Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

A newsletter for faculty, staff and students

September-October 2005 • Vol. 31, No. 5

Bumpers to speak at Centennial Gala, John Philpot to emcee

Sen. Dale Bumpers

Senator Dale Bumpers will be the keynote speaker at the “Party of the Century” centennial gala Dec. 3 at the Northwest Arkansas Convention Center in Springdale. Alumnus John Philpot, BSA ’57, will serve as master of ceremonies.

The gala will begin with a reception at 6:00 p.m. A dinner program will include an address by Senator Bumpers, music by the Claudia Burson Quartet, students wearing costumes from each era of the College’s history, video highlights and more.

All 9,965 living alumni are invited, but we won’t have that many seats, so an RSVP is required. To save mailing costs, invitations and RSVP forms will be sent only to alumni who request them using the post card inserted in the Spring/Summer issue of The Graduate or by e-mailing or calling Becky Echols (rlechol@uark.edu), phone (479) 575-2179.

Faculty and staff members will receive an invitation. Students who are interested in attending should contact their department head.

RSVP deadline is Oct. 31.

Dress is “celebration attire,” which means a coat for the men, tie optional, as a minimum of dressiness.

Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences was so named by the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees in June 1995 to honor Senator Dale Bumpers for his service to the nation, the state and the University.

As detailed in his autobiography, “The Best Lawyer in a One-Lawyer Town,” Dale Bumpers was born in 1925 and raised in Charleston, Ark. He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1943 to 1946 and received the J.D. degree in 1951 from the Northwestern University Law School in Chicago.

He and his wife, Betty, also a Charleston native, returned home where he operated a hardware and furniture store, raised cattle, practiced law and served as city attorney, a member of the school board and president of the Chamber of Commerce. Under his leadership, the Charleston schools were the first in Arkansas to desegregate in 1954.

After outpolling Orval Faubus in the Democratic primary, Bumpers defeated incumbent governor Winthrop Rockefeller in 1970 and ushered in an era of youthful reform-minded governors. He served as governor from 1971 to 1975, when he was elected to the United States Senate. He served in the Senate from 1975 to 1999 and was chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Senator Bumpers was known for his oratorical skills and, the year after he retired from the Senate, gave a pivotal speech in defense of President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial.

Senator Bumpers was named University of Arkansas Distinguished Professor of Policy in December 1999. He served one year as director of the Center for Defense Information in Washington, D.C., and then joined the Arent Fox law firm in Washington. In a poll of Arkansas political scientists in the year 2000, he was the only governor in the 20th Century to achieve the station of Great.

Dale and his wife, Betty, have been strong advocates of childhood immunization. In 1999, a new vaccine research center at the National Institutes of Health was named the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center.

John Philpot

John Philpot, a former farm broadcaster in demand statewide as a humorous speaker, was named to the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame in March 2005. He has hosted Arkansas Outdoors on the Arkansas Educational Television Network since its inception in 1992.

Raised in Mena, Philpot has a B.S. degree in agriculture and a master’s degree in educational media from the University of Arkansas. He was an assistant extension agent in Clark and Miller counties and a radio and television specialist in the state extension office. He was founding president of the Arkansas Association of Cooperative Extension Specialists. He was farm director at KAAY radio in Little Rock and held similar positions at KATV Channel 7 and the Arkansas Radio Network. In 1985, he launched an advertising agency and booking agency for his humor presentations.