| MCILROYS
ESTABLISH PROFESSORSHIP IN THE ARTS
Hayden McIlroy Jr. (BSBA 1962) and Mary Joe McIlroy
of Dallas have committed $1 million to the establishment of
an endowed professorship for the benefit of the University
of Arkansas J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences
and the Walton Arts Center.
The McIlroys’ planned gift, committed during the Campaign
for the Twenty-First Century, will be matched by an additional
$1 million from the University of Arkansas Matching Gift Program
to support the endowed professorship. Over time, the total
funding of the McIlroy Family Visiting Professorship in Performing
and Visual Arts will be at least $2 million.
Proceeds from the McIlroy Professor endowment will cover the
cost of hiring and retaining the holder of the position for
a specified term. The program administered by the McIlroy
Professor will involve teaching, research, performance/demonstration
and community service. The holder of the McIlroy Professorship
is to also serve as a catalyst and strengthen the bonds between
the Walton Arts Center and the university, which will be a
significant benefit to the community.
The McIlroy Professor will be selected jointly by the president
of the Walton Arts Center and the dean of Fulbright College.
Typically, the McIlroy Professor will serve as a visiting
professor for a semester at the university, with the holder’s
time culminating in a performance or performances, an exhibition
or master class at the Walton Arts Center or the University
of Arkansas. During the holder’s time on campus, the
visiting artist/scholar will teach classes, lead master classes,
and mentor and advise university students. The McIlroy Professor
will be skilled in one or more artistic media that may include
but not be limited to sculpture, painting, music, acting,
theatre production and direction.
Fulbright College Dean Donald Bobbitt said “The McIlroy
family has long been a patron of the arts in our community,
and we’re grateful to them for this significant gift
to augment the arts in Fulbright College and at the Walton
Arts Center.”
DEAN APPOINTS XIAOGANG PENG SCHARLAU PROFESSOR OF
CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY
 Xiaogang
Peng, whose innovative research in nanomaterials has led to
$2.5 million in grants as well as the founding of a company
in Fayetteville, is the newly appointed Scharlau Professor
of Chemistry and Biochemistry in Fulbright College.
The professorship was made possible through $500,000 of a
$1 million planned gift from Charles Scharlau, former chairman,
president and CEO of Southwestern Energy Co., and his wife,
Clydene. The Scharlau Professorship will be matched by $500,000
from the Matching Gift Program, established through the Walton
Family Charitable Support Foundation’s $300 million
gift to the University of Arkansas.
“Dr. Peng is a model of the integrated scholar. His
research allows him to bring the excitement of the latest
discoveries in his field into the classroom. After a mere
six years here, he has already developed research programs
that have won national and international acclaim,” said
Dean Bobbitt. “His success led to NN-Labs, a company
that contributes to our state economy by hiring Arkansans
to produce cutting-edge nanocrystals. No one is more deserving
of this honor, and I am grateful to the Scharlaus for providing
us the means to recognize superior faculty.”
After earning his doctorate in 1992 from Jilin University
in China, Peng served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University
of California-Berkeley before being appointed assistant professor
at the U of A in 1999. To date, he has published 68 articles
in the top chemistry and physics journals, primarily on nanomaterials.
The articles published during his last four years at the U
of A have been cited by his peers 1,000 times.
His research programs have led to seven patents as well as
a new generation of semiconductor nanocrystals that are environmentally
safe and can be used to store energy, create more effective
medications, and produce high-performance solar cells.
Through NN-Labs, Peng and his colleagues are able to provide
customers with a wide range of high quality, inexpensive nanocrystals.
JONES TRUST ESTABLISHES ENDOWED CHAIR IN COMMUNITY
The Harvey and Bernice Jones Charitable Trust has made a
$750,000 gift to establish the Bernice Jones Endowed Chair
in Community in the University of Arkansas J. William Fulbright
College of Arts and Sciences.
Named for the late Bernice Jones, noted philanthropist and
widow of trucking magnate Harvey Jones, the Jones Chair will
bring together community and campus resources to build stronger,
more vibrant communities in the state. The chair will also
help further strengthen the existing partnership between the
Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice and the Harvey
and Bernice Jones Center for Families in Springdale.
