Commencement Ceremonies Feature Prominent Speakers

Don Tyson

Isaac Crumbly

C. Douglas McMillon

Pamela Brooke Jackson

Monty Henderson

Shayne Henry

Kimber Wentzelburger

Thomas W. Peterson

Charles F. Robinson II

Justice Annabelle Imber Tuck

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Don Tyson and Issac Crumbly

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Two prominent native Arkansans — businessman and philanthropist Don Tyson and educator Isaac Crumbly — will receive honorary degrees from the University of Arkansas and speak at the All-University Commencement, which will be held at 8:45 a.m. on Saturday, May 8, in Bud Walton Arena.

Don Tyson, of Springdale, built Tyson Foods Inc. into the largest protein producer in the country and has donated millions of dollars to a broad range of educational and other causes; Isaac Crumbly, a Widener native, is associate vice president for career and collaborative programs at Fort Valley State University, Ga., where he created innovative training and development programs that opened the way for thousands of minority and female students to enter the energy industry.

Don Tyson will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, and Isaac Crumbly will receive an honorary Doctorate of Science degree.

Additional Commencement Ceremonies and Speakers

Saturday, May 8

Sam M. Walton College of Business, 12:30 p.m., Barnhill Arena

Speaker: C. Douglas McMillon, president and CEO of international operations, Walmart.

In his 18 years with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., McMillon has learned the business from the bottom up, holding leadership roles in all three operating segments: Walmart US, Wal-Mart International and Sam’s Club. He began as an hourly associate at a Walmart distribution center in northwest Arkansas while working his way through college. In 1990, while attending graduate school at the University of Tulsa, he became a buyer trainee for Walmart.

He has worked as a buyer; a divisional merchandise manager; vice president and general merchandise manager for Sam’s Club International; and senior vice president and general merchandise manager for Walmart. He served as executive vice president of Sam’s Club Merchandising and Replenishment for three years before he was promoted to the position of president and CEO in 2006. He is currently president and CEO of Walmart International, a fast-growing part of Walmart’s overall operations, with more than 3,500 stores and 680,000 associates in 15 markets outside the continental United States.

McMillon also has been a major driver of Walmart’s sustainability initiatives.

He is originally from Jonesboro and graduated from the Sam M. Walton College of Business with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He received his Master of Business Administration in finance at the University of Tulsa.

Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, 1 p.m., Randal Tyson Indoor Track Center

Speakers: Pamela “Brooke” Jackson, graduating senior scholar; Monty Henderson, Outstanding Alumnus

Senior Scholar Pamela “Brooke” Jackson majored in agricultural business with a pre-law concentration and a minor in global agricultural, food and life sciences. She studied abroad in Belize and Australia and was the outstanding senior in agribusiness for 2008-2009. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Gamma Sigma Delta, National Scholars Honor Society, Golden Key and Chi Omega. She will continue her studies at the University of Arkansas School of Law in August, with a focus on agricultural law. She is the daughter of Nick and Kellie Jackson of Newport.

Monty Henderson, B.S.A. ’69, is the 2010 Outstanding Alumnus of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. He is the former president and chief operating officer of George's Inc., a poultry production and processing company based in Springdale. Henderson retired in August 2009 after 15 years as George’s president and chief operating officer. He has been involved in the poultry industry for 41 years. Before joining George's he served as president and chief operating officer for Pilgrim's Pride Corp. at Pittsburgh, Texas.

Henderson is a graduate of Newark High School and was an agricultural business major at the University of Arkansas.

J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, 1 p.m., Walton Arena

Speakers: Shayne Henry and Kimber Wentzelburger, graduating seniors

Shayne Henry, from Broken Arrow, Okla., is a four-year honors scholar graduating with a double major in political science and international relations, with an emphasis on western Europe, and minors in Spanish and economics. He worked as a volunteer with the university’s Belize Project, focusing on community development strategies, and spent two summers studying human rights in Copenhagen, Denmark, as a fellow and intern with the international organization, "Humanity in Action." Henry was named a Truman Finalist in 2009 and is a fellow with both People for the American Way and the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress in Washington, D.C.  Following graduation, he plans to spend a year working on human rights issues in the public sector before pursuing a law degree in 2011.

Kimber Wenzelburger, from Girard, Kan., is a departmental honors scholar graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in news/editorial journalism and a minor in political science. Since spring 2007, Wenzelburger has been an active member of The Arkansas Traveler, working as a senior staff writer, copy editor, assistant news editor, managing editor and editor in chief. Wenzelburger earned first place in feature writing at the Arkansas College Media Association Awards and first place in editorial writing at the Society of Professional Journalists Region 12 Mark of Excellence Awards. She has interned at two daily newspapers: The Morning Sun in Pittsburg, Kan., and The Morning News in northwest Arkansas. Following graduation, she plans to pursue a career in journalism.

