wfn.org | Foundation honors four for work in higher education

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 23, 2000  News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.   10-71B{165}

By United Methodist News Service

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Annual awards from the United Methodist Foundation
for Christian Higher Education are being given to four people who have made
extraordinary contributions at one or more of the denomination's schools.

Receiving awards this year are Richard P. Small of Tulsa, Okla.; Harald
Rohlig of Montgomery, Ala.; the Rev. Susan Henry-Crowe of Atlanta; and the
Rev. David D. Scroggin of Russellville, Ark.

Small was given the annual Stanley S. Kresge Award because he embodies the
characteristics of the philanthropist for whom the honor was named in 1987,
according to foundation executive George M. Miller of Nashville. Those
characteristics are "dedicated membership in the church and unselfish
support of United Methodist-related education."

Rohlig, professor of music at Huntingdon College, was named Outstanding
Educator of the Year, an award given to teachers in United Methodist-related
schools who have made an extraordinary impact on students, peers, the
institution, church and community.

Henry-Crowe, dean of the chapel and religious life at Emory University, was
named Chaplain of the Year, and Scroggin, director of the Wesley Foundation
at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, was named Campus Minister of
the Year.

In his nomination of Small for the Kresge award, Leslie H. Garner Jr.,
president of Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, said, "Dick's leadership
in and philanthropy to Cornell College, Boston Avenue United Methodist
Church in Tulsa, and the Oklahoma United Methodist Foundation are genuine
expressions of his commitment to the United Methodist heritage of concern
for Christian higher education and programs to serve the disenfranchised,
the marginalized, and those with little or no voice." He also described
Small as a "witness to the vitality of the Wesleyan tradition."

Small has been a member of the Cornell board of trustees since 1971, serving
as chairman from 1993 to 1996. At Boston Avenue, he serves on the
Reconciliation Council and the Religion and Race Committee. He founded and
underwrote "Dreams of Peace, Visions of the Future," a lecture series for
the Cornell College and St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids,
Iowa. He serves on the Oklahoma United Methodist Foundation Board of
Trustees. In 1999, he and his wife, Norma, received the Outstanding Leaders
for Higher Education award from both the Oklahoma and churchwide
foundations.

Rohlig's love of music and teaching are "contagious," according to Wanda D.
Bigham, president of Huntingdon College. In her nomination, she wrote,
"After years of service ... Harald Rohlig continues to delight, challenge,
and educate students both formally and informally. His contribution to this
United Methodist college for 45 years epitomizes what it means to be a
Christian educator of distinction. He is talented, caring, energetic, and
concerned for the student as an individual." The recipient of this award
receives an artistic replica of the Cokesbury Bell and a cash award of
$5,000.

Henry-Crowe, who coordinates the life and work of 27 official religious
groups at Emory, is "loved and respected by all," said United Methodist
Bishop L. Bevel Jones. "Susan Henry-Crowe is tireless in the conduct of her
ministry and unflappable amid the complexities and controversies inherent in
the life of a research university." Recipients of this award receive an
inscribed sculpture and a cash award of $5,000 to further the development of
programs sponsored by their office.

Scroggin was praised by Richard C. Ruble, chairman of the Arkansas Tech
Wesley Foundation board. "Through David's excellent leadership, his talent
to empower others to do ministry, and his spiritual leadership that evokes
trust, the foundation has grown into a ministry of which the entire United
Methodist Church should be extremely proud," he said. The recipient of this
award receives an inscribed sculpture and a cash award of $5,000 to further
the development of programs sponsored by the campus minister's office.

Miller said the "grand vision" of the United Methodist Foundation for
Christian Higher Education is to help make it economically possible for any
qualified United Methodist student to be educated at a United Methodist
school.

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United Methodist News Service
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