"We are extremely grateful to trustee Joel Carver and
to the Jones Charitable Trust," said UA Chancellor John
A. White. "The Jones Chair in Community will be a powerful
force in recruiting and retaining faculty whose teaching,
research and service will improve the quality of life for
all Arkansans. Mrs. Jones left an incredible legacy of philanthropy,
so it is quite fitting that she be memorialized through a
chair that will continue to strengthen the Arkansas communities
that she supported so generously throughout her life."
The Jones Chair will oversee initiatives in teaching, research
and outreach to improve educational programs in schools, match
people with the skills needed in today’s changing economy
and assist ethnic minority communities, such as the growing
Hispanic population in the state.
DOUG AND MARSHA RHOADS SUPPORT STUDENT RESEARCHERS
Students majoring in biological sciences at the University
of Arkansas will have access to more research opportunities
thanks to Douglas and Marsha Rhoads of Fayetteville.
The couple will provide nearly $400,000 through a planned
gift to establish the Rhoads Student Research Endowed Award,
which will support undergraduate and graduate research in
the Department of Biological Sciences in the J. William Fulbright
College of Arts and Sciences. The award may be used for research
projects and travel for presentations at national and/or international
meetings. A committee of faculty from the department will
select award recipients.
Douglas Rhoads joined the UA faculty in 1990 and is an associate
professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. Marsha
Rhoads is a research specialist in the same department with
Dr. Ines Pinto, but has also worked in Plant Pathology and
Poultry Science. Doug earned his bachelor's and master's degrees
at Wichita State and his Ph.D. from Kansas State University.
He was a post-doctoral researcher at Kansas State University
before coming to the University of Arkansas.
Marsha has worked at the same institutions as Douglas in various
research capacities. The Rhoads consider the University of
Arkansas home.
OZARK SOCIETY ESTABLISHES SCHOLARSHIP TO HONOR NEIL ERNEST
COMPTON
The Ozark Society, a regional conservation group established
in 1962, has honored the memory of Dr. Neil Ernest Compton,
its first president and principal founder, by establishing
the Neil Compton Scholarship in the Natural Sciences at the
University of Arkansas. The scholarship will be awarded to
students majoring in biological sciences or geosciences.
Dr. Compton, a Bentonville physician, was a 1935 UA alumnus
with degrees in zoology and geology. In 1939, he graduated
from the University of Arkansas Medical School. He served
as a Naval medical officer in the Pacific during World War
II.
In one of its earliest efforts, the Ozark Society fought the
threat of proposed dams on the Buffalo River in northern Arkansas,
culminating in the 1972 Congressional act that created the
Buffalo National River, a national park administered by the
National Park Service of the Department of the Interior.
“There is no honor that would please Neil Compton more
than this scholarship to his revered University of Arkansas.
It will advance our knowledge of what he cared for most, the
natural world. The Ozark Society is to be congratulated for
making it possible,” said Ellen Compton.
ART PATRONS DON MARR AND JAMES KUNZELMANN DONATE SCULPTURE
TO CAMPUS
The bronze sculpture “Courage to Lead” donated
by Don Marr and James Kunzelmann to the J. William Fulbright
College of Arts and Sciences was dedicated on September 23.
Marr, CEO of HR Factor, a Human Resources Consulting Firm,
and Kunzelmann, a Fayetteville artist and teacher, donated
the bronze sculpture by Native American artist Denny Haskew
to the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century at the University
of Arkansas.
Marr said the sculpture is a gift not only to students and
the campus, but also to the entire community.
“The Trail of Tears is a part of this area’s history,
and many Native Americans live in the community and the region,”
said Marr. “I also wanted to see more public art in our
community. My hope is that this piece leads others to respect
diversity and opens the door for a dialogue about art, about
history, and about leadership, the many questions that art
confronts us with as we think about the human condition.”
Currently valued at $54,000, the sculpture has been installed
in the grassy area between Old Main and Vol Walker Hall. “Courage
to Lead,” which is six feet, four inches tall, depicts
three warriors preparing to enter battle. The installation
took place on May 5. John Kincaid, a representative of the
Artists Guild, directed the work, setting the sculpture atop
the 9,000-pound sandstone base.
