Kinnaman founded Kinko Constructors Inc., a Little Rock based construction company, in July 1973 and served as its president and CEO for 27 years. In late 2000, Kinnaman sold the company to four longtime employees and formed Kinnaman Consulting LLC, a consulting firm with an emphasis on construction dispute resolution. He owned and operated Kinnaman Consulting until his retirement in 2006.

A major supporter of UALR Athletics, Kinnaman’s contributions to the department are highlighted by numerous renovations and additions to the UALR baseball facilities. Most notably, Kinnaman’s work includes the construction of the Trojans’ indoor practice facility and Wheeler Complex, which houses the player clubhouse, meeting room, umpire locker rooms, and coaching suite at Gary Hogan Field.

In 1988, Kinnaman provided construction work involved with the installation of new turf at what was then Curran Conway Field at no charge to the university. The building of the Trojans’ first indoor hitting facility in 1990 came next, followed by the construction of the Wheeler Complex in 2001. Kinnaman also built a new state-of-the-art indoor practice facility and press box for the Trojans during the renovation of Gary Hogan Field in 2004.

He also provided renovations to the men’s and women’s basketball offices, volleyball offices, and men’s and women’s basketball locker rooms in the mid-90s at no cost to the university.

Kinnaman was instrumental in starting UALR’s construction management program. In support of the program, he has funded the Jack Kinnaman Constructor Endowed Scholarship and the Phyllis Kinnaman Memorial Scholarship in memory of his first wife. He is also leaving a bequest in his will to endow an athletic scholarship and to provide additional funding for construction scholarships.

Outside of his contributions to UALR, Kinnaman’s work includes the expansion of Little Rock National Airport, the Pavilion in the Park shopping center, and several projects for the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Kinnaman is a member and former National President of the American Institute of Construction (AIC), where he co-authored the AIC Code of Ethics and was a two-time recipient of the National AIC Professional Constructor Award. He is the founding member of the Arkansas chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors, and in 1996 was named “Business Executive of the Year” by Arkansas Business. In 2002, he was inducted into the Arkansas Construction Hall of Fame.

In addition to UALR, he has served on the Construction and Architecture Advisory Committees at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Clemson University, Southern Arkansas University Tech, and John Brown University.

We’re coming to the end of The Fund for UALR Fall Phonathon, a six-week effort conducted every year where current UALR students reach out to alumni, previous donors, and friends to ask for their support of The Fund for UALR. The Fund, UALR’s Annual Fund, provides a source of unrestricted donations that go to support the needs of students on campus.

“The UALR Phonathon has provided me with a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the university, its history, and the opportunity to talk with people who want to support it,” said junior Mikelle Moore, a business management major from Milwaukee, Wis.

In addition to asking for donations, student callers must be prepared to answer questions about the university, its history, current events or updates on campus.

“At first, it was a little intimidating, but you get into a rhythm and feed off the energy of everyone else,” said Kimberly Gulley, a junior social work major from Magnolia. “It is really great to see that the money we are raising is directly impacting the lives of students such as myself.”

Learn more about the Fund for UALR here.

“Buddy and his family have been going on five generations of supporting young people in Arkansas, not just through athletics,” said UALR Athletic Director Chris Peterson. “You name it, the Coleman family has been instrumental in enhancing the lives of those youths.”

Last December, Coleman’s sons – the fifth generation of Coleman dairymen – presented UALR a gift of 10 acres of what was part of the oldest dairy farm west of the Mississippi to make possible a recreation and sports complex. The complex, nearing completion at Asher and University avenues, will make Little Rock eligible to host sanctioned track and field events.

“I grew up in Central Arkansas and remember as a kid touring the dairy and drinking chocolate milk,” said Bob Denman, executive director of development at UALR. “And anyone who played ball either played on a Coleman Dairy team or played against them. Buddy Coleman was a vital part of sports development in Central Arkansas. This new sports complex at the site of the old dairy will be a tribute to his life and work.”

“Anytime we can create and preserve green space for our people, it is a moment to celebrate,” said Gov. Mike Beebe.

The governor attended the dedication of the park that once was a collection of broken asphalt and unusable cement block buildings.

