Hendrix Alumni Blogazine

May Hope McClurkin Moose ’28 grew up in Conway on the campus of Hendrix College where her father was the Business Manager. She graduated Hendrix, with honors, at age 19 and taught two years in Almyra. She and Charles Reid Moose, whom she met at Hendrix, married in 1930.

She returned to the classroom in 1955, teaching Latin and English (although her college major was Chemistry and Biology). In 1963 she was named Arkansas’ “Teacher of the Year.” Her last several years of formal teaching were as a freshman English professor at the University of Central Arkansas.

“Mother was notorious for her teaching skills and her insistence on oral and written correctness,” her son, Rev. David Nelson Moose ’63 recalls, “When she found errors in my church newsletters, she would circle them in red ink, returning them to me - in love, of course! And more than one Morrilton pastor has stopped in the middle of a sermon to look at her for a nod of approval on the grammar just used.”

Miss May Hope was a consistent supporter of the College and attended events on campus regularly. She was widowed in 1984 but maintained her independence and community service until three years ago.

“Even when she could not even feed herself, her mind remained sharp and, up until last month, could still converse with friends and family and quote, by memory, the entire Prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales … in Old English!” David Moose says.

May Hope Moose died in her home in Morrilton on May 12. Her 100^th birthday would have been next November 20. “She will be greatly missed, ,” David Moose says, “Through her, God has blessed us with more and for longer than we expected or deserved!”

Dan Rizzie, Nature Morte (for D.S.), 2003-4

Dan Rizzie ’73 opened his show at the Spanierman Modern in New York on Oct. 16. The one-man show, Dan Rizzie, is an exhibition of Rizzie’s recent mixed media work. A catalogue accompanying the exhibition includes an essay by Robert Hughes, the art critic for Time Magazine and the author of numerous books on art, along with 12 full-page color illustrations. Rizzie received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Hendrix Alumni Association in 2005.

Dr. David Whillock ’76 of Grapevine, Texas, has been appointed dean of the College of Communication at Texas Christian University.

Whillock, who has been at the college since 1991, began his career there as an assistant professor and coordinator of the graduate program in the radio, television, and film (RTVF) department. He also has served as an associate professor and curator of the Tandy Film Library for RTVF; chair and associate professor for RTVF; and interim dean of the College of Communication. In addition, Whillock served as the director of assessment for the College and coordinated the College’s graduate programs and policies, faculty, financial aid, curriculum and operating budget.

Jay Kell '99 recently launched a new Sonoma County winery. Verge Wine Cellars is a small winery based out of Healdsburg, Calif., about an hour north of San Francisco.

“ ‘Learning a language is a lot like life.’ Those were the first words Hal Allen said to us as we entered German 100,” Kell recalls. “‘You have to be open to possibility, open to change, and to experiencing new things.’ We learned how to “dump our heads” (a tool I still use) and visualize words in German.”

Kell, a German major, sees his career as an extension of the Hendrix experience that he shared with his wife Emily Collins ’00. “Part of my journey at Hendrix was indeed spent conjugating verbs and wrapping my head around dependent clauses,” Kell says. “But another part, a more important part, was spent expanding my own idea of myself and what I wanted from life.”

“One of my motivations to start Verge Wine Cellars was the need to produce something natural and organic and then introduce it to people in a creative and evocative way,” Kell says. “Part of evaluating a wine is being open to how it will taste.”

“That openness also means being conscious that the wine comes from a particular place in the world, has been touched by many hands, has been a part of an idea and has traveled quite a journey to get to your glass,” Kell relates. “My journey began at Hendrix und gott sei dank dass ich Deutch gelernt.”*

The new winery’s first release is a 2006 Syrah from Dry Creek Valley. The inaugural vintage of Verge Syrah, harvested from the mountainous edge of Dry Creek Valley, had an initial production of 350 cases, only available via the company’s mailing list and in select Bay Area restaurants.

For more information, visit www.vergewine.com, created by alumna Janette Balleza ’00.

*rough translation: and thank god that I learned German

John Wesley Hall ’70, a Little Rock criminal defense attorney, was recently sworn in as president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the Association’s Annual Meeting in Milwaukee.

Hall previously served as NACDL's secretary, treasurer, second and first vice president and president-elect, as well as a member of the organization’s Board of Directors from 1989-1995 and 1997-2003. In addition, he was chair of the NACDL Ethics Advisory Committee from 1990-2005. Hall is a past president of the Arkansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, an NACDL affiliate.

Hall has tried approximately 250 jury trials, handled over 200 appeals, argued twice in the U.S. Supreme Court, and defended a military officer accused of war crimes in an international tribunal in Sierra Leone. He is a frequent speaker and expert witness on criminal defense ethics.

Since 1979, Hall has worked in private practice at his own firm, the Law Offices of John Wesley Hall, Jr., P.A. He is a member of the bars of Arkansas, Nevada, New York, Tennessee, the District of Columbia, and the International Criminal Court where he also is the only American lawyer elected by the list of counsel to the ICC’s Disciplinary Appeals Tribunal.