At the second annual Agriculture Reunion held Oct. 13, the Agriculture Department announced the endowment of a scholarship in the name of a retired animal science professor.

   Since 1999 Mark Owen and Phillip Young, co-chairmen of the University of Arkansas – Monticello Agricultural Alumni Society, worked to endow a scholarship in the name of Robert C. Kirst.

   Two scholarships of $250 will be given per semester to students on a need base. To apply a student needs to fill out a registration form and have three letters of recommendation, Young said.

   “Sometimes things don’t move as fast as we would like,” Owen said. “This is been a long time coming and to us this is an opportunity to recognize a gentleman who has been instrumental in a lot of people’s education.”

   The chairmen said they started the scholarship by sending letters to all alumni asking for alumni dues. The money donated became a seed in which the scholarship was formed.  Because of his efforts in and out of the classroom, the alumni society honored Kirst by naming the scholarship after him.

   “Dr. Kirst believed in his students but also believed in this department,” Young said. “He went to battle many times for the students and for the department with not only the department head, but with the administration up on the hill. Many of the facilities and benefits that the students enjoy here today are directly related to his efforts whenever he was teaching here.

   “He often told his students they had no reason to hang their heads because they graduated from UAM, that they were as good as any student that came out of any department at any school.”

   Before his retirement in 1998, Kirst worked as an animal science professor at UAM for 25 years. Owen said Kirst gave his students more real world experience in his labs than most people he met from larger universities were given.

   During his years of service, he became known for his open-door policy in which students could drop by his office and talk about anything from agriculture to planning hunting trips.

   “He took a special interest in his student’s well being not only academically, but personally,” Owen said. “He was one of those people if you were having problems with life in general, you could go sit down and visit with him. Regardless of what your personal problem was, he was going to give you fatherly advice, because he cared.”

Photo by Kevin Sims

Honored - (left to right) Kelly Bryant, Jack Lassiter, Robert Kirst, Mark Owen and Phillip Young stand together after Kirst received the honor of having a scholarship endowed in his name.

   Agriculture Dean Kelly Bryant said Kirst did not just help out students, but mentored him when he took over as the department head.

   Another legacy Kirst left the school was a bond between the university and Tyson Foods, Bryant said. Owen said Kirst made it a priority for his students to have a job when they graduated and went out and recruited employers.

   The scholarship committee selected Emily Wright and Sarah Dorton as the 2007 recipients. Dorton said she felt honored to get the scholarship because not everyone receives one.

   “This is the smallest thing we could probably do for all the things he’s done for the hundreds of students that came through during his tenure and for his name to live on long after any of us are here was something we wanted to occur,” Owen said.

   Around 50 alumni and faculty members attended the reunion. Tyson and Sysco Food Service donated the food for the event.