast knowledge and understanding of the game of soccer has

tremendously impacted my ability as a player and as a person. His strong desire to win is contagious to the team and has helped us to set great achievements for this school.”

“Doug has seen every situation. When I watch games with him he picks out the important stuff in minutes. He has most of the players scouted in no time. And he does it all with a great sense of respect and humor,” said Jim Evans, Hendrix College head women’s soccer coach. “He is one of a kind.”

Prior to joining the Hendrix staff before the 2008 season, Mello had stops at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Siena Heights University in Adrian, Mich.; University of the Southwest in Hobbs, N.M.; and Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. In 18 seasons at the helm at Luther, Mello guided the men to six conference titles and five NCAA Division III National appearances, including two Elite Eights.

During his collegiate career, Mello has been named District Coach of the Year nine times and Regional Coach of the Year on four occasions. He was recently inducted into the Siena Heights Hall of Fame.

“Who would have figured that in the fall of 1977 after my senior season at Aquinas College I would be offered the head coaching job at my alma mater, just shy of my 21st birthday and I’d still be with the game I love 34 years later,” Mello said. “I’ve been very fortunate to be associated with first-class student-athletes who comprised many top-level teams during my tenure.”

Photo by Bruce Layman ’12

Men’s Soccer Coach Sets Collegiate Coaching Record

“What I’m most proud of about my career is the large number of players who have given back to the game by becoming coaches,” he continued. “There are over 50 collegiate coaches who I’ve had the pleasure of mentoring.”

“Of course, I don’t remember all 1,100-plus matches, but it’s magical to run into former players and relive eventful games though their memories when we reconnect at alumni events,” he said. “I’ve always been a coach who demands the best out of my players, but I also make sure they have fun, and enjoy the journey.”

Bump, Set, Spike

Meek joins staff as new volleyball coach

By Cody Usher Sports Information Director Ryan Meek is the new head women’s volleyball coach. Prior to joining the Warrior staff, Meek spent two seasons at Missouri Southern State University as the top assistant coach and was named interim head coach in February 2011. Meek led MSSU to their first regional ranking since 2006 and coached four All-Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association players. Meek received a bachelor’s degree in public administration from the University of Arkansas in 2008 and served as a volunteer assistant from January 2007

36 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

to July 2008. From 2004-06, Meek was the head girl’s varsity coach and assistant boy’s coach for Simi Valley High School in California, where he was a three-year letterman at opposite and outside hitter, led the team in kills and digs for two seasons, and helped SVHS to a top 10 national ranking as a senior in 2000. As a coach, he led the SVHS girls to three consecutive top five regional rankings and the state playoffs for the first time in school history. The boy’s squad received a national ranking and Meek coached 10 future collegiate players.

Photo by Bruce Layman ’12

athletics

Career Goal

www.hendrix.edu

www.hendrix.edu

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 37

alumni voices: beth phelps ’80

“You are somehow huge.” One of the most sincere compliments I have ever received.

Standing on the school grounds outside Kiriko Secondary School at the end of the day visiting with teachers from the primary school, Evelyn turned to me and said “I wish I were like you.” Expecting the usual “Because you are American and all Americans are rich” or other misperceptions that usually came along with the statement “Because you are American,” I had to smile when the compliment was offered.

Dispatching and dissecting in zoology and anatomy had sealed the deal – plant biology was my future. Most of my classmates were headed to medical or graduate school and I knew graduate school was going to be necessary, but I wasn’t ready. Armed with a new biology degree from Hendrix and ready for adventure, the Peace Corps seemed like a great way to travel with a purpose.

In the fall of 1980, I joined 23 other volunteers from around the country to train for our two-year commitment, teaching various subjects in secondary schools in Kenya, East Africa. I ended up teaching chemistry, physics and math – go figure, no biology – to high school-age students who lived with no electricity, no indoor plumbing and no telephone.

Most had never been further from their home than they could walk in a few hours. This meant I also had no electricity or indoor plumbing and, since it was pre-cell phone, letters were the only means of communication with friends and family. However, I was prepared and these conditions easily turned into the day-to-day routine.

