AN EVENING WITH JOEL

It's been fun, sort of

It could be considered an impossible feat -- to summarize the 45-year career of University of Arkansas at Little Rock Chancellor Joel Anderson -- so faculty and friends took the opportunity to poke some good-natured fun at him instead.

Some 350 of Anderson's admirers gathered May 12 for An Evening With Joel, held at Derek Fisher Court in the UALR Jack Stephens Center. Guests clamored for Anderson's attention at a cocktail reception beforehand, then sat for a dinner featuring chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese topped with a mushroom ragout, spinach and wild mushroom bread pudding and asparagus.

Dean Kumpuris, chairman of the UALR Board of Visitors, gave a warm and witty welcome.

A tribute video outlined Anderson's career, which spans half the age of the university, including his 13 years as its leader. He was portrayed as being "very buttoned up" and honest almost to a fault. "His word is his bond," one interviewee said. "His moral compass never wavers," said another.

Then the roasting began. All the insults, zingers and flat-out mocking would have made even Johnny Carson blush.

"How do you roast someone who is the epitome of clean?" quipped Greg Flesher, president of the George W. Donaghey Foundation Board. "In all seriousness, congratulations on a wonderfully boring career at UALR -- 45 years of not doing anything funny, what an accomplishment."

Anderson, who is retiring in June, is so frugal, Flesher said, that some of the shoes Anderson wears "still have pieces of gravel in them from University Avenue before it was a paved road."

Flesher did recall some jokes Anderson made about the summer heat during his year as president of the Rotary Club of Little Rock in 2008. On July 22, Flesher said, Anderson cracked that "It's so hot I saw a funeral procession drive through a Dairy Queen"; then on July 29, Anderson remarked, "It's so hot that people are pouring McDonald's coffee in their laps"; finally, on Aug. 5 of that year, Anderson joked that it was so hot "you don't mind losing your shirt in the stock market."

Roasters also included Charlotte Lewellen-Williams, director of the Clinton School of Public Service Center on Community Philanthropy, and Jay Chesshir, president and chief executive officer of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.

When it came Anderson's turn to speak, he doled out a few personal thanks and reminded the crowd that he wasn't alone in his accomplishments -- he simply had the good sense to say "Yes" to a number of really smart people with really good ideas.

-- Story and photos by Cyd King

High Profile on 05/22/2016

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