On Friday, February 6, I started out at 9:00 a.m. and met with Tom Carpenter who is our alum and City Attorney for Little Rock. We had not met before but had a fabulous conversation. It was very enjoyable. We talked about everything from race, to the tasks of city attorneys, some of the most interesting challenges, and what’s happening in Little Rock. It was quite interesting. Tom indicated an interest in having student externs work in his office and we are very excited about that. A number of students have already indicated an interest and we will be following up with him about that. Thanks very much, Tom. I know his day is probably, well I could see it, from the number of calls and people stopping in, that he has a very busy day and I am very grateful to him for taking time out to meet with me.
Dept. of Veteran's Affairs in Little Rock
At noon I met with one of my favorite folks, John Snell. He is an alum and was in the same class as Terry Smith who came over and helped me clear my yard. In fact, years ago he and Terry actually came over and bolstered my front porch after I had a student group over and somebody fell through the stairs (long story). He truly is a good friend. He works in the Regional Counsel’s office for the Department of Veterans Affairs. I hadn’t seen him for a long time, at least not to be able to sit down and catch up, so we had lunch together at Copper Grill. And you know what? I don’t even know what I was thinking, but I didn’t take any pictures on the 6th! We had a great visit. He keeps up with a lot of the folks in his class and it was good for me to hear what they were doing. I really appreciate you John for driving over to have lunch.
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola
At 2:00 p.m. I visited with Mayor Mark Stodola, the Mayor of Little Rock who is also one of our alums. It was remarkable that he made time for me in his very busy day. We didn’t visit for long, but we had a good visit and he too indicated an interest in having a student serve in his office as an extern. I’m pretty excited about that and was glad to be able to hang out with the Mayor and some of the senior elected officials down there in Pulaski County. I’m very proud to call them our alumni and very grateful to them for making time in their busy schedules for me.
After that it was time for me to return to the Hampton to check e-mail, return phone calls, draft a little bit of correspondence, and prepare for Arkansas Bar Foundation Mid-Year Scholarship dinner and reception. It was held at the Little Rock Club with a reception beginning at 6:45 p.m. and the dinner at 7:30 p.m. It is a very nice event. I very much enjoy attending each year. I missed the first year that I was dean and I’ve been very careful to make sure that it gets on my calendar ever since that time so that I will be present. Both deans attend and recognize the students who have received Arkansas Bar Foundation scholarships. It is a special event in that many of the donors are there and they get to meet the young people who are the recipients of their terrific generosity and we get to publicly say thanks for their support of the two law schools. Steve Shults came and picked me up for dinner, and it was nice to have him do that because then I didn’t have to worry about where I was going, parking, and that kind of thing. I appreciate him for that and I also appreciate President Rosalind Mouser for inviting me to join her at her table at the dinner. We sat with her, her husband Kirby, Donna and Lamar Pettus, and Karen and Doug Hutchins. It was good to visit with them a little bit before the evening’s program started. I’m very proud to have the honor of introducing our young people to the bar fellows and to say thanks to them and to the scholarship donors for their gracious generosity. Our scholarship winners were:
William Buckley (Bogle-Sharp Scholarship and R.A. Eilbott, Jr. Scholarship)
Joe Bussell (Harry P. Warner Scholarship)
Courtney Cline (Joe C. Barrett Scholarship)
Jennifer Cormack (Sebastian County Bar Association Scholarship)
Clark Donat (Arkansas Bar Foundation Merit Scholarship)
Baxter Drennon (Judge Henry Woods Scholarship)
Samuel Eastman (Rather, Beyer & Harper Scholarship)
Matthew Fryar (Horace and James McKenzie Scholarship)
Carla Gibson (Shackleford/Phillips Scholarship)
Blake Glasgow (Paul B. Young Scholarship)
E. Conner McNair (Bernard and Bud Whetstone Scholarship)
David Mitchell (Austin McCaskill Scholarship and Vincent W. Foster, Jr. Scholarship)
Bob Veach (Donald J. Adams Scholarship)
Taylor White (Wilson & Associates Ethics Scholar Scholarship)
Arkansas Bar Foundation Scholarship Dinner
Congratulations again to all of these outstanding law students! We are all very proud of your accomplishments. Afterwards, we took a group photo with all the scholarship recipients and both deans and then each law school individually. Steve and I then headed over to the Capitol Hotel where we met up with a group from the dinner and hung out with them a little bit before it was time to say goodnight for the evening. It had been a very good and a very full day.
Nancecy 