What I was not as prepared for was the fact that a 5-foot-10-inch, white-skinned, greeneyed mwalimu (teacher) would stand out like a neon billboard attracting everyone’s attention no matter where I was or what I was doing.

Groups of children would gather to watch as I did laundry, shopped at the market, and walked to and from school. I am sure the whole village knew what I was doing every minute of every day. Fresh milk, still warm from the cow, arrived every morning like clockwork, a little more if another volunteer was visiting. I never had to make special arrangements for these changes since everyone was watching.

In Kenya, schools operate on a British-like

38 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

Courtesy photo

Peace Corp experience is life changing – in a big way

After graduating from Hendrix, Beth Phelps ’80, center, joined the Peace Corps and taught various subjects in secondary schools in Kenya. system of education with three months of classes and a month off, which was great for traveling the country and experiencing the different regions and their cultures. I traveled by train, sleeper car and all, to Mombasa on the coast of the Indian Ocean and lived in its Hindi/ Muslim cultural mix. Another holiday was spent hitching a ride with a supply convoy to Lake Turkana and the northern desert with its nomadic, animal-based culture and economy. Getting to know locals as individuals and each of us sincerely interested in understanding one another is the goal of the Peace Corp experience for individuals, communities, and countries. And even though it may sound corny, it is generally the reality as well.

In the winter of 1982, I left Kenya, returned to Arkansas and then began graduate school with hopes that my students learned something and benefited from my efforts in the classroom. What I know for certain is that I had learned much about the world and myself from my experiences with them in the classroom, living in the village of Kiriko in central Kenya surrounded by small coffee and tea

farms, traveling the country and serving as a Peace Corps volunteer. As with many experiences in life, the impact and results are often different than anticipated. I had learned that, as an American, I was indeed rich. Back home, I did not have to worry about access to safe drinking water, plentiful food, health care and educational opportunities.

Former Peace Corps volunteer Beth Phelps ’80 is a Pulaski County extension agent and staff chair. She lives in Little Rock.

www.hendrix.edu

alumni news Photo by Joshua Daugherty

2011-2012 Alumni Board of Governors Shawn Johnson ’98 – Chair Cathy Smith Ketcheside ’74 Carol Danehower ’77 Bill Freeze ’77 Hannah Beene-Lowder ’79 Rebecca Manuel ’79 Laura Beal Middlekauff ’80 Sonya Miller ’82 Robert Burnett ’83 David Fleming ’84 Brooks Gentry ’84

Katherine Coulter Stanick ’37 Mary Ruth Price Brown ’61 Nancy Coleman Smith ’61 Dent Gitchel ’63 Jan McCutchen Graham ’65 Vondale Graham ’65 Carolyn Sprow Stout ’66 Al Cook ’67 Walter May ’73 Bill Higgs ’74

Jamie Brainard named Director of Alumni Engagement

Photo by Joshua Daugherty

Jamie Stewart Brainard joined the Hendrix staff in May as Director of Alumni Engagement. She oversees events and programs for alumni and friends of the College.

Brainard was at CARTI for three and a half years, most recently as an annual giving officer. She has experience as a special events coordinator with CARTI, catering and services manager for The Peabody Hotel, and at Dillard’s corporate advertising division. A Little Rock native, Brainard is an alumna of Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., and has a deep understanding of and support for the liberal arts.

“Jamie is a tremendous asset to the College,” said Pamela Owen, Associate Vice President for Alumni and Constituent Engagement.

“Maintaining and enhancing the connection between Hendrix and our alumni and friends is one of the most important priorities of the College. Jamie’s experience and leadership is making a difference in this critical role.”

www.hendrix.edu

Brad Phelps ’98 Mark Wilson ’98 Chassie Sasser Jones ’02 Julie Alford Routon ’04 Stephen Routon ’04 Lizzie Price ’07 Jennifer Tate Becker ’08 Michael McAllister ’09 Jake Eddington ’10 B. J. Fogleman ’10