Now it is a tranquil entrance to campus on the south and a tribute to the thousands of native people who stopped by the creek as they made their forced march to the west on the Trail of Tears.

“I feel the heartbeat and the footsteps of those who came through here,” said Sue Folsum, executive director of cultural events, historic preservation, and museums for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Kirk Perry, administrator of the Division of Policies and Standards of the Chickasaw Nation, represented his tribal leaders at the dedication and welcomed the rain.

“It is a good day for Coleman Creek to get good water,” he said. “This is one small way to preserve a way of life.”

The 4.5 acre park is near the site where thousands of Choctaw and Chickasaw people stopped for water on their way to Indian territories.

It was known as the Trail of Tears, the federal government’s forced migration of native people to Indian lands in what is now Oklahoma and points west.

“Old maps show that the old Southwest Trail went through the intersection of Asher and University avenues,” said Dan Littlefield, director of UALR’s Sequoyah National Research Center.

“It was a resting place where they repaired their wagons and watered their horses. We have to use our imaginations to understand what they went through — it was one of the coldest winters of the time.”

The $650,000 donor-financed park project has restored the area to its natural state with native trees, rocks, and grasses.

Chancellor Joel E. Anderson said the park project is the first in a community- and campus-planned rehabilitation of Coleman Creek. The project, described in UALR’s Master Plan, “On the Move,” calls for the creation of a 47-acre greenway reaching the full length of campus with lush vegetation, bicycle and walking trails, benches, and bridges.

Landscape engineers believe the Trail of Tears Park and subsequent Coleman Creek Greenway will be the biggest project of de-urbanization in the history of Arkansas.

Ninety-year-old Janie Butler, whose grandmother’s house still stands diagonally from campus on Asher Avenue, attended the dedication. She celebrated the work that has been done to restore Coleman Creek, where she often swam as a girl.

“This is wonderful,” she said. “It’s going to be fun to get back to the creek.”

J. French Hill, chief executive officer of Delta Trust and a trustee of the Smith Trust, said the gift would establish the Stephen Harrow Smith Endowed Dean of Business and the Stephen Harrow Smith Seminar Room in the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business and Economic Development Building, which houses the College of Business.

“The purpose of the Stephen Harrow Smith Endowed Dean of Business is to honor the memory of Stephen Harrow Smith, recognize his lifetime of exemplary business leadership, and his passionate belief in America and its free market economy,” Hill said.

The gift also will provide for the greatest need in the College of Business and may include student scholarship, internships, study abroad, career placement, and competitive support for gifted and talented students and faculty.

“Leadership is key to maintaining the UALR College of Business as a leader in business education and economic development,” said UALR Chancellor Joel E. Anderson.

“The trustees of the Stephen Harrow Smith Trust have helped to ensure the strength of our business programs by providing endowment resources for the business dean.  We are grateful to the trustees of the Stephen Harrow Smith Trust for honoring Mr. Smith’s memory in this important way.”

The gift also will make possible several enhancements near the newly named Stephen Harrow Smith Seminar Room on the third floor the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business and Economic Development.

Those include an interactive touch screen LCD video wall and full color 12-foot LED stock market ticker along with continued support for seminar room care and equipment.

“This gift marks a significant milestone for the College of Business and helps ensure that we will continue to make significant contributions to the growth and viability of our businesses, communities, and state,” said Dr. Anthony F. Chelte, dean of the College of Business.

“The Stephen Harrow Smith Endowment will provide the resources necessary to help achieve the college’s mission to provide high quality business education, serving as a catalyst for economic development across the state of Arkansas, and to continue to provide career-ready, well-prepared, and outstanding students for Arkansas’ business and broader communities.”

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School with a degree in economics, Smith returned to his hometown of Little Rock in 1933 and began pursuing his main interest, investments. He worked for three small investment companies until World War II broke out and he was stationed at Wilmington, Del., Air Base as administrative officer for the Ferrying Division of the Air Transport Command.

After the war, Smith returned to Little Rock and joined Walter R. Bass Investments until 1957. When Bass died, Smith bought the firm and operated it as Harrow Smith Co. until he retired in 1987.