KITTRELLS EMPHASIZE IMPORTANCE OF THE LIBERAL ARTS
It’s hard to imagine Charlie Kittrell without a worldly
perspective. He and his wife Faye’s children live all
over the globe. He was an oil industry spokesman during the
1970s Arab oil embargo and has climbed to the 21,500-foot
point of Mt. Everest. But he says he missed out on a valuable
resource as an undergraduate student at the University of
Arkansas: a stronger liberal arts component in his engineering
curriculum.
“I would have appreciated the world a lot more,”
Charlie says, “and I would have been a better professional
had I taken more classes in Fulbright College.”
For that reason, the Bartlesville, Okla., couple chose to
designate the University of Arkansas as the beneficiary of
Charlie’s IRA retirement account, earmarking $200,000
to establish an endowed scholarship fund. It was important
for Charlie and Faye to provide incentive and assistance to
students majoring in a technical or scientific discipline,
such as Charlie did, to pursue coursework in the arts and
humanities. The Charles M. and Faye J. Kittrell Endowed Scholarship
will be awarded on the basis of academic merit.
DON AND SUSAN BOBBITT MAKE GIFT THAT BRINGS TOGETHER THE
ARTS AND THE SCIENCES
Chemist Don Bobbitt and wife Susan, an instructor in the
drama department, have a marriage that truly unites the arts
and the sciences. Together they have taken their commitment
one step further, by establishing the Donald R. and Susan
M. Bobbitt Award in Chemistry and Drama.
Bobbitt, who is also Dean of the J. William Fulbright College
of Arts and Sciences, believes that the arts and sciences
resemble a mosaic — up close, you see the parts, but
move back and you see the larger design.
“The College is as great as the sum of its parts,”
said Bobbitt. “With this gift, Susan and I wanted to
acknowledge the breadth of what we do as well as assist in
recruiting the best graduate students we can in chemistry
and drama, students who will in turn teach our freshmen and
sophomores, have a positive impact on the University, and
when they leave, contribute to the reputation of the U of
A.”
When fully endowed, the award will be used to support graduate
fellowships, graduate student travel, and graduate recruitment.
Proceeds will be divided so that two-thirds of the award benefits
the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and one-third
of the award benefits the Department of Drama.
“We thought this out carefully,” said Susan Bobbitt.
“We wanted to help both graduates and undergraduates
and departments in both the arts and sciences. This gift reflects
our interests as well as our commitment to the value of the
liberal arts."
BROWN FOUNDATION ENDOWS LITERACY OUTREACH CHAIR IN FULBRIGHT
COLLEGE
The Brown Foundation Inc. of Houston will provide $1.5 million
to the University of Arkansas to improve English literacy
in Arkansas by establishing an outreach chair. The Brown Chair
in English Literacy will be housed in the English department
in Fulbright College and is designed to increase the reading
and writing competency of Arkansas’igh school graduates
through a UA faculty-coordinated program of summer workshops
and graduate assistant tutoring in high schools across the
state.
Funds from the endowed chair will supplement community-based
student tutoring, professional development orkshops, administrative
support and materials.
The program is expected to pave the way to better job skills,
higher income levels and more state residents earning a living
wage as the result of acquiring improved literacy skills.
"We are grateful to the Brown Foundation for their support
of this important outreach initiative," said UA Chancellor
John A. White. "Our mission at the University of Arkansas
is to engage in teaching, research and service. The Brown
Chair in English Literacy will work to ensure that every high
school student graduates and that, upon graduation, every
student can read and write competitively."
NOLAN FOUNDATION ASSISTS YOUNG FACULTY IN FULBRIGHT COLLEGE
Robert Nolan, chair of the Nolan Foundation in El Dorado,
has given the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences
$25,000 to assist young faculty in their careers. The Nolan
Faculty Award will provide $20,000 in endowment funds and
$5,000 in a spending fund. The Dean of Fulbright College will
select the faculty recipients.
“I am very grateful to Mr. Nolan for providing us with
this essential resource for advancing the work of our younger
faculty,” said Dean Donald Bobbitt. “With this funding,
the College will be able to offer the support that many newer
faculty members need to conduct scholarly research, establish
scientific research programs, enhance and improve their teaching,
and pursue their creative endeavors. This is the kind of gift
that will make both an immediate and a long-term difference
to the faculty and students of Fulbright College." |