Andrea Cunningham Giddens ’85 Clay Lentz ’85 Stacy Duckett ’86 Pam Porter Lentz ’86 George Mackey ’88 Rob Nichols ’91 Ann Spatz Nichols ’91 Crystal Snider Phelps ’95 Margie Alsbrook ’97 Adam Mitchell ’97

Save the dates • Night on Capitol Hill with our host Hendrix College alumnus, Congressman Tim Griffin (Washington, D.C.): Nov. 2 • Night at the High Museum (Atlanta): Nov. 9 • Night at the Rep, To Kill a Mockingbird (Little Rock): Feb. 7, 2012 • Alumni Weekend: April 20-22, 2012 • Odyssey College: May 19-20, 2012 • Alaskan Discovery Cruise (Vancouver, Canada, to Anchorage, Alaska): June 13-20, 2012 • Celebrate your birthday in the Hendrix cafeteria during monthly Alumni Birthday Lunches: Oct. 28, Nov. 18, Dec. 9, Jan. 20, Feb. 17, March 16, April 27, and May 18.

Visit www.hendrix.edu/alumni for more information.

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 39

Photo by Thomas Koen ’15

Service in Fayetteville

student perspective

Hannah Hill ’15 (top), Tammi Ragan ’15 (bottom), and Joseph Siebenmorgen ’15 were part of the Service in Fayetteville Orientation trip, where they volunteered with Rebuilding Together of Northwest Arkansas. The students were tasked with installing new windows, new siding, and kitchen flooring of a local home.

alumnotes

Alumnotes

connecting with classmates 1949

Dr. Alfred G. Garrett of Fleetwood, N.C., composed and wrote a new musical titled Marry Me, Marry Me.

1960

Dr. F. Gladwin Connell of Little Rock is the President-elect of the Arkansas Hospice board of directors.

1961

John A. Raymond and his wife Sharon have moved to Champagne Village, a Senior Condominium Community in North San Diego County, Calif.

1962

Barry Colvert of Alexandria, Va., appeared in the movie Harsh Times with Academy Award-winner Christian Bale and Eva Longoria.

Kathy Snell Tadlock of Sheridan was inducted into the Hendrix College Sports Hall of Honor and also into the Arkansas Track Hall of Fame.

1964

Ray Bell of Franklin, Tenn., was inducted into the Tennessee Music Education Association Hall of Fame.

1966

Dr. Carolyn Kane of Canton, Mo., published a juvenile fantasy novel titled Taking Jenny Home.

1967

Dr. Justin Tull of Carrolton, Texas,

Share your news with other alumni by visiting www.hendrix.edu/alumni and using the online form. Information received after September 1 will appear in the spring edition.

published his third book, Christmas Journeys: Finding Joy along the Way, and has established a new website, justintull.com. He is also in the process of becoming a lead trainer of interim ministers for the United Methodist Church.

1976

James H. DeLamar of Bryant is Director of Finance and Facility Management at the Benton First United Methodist Church.

Timothy R. Moore of Alexandria, Va., received

John Meeks ’54

of Washington, D.C., has published his debut fiction work, Bogey’s Final Gift, a new horse racing novel that celebrates the plight of the underdog.

Perfect for animal lovers, racing aficionados, sports fans, and the general reader who loves rooting for the deserving underdog, Bogey’s Final Gift is the result of Meek’s own experiences as a successful racecourse breeder and owner. Together with his partners, Meeks has bred and campaigned multiple stakes winners.

Dr. E. Brooks Holifield ’63 Named Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Dr. E. Brooks Holifield ’63 has been named a 2011 fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research. Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences has elected leading “thinkers and doers,” including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Albert Einstein.

The current membership of 4,000 fellows and 600 Foreign Honorary members includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

42 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

Dr. Holifield graduated from Hendrix with a degree in philosophy/religion and went on to graduate from Yale University. He has been a professor at Emory University for 41 years. Dr. Holifield’s new election to the academy is just one of many major academic awards and fellowships. He has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the 2010 Emory University Scholar-Teacher of the Year, and received the Outstanding Theological Educator award from the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada.

www.hendrix.edu

Jo Luck ’63 has been appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Board for International Food and Agricultural Development. The board advises USAID administrators on agricultural development priorities and issues as they relate to family and hunger. The BIFAD was created in 1975 and is made up of seven members, at least four of whom must be from universities in the United States.

