Ken Babcock
’65, Beth Wiedower Jackson ’99, Mel White ’72 to be honored at Oct. 27 convocation
CONWAY,
Ark. (September 30, 2022) — Hendrix College will award Odyssey Medals to three
alumni at a special convocation on Thursday, Oct. 27, at 11:10 a.m., in Reves
Recital Hall, Trieschmann Fine Arts Building.
The
Odyssey Medal is presented to alumni whose life achievements exemplify the
ideals of the Hendrix Odyssey
Program.
Medalists are selected by the Hendrix Board of Trustees for their
accomplishments in one of the six Odyssey categories: Artistic Creativity,
Global Awareness, Professional and Leadership Development, Service to the
World, Research, or Special Projects.
The
2022 Odyssey Medal Recipients and their Odyssey categories are:
- Ken Babcock ’65
— Special Projects
- Beth Wiedower
Jackson ’99 — Service to the World
- Mel White ’72 —
Global Awareness
Ken Babcock ’65,
Waterfowl Biologist and Retired Conservationist
Babcock
began his career in 1967 as a waterfowl biologist for the Mississippi
Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. He worked for the Missouri
Department of Conservation from 1970-1997 starting as a waterfowl research
biologist and serving as Assistant Director of the wildlife agency from
1988-1997. After retiring from the Missouri Department of Conservation, he went
to work for Ducks Unlimited until retiring as Senior Director of Conservation.
He moved back to Missouri and began serving on the board of the Missouri
Conservation Heritage Foundation. Babcock received the Southeastern Association
of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ prestigious W.W. Watson Award in 2005 for a
lifetime of outstanding contribution to wildlife management.
Beth Wiedower
Jackson ’99, Executive Director, Astrodome Conservancy
Jackson
is a preservationist with experience in the fields of community revitalization
and cultural heritage development. She has served as director of the Rural
Heritage Development Initiative under the National Trust for Historic
Preservation, Senior Field Officer for the National Trust for Historic
Preservation, executive director of the Congaree Vista Guild, a historic urban
arts and entertainment district in Columbia, S.C., and a tourism consultant for
the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. In March 2018, she became the
executive director for the Astrodome Conservancy in Houston. She holds an
interdisciplinary degree in Southern Studies from Hendrix College in Conway,
Ark., and a Master of Public History from the University of South Carolina with
a specialty in historic preservation. In 2005, she was honored with a National
Council on Public History award for her preservation work. She married Adam
Jackson in April 2014.
Mel White ’72, Freelance
Writer
Mel
White was born in Conway and graduated from Hendrix in 1972 with a major in
Humanities. After working as a reporter and editor at the Arkansas Democrat
newspaper, he spent several years writing and producing music at a Little Rock
recording studio. For eight years he worked as a writer and editor at the
Arkansas Times magazine. In 1990 he became a freelance writer specializing
in natural history and travel, and for the next 30 years he worked mostly for
National Geographic Society publications. He has written more than 50 magazine
articles for National Geographic and National Geographic Traveler, and has
written or contributed to more than 30 travel and natural-history books. He has
visited more than 40 countries, covering assignments including Australia’s
Great Barrier Reef, Borneo, the Amazon River, the Foja Mountains of New Guinea,
the national parks of New Zealand, the Swiss Alps, Newfoundland, Mount
Kilimanjaro, orangutans, Florida crocodiles, and California tidepools. His
stories won first-place awards from the Society of American Travel Writers and
the North American Travel Journalists Association. Although most of his work
was for the National Geographic Society, he also did assignments for
Smithsonian books, Reader’s Digest books, Discovery Channel books, Audubon
magazine, Outside magazine, Wilderness magazine, and AARP magazine, and for
many years he wrote a regular column for Living Bird, the magazine of the
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. He is married to Hope Coulter, director of
the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation.
About the Hendrix Odyssey Program
Established
in 2004, the Odyssey Program requires all
Hendrix College students to complete three Odyssey experiences or projects
during their undergraduate careers, in three of the six Odyssey categories. The
program ensures that students look beyond the classroom to experience
educational opportunities in the liberal arts and sciences.
About Hendrix College
A private liberal arts college
in Conway, Arkansas, Hendrix College consistently earns recognition as one of
the country’s leading liberal arts institutions and is featured in Colleges
That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges.
Its academic quality and rigor, innovation, and value have established Hendrix
as a fixture in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings. Founded in 1876,
Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. To
learn more, visit www.hendrix.edu.