homecoming 2008
They might have come from Latvia, Poland, Canada, South Africa and Kenya to study, but at this year’s homecoming banquet, they came to entertain.
Themed “Wayland Around the World,” Homecoming 2008 at Wayland spotlighted international students on the Plainview campus, specifically at the Friday night banquet. There, students shared their culture and traditions, entertained in their native tongue and shared skits dealing with the challenges of coming to America.
Held Feb. 22-24, homecoming offered returning alumni a chance to reminisce with former classmates and professors, enjoy banquets and luncheons and, in general, reconnect with their alma mater. Honor classes of 1958, 1968, 1978, 1988 and 1998 gathered for reunions and talked about old times.
The weekend officially kicked off early Friday morning with a breakfast in honor of the Class of 1958. Guests shared their favorite memories of Wayland and caught up on where life had taken them over the past 50 years, including family and career information. Danny Andrews, director of alumni development, encouraged the alums to share openly, noting with a laugh, “the statute of limitations has run out now so you can’t get in trouble.”
Homecoming chapel followed in Harral Auditorium, featuring introduction of the 1958 Golden Anniversary class, who received special medallions marking the occasion, introduction of the homecoming queen candidates, and presentation of the Distinguished Alumni Awards to alums Jeannine Greene, Tim Powers, Travis Ashley, Sally and Robert Walker, Ben Akande and longtime professors Dr. J. Hoyt Bowers and Dr. Gerald Thompson.
Jeannine Greene, a 1954 graduate, received the Distinguished Service Alumni Award. A Plainview native, Greene earned a degree in music from WBU and continued at Baylor for her master’s degree. After returning to Plainview, Greene had a private piano studio from 1956-1981, when she joined the Wayland faculty full-time.
In 1981, she helped organize the Academy of Fine Arts at Wayland, offering lessons in music and other fine arts areas for children in the community. That program continues. Greene taught at WBU until 2000, when she retired. Besides supporting Wayland fine arts programs, Greene is an active community arts supporter as well. She is president of the Community Concerts Association, vice president of the Musical Arts Club and is in three associations for music teachers.
A 1977 graduate of WBU, Tim Powers received the Distinguished Alumni Leadership Award. Powers earned his history degree while playing basketball for the Pioneers, then earned a master’s degree and his doctorate in education from Texas Tech. He began his teaching career in Plainview at Estacado Junior High, also coaching girls basketball and track. He then moved to Pampa, where he was vice principal at the high school before taking the helm as principal at Lamar Elementary School.
After serving at Pampa Middle School for eight years, Powers moved to Wichita Falls to become assistant superintendent for administrative services. Since May 2003, he has served as the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Wichita Falls. He is also active in the Rotary Club, the advisory board for Junior Service League and the First Baptist Church. He and wife Janice, a WBU graduate, have two children, WBU grads Zane Powers and wife Ronni of Dumas and Janelle Styne and husband Chris of Plainview.
A 2003 graduate of the Fairbanks Campus, Travis Ashley received the Distinguished Young Alumni Award. He has spent his career in the U.S. Army, joining shortly after his high school graduation. A native of Louisiana, he has worked his way through the Army ranks since enlisting in 1988.
Ashley returned to college while stationed at Fort Wainwright, finding Wayland a place that worked with military personnel to make education possible. With their encouragement, he continued his education, earning a master’s degree at Touro University. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in management information systems through Northcentral University and plans to retire from the military in the coming years. He and his wife Lorraine have recently been relocated to Baltimore, Md. They have three grown children.
Sally and Robert Walker received the Distinguished Benefactor Alumni Award for their support of the university financially over the years. Mrs. Walker, a 1981 graduate of WBU, owns Blue Star Electric in Arlington, Texas, a distributor of electrical and mechanical equipment. Husband Robert, a graduate of West Texas A&M, is a partner at Acme Electric.
Mrs. Walker has served on Wayland’s Board of Trustees since January 2006. The couple established the W.D. “Dub” Turner Scholarship in memory of her grandfather, a former WBU trustee himself. They also support other scholarships, special projects and a special needs fund. During the chapel service, Mrs. Walker spoke of her enjoyment of giving and seeing the investment in young people at Wayland.
A 1983 graduate of Wayland, Dr. Benjamin Akande received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Akande is dean of the School of Business and Technology at Webster University in St. Louis, Mo., where he has been chief academic officer for the program with 13,000 students and 1,500 faculty members since 2000.
From 1995-2000, Akande was chair of the Division of Business at Wayland and also served as special assistant to then-president Dr. Wallace Davis. He instituted many programs in the division for both students and business leaders in the community. He holds the master of public administration degree and the doctorate in economics from the University of Oklahoma. Active in various community organizations and business associations, Akande also has a consulting practice with business leaders. He and wife Bola have three daughters: Moyosola, Anjola and Reni.
Longtime biology professors, Dr. Bowers and Dr. Thompson received the Distinguished Lifetime Service Award. Bowers came to the WBU faculty in 1963; Thompson joined in 1967 after teaching at the high school level. Both plan to retire in May 2008.