In 2004, Jo Luck was an inaugural recipient of an

Odyssey Medal in the Service to the World category.

Jo Luck served as Heifer International’s president and chief executive officer from 1992 to January 2010. She was responsible for HPI’s global programs for sustainable development and helped more than four million families in 125 countries around the world. While there, she helped grow a $7 million budget to more than $130 million, and helped expand programs and projects into numerous countries worldwide.

Margaret Alsbrook ’97 Appointed to Justice of the Peace Margaret “Margie” Alsbrook ’97 was appointed by Gov. Mike Beebe as the newest justice of the peace of Washington County. She replaces former justice of the peace Gary Carnahan, who resigned in July. Alsbrook practices food and agricultural law and has worked previously with nonprofit organizations as a board member.

Alsbrook graduated with a degree in history. “My

an award for “outstanding contributions and exceptional service” from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the National Intelligence Council.

1977

Dr. Susan Millar Williams of McClellanville, S.C., co-authored Upheaval in Charleston, a book about the devastating 1886 earthquake and the murder and political intrigue that followed, published by the University of Georgia Press.

1979

Rev. Rex Hays of Patterson, Calif., is the pastor of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

www.hendrix.edu

1982

Jana Collins Bundy of Blandford Forum, U.K., is the President of the Wessex Magical Association in Southern England. She and her life partner Paul Hyland are the directors of the Art of the Impossible Ltd., a company that offers translation, prose, poetry and magic to the world at large.

1985

Dr. Greg Finn of Chesterfield, Mo., was nominated as a St. Louis Best Doctor in St. Louis Magazine for the sixth year in a row.

Jo Williams of Galveston, Texas, received the 2010 NOAA Fisheries Service

education at Hendrix instilled a strong passion for public service, and an awareness of my local and global community,” she says, “I also met, and continue to meet, amazing people through the college. When I think about how this appointment took place I realize I spoke with someone I met at Hendrix, or through Hendrix, almost every step of the way.”

Employee of the Year Award for contributions to the nation toward the stewardship of living marine resources.

Williams is a research fishery biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service.

1989

Paul Smith of Mason, Ohio, signed a contract with AMACOM Books to author a book on leadership by storytelling, due out in the summer of 2012.

1990

Robin Froman Green of Bentonville is a Circuit Judge in northwest Arkansas.

Professor Stephen W. Kerr ’76

was recognized by members of the Warriors baseball team for his support of the team in the 2011 season. An avid Warrior athletics fan, Kerr served as the team’s faculty fellow. The team signed a baseball in appreciation of his support.

Pictured are: Aaron Bowen ’12, Kyle Raskin ’12, Teddy Smoyer ’12, Stephen Kerr ’76, Jeff Forgerson ’11, Jordan Suydam ’11, Mark Vlaskamp ’12, Nathan Harr ’12, Geoff Lomax ’11, and Drew Gustafson ’12.

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 43

alumnotes

Jo Luck ’63 Appointed to Board for International Food and Agricultural Development

alumnotes

1992

Dr. John Krueger of Claremore, Okla., is serving as a George W. Merck Foundation Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass.

1993

Tracy McKay of Chicago, Ill., who writes under the pen name Chloe Neill, released Hard Bitten, the fourth book in the Chicagoland Vampire series. The book appeared on three New York Times Bestseller lists in the May New York Times Book Review.

Dr. Wallace “Dent” Gitchel, Jr. of Morgantown, W.V., completed his Ph.D. in rehabilitation education from the University of Arkansas where he was a Walton Distinguished Doctoral Fellow. He also completed post-master’s certificates in education statistics research and educational measurement and is currently an Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator of the Rehabilitation Counseling Program at West Virginia University.

See New Children.

Paul Prater of Little Rock was selected as one of Arkansas Businesses’ “40 Under 40.” Prater is Managing Partner at Hosto, Buchan, and Prater, PLLC, an Arkansas-based regional law firm.

