SEMO ALUMNI, FACULTY MERITS CITED

The Alumni Association of Southeast Missouri State University has selected five alumni and a Southeast professor to receive the university's annual alumni and faculty merit awards.

The six will be honored during the annual merit award dinner at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 10, in the Show Me Center.

Each Alumni Merit Award is presented by an academic college at Southeast to honor a distinguished alumna or alumnus.

The awards have been given since 1958 to graduates or former students of Southeast who have brought distinction to themselves and the university. Tickets for the dinner are available by calling the alumni office at 651-2259.

Thomas Wood of Charlotte, N.C., will receive the merit award from the Donald L. Harrison College of Business.

Wood is the vice president/group publisher for American City Business Journals and former publisher of the St. Louis Business Journal.

He graduated from Southeast in 1966 with a bachelor of science degree in business administration, majoring in marketing-management.

He served two terms as managing editor for The Capaha Arrow, the campus newspaper.

Wood had plenty of school spirit in his undergraduate days.

When the Southeast basketball team made it to the national tournament in Evansville, Ind., Wood persuaded students to dribble a ball from Cape Girardeau to Evansville as a show of school spirit.

Wood has stayed involved in Southeast through the St. Louis chapter of the Southeast Alumni Association, where he was a member of the founding committee. He also is a member of the Copper Dome Society, and served as the foundation chairman for two years.

Richard A. Black of Chesterfield is the president of St. Louis Community College at Meramec. He graduated from Southeast in 1966 with a bachelor of science degree in education, majoring in mathematics and minoring in history and general science.

He earned his master of education degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1973, majoring in higher and adult education.

"My father was a 1948 graduate of Southeast and also was an educator," Black said. "I can remember even in the fifth or sixth grade, I always knew that I would go to Southeast and follow in my father's footsteps.

Dr. Russell Michel, who chaired the mathematics department, encouraged Black.

"He always wanted to teach his advanced classes early in the morning because he said he made mistakes in the afternoon. So I had calculus at 7 a.m., because that's the way he wanted it. I saw him make one mistake in all the classes I had with him, and it was in an afternoon class."

Black has been involved with St. Louis Community College at Meramec since 1973, when he accepted his first position as administrative associate and assistant dean for continuing education.

Rita Meyer Brumfield of Ste. Genevieve will receive the award from the College of Health and Human Services.

Brumfield is director of nursing at Perry County Memorial Hospital in Perryville. She graduated from Southeast in 1966 with an associate of arts degree, majoring in nursing.

"I chose to come to Southeast because of the associate degree nursing program," Meyer said. "In 1966, there were only a few of these types of programs in the area. Southeast was the closest to my home."

She has been employed at the Perry County Memorial Hospital since 1976 when she accepted her first position as a staff nurse.

Prior to joining Perry County Memorial Hospital, Meyer was director of nursing at the Riverview Manor Nursing Home in Ste. Genevieve.

Dr. Dorothy "Dee Dee" Williamson Inge of Crown Point, Ind., will receive the award from the College of Liberal Arts.

She is a professor and chairs the communication department at Indiana University Northwest. She graduated from Southeast in 1971 with a bachelor of science degree, majoring in speech education.

"When I attended Southeast, we had these large lectures on Friday afternoons and I loved them. But I was so afraid to speak up because they were so large and because the other students really didn't like them," she remembered.

"Then one day our professor mentioned that Southeast had a speech education major and I thought, `you mean I can get paid for talking?' I loved it and picked speech education for not only my undergraduate, but for all three of my degrees," she said.

Dr. Ernest L. Yeakey of Austin, Texas, will receive the award from the College of Science and Technology.

He is a retired laboratory director from the Texaco Chemical Co. He graduated from Southeast in 1956 with a bachelor of science degree, majoring in chemistry and mathematics.

"I grew up in Sikeston and didn't have many funds, but I wanted to go to college. So I worked one year and saved up money to go to college," Yeakey said.

Yeakey joined Texaco Chemical's Austin Research Laboratories as a research chemist in 1960. In 1981, Yeakey was assigned to the Austin Research Laboratories as manager of research.

"When I attended Southeast," said Yeakey, "it seemed very small. There were less than 1,000 people my freshman year. I was at Southeast for a visit a short while ago and I was amazed at its growth and at the size of the new buildings."

Dr. Robert Hamblin will receive the Faculty Merit Award. He is an English professor at Southeast, where he has worked since 1965.

"This is probably the greatest honor of my career," Hamblin said. "We are first and foremost teachers, and this is a teaching award. So it's a real honor."

Hamblin has been the director of the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast since 1989. He has been the associate editor for The Cape Rock, a magazine of poetry since 1969, and the poetry editor for Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature since 1984.

Hamblin also has been a member of the board of directors for the Assembly of Sports Literature since 1985.

He was the keynote speaker at the seventh annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in 1980 and was entered into the Hall of Fame at Northeast Mississippi Junior College.

"I like teaching the undergraduate classes the best," said Hamblin, "especially the Introduction to Literature.

"In the introductory class, I love having a student who thinks they hate literature and turning them on to it."