Smith also served on the boards of the Visiting Nurses Association, the local Red Cross, the Metropolitan YMCA, and the Roselawn Memorial Park Cemetery Board.

David Ross, senior vice president of the Bank of America and senior philanthropic relationship manager for the Sturgis Trust, along with Sturgis Advisory Board Member Janet Stegall assisted Chancellor Joel E. Anderson in presenting the Sturgis Medallion to Biris at the investiture ceremony at the Engineering and Information Technology Auditorium.

“Mr. Ross and the trustees of the Roy and Christine Sturgis Charitable Trust have ensured that the nanotechnology program at UALR will produce excellent research and scholarship in perpetuity,” the chancellor said.

“Their generosity in endowing the chair in nanotechnology recognizes the remarkable scientific achievements of one of our brightest scholars, Dr. Alex Biris. Today’s announcement underscores UALR’s role as a leader in scientific research in Arkansas.”

Ross said he and the trust were honored to make this investment in UALR and in the future of technology in central Arkansas.

“I firmly believe that advancing education in high technology fields such as nanotechnology will not only benefit Dr. Biris and his ongoing work, but will also enhance the economic recruitment of engineering and technology companies to Arkansas,” Ross said.

“This investiture continues the Roy and Christine Sturgis Charitable Trust’s legacy of education and economic advancement in the state of Arkansas.”

The Roy & Christine Sturgis Charitable Trust was established in 1981 to support and promote quality educational, cultural, human services, and health care programming for all people.

One of 10 children of an Arkansas farmer and homemaker, Roy Sturgis dropped out of school after the 10th grade to join the Navy during World War I. After the war, he returned to the family home in south Arkansas to work in local sawmills. He married Texas native Christine Johns and became very successful in the timber, lumber, and sawmill industries in Arkansas.

They owned other prosperous business enterprises and had notable success managing their investments, spending most of their time in Arkansas and Dallas. They never had children, but were particularly interested in helping provide educational opportunities for young people. The foundation has granted over $50 million to worthy organizations throughout Arkansas and Texas.

Biris, associate professor of systems engineering, serves as director of the UALR Nanotechnology Center and is focused on accelerating the development of commercial applications of nanotechnology through collaborations with private corporations, universities in the state and nation, and research institutes in the United States and abroad.

His research includes developing nanostructures to facilitate the growth of bone and other tissue, development of skin-like film to collect energy from the sun, and nanostructures to carry elements to kill cancer cells directly into diseased cells.

Biris was part of the team that designed, developed, and patented an electrodynamic dust shield for space exploration in collaboration with NASA and has published more than 15 scientific papers in the area of electrostatic dust mitigation – dust removal from solar panels. Other papers focused on his examination of Mars Dust Simulant properties by Raman Spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffraction.

Biris led the invention of a new method and technology for producing large quantities of carbon nanotubes with high purity, resulting in several pending U.S. patents. He also has led the design and development of filters based on carbon nanostructures to efficiently remove bio-chemical contaminants from air and water, also a pending U.S. patent application.

The UALR scientist helped develop a unique tissue regeneration system that has been used successfully in 33 clinical studies to grow bone tissue with several patents filed. In all, Biris has filed 22 patent applications in nanotechnology, bio-nanotechnology, and materials science.

A Little Rock native and graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, Harrison will be the new manager of Annual Giving.

She has worked for 15 years in fundraising, event planning, and coalition building projects in both the political and non-profit sectors.

Before joining the UALR staff, Harrison served as the development officer for the Arkansas Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Chapter and the Arkansas 4-H Centennial Coordinator with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.

She is an active volunteer with the Colon Club, Arkansas MDA, Fulbright Elementary and the Children’s Learning Center. Harrison and her husband Marc live in Little Rock with their two children.

Bill Roehrenbeck, chief executive officer of Arvest Mortgage and a UALR business graduate, said the gift will provide students and faculty access to the system’s price quotes, and messaging across its proprietary secure network for three years.

“Arvest Mortgage, under the leadership of CEO Bill Roehrenbeck, has demonstrated its commitment to preparing students to make significant contributions to Arkansas’ businesses,” said Dr. Anthony Chelte, dean of the College of Business. “The recent gift will provide students with direct experience with Bloomberg Terminals and financial analytics that will prepare them to add immediate value to companies like Arvest Mortgage upon graduation.

