Five Baylor Supporters To Be Honored With W.R. White Awards
The Baylor University Alumni Association will honor five recipients of the W.R. White Meritorious Service Award during the association's annual meeting at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, in the Jones Theater of the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center. The awards will be presented by Baylor President Robert B. Sloan Jr. to Dr. Kenneth Q. Carlile, Clyde Hart, Kent Reynolds, Dr. Bill Sherman and Elizabeth Vardaman.
A resident of Marshall, Carlile earned his bachelor of arts degree from Baylor in 1969, a doctor of dental surgery degree from Baylor College of Dentistry in 1973, and his doctorate in geology from Baylor in 1996. He is vice chair of the Carlile Companies, which include Martex Drilling Co., Martex Well Services Inc., Unitex Properties Inc. and Camterra Resources Inc., as well as Martex Bancshares, a bank holding company for eight East Texas banks. He is a member of the advisory board for the Baylor College of Arts and Sciences and the department of geology. He has previously chaired both the Baylor Development Council and the Sesquicentennial Campaign and was a member of the student life complex steering committee. He and his wife, Celia, have two sons, Zachary, a Baylor graduate, and Cameron, and a granddaughter, Virginia.
In his 39th year as Baylor's head track coach, Hart has a program firmly established as one of the nation's best, including five top four finishes in the NCAA championships. Known worldwide as the coach of world champion and Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson, Hart also has served on the coaching staff of the 2000 U.S. Olympic team and the USA Men's Team at the World University Games in Spain. Hart was a scholarship athlete at Baylor and earned his degree in 1956. He was honored as a Baylor Distinguished Alumnus in 1997, and the Hart-Patterson Track Complex was named for him. Hart has been inducted into the Baylor University Athletic Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame. He is married to Dr. Maxine Barton Hart, also a Baylor graduate and professor emeritus of information systems. They have two sons, Greg and Scott, and three grandchildren.
Reynolds earned his bachelor's degree from Baylor in 1975 and his master's degree a year later. Since 1983, Reynolds has been president of Christian Mission Concerns and executive director of Christ Is Our Salvation Inc., a private foundation founded by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Piper in 1952. Under his leadership, the foundation has made significant gifts to Truett Seminary. In addition, the organization has given a substantial number of no-interest loans to Baylor students, as part of a program they fund at 30 different colleges nationwide. The foundation also provides the facility for the Piper Child Development Center, which is used as a laboratory for Baylor education students. Reynolds is married to Katy Hugghins, a 1976 graduate. They have a son, Jonathan, and a daughter, Melinda, both Baylor students.
Dr. Bill Sherman, a 1954 graduate of Baylor, also earned degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. For more than 40 years, he served as pastor at churches in Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee. He was pastor of Woodmont Baptist Church in Nashville from 1968 until 1997. He is married to Veta Cole Sherman, a 1953 Baylor graduate, and they have three children and six grandchildren.
Elizabeth Glass Vardaman earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from Baylor. She was a lecturer in the Hankamer School of Business for 14 years and presently serves as assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and associate director of the Honors Program. Vardaman has numerous publications to her credit and has been a frequent contributor to the Baylor Line and the Waco Tribune-Herald. Along with her husband, Dr. James Vardaman, she has traveled extensively in Europe and Asia and has co-hosted eight Baylor Alumni Association-sponsored international trips since 1992.
The W.R. White awards, named for Dr. William Richardson White who served as Baylor's president from 1948 until 1961, are awarded to individuals who have rendered outstanding service to Baylor.
Alumni event information is available at www.bayloralumni.com or by calling the Baylor Alumni Association at (254) 710-1121 or (800) BAYLOR-U, option 6.