Foundation News & Events
Northark Receives $500,000 from Durand Family
After describing his late father’s love for Harrison and desire to give back to the community, Dr. Doug Durand presented North Arkansas College Foundation with a check for $500,000, the largest gift in the college’s history, during a ceremony March 6, 2007, attended by college
trustees, officials, and foundation board members.
The presentation from Durand to Northark President Jeff Olson was made at the site of the future L.E. “Gene” Durand Conference Center in the lobby of the former Regions Bank in Harrison. Most of the gift, $450,000, will be used for renovation costs for the Durand Center. The remaining $50,000 will establish the Gene and Betty Durand Endowed Chair at North Arkansas College.
In his remarks, Olson quoted the late Gene Durand as saying, “I've had an interest in education all of my life. I served on the planning committee for North Arkansas College and have always wanted to support it in any way I could."
Olson thanked the Durand family and told the gathering, “It was obvious to anyone who was around him for very long that Gene Durand was very proud of both of his children.” The Northark president noted Doug Durand’s career in higher education. Doug Durand is Emeritus Dean and Professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where the “Douglas E. Durand Award for Research Excellence” was named in his honor.
During his distinguished career as a businessman and civic leader in Harrison, L.E. “Gene” Durand served as president and board chairman of Security Bank, the original bank to occupy the space that will bear his name.
North Arkansas College purchased the Regions Plaza property for $1.2 million. Included in the 65,000-square-foot facility located on one square block near downtown Harrison is the Regions Bank building, a five-story office tower, and a parking lot. The college also purchased a second parking lot across the street as part of its deal with Regions Bank. Several college and college related offices have already moved into the towers section of the Center Campus, the former Regions Plaza property.
WHITE OAK STATION SCHOLARSHIP GIFT – Shown with a $10,000 check to the North Arkansas College Foundation from this year’s White Oak Station Golf Tournament for Charity event are (from left) Northark President Dr. Jeff Olson, Stephen Lair and Steve Turner of Petromark, and Dr. Jim Stockton of Northark. Over the past nine years, the White Oak Station 
Golf Tournament for Charity has generated $88,500 in donations to the North Arkansas College Foundation for White Oak Station Scholarships. In addition to the annual gifts to the North Arkansas College Foundation, Petromark and White Oak Golf Charities supply $500 scholarships to 23 seniors each year in towns where White Oak Station is part of the business community. Many of those students also attend Northark.
OZARKS AM
BASSADOR AWARD – Forrest L. Wood (shown on the right with his wife, Nina), founder of Ranger Boats in Flippin and namesake of the FLW fishing tour, received the Ozarks Ambassador Award Friday night during the North Arkansas College Foundation’s annual Evening on the Plaza Dinner. Also pictured (from left) are North Arkansas College President Dr. Jeff Olson, who hosted the dinner, and former U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt, who introduced the honoree.
JOHN O. CAMPBELL (center) of Harrison has established the John O. Campbell Single Parent Scholarship at North Arkansas College with a gift to 
the North Arkansas College Foundation. A member of the college’s original board of trustees, Campbell is shown above with two of his sons, Kirk (left) and Craig, who own and operate Campbell Insurance Agency in Harrison.
FUTURE NORTHARK STUDENTS
BENEFIT FROM ED WARABOW GIFT
When Ed Warabow graduated from high school, he had two choices. “I didn’t
have enough money to go to college, so I had to choose between a dead-end job or the military,” he remembers.
Forty-six years later, when Ed and his wife Dolores sat down to plan their estate, he recalled that lost opportunity.
Ed says he assumed everything would go to ensure the care of Dolores’ 53-year-old brother, Bill, who is mentally handicapped and lives with the couple. Married more than 40 years, the Warabows have no children.
“But, Dolores said, ‘No, Bill doesn’t need that much. I’ll leave my half to Bill. Why don’t you do what you want with your half?’” Warabow recalls.
Last Monday, Ed signed an agreement with North Arkansas College and the North Arkansas College Foundation establishing the Ed Warabow Scholarship Fund. Upon his and his wife’s deaths, his half of the proceeds of The Warabow Family Trust will endow scholarships for Northark students majoring in computer science, business, history, or related fields.
“A gift like this changes people’s lives,” says Dr. Jeff Olson, president of North Arkansas College. “We are so grateful to Ed for thinking of Northark first when he made this decision. I admire him.”
Ed, who had a long and successful career in business working for several large companies after a stint in the Air Force, says the fact that Harrison has a college was one of the reasons he and Dolores decided to retire here.
“That was one of the criteria for any place we retired,” he recalls. “It had to have a college.”
The first class Warabow took at Northark was carpentry. “My whole career I worked with my mind,” he points out. “I’ve always wanted to work with my hands.”
Ed co-founded the Woodworkers Club in Harrison and also used his new carpentry skills at home. “We bought a fixer-upper and a lot of what I’ve done around the house, I learned in carpentry class,” he notes.
Next, Ed decided to go after that college degree he couldn’t pursue as a young man. “I have a passion for learning,” he explains. “I’ve always wanted to keep learning.” Warabow graduated from North Arkansas College with an associate of arts degree in December of 1994.
Recently, Ed enrolled in the John Brown University Advance Program, which is taught at North Arkansas College, but put his quest for a bachelor’s degree on hold to help care for Dolores, who has a serious illness.
Knowing that Bill, who will be moving soon to live with another family member, will be provided for in Dolores’ half of the estate, Ed says “it makes me feel wonderful” to know that his assets will benefit Northark students some day.
This semester Ed is taking New Testament Survey taught by Ray Edwards and auditing a desktop publishing class taught by Sherry Bishop at Northark. He credits “the good experience I’ve had with the college” as the reason for leaving his half of the trust to the North Arkansas College Foundation.
“I remember as a kid not having the resources to go to college,” Ed says. “It feels good to give young people like that the opportunity I didn’t have.”