Bowers served as chairman of the Division of Mathematics and Sciences from 1982-2004, helping to establish a dual degree in engineering with Texas Tech and securing a state grant to fund a summer program for high school science teachers – ASSIST (Academic Summer Science Institute for Secondary Teachers) and ASSET (Academic Summer Science for Elementary Teachers) – which has been renewed for 22 straight years.
Thompson has served as herbarium curator for his tenure at WBU and has taught introductory biology at Wayland’s campus in Kenya for three summers. He received the Distinguished Faculty Service Award from the Wayland Association of Former Students in 1988. He has received several teaching and research fellowships though the years and wrote course content for grant proposals and taught graduate biology courses for ASSIST and ASSET for 14 years.
Friday night at homecoming wrapped with the banquet and the performance of the theatre production Proof.
Saturday kicked off reunion day, with the honor classes gathering in the morning, followed by the International Choir reunion and mini-concert. The Athletic Hall of Honor induction was also held that morning, with athletes Corey Cornish and Kathy Harston added, alongside former sports information director Dr. Bobby Hall and longtime supporter Marsha Hutcherson George, honored posthumously. Marsha Porter also received the Harley Redin Coaches Award.
Cornish played for the Pioneer basketball squad from 1988-92, a native of Midwest City, Okla., who helped his team earn three NAIA District championships during his tenure. By the time he graduated in 1993, Cornish had earned honorable mention NAIA All-American honors, established four new school records and joined the elite 1,000-point club. He holds the record for assists in a season for 215 in 1991-92 and he is #11 in all-time scoring at WBU. Cornish was a graduate assistant and then assistant coach under his WBU coach, Rick Cooper, at West Texas A&M, then he was assistant at Navarro College and head coach at Cisco Junior College.
A 1980 graduate of WBU, Kathy Harston played four years for the Flying Queens under Dean Weese, coming out of Southlake Carroll High School a three-time All-State selection and helping lead the team to a state title game. At the close of her tenure, she had been named to four All-American teams, tied or broke three school records and become one of the top ten scorers in Wayland history. She remains #8 in Queens scoring with 1,617 points. She was named the team MVP her senior season and was a finalist for the 1980 Wade Trophy, given to the national player of the year. She coached at Hale Center, was an assistant at Texas Tech, then head coach at Plainview High before joining the University of Texas as assistant coach. She is now an academic counselor at UT.
Though she never played a sport at WBU, Marsha Hutcherson George was as much a fixture at Wayland as the building named for her father. An avid supporter of the Flying Queens from an early age, George accompanied the team on road trips as a teen. She attended WBU and continued her involvement with the Queens, hosting team functions and sponsoring a scholarship to benefit student assistants. Until health problems forced her to stop, Marsha coordinated the Queen’s Court Hospitality Room and sold t-shirts benefiting the team, receiving the Roy C. McClung Service Award twice. She died Dec. 9, 2006.
Currently the vice president of academic services at WBU, Dr. Bobby Hall began broadcasting games with his brother Tom and PR director Eddie Owens as a student in 1980. After graduating in 1982, Hall took over as sports information director and radio broadcaster, a position he held until 1995. While SID, Hall garnered national recognition for WBU programs, broadcast the Pioneers’ national finals game in 1985 and won five national awards for sports photography. He won the Ike Pearson Award for sports information achievement in 1991.
A 1969 graduate of WBU, Marsha Porter began her basketball coaching career in Conroe, Texas, and never left. During her 33 years at Conroe High School, Porter accumulated 762 wins and 16 district titles, leading the Tigerettes to the state finals in 1974 and 1994. When she retired in February 2002, Conroe renamed its gymnasium after her. Besides her legacy in basketball, Porter started the girls track and field program and coached it for five years during the mid 1970s, capturing three state championships. She has been inducted into the Texas Basketball Hall of Fame and served as Athletic Director for Conroe ISD for three years.
At the Saturday luncheon, the family and friends of Donna Sarchet gathered to dedicate a scholarship in her memory. Current Miss Wayland Terra Watson, a sophomore from Plainview, entertained during the luncheon, which was held in the new Laney Center. Alumnus Richard Miller, a former Pioneer basketballer, received the Legacy Leadership Award for his example of servant leadership and community involvement, inspiring others to do the same.
The afternoon featured the traditional doubleheader basketball games, with WBU taking on new conference member Mid-America Christian. The Queens slipped behind late in the game, losing 80-84, and the Pioneers pulled out a win, beating MACU 73-69.
Homecoming weekend wrapped up Sunday with the continental breakfast and worship service, featuring a message by Dr. Clyde Cain, a 1958 graduate who is coordinator and professor for Southwestern Seminary’s Shawnee, Okla. campus.
Begin making plans now for Homecoming 2009, featuring the theme Centennial Cinema, slated Feb. 19-22. Honor classes will be those ending in “9,” but all alums are encouraged to be back on campus for the Centennial homecoming as bigger and better activities and events are planned in celebration of this historic milestone.