Mike Woodrum is as much a tradition at Conway High School graduations as the Wampus Cat blue gowns.
This year will be his 15th year to pronounce Conway High School graduates’ names. He’s pronounced thousands in his tenure, and he’ll add 676 names to that on May 19 at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
“This is definitely going to be the biggest class,” Woodrum said.
A radio announcer for KCON in Conway from 1984-1998, Woodrum was a fixture at school-board and community meetings and in the courthouse on long election nights. He was especially known for covering Conway High School Wampus Cat basketball games the entire time he was on KCON, and football games, which he did from 1987 until 2004.
“I only missed two Wampus Cat games in all those years,” he said.
Woodrum also worked as supervisor of the James H. Clark Auditorium at Conway High School from 1998 to 2016. That’s when he was approached by then-district administrators with the task of announcing graduates.
Woodrum said then high school principal Johnny Tyler and former Superintendent James Simmons asked “if I would consider calling the names. I said, ‘We’ll give it a shot.’”
Woodrum’s role has continued under the tenure of Superintendent Greg Murry, who came on-board in 2008.
“Mike is a natural to announce our graduates’ names,” Murry said. “His voice is so resonant, he is meticulous about correct pronunciation and enunciation, and he bleeds Wampus Cat blue.”
Woodrum said that although he’s a loyal Wampus Cat fan, he is not a Conway High School graduate. He graduated from high school in Louisville, Kentucky, where he was an award-winning singer.
He is a student, though. Woodrum, 69, is a voice major at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. He has showcased his talents in many local theater productions.
Conway High School graduations moved from UCA’s Farris Center to Verizon Arena in North Little Rock a few years ago as the class sizes grew.
He said that when Conway High School distributes caps and gowns to the seniors, he’s there so he can talk with each student to get the correct pronunciations of their names.
“We try to meet with all the students, and we go over each of the names, especially the ones that are difficult to pronounce, and sometimes you do have ones with a little nuance to their names that you have to be aware of,” he said. “I write the names down phonetically because it helps me to understand them better. For instance, to give you an example, when we have somebody Anne — or Ahne — I’d look on my list. You want to have something to differentiate each one.”
He also attends the practice a few days before graduation to practice himself. His goal is to read the names flawlessly.
“They’re getting 15 seconds of fame right there. For a lot of these kids, this is a big moment for them and a big moment for their families, so you want to be sure you do it right,” he said.
Because there have been thousands of names — and because he practices them — he doesn’t remember one name that was particularly hard, Woodrum said.
“I don’t remember a real, real tough name because there are so many,” he said. “There’s been a real increase of the number of Hispanic students we have, and we try to do as much as we can to pronounce those names correctly.
“Surprisingly, while we’ve had extremely difficult names in previous years on occasion, right now, the names aren’t really all that difficult to pronounce. We do first, middle, last. My policy states that it’s the full name unless special permission is given.”
Jeani Hamilton Shinn, who retired in 2013 as the Conway High School journalism teacher and publications adviser, said Woodrum realizes the importance of correct pronunciation, “and he literally scrutinizes the list for days before graduation. Graduation is such a huge moment for each student, and Mike makes the effort to be accurate with every name. He truly loves doing it, and Conway High is blessed that he does.”
She said Woodrum read off the names of her two sons, Clark and Clay, when they graduated.
Woodrum said the audience is asked to respect the reading of the graduates’ names and keep the celebrating to a minimum.
However, he said the noise has gone up in the past 15 years.
“I think the respect is still there. It’s just everything now, because we are at North Little Rock in Verizon, it’s pretty much magnified,” Woodrum said. “[At UCA], there was a crowd of about 4,000, maybe. Now we’re dealing with 8,000.
“Last year, I called one name out, and [the student] just wanted to take over the stage for about a minute. In Verizon, there are places that are extremely difficult for people to hear the name called. We have to at least wait till noise subsides a little bit. Finally, … somebody told him it was time to move on.”
He said he never gets tired of his role in the graduations. He is not paid for his time — he announces the names “out of the goodness of my heart,” he said. “I come back and do this each year because I love doing it and because I really enjoy the kids and the responses they show when they receive their diplomas and everything.”
He said he expects 2021 to be his last year to announce the names, the year his will be announced by someone at UCA.
“In 2021 is when I expect to get my bachelor’s degree from UCA. The great thing about it for me is, that would mean I would be able to wear my graduation regalia at [CHS] graduation, and I would do it,” he said.
It would be a beginning for him and the end of an era for Conway High School.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.