Fay Jones School of Architecture, 1 p.m., Arkansas Union Ballroom

Speaker: James Richards, principal, Townscape Inc., Fort Worth, Texas

James Richards is a national award-winning designer, writer and illustrator whose work has creatively spanned town planning, urban design and landscape architecture for 30 years on projects in 17 states. He is a co-founder and principal of Townscape Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas, and has led successful design initiatives for walkable town centers, transit-oriented developments, corporate campuses, freeway corridors and heritage regions.

Richards has designed and taught coursework at the graduate level, and served on the professional advisory boards and as a visiting lecturer at many universities. He has been a visiting lecturer and jury critic at the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas. He is also president-elect of the school’s professional advisory board.

Richards’ most recent and visible impact has been through his nationally and internationally published articles that rethink and update rapid freehand sketching as a creative tool for the digital age. These efforts have generated praise and support from designers across the United States and abroad and are part of a growing trend he has coined as “the Freehand Renaissance.” He was awarded the American Society of Landsacpe Architect’s Bradford Williams Medal for these articles in 2008.

College of Engineering, 3:30 p.m., Barnhill Arena

Speaker: Thomas W. Peterson, assistant director of engineering for the National Science Foundation

Thomas W. Peterson’s position with the NSF directorate of engineering enables him to provide critical support for the nation's engineering research and education activities. The directorate is a driving force behind the education and development of the nation's engineering workforce. With a budget of approximately $640 million, the directorate supports fundamental and transformative research, the creation of cutting-edge facilities and tools, broad interdisciplinary collaborations, and, through its Centers and Small Business Innovation Research programs, enhances the competitiveness of U.S. companies.

Prior to joining the NSF, Peterson was dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Arizona. He received his bachelor of science from Tufts University, his master of science from the University of Arizona and his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology, all in chemical engineering. He has served on the faculty of the University of Arizona since 1977, as head of the chemical and environmental engineering department from 1990 to 1998, and as dean from 1998 until January 2009.

Peterson was one of the founding members of the Global Engineering Deans' Council, and at Arizona made global education experiences a high priority for his engineering students. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and a recipient of the Kenneth T. Whitby Award from the American Association for Aerosol Research.

College of Education and Health Professions, 4 p.m., Walton Arena

Speaker: Charles Robinson, University of Arkansas vice provost for diversity

Charles F. Robinson II has been a college teacher for over 19 years and describes his passions as teaching and lecturing. He taught for nine years at Houston Community College before coming to the University of Arkansas where he now serves as an associate professor of history and director of African American studies. In 2009 he was named the university’s first vice provost for diversity.

In his time at the university, Robinson has received the Fulbright College Master Teacher Award, the Arkansas Alumni Distinguished Teacher Award, the Student Alumni Board Teacher of the Year Award and was inducted into the university’s Teaching Academy. In 2006, the Black Students Association honored Robinson with the Lonnie R. Williams Bridging Excellence Award and in January 2008, he was given the Martin Luther King Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award by the Fayetteville MLK committee. 

 Robinson has published two books, Dangerous Liaisons: Sex and Love in the Segregated South (2003) and Engaging Missouri: An Epic Drama of Love, Honor and Redemption across the Color Line (2007). He currently has two books under contract that are scheduled for release later this year: Forsaking All Others: Interracial Sex and Revenge in the 1880s South and Reflections in Black: An Oral History of the Desegregation of the University of Arkansas.

Robinson received his bachelor of arts degree in history at the University of Houston, graduating with honors. He earned a master's degree at Rice University and a doctoral degree at the University of Houston.

Saturday, May 15

School of Law, 2 p.m., Fayetteville Town Center

Speaker: Justice Annabelle Imber Tuck, retired associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court

Justice Annabelle Imber Tuck is the only woman to be elected to the Arkansas Supreme Court, where she served as a justice from 1997 until 2010. She is best known, however for a case she handled while she was a chancery judge in the 6th Judicial District (Perry and Pulaski counties). In 1994, she issued a landmark ruling in the school funding case filed by the Lake View school district, declaring that Arkansas was violating the state constitution by funding districts inequitably.

Tuck received her Bachelor of Arts from Smith College in 1971 and served as a paralegal from 1972 to 1975 in the law office of Arnold, White and Durkee, of Houston, Texas. In 1975 she joined the office of Wright, Lindsey and Jennings as a paralegal while she attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law. She earned her Juris Doctor in 1977 and became an attorney and later a partner with Wright, Lindsey and Jennings.

She was elected as a circuit judge for the 5th and 6th Divisions and served from 1984 until 1989, when she became a chancery and probate judge for the 6th Judicial District, 6th Division. She held this position until her election to the state Supreme Court in 1997.