1997

Christy Hickman Baker of Conway was promoted to Senior Attorney with the Social Security Administration’s Office of Disability Adjudication and Review in June. See New Children.

Wendy Thibault Kane of Fayetteville became a Certified Public Accountant in March 2010. See New Children.

Brett Worlow of Fayetteville is the Senior Counsel for Tyson Foods, Inc., where he works in areas of finance, securities, mergers and acquisitions, and real estate. See Marriages.

2000

Chris Olson of North Little Rock received National Board Certification, an advanced teaching credential.

Matthew A. Shadle of Dubuque, Iowa, published The Orgins of War: A Catholic Perspective.

Robert J. Wolfe of Little Rock was promoted to manager at Frost, PLLC., and also received the Professional of the Year award.

Ashley Harden Hill of Jonesboro and her husband Brian expanded their business to Memphis, Tenn. They now run two Sylvan Learning Centers where 700 students receive services.

2001

Chrissy Jennings Chatham of Little Rock graduated from Leadership Greater Little Rock, Class XXVI. Audrey Dingler Eldridge of Arkadelphia is pursuing a BSN at Henderson State University.

Brooke Augusta Owen of Brooklyn, N.Y., works as an Associate Director at the ACLU Foundation in New York, raising major gifts.

Melissa Prycer of Dallas, Texas, was named Educator of the Year by the Texas Association of Museums Educator’s Committee.

2002

2003

Dr. Michael Chappell of Seattle, Wash., finished his ophthalmology residency at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. He, his wife Mandi and baby Anna have relocated to Seattle, Wash. where Michael will serve a two-year fellowship in ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Birc Morledge of Little Rock is an associate attorney for the Bill James Law Firm.

Sarah Razer Carnahan of Little Rock received her master’s degree in library science from Texas

Woman’s University where she was inducted into Epsilon Omega Epsilon, a national honor society for online education.

2004

Dr. Wesley Beal of Batesville received a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in August 2010 and is teaching in the English department of Lyon College. See New Children.

Mandi Hatfield Chappell of Seattle, Wash., is pursuing her MBA at the University of Washington.

Jera Houghtaling of Fayetteville is the Deputy Public Defender for Benton County.

Anna Patterson Strong of Little Rock received her Master of Public Service and Master of Public Health degrees from the Clinton School of Public Service and the UAMS College of Public Health. She now works as a Senior Policy Analyst at the UAMS Center for Rural Health.

Jessica Miller ’05 and Darcy Baskin ’05 Celebrate Ten-Year Roommate Anniversary Being randomly assigned a roommate is both an exciting and nerve-racking experience for students who chose to complete the Residence Life Roommate Survey, but Residence Life does a pretty good job matching students together. Just ask Jessica Miller and Darcy Baskin, both 2005 graduates.

Matched randomly in 2001, Jessica and Darcy have lived together since their freshman year, with the exception of one semester when both were abroad. Ten years and two post-graduate degrees later, they are still roommates, going so far as to say they have become like sisters ... borrowing each other’s clothes, occasionally

44 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

bickering, but sharing a very strong bond.

Darcy said, “When I was accepted at Hendrix, I remember being very anxious about having a random roommate but I couldn’t imagine my Hendrix experience or post-college life without Jessie,” said Darcy, who is now completing her graduate thesis for her public history degree, while her roommate Jessica is wrapping up her ophthalmology residency. Baskin and Miller both graduated from Hendrix with degrees in Environmental Science.

The two roommates planned a 10-year anniversary party in September with their friends and families.

www.hendrix.edu

Anne French ’11 of Chicago, Ill., has become a certified member of the United States Professional Tennis Association, the world’s oldest and largest association of tennis teaching professionals. French earned certification after an extensive examination of tennis operations and management skills, teaching and playing skills, stroke analysis, and demonstrations of group and

private lessons. The certification also included a twohour written exam.

French graduated with a degree in American studies and was a four-year team member and three-year captain of the women’s varsity tennis team. She is attending the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Ill.

