FAYETTEVILLE -- Four new names on Fayetteville Schools' Hall of Honor are former students who have succeeded in film, accounting and volunteer service, education and professional baseball.
They are Larry Foley, Lisa Higgins, Justin Minkel, and the late John Sherman Lollar Jr.
Fayetteville Public Schools Hall of Honor
• Started in 1997
• 68 honorees
• Newly inducted members: Larry Foley, Lisa Higgins, Justin Minkel, and the late John Sherman Lollar Jr.
• Ceremony set for Oct. 1 at Fayetteville Town Center
Source: Staff report
"When they called and told me, I was just stunned," Foley said. "People come and congratulate you. This is where I was educated. This is my town. Receiving this kind of honor is beyond anything I can describe."
Their names appear with the names of 64 other individuals recognized since 1997 on a glass wall in the lobby of the Fayetteville High School Arena. The new Hall of Honor wall was featured Thursday during a luncheon organized to announce the 2015 inductees.
Those inducted into the Hall of Honor are role models meant to inspire students and create excitement about education, said Cambre Horne-Brooks, executive director of Fayetteville Public Education Foundation. The recognition is given to former students who have distinguished themselves, to educators and to friends of Fayetteville schools who have made significant contributions to public education.
Foley of Fayetteville attended Fayetteville schools through eighth grade.
He is a former Little Rock TV reporter and anchor who has taught in the Lemke Department of Journalism at the University of Arkansas since 1993. He began as an associate professor and was named a professor in 2005 and department chairman in 2014. He's the founder and faculty adviser for UATV, a student television station.
He's known as a film producer and director for films airing on PBS and other national networks. He has received 14 Mid-America Emmy nominations and five Mid-America Emmy awards.
Foley described his aspirations in film with a quote from the late Maya Angelou: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
"In my film work, I hope I educated people and made them feel," Foley said.
Teachers in Fayetteville taught Justin Minkel success isn't about salary, grades or awards.
"It's about living the life you dream for yourself," Minkel said. "Education is about who you become and the life you lead."
Minkel, a 1996 graduate of Fayetteville High School, still remembers having his first male teacher in third grade at Washington Elementary School. His teacher treated every child with respect. Other teachers had a knack for helping students find their passions.
Minkel began his teaching career in New York City with Teach for America. He and his wife, Karen, returned to Fayetteville in 2004. He teaches at Jones Elementary School in Springdale, a campus where a majority of students are from low-income families and whose first language isn't English.
Minkel received a Milken Educator award in 2006 and was named Arkansas Teacher of the Year in 2007. He founded the Home Library Effect to establish home libraries for children. He writes columns for Education Week and the Center for Teaching Quality.
Higgins, who also lives in Fayetteville, is a 1976 Fayetteville High School graduate who became a certified public accountant in 1987 and opened her own accounting firm in 1991.
She's active in the community, serving as a board member and treasurer of Fayetteville Public Education Foundation for 12 years and is a longtime member of the Fayetteville High School Booster Club.
Lollar is a 1941 Fayetteville High School graduate who played professional baseball from 1943 to 1963 for the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox. He played in the World Series in 1947 with the Yankees and in 1959 with the White Sox. He was a coach for 10 years, retiring in 1974. He died in 1977.
Lollar's recognition on the Hall of Honor is special to his family, said his nephew Jim Hawkins of Fayetteville, who knew him as "Sherm." Hawkins remembers his uncle returned to Fayetteville after playing in one World Series and took care of him while his mother, who was Lollar's sister, went to work.
Lollar worked hard, believed in telling the truth and sought to treat everyone as his equal, Hawkins said.
"He was a very easy-going, pleasant man," Hawkins said. "He was somebody you looked up to."
NW News on 08/14/2015