Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences
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Table of Contents • Notables • On Top of the Hill Vision Credits
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Dimitris Perrotis College Honors Preston La Ferney Dr. Preston La Ferney, the retiring director of International Agricultural Programs in Bumpers College, said one of the recent highlights of his career was a graduation ceremony he attended in June at a two-year college in Greece. La Ferney was associate director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station from 1980 to 1983 and director from 1983 to 1986. He was the U of A system-wide vice president for agriculture from 1986 to 1992, when he was appointed university professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness and director of International Agricultural Programs for the Division of Agriculture and Bumpers College. The international programs include a minor and two courses developed and taught by La Ferney in international agricultural, food and life sciences; study-abroad opportunities for students and faculty; and agreements with selected foreign colleges for transfer of credits. La Ferney was one of several all-expenses-paid guests at the graduation ceremony at Dimitris Perrotis College of Agricultural Sciences in Thesaloniki, Greece, which was also a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the college. Among the dignitaries at the head table was Aliki Perroti, whose late husband bequeathed $5 million to help establish the college that bears his name. Mr. Perrotis was owner of an international construction company. The college is an extension of the American Farm School, a secondary school founded in 1904 with the support of American philanthropists. The students operate a farm and help demonstrate new technology for area farmers. The board of directors for the high school and college is in New York City. La Ferney was invited to the anniversary and graduation celebration to recognize the opportunity that Bumpers College and the U of A provide for Dimitris Perrotis graduates to transfer credits and obtain a bachelor’s degree at the U of A in two years. The Arkansas connection to the college, which draws students from several Balkan countries, was initiated by UA agricultural statistics professor Andronikos Mauromoustakos, a native of Thesaloniki who learned about the college in 1997. While in Greece to speak at another university, he met with the Dimitris Perrotis College dean, Vangelis Vergos, about student exchange opportunities. Dr. Raymond Barclay, who manages the Bumpers College Global Studies Program, then met with Dean Vergos in Thesaloniki about the details for an exchange program. Dean Vergos followed up with a trip to Fayetteville to work with La Ferney and other administrators to put a plan into effect. In 1998, Elpida Ormanidou, from the first class of Dimitris Perrotis graduates, enrolled as a junior at the U of A. Three degrees later (a bachelor’s and masters in agricultural business and statistics, and a master’s in business logistics) she is now a database analyst with the Sam’s Club division of Wal-Mart at Bentonville. Ormanidou was the first of 17 students, with up to six coming this fall, in the exchange program, which also includes summer internships for UA students and study tours to Thesaloniki for students and faculty. La Ferney has served as advisor and mentor to all of the Dimitris Perrotis graduates at Arkansas; they have come from Greece, Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria. A native of Griffithville in White County, La Ferney had a two-year associates degree from Harding College in Searcy when he enrolled at the U of A where he earned a bachelor’s degree in vocational agriculture and master’s degree in agricultural economics. His doctorate in agricultural economics is from Oklahoma State University. La Ferney joined the Economics Research Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1962 at Clemson University in South Carolina and transferred to Washington, D.C., in 1971. He became deputy director of the commodity economics division of ERS in 1977 and returned to Arkansas as a Division of Agriculture administrator in 1980. |