Vivienne Gould Schiffer ’80

of Houston, Texas, wrote Camp Nine, a novel inspired by the loyalty and grace of the imprisoned Japanese Americans during WWII. Camp Nine follows Chess, a young woman from Rock, Ark., whose life becomes intertwined with two young internees at a nearby relocation center for Japanese Americans.

Marriages

Dr. Alan W. Newman ’89 to Jessica Boehm, April 18, 2011.

Amy Elizabeth Patton ’92 to Ward Rudolph, June 4, 2011.

Brian Thomas ’96 to Dr. Rebecca Allyn, Feb. 18, 2011.

2006

Brad Howard of Washington, D.C., was elected to serve a two-year term on the board of directors for the Future Business Leaders of America- Phi Beta Lambda, Inc., a nonprofit education association with a quarter million students preparing for careers in business and business-related fields.

Dr. Scott I. Large of Falmouth, Mass., received a joint Ph.D. in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in August 2011. He is now a post-doctoral Researcher for NOAA: Fisheries Division at Woods Hole.

Mindy Eggert Loveless of Seattle, Wash., graduated from UAMS and is now a resident in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, Wash. See Marriages.

2007

Dr. Clair H. Spivey of Paris graduated from the University of Tennessee, College of Dentistry.

2008

Amanda Brooks of Gainesville, Fla., was promoted to Assistant Director of Communications at the University of Florida.

www.hendrix.edu

Andrew Fiser of Nashville, Tenn., had a sermon published in A Beautiful Thing: Sermons from the Inaugural Festival of Young Preachers.

Morgan Ford of North Little Rock started The Girl in the Cowboy Boots: Kicking Up Dust, a campaign against sexual assault against women.

Laura Hutchison of Berkeley, Calif., received her master’s degree in art history from the University of California at Davis.

She is participating in an archeological expedition in the Rhodope Mountains of Southern Bulgaria surveying potential excavation sites of early Thracian culture.

Ashley McLain of Wellston, Okla., earned a master’s degree in adult and higher education with an emphasis in student affairs from the University of Oklahoma in May. She has accepted a position as residence director in the first-year-experience residence hall at the University of Tulsa.

2009

Christine Faubel of Fayetteville is pursuing a master of arts in teaching degree at the University of Arkansas.

Rev. Heather Spencer ’97 to Dustin B. Clawitter, July 31, 2010 Brett Worlow ’97 to Julie Mitchell, Dec. 19, 2010.

Jessica Bartnik ’99 to Charles Saunders, April 9, 2011.

Trent Kelly ’02 to Natalie Boyd, March 12, 2011.

Laura Leigh Hampton ’03 to Austin Oyler, May 14, 2011.

Michael Smith ’03 to Dr. Alice Holifield ’04 at Greene Chapel, Dec. 18, 2010.

Kathryn Harris ’04 to Major Douglas Werner, March 26, 2011.

Amanda Baugh ’04 to Jason Lee, May 29, 2011.

Mindy Eggert ’06 to Tony Loveless, at Greene Chapel, May 8, 2010.

Simira Nazir ’06 to Eric Len Wrigley, Nov. 23, 2010.

Maureen Ryan ’06 to Allan McGehee, April 16, 2011.

Elizabeth Smith ’06 to Rev. Jonah Bartlett, July 16, 2011.

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 45

alumnotes

Anne French ’11 Joins United States Professional Tennis Associaton

alumnotes Trent Kelly ’02 to Natalie Boyd, March 12, 2011.

Heather Spencer ’97 to Dustin B. Clawitter, July 31, 2010

Chris Stevens ’07 to Rachel Floyd ’09, Dec. 18, 2010.

Pictured are: Josh Wilson ’08, Amy Elder Laney ’08, Rachel Floyd ’09, Sam Jackson ’08, Samantha Bode ’09, Andrew Vogler ’07, Lana Alagood ’08, Nick Baugh ’08, Mallory McCormick ’07, Molly Morton ’08.

46 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

Simira Nazir ’06 to Eric Len Wrigley, Nov. 23, 2010.

Gary Berner ’07 to Ryan Hughes ’10, July 2, 2011.

