Meritorious Service Awards To Be Given By Alumni Association

October 20, 2004

by Judy H. Prather

The Baylor University Alumni Association will honor five recipients with the W.R. White Meritorious Service Award during the association's annual membership meeting at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22, in Jones Theatre of the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center.
Recipients of the award are Merrie Meadows Beckham of Dallas, David Lacy of Waco, David C. Maddox of Anaheim, Calif., Fred R. Norton Jr. of Texarkana, and Dr. James W. Vardaman of Waco.
Beckham is married to Dallas attorney C.T. "Sparkey" Beckham. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, she was one of the first to be recognized when the Baylor Alumni Association began the Alumni-By-Choice program in 1986, and she has been the featured speaker at every Alumni-By-Choice presentation since. In 2001, she was honored as the Dallas Baylor Women's Council's Distinguished Person of the Year. The Beckhams have five children and 13 grandchildren, including several Baylor graduates.
Lacy, a 1979 Baylor graduate, is president and CEO at Community Bank and Trust of Waco. An active Baylor supporter, he is currently treasurer of the Baylor Alumni Association and president of the Baylor "B" Association. He has served in both official and unofficial capacities for Hankamer School of Business, Student Foundation, the Bear Foundation and the Fast Break Club. He also has been active with the Baylor/Waco Foundation and the United Way. Lacy is married to the former Nancy Derrick, a 1989 Baylor graduate, and they live in Waco with their daughter, Carter.
Maddox earned a BBA from Baylor in 1948 and a graduate degree in international trade from the University of Texas. He has worked with businesses in both the United States and Brazil, and he is founder and president of David C. Maddox Inc., a real estate development, investment and management company in Anaheim, Calif. An original member of the board of advisers for Baylor's George W. Truett Theological Seminary, he also has been a director of the California Baptist Foundation and was recognized by California Baptist University with an honorary doctor of law degree.
Norton is permanent class president for the Baylor Class of 1980 and immediate past president of the Baylor Alumni Association. An honors graduate of Baylor, Baylor School of Law and New York University, he works as an estate and tax attorney in Texarkana. In 1990, he was named an Outstanding Young Alumnus of Baylor, and in 2003 was named a Texas "Super Lawyer" in the field of tax law by the publishers of Law and Politics and Texas Monthly. He has served on the advisory boards of more than 20 organizations, including Wadley Health System and Dallas Baptist University, where he was awarded a doctor of humanities degree in 1994. Norton and his wife, Martha Cargile Norton, are the parents of three sons.
Vardaman graduated from Baylor in 1951, after serving with the U.S. Marine Corps from 1945-49. He later earned a master's degree from the University of Minnesota and his doctorate from Vanderbilt University. He held teaching positions at Vanderbilt, Texas Christian University and Virginia Military Institute before joining the Baylor faculty in 1967. He was chosen as Professor of the Year in 1968-69 and as Baylor Outstanding Professor in 1986, and he was designated a Master Teacher in 1993. He taught in the Baylor in Maastricht program for three years and directed the Department of International Programs at Baylor from 1996 until his retirement in 2000. He continues to teach in Baylor's Department of Continuing Education and often serves as a host for Baylor Alumni Association travel programs. He lives in McGregor with his wife, Elizabeth Glass Vardaman.
The award is named for past Baylor president Dr. W.R. White, and is given to individuals who have rendered outstanding service to Baylor and expressed continued interest in and loyalty to the university.
For more information, contact Cheryl Allen at the Baylor Alumni Association at (254) 710-1121 or 1 (800) BAYLOR-U, option 6.