“The UALR College of Business appreciates Arvest Mortgages’ continuing support and remains committed to providing high quality business education and serving the economic development needs of Central Arkansas and beyond.”

Dr. H. Andy Terry, chair of the Department of Economics and Finance, said Bloomberg is one of the premier data sources for financial institutions and traders.

“The Bloomberg terminals will provide our students access to data that professionals on Wall Street use daily in real time,” he said. “In addition, they are a tremendous source of financial and economic data that should facilitate faculty research.”

Both the dean and the chair said the access to Bloomberg data should provide a real boost to the school’s specific effort to recruit more high-quality economics and finance students.

The AT&T gift was the largest received in EIT’s campaign to increase the number of students the summer programs could afford to accept.

“For more than 25 years, AT&T and the AT&T Foundation have been committed to strengthening communities through advancing education,” said Ed Drilling, president, AT&T Arkansas.

“An educated workforce for the future is critical to the success of our nation, and to the success of our company as well. The summer program at UALR gives these students a greater opportunity for success, and improves our state’s ability to compete – today and tomorrow.”

During June and July camps, 43 high school students studied mathematics, science, technology, and engineering in two innovative programs that have proven successful in encouraging participants to go on to major in those subjects in college.

This summer’s high school STEM camp enrollment represented a 48 percent increase over the number accepted in 2010, thanks in large part to the support of Arkansas companies that have helped fund the programs growth. That growth is expected to continue in 2012 when additional residence hall space is available.

The two summer programs are:

• Engineering Scholars Program, June 19-July 1, in which 24 students representing 15 towns in the state received hands-on instruction from engineering faculty on college-level projects. One student from Oklahoma also participated. The 24 participants have a collective 3.77 grade-point average in high school.

• The High School Research Program, July 10-29, included 19 students representing seven Arkansas towns the chance to spend three weeks at UALR, working with EIT professors to engage in meaningful research and other academic projects. Two students from Tennessee also participated. The 19 participants average a 3.96 grade-point average in high school.

“Getting students energized about engineering and technology is critical to developing the passion and commitment it requires to pursue these challenging fields in college,” said Dr. Eric Sandgren, EIT’s dean.

“Our summer programs have been successful in inspiring students to major in science, technology, engineering, or math in college, and now – thanks to the generosity of AT&T and other Arkansas companies – we can extend that opportunity to many more deserving Arkansas youth.”

Nearly 80 percent of the high school students who have attended EIT summer camps have gone on to college to major in STEM subjects.

The Judge George Howard Jr. Memorial Scholarship will honor the jurist and provide education-related expenses to an outstanding student who may be among the first in his or her immediate family to pursue a graduate degree or who in other ways is economically disadvantaged.

The scholarship was funded with memorial gifts honoring Howard after he died in April 2007 and from donations from his widow, Vivian Howard, and daughter, Bowen Professor Sarah Howard Jenkins-Hobbs.

“A World War II veteran, attorney, and federal judge, Judge Howard was the epitome of fairness and was committed to civil rights in and out of the courtroom,” said Dean John DiPippa. “He blazed trails toward access to justice for all Arkansans, and we know the student who will receive this scholarship will work to continue Judge Howard’s legacy.”

Howard served first on the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas and was then transferred to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. In 1977, Gov. David Pryor named him to the Arkansas Supreme Court, and in 1979, Gov. Bill Clinton appointed Howard to the Arkansas Court of Appeals.

Howard would hold this position only briefly, as President Carter appointed him federal judge for the Eastern and Western districts of Arkansas in 1980, a position he would hold until his death.

Judge Howard played an important judicial role in the Whitewater trial, which led to the downfall of then Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker
and the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998.

“Just as Judge Howard made a lasting impact on our state, we hope to give this scholarship to a student who has demonstrated social commitment and whose mission is to enrich his or her community,” said Wanda G. Hoover, assistant dean for external relations. “The Judge George Howard Jr. Scholar will endeavor to live with honor, act with intelligence, and lead with integrity.”