Ben Mire ’06, Simira Nazir Wrigley ’06, Maradyth Hopper McKenzie ’06, and Leah Card ’06

Kent Coombs ’10, Ben Wadley ’10, Ryan Hughes ’10, David Garza ’12, Braden Jones ’10 and John Moore ’10

Brian Spencer Koss ’08 to Cary Glover Small ’08, March 12, 2011.

Pictured are: Rainey Gibson ’08, Katie Greshowak ’09, Krista Goss ’09, Joshua Teal ’08, Ryan Spragg ’08, and Shaba Talebi ’08, Carey Small Koss ’08, and Brian Koss ’08

Sarah Dunaway ’10, Courtney Graves ’12, Jenny O’Shaughnessy ’10, Abby Cape ’10, Ryan Hughes ’10, Hilary Box ’11, Caitlin Murphy ’10, Katie Proehl Erickson ’09, Alex Holmes ’10, Jessica Varnell ’10 and Callan Heath ’10.

www.hendrix.edu

William Carter, first son, first child, to Kaycee Deen Hopper ’97 and her husband Joel.

Haley Mattox ’05 to Gabe Wilcox, Dec. 11, 2010.

Pictured are: Rev. Dr. Michael L. Mattox ’76, Wesley Mattox, Judy Mattox, Haley Mattox Wilcox ’05, Gabe Wilcox, Julianna Mattox, Nathan Mattox ’00, Lara Davis Mattox ’98.

Elizabeth Smith ’06 to Rev. Jonah Bartlett, July 16, 2011.

Pictured are: Laura Thielen Clemmons ’06, Molly Kirkpatrick Cox ’06, Rebecca McBrady Butts ’06, Amanda Crandall ’06, Elizabeth Smith-Bartlett ’06, Jessica Bridges ’06, and Jennifer Erwin ’06.

Gary Berner ’07 to Ryan Hughes ’10, July 2, 2011.

New Children

Sarah Kopp ’07 to Neil Kopper ’08, June 14, 2009.

Alexander Banks, first son, first child, to Alex Dawson ’91 and his wife Melanie, May 25, 2010.

Chris Stevens ’07 to Rachel Floyd ’09, Dec. 18, 2010.

Franklin “Lin” Poff ’10 to Angela Bennett ’10, June 11, 2011.

Henry Marston, first son, second child, to Wallace “Dent” Gitchel Jr. ’93 and his wife Shannon, Dec. 14, 2010.

Eliza Kate, second daughter, second child, to Kristy Manis DePriest ’95 and Russell DePriest ’96, March 7, 2011.

Ansley Catherine, third daughter, third child, to Amy Dunn Johnson ’96 and her husband David, April 25, 2011.

Slade Matthew, first son, first child, to Matthew Kentner ’97 and his wife Tessie, Dec. 28, 2010.

Joseph Isaac, second child, first son, to Sarah Wilson-Cotton ’01 and her husband Jerry.

www.hendrix.edu

Slade Matthew, first child, first son, to Matt Kentner ’97 and his wife Tessie.

Alice Elizabeth, first daughter, first child, to Andrew C. Thompson ’98 and his wife Emily, Sept. 8, 2010.

Andrew Allen, second child, first son, to Fred Baker ’00 and Christy Hickman Baker ’00, May 6, 2011.

Henry Louis, third child, second son, to Kelle Reach Franklin ’00 and her husband Corey, March 15, 2011.

Audrey Jane, first daughter, first child, to Ryan Johnson ’02 and Emily Hunter Johnson ’04, Sept. 27, 2010.

Hadley Elizabeth, second daughter, second child, to Courtney Blaire Masters ’04 and her husband Jason, Nov. 18, 2010.

Reed Roger, first son, first child, to Wesley Beal ’04 and his wife Courtney, Oct. 26, 2010.

Elizabeth Mae, second daughter, second child, to Kyle Shachmut ’06 and Laura Armstrong Shachmut ’05, April 25, 2011.

Brena Pruett, first daughter, second child, to Claire Cooper Gagin ’06 and her husband Joe, April 22, 2011.

