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Compher’s support is to “return the gift of education”
Michael Compher’s dream of working
with nature and improving the environment
has taken him, of all places, to
the nation’s third-largest city, Chicago.
Compher, a 1999 environmental studies
graduate, is an environmental scientist
with the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency in its Chicago office.
Compher’s job is to assess outdoor
air quality. This includes both air quality
monitoring and data analysis. He is
responsible for oversight of state and local
air monitoring programs that receive
federal grants to monitor air quality.
“When I was at Ozarks, I expected
my career would be ‘in the field’ as opposed
to an office job,” Compher said.
“After a short time working at the U.S.
EPA, however, I became interested in
the relationship between people’s exposures
to pollutants in their environment
and how it affects their health. Although
I spend the majority of my time in an office,
I do feel like my work has an impact
on people’s lives and well being.”
After graduating from Ozarks, Compher
went on to earn a master’s degree in
environmental health from the University
of Washington. He credits his Ozarks
education for helping him in graduate
school and in his career.
“U of O’s well-rounded liberal arts
curriculum provided a foundation of
knowledge that prepared me well,” he
said. “I have experienced colleagues that
attended large state universities where
they became highly specialized in one
area of study, but were then limited in
their employment and professional opportunities.
At Ozarks I was well trained
in the sciences, but I also understood
business, politics, history, religion, and
the arts. I think that well-rounded education
has contributed to my successes.”
Despite being in graduate school,
starting a new family and beginning his
career, Compher has been a consistent
donor to the U of O Annual Scholarship
8 Today, FALL/WINTER 2009
Fund since leaving the university.
“I was fortunate to have been fully
supported by Ozarks during my four undergraduate
years through scholarships,
and I am committed to continuing to
support Ozarks to return the gift of education
that was provided to me,” he said.
“Providing support to the schools that
my wife and I attended, each of which
were instrumental in getting us to where
we are in our lives and our careers, is im-
Taylors Honor a Legacy of Education
portant to both of us. Each year we assess
what we can provide, and feel strongly
that any amount is better than nothing.”
Compher and his wife, Amy, have
two children, Matthew, 5, and Lucy, 3.
They live in Highland Park, Ill.
Harve Taylor III (left) of Clarksville, and
Tom M. Taylor (right) of Tulsa, Okla.,
met with Ozarks President Dr. Rick Niece
on September 10 to formally establish a
scholarship endowment in honor of their
parents, Harve Taylor, Jr. and May Mills
Taylor ’37 (photos at right). The Taylor
brothers grew up in Clarksville and,
though neither attended Ozarks, said they
both viewed the University as an integral
part of their lives and of the community.
The Taylors asked that scholarships
provided by the endowment go to support
students in the University’s Teacher
Education Program because their parents
believed so strongly in the value of education.
May Taylor was a lifelong educator
working in the Clarksville School
System, and Harve Taylor, Jr. served on
the Clarksville School Board, as did his
father, Harve Taylor, Sr.