UAMS age center
receives grant
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences received a $1.5 million donation for the expansion of the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging in Little Rock.
The gift from Jane and Frank Lyon Jr. “gives a significant boost” toward the required matching funds for the project, UAMS said in a news release Thursday.
The 55,000-square-foot expansion is scheduled to be finished in about a year.
A $27.9 million Donald W.
Reynolds Foundation gift, announced in June 2009, is funding construction.
Under terms of the gift, the institute can’t move into the new space until it raises $5.6 million to support programs there.
With the $1.5 million gift from the Lyons, the institute moved past the halfway mark at $3.4 million, UAMS said.
Frank Lyon said his parents, Frank and Marian Lyon, along with Jane Lyon’s parents, Henry and Helen Thomas, benefited from the advanced geriatric care provided at the institute.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEMan’s gift sets up
cardiology post
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has received a $100,000 gift from a Pine Bluff man to establish an endowed lectureship in cardiology.
The annual lectureship, which will feature medical experts in cardiology and cardiovascular disease, is the first lectureship to honor a faculty member in the UAMS Division of Cardiology.
The donation from Randy McNulty of Pine Bluff will establish the Joe Knight Bissett, M.D., Lectureship in Cardiovascular Disease in honor of Bissett and in memory of his father, James Robert Bissett, who was a professor at the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Bissett is a professor of internal medicine in the UAMS College of Medicine.
The elder Bissett was a close friend and mentor of McNulty’s.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Officer a finalist
in competition
A North Little Rock patrolman was named one of eight national finalists this week for Fox Broadcasting Co.’s America’s Most Wanted 2011 All-Star firstresponder competition.
Officer Tommy Norman, 38, a 13-year member of the force, was nominated by a resident after the two started working together on a community service project.
Shana Buterbaugh said she recruited Norman to auction himself at a benefit in April for the Arkansas Food Bank. The winning bidder will get to shadowNorman for a day on his patrol.
Norman said he is proud of his community service, most notably forming Shop With a Cop in North Little Rock, which has expanded from eight children in 2005 to more than 100 in 2010. In Shop With a Cop, children of single parents are given gift cards to spend at Wal-Marts as they shop alongside a North Little Rock officer.
In all, 34 first responders across the country were nominated for the All-Star competition. America’s Most Wanted will announce seven each week until April 10. Norman said the final voting begins on April 21.
The winner will receive $10,000 and a trip to NASCAR’S Sprint Cup All-Star race weekend at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway on May 21.
An America’s Most Wanted camera crew interviewed Norman on Tuesday. The interview is expected to air 8 p.m. Saturday on Fox.
Besides working with Shop With a Cop and the Arkansas Food Bank, Norman has volunteered with the Make a Wish Foundation, at area schools and on his own, passing out water from his patrol car on hot summer days.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Harrison college to see applicants
HARRISON - North Arkansas College will begin interviewing finalists for its presidency Friday.
The college also is scheduling community forums with each candidate so that the public can meet and ask them questions.
The five finalists and the dates they will be interviewed are:
Don Woodburn, interim president, Dodge City Community College, Dodge City, Kan., Friday
Don Tomas, vice president of instructional affairs, Weatherford College, Weatherford, Texas, Monday
Pat Bailey, provost, Arkansas State University at Mountain Home, Tuesday
Jacquelyn Elliott, vice president of student affairs, Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, Mo., Wednesday
Stephen Condon, immediate past president, Tennessee Wesleyan College, Athens, Tenn., Thursday.
Each finalist will visit the campus, go through interviews then attend a community forum. The forums will be from 5-6 p.m. in the Durand Center each day.
The college is searching for a successor to Jeff Olson, who retired Jan. 31. Jim Stockton, vice president of institutional advancement, is interim president.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 02/26/2011