Madeline Alice, first child, first daughter, to Katrina Winborn Miller ’91 and her husband Calvin, January 2010.

Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011 47

alumnotes

James Franklin, third child, first son, to Wendy Thibault Kane ’97 and her husband Frank, March 19, 2010.

alumnotes

in memoriam Grace Marie Wertz Ross ’27 Frances McKinney Larzelere ’34 Nina Ruth Turney Tatum ’34 Frances Hutchison Harris ’35 Retha Mae Jones Johnson ’35 Doris Kinard Byrd ’36 Dorothy Elizabeth Rule Jones ’36 Mary Delia Carrigan Prather ’38 Robert Joe “Bobby Joe” Miller ’39 Mildred Ethridge Ford ’40 (Faculty/Staff 1943-1945) Napoleon M. “Nap” Smith ’40 Rev. Edward M. “Ned” Romine ’41 Mary Lou Bland Williams ’43 Fannie Laura Taylor Richards ’43 Betty Jones Williams ’44 Mary Lillian Meador Howard ’45 Dorothy Jeanne Buckley Muncie ’45 Alice Elizabeth Barnett Gibbons ’46 Betty Ann Brumley Gragson ’46 Kathryn Virginia Wood Martin ’46 Rev. Withers McAlister Moore ’47 John Clark Porter ’47 Roland Moore Pryor, Jr. ’47 Betty Lou McKeithen Scott ’47

48 Hendrix Magazine | Fall 2011

James Howard “Jim” Buckley ’48 Jerrine Hart Hilliard ’48 Vada A. Hadfield Donahoo ’49 Helen Marie Warren Casteel ’50 Guy H. Edwards ’50 Justin Edwin Garrison ’50 Joseph Lionel “Jody” Matthews ’50 Dorothy Ann Wilson Impson ’51 Cecil Henry Simmons ’51 Robert Marion “Bob” Coulter ’52 Thomas D. “Tom” Olmstead ’52 Pennix Monroe Thrash, Jr. ’53 John Charles “Charlie” Watson Sr. ’53 Leonard N. “Peanuts” White Jr. ’53 Mary Susan “Mary Sue” Murry ’55 Mary Virginia “Jenny” Speaker Oliver ’54 Rev. Dois Milburn Kennedy ’56 Owen Daniel “Dan” Oates ’57 Oscar Albert “Al” Graves, Jr. ’58 Dr. Louis Roebling Munos ’61 Elizabeth Beatrice “Betty” Copeland Meyer ’62 Gwyndolyn Jo “Gwyn” McKenzie Meyer ’62 Dr. Ralph Edwin Ligon ’63 Judge David T. Hubbard ’64

Dr. Thomas L. “Tom” Powell ’64 Richard Ellis Veale ’64 Dr. Robert Harold “Bob” Fiser, Jr. ’65 Dr. James Stanley “Jim” Mittelstaedt ’65 Sharron Kay Carter Anderson ’66 Dr. Michael Lee “Mike” Gidcomb ’67 Col. Billy Ray Sharp ’71 Dr. William Marc Flurry ’74 Clifford G. “Cliff” Hammons ’75 Dr. David E. Bourne ’76 Joseph Randal “Joe” Fowler ’77 Carol Sloan “Muffin” Swindle, Ph.D. ’80 Martha Goggans ’82 Jeffrey William “Jeff” Robbins ’85 Carla L. Huson ’86 Rhonda Gammill Bouraeda ’90 Diana Mercedes Portilla ’07 Niall John McNellis ’11 Correction Ken M. Harris ’78 was erroneously listed as deceased in the Spring 2011 edition of Hendrix Magazine. We are pleased to report that he is alive and well. We regret the error.

-Helen S. Plotkin, Editor

www.hendrix.edu

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For more information, contact Lori F. Jones ’81, CFP® Director of Planned Giving (501) 450-1476 or email JonesL@hendrix.edu www.hendrix.edu/buildhisfuture

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Dr. Joe Lombardi, Kelly Rappé ’13, and Dillon Blankenship ’12 conduct water chemistry research at Tucker Creek in Conway for Dr. Lombardi’s environmental biology class.