Article By Colton Strader
It’s not every day that a college has someone willing to put forth dozens of hours of time into researching and archiving the history of said college into a book. It’s even more rare to have that same person willing to do it twice. Luckily, Lyon College is that exact college and that person is Lyon College alumnus and Noel Boyd Professor of Ozarks Studies at Missouri State University, Dr. Brooks Blevins, ‘92.
Blevins (pictured), currently, is on sabbatical acting as Lyon College’s “Historian-in-residence” for the fall semester. As part of his sabbatical-residency, Blevins will be crafting a pictorial book celebrating Lyon College’s birthday: the big 150. During his stay, he will also be taking part in various festivities and events in the area, lecturing on the history of the College, and helping to design a Lyon history exhibit at the Old Independence Regional Museum.
“It’s good to be back where it all started for me. It’s exciting to be part of the College’s historic birthday celebration,” said Blevins.
Blevins has his own history with Lyon, pun intended. Enrolling in Arkansas College, now Lyon College, in 1988, his freshman class was the largest in the College’s history and would retain that distinction for roughly 20 years.
“The late ’80s and early ’90s constituted an exciting and dynamic era at Arkansas/Lyon College, with growing enrollments, an unusually able crop of students, and a first-rate faculty,” said Blevins.
The landscape of Arkansas College during Blevins’ inaugural year was vastly different from the campus of today. Mobile homes occupied the space where Holloway Theatre now stands, and would continue to do so for roughly a year. And it would take yet another year before the “new” dorms, McRae and Wilson & Rogers, would begin to open their doors.
Blevins said that between his time watching professor Dan Fagg teach through a plume of cigarette smoke and taking a Nichols Trip to Scotland, it wasn’t so much the experiences that made AC special. It was the people.
“The faculty was completely different, except for Dr. (Terrell) Tebbetts, who was already one of the senior professors when I was a student. He’s a remarkable institution unto himself, a beloved common denominator who connects septuagenarian alumni to teenaged freshmen.”
Blevins said that he had “great role models in my history courses” at Arkansas College: Dan Fagg, Donald Weatherman, John T. Dahlquist, Charles Kimball, and especially Jane Fagg and Elizabeth Jacoway.
“I made the closest friendships of my life during those four years, lived with three great roommates in Blandford and McRae, and had the privilege of learning from professors who had a profound influence on my career choice and on my development as a human being.”
Blevins graduated from Arkansas College in 1992. After graduating, it would be a decade before Blevins returned to his alma mater, now Lyon College, in 2002.
“I couldn’t have been happier when I came back to Lyon as Director of the Regional Studies Center. Back then there were still a handful of professors I’d had classes with, so it was an odd feeling working alongside faculty members who’d been grading my essays and exams barely more than ten years earlier.”
From 2002 to 2005, Blevins worked on various special projects while holding his director position.
“I helped the Old Independence Regional Museum put together an exhibit on the Long family and the early history of the College. I arranged and coordinated several symposia on campus, most having to do with the history and culture of the Ozarks, and worked with three Lyon students to conduct a series of oral history interviews focusing on the history of the Arkansas Folk Festival and Ozark Folk Center,” he said.
Blevins also worked on organizing the 65th anniversary celebration of the 1938 state championship basketball team and helped the College issue the music from the John Quincy Wolf Jr. Collection using a symposium on the life and career of Dr. J. Q. Wolf Jr., ‘22, as the release party.
“The experiences I had and stories I heard while tracking down all the living performers from the inaugural Arkansas Folk Festival in 1963 are priceless.”
In 2005, Blevins would take over for Dr. David Stricklin in his position as regular Lyon College faculty.
“At the time I thought my days at Lyon were coming to an end. My three-year contract as regional studies center director was set to expire, and I was back on the job market, preparing to schedule a job interview at a university in Kentucky when Dr. Stricklin called me and told me he was leaving Lyon.”
Originally convinced that the turn of events would mean Lyon College would occupy the rest of Blevins’ career, it would only be another three years before something else came knocking at the door.
“Sometimes an opportunity comes along that is too good to pass up, so good that it’ll convince you to leave home,” said Blevins. “And that’s really what it was like when I left Lyon to go to Missouri State in ’08. It was like leaving home and family. In fact, I was so homesick the first year or so that I would have gladly come back to Lyon if I could have.”
Over the years Blevins has taught at Missouri State, becoming the university’s first Noel Boyd Professor of Ozarks Studies. He has conducted lectures on the history of the Ozarks, and he currently co-hosts the regional history and culture segments on Ozark Highlands Radio, among much, much more.
When Blevins realized the two events, his sabbatical and Lyon College’s sesquicentennial, were going to coincide, he reached out to Lyon’s Vice President for Advancement Dr. David Hutchison.
“The timing of my sabbatical, during the year of Lyon’s sesquicentennial, was simply a happy accident. It was gratifying to hear that he and the Lyon administration were as excited as I was about my coming back to play a role in the commemoration and celebration.”
Blevins returned to Lyon College this month to begin his sabbatical. During this period, Blevins currently plans to enjoy his time at his alma mater, take in the events and festivities, conduct a lecture or two, and create a pictorial book for Lyon College’s 150th birthday.
Article and image provided by Lyon College
Have a news tip or event to promote? Email White River Now at news@whiterivernow.com. Be sure to like and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. And don’t forget to download the White River Now mobile app from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
Get up-to-date local and regional news/weather every weekday morning and afternoon from the First Community Bank Newsroom on Arkansas 103.3 KWOZ. White River Now updates are also aired weekday mornings on 93 KZLE, Outlaw 106.5, and Your FM 99.5.
