From our board to Bush’s brain?

The man Time Magazine calls the president’s master strategist, Karl Rove, once upon a time was an ET regent.
George W. Bush’s chief political adviser served on the ETSU Board of Regents for a short stint between July 1990 and February the next year. His brief appointment was never actually confirmed by the Senate.
The year before Rove took his seat at ET, he was dropping into one next to campaign manager Ken Luce, according to the new book, Bush’s Brain. The book about Rove by Wayne Slater and James Moore says that in February 1990, Rove approached Luce to pitch George W. as presidential material. At the time, Bush wasn’t even a candidate for governor.
Reports of Board of Regents meetings indicate little about Rove except that:

1. He supported adoption of the campus energy management manual of 1991.
2. He advised against any immediate remodeling of the

Heritage Room, a small,formal meeting room on the MSC’s third floor. It was February of ’91 and the statewide budget cuts—sound familiar?—meant the University would have to cut 1.3% of its budget, or about $247,000. Refurbishments to the Heritage Room were to include new chairs, drapes, crystal and china, at a cost of about $130,000.Rove said that although the money had already been budgeted, spending it then on those kinds of items could be bad public relations.
“I can see somebody standing up on the floor of the Senate talking about how East Texas State in a time of financial difficulty is out buying fine china, a $700 bar and going to town on it,” he said. Action on the furbishings was tabled, and the room would not be updated until 1993.
Aside from that, the most notable aspect of his term on the board may be that some campus staffers still remember how pleasant and supportive of the University was the man whom even supporters have called a “political shark.”

The 33rd annual Alumni Golf Classic will be Friday, June 6, at
Sand Hills Golf and Country Club in Commerce.
Brochures with more information will be mailed this month.
If you do not receive a brochure but would like information or would like to participate, please contact Alumni Relations at 1-800-67LIONS for more information.

Dr. W.J. “Jack” Bell
Endowed Scholarship
He was a Professor Emeritus and had been head of the Department of Journalism and Graphic Arts at A&M-Commerce for more than 30 years.
Since his death Jan. 1 at age 87, the journalism department, through the Promise Campaign, is focusing on building his endowed scholarship from $22,000 where it now stands to at least $100,000.
Dr. Bell’s legacy to the University includes pioneering work as sports information director that set reporting standards conference-wide. In 1989 he was elected to A&M-Commerce’s sports Hall of Fame.
He also nurtured a journalism program that graduated a number of outstanding writers and photographers and had earned the designation of Piper Professor, an award for excellence in teaching.Dr. Bell is also

remembered as a faithful servant of his community.He served on the city commission and was mayor for more than a decade. He also was a committed volunteer at his church and through the Lions Club.

Sports complex improvements
in honor of Durwood Merrill
Durwood Merrill graduated from A&M-Commerce in 1960. He went on to become an American League umpire for 23 seasons and the author of the book You’re Out and You’re Ugly, Too.
He was honored as one of the University’s Distinguished Alumni in 1998, the same year he received the National Association of Sports Officials’ “Gold Whistle” award for his work with the Hooks Christian Services Charity organization. Durwood founded the group, which helps provide food, clothing and toys to underprivileged children.
Durwood, who was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, was 64 when he died Jan. 11 of complications from a heart attack.
In his honor, organizers are looking to raise $500,000 to provide bleachers, lighting and other infrastructure improvements to ballfields at the Cain Sports Complex. The complex, which is west of Hwy. 50, was recently dedicated.

(see page 5)

Architect says planetarium puts stellar face on facility

Bids for the facility that is the $28 million centerpiece of the Promise Campaign are expected to go out by this fall.
Robert Hackler, the architect in charge of designing the University’s ultramodern Science & Technology Center, says his firm is excited about creating a building that fits with the historic campus yet reflects and accommodates the cutting-edge work that will be going on inside.
The 100,000-square-foot Center will provide 15 research,17 teaching and two special physics laboratories, among other specialized facilities equipped with multimedia and fiber-optic connections.
From the facility’s destined site south of the Music Building, it is the planetarium with its giant domed roof that is likely to have the most prominent profile, says Hackler with the architectural firm Jennings*Hackler & Partners.
The 100-seat planetarium, outfitted for special surround-style presentations, is expected to be one of the best in the Southwest.

Friends, former students and colleagues describe Dr. Talbot as a man who gave his life away, and they are working to make certain his legacy of giving lives on through the D.Arlington Talbot Endowed Fellowship

for Graduate Studies in Counseling at A&M-Commerce.
A dinner that had been scheduled for April 26 has been postponed following Dr. Talbot’s death in January.

(see page 14)

The endowment to honor him, however, was established before his death and is accepting donations. Dr. Talbot came to the University in 1968 to help with the integration process.

Through the18 years of his career here he built a reputation as a man of conscience and kindness that continues today.“I have known Dr. Talbot for ten years and during that time have realized the myriad of lives he has touched,” said the head of the counseling department at A&M-Commerce, Dr. Phyllis Erdman. “The breadth and depth of his influence extends across all boundaries—race, culture, age, socioeconomic status and profession.”