Resolutions approved at board meeting for departing trustees, retiring professor

April 25, 2005

The Lyon College Board of Trustees approved resolutions expressing appreciation to several departing board members and to a retiring senior faculty member at its meeting on the Lyon campus Thursday and Friday.

Leaving the board in June are Charles B. Whiteside III of Little Rock, Mrs. Virginia T. Robertson of Birmingham, Alabama, the Rev. Judge Marion Humphrey of Little Rock, Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders of Little Rock, faculty representative Dr. Helen W. Robbins of Batesville and student representative Devon E. Dudley  of Jonesboro.

The trustees also expressed appreciation to Dr. Edward N. Mosley, the Smith Professor of Mathematics, who is retiring at the end of the semester after 35 years of service as a Lyon faculty member. The board also granted emeritus status to Dr. Mosley.

Dr. Mosley received his B.A. degree from Lyon in 1960, his M.S. from the University of Arkansas and his Ed.D. from Oklahoma State University. He joined the Lyon faculty in 1970 and has held the rank of full professor since 1972. In 2002, he was named the J. Paul Smith Professor of Mathematics. He received the Williamson Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 1989.

His record of service on campus is remarkable, the resolution noted. He has chaired the science division and served as dean of instruction. He has directed the Upward bound Math-Science Program on two occasions and led the Nichols International  Studies Program. He was the first resident faculty mentor of Spragins House and was faculty adviser to the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference and later to the TranSouth Athletic Conference. He was elected to the Lyon Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.

“Beyond this campus,” the resolution states, “Ed Mo (as he is know to 3 1/2 decades of students and colleagues) is the face of Lyon to many.”

He is an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Batesville. He and his wife, Mary Eleanor, were present at the board’s plenary session Thursday when the resolution honoring him was read and approved. He received a standing ovation from those in attendance.

Three of the departing trustees – Whiteside, Robertson and Humphrey – were appointed to advisory trustee status.

Whiteside, first vice president of Merrill Lynch and Companies in Little Rock, was first elected to the board in 1993. He has served as treasurer of the board since 1995. He is also chair of the Investment Subcommittee and has served on the Education Committee, Business and Finance Committee and the Executive Committee.

Mrs. Virginia “Ginni” Robertson is a 1964 alumna of Lyon and has served as an alumni trustee/outside of Arkansas since 1996. A church and civic leader in Birmingham,  she has served on the Student Life Committee of the Lyon board.

Humphrey, a Pulaski County Circuit Court judge and also a minister, joined the board in 1996. He has served as chair and member of the Student Life Committee and as a member of the Executive Committee.

Dr. Elders, a former surgeon general of the United States and a retired professor of pediatrics at UAMS, served on the Lyon board in 1992-94 and then returned in 1996 as an elected member. She is a member of the Education Committee.

Dr. Robbins, associate professor of English at Lyon, has served as a faculty representative to the board since the 2002-03 academic year.

Dudley has served as student representative of the board during the 2004-05 academic year in her capacity as president of the Student Government Association. She did not seek re-election to the SGA position so her term of service will conclude in June. She is a junior from Jonesboro.

Several current trustees were nominated for re-election by the Synod of the Sun to four-year terms beginning in July. They are Martha Miller Harriman of Van Buren, Elizabeth Jacoway of Newport, Dianne Lamberth of Batesville, James “Skip” Rutherford of Little Rock, Bill Tranum of Little Rock and James G. Williamson Jr. of Van Buren.

Officers of the board who were elected for one-year terms beginning July 1 are Mary Sue Jacobs of Little Rock, vice chair; Lamberth, secretary; and Dickson Flake of Little Rock, treasurer. Frank Lyon Jr. of Little Rock has been chair of the board  since 2003.