FORMER SOUTHEAST LEADER BILL ATCHLEY DEAD AT 68

As word of the death of former Southeast Missouri State University president Dr. Bill Atchley spread through Cape Girardeau Saturday, friends and colleagues recalled an honest man, a funny man, a man who did a lot for the university in his one year as president.

Atchley, 68, died Friday night of an apparent heart attack while he was attending a John McCain rally, said Atchley's son, David Atchley, from the home of Atchley and his wife, Pat, in Murrells Inlet, S.C. A memorial service will be held in Cape Girardeau for Atchley at 2 p.m. Saturday at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Chapel. A reception will follow the service, David Atchley said.

"Bill filled an important role in an important time in the university's history," said Dr. Ken Dobbins, current president of Southeast. "He and Pat have many friends here, and he will be missed by many."

Atchley was named interim president at Southeast in July 1995 while the university searched for a permanent replacement for Dr. Kala Stroup. But regents were so impressed with the momentum Atchley created on campus that they officially naming him the 15th president of the university just before Dr. Dale Nitschke was sworn in as president in July 1996.

"It meant a lot to Bill to be named president," said Dobbins, who was an executive vice president at Southeast while Atchley was president. "It was an honor for him and he appreciated the board doing it."

Atchley, who was born in Cape Girardeau on Feb. 16, 1932, and attended Cape Central High School and Southeast university, had plenty of credentials for running Southeast. He had been president of Clemson University and the University of the Pacific. He was president of the National Science Center Foundation, dean of engineering at West Virginia University; and associate dean and professor of engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engineering. He received his doctorate from Texas A&M University.

"My father felt that being president at Southeast was the quintessential way to finalize his career," David Atchley said. "He always considered Cape Girardeau his hometown."

Betty Lou Vogel of Cape Girardeau has known Atchley and his wife, the former Pat Limbaugh, most of her life. In fact, Vogel and Pat Atchley have been best friends since second grade.

"Bill's is a great success story," Vogel said. "He was a unique individual who made the most of his life."

Vogel said Atchley was a natural leader and in high school was student body president. "He enjoyed politicking. It just came naturally to him," she said.

While Atchley achieved a great deal in his lifetime, Vogel said he never lost his roots.

"He was always proud of where he came from," Vogel said.

But the thing she remembers best about him as friend was his humor.

"We loved to have Bill and Pat come to visit because we always laughed so much together," Vogel said.

Dobbins remembers Atchley as always having a smile on his face. "He loved people," Dobbins said.

Dobbins said that while Atchley was only president of the university for a year, he accomplished a lot in that time.

During Atchley's presidency, construction and furnishing of the Robert A. Dempster Hall was all but completed; funding was secured for reconstruction of the social science building and funding was authorized for a new maintenance facility. The university undertook innovations such as a "common hour," conferral of honorary doctoral degrees, the organization of Emeriti Association for retired faculty and administrators and a similar association for former regents, collection of a fee dedicated to improving computing access for students and discussions aimed at providing post-secondary, high-level technical training for the region as part of a comprehensive mission revision for the university. Under Atchley's leadership, the university also completed its long-range strategic plan and a campus master plan; inaugurated a physical therapy assistant degree program; began the Southeast P.M. program to improve higher education access; received accreditation by American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business; and received accreditation of the master's degree program in speech-language pathology.

But what Dobbins remembers best was Atchley starting the tradition of the Southeast president being accessible to students.

"He set up an office in the university center and once a month he would sit at that desk and talk to students about how they were doing and get feedback from them," Dobbins said.

Presidents since Atchley haven't sat in the university center, but they have tried to keep a mechanism for listening to students, Dobbins said.

When Atchley's job at Southeast came to an end in 1996, he and his wife, Pat, moved to South Carolina, David Atchley said.

"He came here to play the golfing circuit and enjoy the slow-paced setting of the South Carolina coast," David Atchley said.

Atchley's survivors include his wife, Pat, of Murrells Inlet, S.C.; son David Atchley of Charlotte, N.C.; two daughters, Pamela Still of Shelby, N.C., and Julie Smith of St. Louis; four grandchildren; and one brother, Gary Atchley of Sikeston. He was preceded in death by his daughter Kathleen Sams.

"He was one of the most fair and honest person I've ever come across," David Atchley said. "You might not always agree with him, but you always respected what he said."