W. R. White Meritorious Service Awards to Be Presented at Annual Alumni Association Meeting

Each year the Baylor University Alumni Association selects individuals who have rendered outstanding services to Baylor and honors them during the annual membership meeting of the Baylor Alumni Association. This year, six recipients have been chosen for the W. R. White Meritorious Service Awards. They will be recognized during Homecoming activities at 2:30 p.m. Friday in the Jesse H. Jones Theater in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center.

Baylor President Robert B. Sloan Jr. will present the awards to Mrs. Patsy Hollandsworth of Longview, Dr. Herbert H. Reynolds of Waco, Clifton Robinson of Waco, Sen. David Sibley of Waco, Mr. Byron Tunnell of Bullard and Dr. W J Wimpee of Waco.

More than 2,800 students have been the direct beneficiaries of the generosity of Mrs. Hollandsworth and her late husband, Earl. The Hollandsworth Scholarship Funds have supported Baylor students since 1980 as well as students at Kilgore College and East Texas Baptist University. Prior to this year's Homecoming, Mrs. Hollandsworth has always resisted any form of public recognition for her and her husband's generosity.

In March 1969, Herbert H. Reynolds joined Baylor University as executive vice president. On June 1, 1981, he was named the eleventh president of Baylor. Reynolds retired from the Baylor presidency on May 31, 1995, and became chancellor June 1, 1995. While president, Reynolds was named one of America's 100 most effective chief executive officers in a study funded by the Exxon Education Foundation. He is a former chair of the State Commission on Judicial Efficiency and an emeritus trustee of the Baylor College of Medicine, among numerous other positions. In 1994, he was elected a Visiting Scholar/Fellow of Cambridge University.

Robinson attended Waco Public Schools and graduated from Baylor University. He established the Robinson-Lanham Insurance Agency in 1961 along with the National Group Corporation in 1979. The largest building on the Baylor campus, Clifton Robinson Tower, is named for Robinson. He has been recognized by Baylor for his humanitarian acts and received the Pat Neff Award and Medallion, the President's Award and Medallion, the James Huckins Awards and Medallion, the Herbert H. Reynolds Award and Medallion and the Judge Baylor Statue.

Sibley is a graduate of Baylor University, Baylor Law School and an honor graduate of the Baylor College of Dentistry. After his election to the Texas Senate, he opened his own law practice. Sibley's legislative accomplishments have earned him Texas Monthly's designation as one of the state's 10 best legislators in 1993 and 1997 and an honorable mention in 1995. In 1996, he was appointed to Baylor's Board of Regents.

Tunnell is a former member of the Texas House of Representatives, former Speaker of the House and former member and chairman of the Railroad Commission of Texas. A Tyler native, Tunnell served in U. S. Navy Air Corps during World War II and eventually graduated from Baylor Law School after graduating from Tyler Junior College. His interest in civic affairs is evident through his service on various boards, commissions and committees at both state and local levels.

Wimpee, 80, has devoted more than half his life to Baylor. While attending Baylor, Wimpee was a class officer each of his four years and was president of the Baylor Chamber of Commerce his senior year. He also was a letterman on the Baylor football team. Wimpee was serving as a Baptist pastor from 1943 until 1945 when Baylor President Pat M. Neff persuaded him to return to his alma mater as director of religious activities. When Dr. W. R. White succeeded Neff in 1948, he appointed Wimpee as the first chaplain in Baylor's history. After serving under four presidents, Wimpee officially retired from Baylor in 1989. Since then he has served numerous churches as interim pastor.

For more information about Baylor Homecoming activities or the W. R. White Meritorious Service Award recipients, call the Alumni Association at 710-1121 or visit the web site at https://www.baylor.edu/~Homecoming/ .