Hendrix College will honor the legacy of the late John Hugh Churchill with the construction of the Churchill Memorial Plaza on campus and establishment of an endowed scholarship fund in memory of Churchill and his late wife, Jean Hill Churchill.
The plaza will be placed on "Tabor Top" near the Murphy Building in the heart of the campus. Tabor Top was the site of Tabor Hall, one of the original Hendrix buildings, and in 1890 was recognized as the highest point in Conway.
Hendrix alumni Melanie Siegel and Will Lentz will design the plaza, which celebrates Churchill's contributions to Hendrix College's academic reputation and enduring support of the college's liberal arts heritage.
Churchill worked at Hendrix College from 1977 to 2001 as a professor of philosophy, vice president of academic affairs and dean of the college. He served twice as interim president.
In 2013, Churchill retired as executive secretary of Phi Beta Kappa in Washington, D.C. He died in November 2019.
Churchill, an Arkansas native, is an alumnus of Southwestern College (now Rhodes College) in Memphis, where he played football and received a Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford University. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale University.
The endowed scholarship is in memory of Churchill and his wife, Jean, who died in September 2021. Jean Hill Churchill grew up in Little Rock, graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and taught in the Conway School District. Their oldest son, Will, is a 1999 Hendrix graduate.
A public fundraising campaign to complete the plaza and endow the scholarship is underway. To date, Hendrix alumni, along with family and friends of the Churchills, have contributed more than $60,000 toward the college's $75,000 goal for the plaza's construction and scholarship endowment.
The fundraising effort is led by retired admission and development staff member Jack Frost and John and Jean Churchill's brother-in-law, James L. "Skip" Rutherford, who led the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service as dean for 15 years and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree from Hendrix College in 2015.
Work on the plaza will begin in the spring. A dedication of the Churchill Memorial Plaza will be held in the fall.