Today - University of the Ozarks

1950sLee Foster ’50 Jonesville, La., wasfeatured in an article in the local newspaperhonoring his long-time service to thecommunity and his 50-year service on theLouisiana Board of Pharmacy. Foster, whois 83, retired from full-time work 10 yearsago, but still serves on the state pharmacyboard.Dr. Paul Clayton ’51, owner of CityDrug Store in Tuckerman, Ark., for the past48 years, was honored with a reception onJune 12, 2007. More than 100 guests tookpart in the ceremony honoring the long-timepharmacist. An active member in theTuckerman community for almost 50 years,Paul recently retired.Bob Hurley ’59 and Susan (Snyder)Hurley ’69 and their family were named2007 Johnson County Farm Family of theYear in September. The Hurleys have ownedpassed him on the sidewalk the first dayof school, he said ‘Hi Kursty, how areyou?’ You don’t expect the universitypresident to remember your name aftermeeting him once, but that’s Dr. Niece.”The university’s strong fund-raisingefforts over the past decade have helpedthe university balance its budget on anannual basis, build and renovate facilities,and secure one of the largest per-studentendowments in the nation.“I think there are three reasons forour incredible fund-raising success,”Niece said. “We have an absolutelyphenomenal Advancement Office thathas the most professional system I haveever worked with. Also, Arkansas is aterrifically generous state. People in thisstate give to causes they believe in. Andthe third reason is that people’sgenerosity is a wonderful endorsementof our campus and its mission. People20 Today, FALL/WINTER 2007a large farming and ranching operationoutside Clarksville for almost 50 years.1960sSylvia (Kauffeld) Kinnear ’66 retiredin May after 39 years of teaching inelementary school in Green Cove Springs,Fla. She is the last of the Kauffeld sisters toretire from teaching. The four sisters, Freda(Kauffeld) Willett ’52, Wanda (Kauffeld)Shively ’54, Sue (Kauffeld) Duff ’63 andSylvia, accumulated 144 years in education.Their mother, Ophelia, passed away inMarch of 2006, at the age of 102. The sisterswrite, “With great pride, we owe ourfulfilling careers in education to ourparents, Fred and Ophelia, who wereadamant that their children would earncollege degrees.”Brenda (Wheeler) DuBois ’69 retiredin May 2007 after 30 years as a substituteteacher in Danville, Ill. She worked inelementary, high school and in specialeducation during her career. She plans tospend the next few years volunteering hertime working with women in abusivesituations and leading small ministry Biblegroups for women.Dynamic Decade --- Continued From Page 17believe in what we’re doing here.”Niece said one of the university’sgoals is to grow enrollment to 700 studentswhile maintaining the small class sizes andpersonal attention that is Ozarks’ niche.“At this point we do not want to growmuch past 700. I have seen campusesgrow too big and, while they still have aquality product, they don’t have thepersonal attention that is really importantto a campus,” he said. “I would like us tobe one of the few campuses in the nationthat is able to control its enrollment andstill be fiscally stable.”One challenge for Ozarks and for allof higher education in Arkansas is toimprove lagging college graduation ratesfor Arkansans, according to Niece.“A challenge for all of us in highereducation in this state is to be certain thatstudents attend the right campus for theirneeds,” he said. “There’s too much1970sDr. Johnny Dillard ’70 recently movedto Northwest Arkansas and opened CentralResearch, a family-owned certified disabledveterans company located in Lowell, Ark.,and with a satellite office in Alexandria,Virginia. Central Research was founded byDillard, who is a retired service connecteddisabled Vietnam era veteran who served thecountry over 24 years. Dillard serves as theCEO. Partner and son Scott Dillard serves asthe vice president and IT coordinator.Jan (Baskin) Spanke ’71 and AshleyWhitman ’66 were both honored as retireesby the Arkansas Association of EducationalAdministrators at its annual award’sluncheon in July. Spanke was the principalat Pyron Elementary School in Clarksville,while Whitman was the superintendent ofschools of the County Line School Districtin Arkansas.Metta (Newton) Holman ’75, theClarksville Housing Authority executivedirector, was named in October as theDistrict 5 Director for Arkansas in theNational Association of Housing andRedevelopment Officials.competition for students in Arkansas. Ascollege presidents, it’s our job to alwaysremind one another that we can improvegraduation rates state-wide if we willwork together to get students on the rightcampus; the campus where they havethe best chance to succeed. For somestudents that is a campus of 700, for someit’s 7,000, and for others that’s a campusof 17,000.”Niece, who says he plans onfinishing his career at Ozarks, said whenhe looks back over the past decade, heknows a lot of factors have played a rolein the university’s unprecedentedsuccess.“Ozarks has improved drasticallyover the past 10 years,” he said. “That’snot because of any one individual. Thepotential was always here. We were, atmost, the catalyst to help Ozarks realizeits potential.”