Giving Until It Feels Good: Ben M. Elrod: Arkansas Educator and Fundraiser

By Rex Nelson and Ian Cosh

Ben Elrod is an Arkansas philanthropist, educator and Christian leader who spent over four decades investing in the lives of young men and women through Christian higher education. His life story will inspire future generations of leaders to live a life of impact for the kingdom of God. His lifes work was founded upon careful professional preparation followed by a relentless pursuit of excellence in all his assignments. Ben Elrod started and ended his higher education experience at Ouachita Baptist University beginning as a freshman and ending as its 13th president.

The book explores the shaping experiences of his early days in the rural timber town of Rison, Arkansas and the impact on him of his college days at Ouachita. Insights into his presidency of three institutions of higher learning will be invaluable to those who currently share such a challenge. No story of his life would be complete without sharing his insights into how to raise money for noble causes. His significant work as a pioneer fundraiser in higher education will provide wisdom for all those tasked with securing funding for their organizations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512743548

Rex Nelson

Rex Nelson of Little Rock, Arkansas, is senior vice president and director of corporate communications for Simmons First National Corporation. He previously served as president of Arkansas Independent Colleges and Universities. Ian Cosh of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, is a native of Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, and serves as vice president of community and international engagement at Ouachita Baptist University and director of the Ben M. Elrod Center for Family and Community.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 Rex Nelson & Ian Cosh.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4355-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4354-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016909075

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/29/2016

246.png243.png

DEDICATION

Rex: To my sons Austin and Evan in hopes that they will use Ben Elrod as an example of the kind of man they wish to become.

Ian: To Sharon and my girls—Jan, Dayle, Barri, Nikki and Brittany—who light up my life in a thousand ways, and Ben Elrod my mentor and friend.

Table of Contents

DEDICATION

FOREWORD

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1    THE EARLY YEARS

Chapter 2    THE EDUCATION YEARS

Chapter 3    ELROD THE PRESIDENT

Chapter 4    THE FUNDRAISER

Chapter 5    THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPER

Chapter 6    THE PASSIONATE VOLUNTEER

Chapter 7    FINAL THOUGHTS

1216.png

FOREWORD

You need to write a book, numerous people have said to me in recent years. My consistent reply has been, I don’t want to write a book. I’m too lazy. After writing two doctoral theses, I simply have not been inspired to take those painful steps of reviewing, polishing and editing again. I enjoy writing, but not what follows writing in the process of publishing.

So I found a better way. In weak moments, Ian Cosh and Rex Nelson agreed to do the writing. All I had to do was dump the mountainous load of files on them and give them permission to write what they would. I gave them copies of my biographical material, speeches, published and unpublished articles, interview transcripts, pictures, and anything else that I would have consulted if I had written the book.

Rex and Ian have organized and recorded much of the material, together with their thoughts and suspiciously complementary comments to provide the book that I didn’t want to write. I can’t possibly thank those two friends enough. They have invested considerable time and effort to accomplish the task.

The chapter on fundraising should be interesting to fledgling fundraisers, and the one regarding the nature and process of creating the Elrod Center provides a good blueprint for institutions planning the creation of service-learning entities.

I’ve had, by the grace of God, an interesting and satisfying life and career. I’m pleased to read about it without having to write about it.

Thank the Lord for Ian Cosh and Rex Nelson.

bFp01.jpg

Ouachita’s 13th President, Dr. Ben M. Elrod

1204.png

Acknowledgements

Jeff Root for proofreading the manuscript and for his 2005 video interview with Dr. Elrod

Wesley Kluck for assistance with photographs

Diane Runyan for assistance with document collection and tabulation

Brittany Cosh McClain & Dayle Cosh Carozza for the cover design

1289.png

Introduction

A s I write this introduction, I am conscious of the challenge Rex Nelson and I have willingly undertaken to capture for our readers the essence of a distinguished Arkansan whose career has impacted faculty and students here and abroad over the course of five decades. As with all leaders, Ben Elrod has to be appreciated within the context of his day and time, and his accomplishments can now best be appreciated in light of the perspective that time and distance pro vide.

As Ouachita Baptist University completed a beautiful new Elrod Center for Family and Community in the spring of 2015, it seemed an opportune time to publish a book about the man in whose honor the center has been named and whose life bears personal testimony to the mission statement of that center. Ben Elrod is a man of multiple dimensions, some of which are explored in this book as a way to honor him and teach a new generation of students some of the kernels of truth to which his life bears testimony.

Born in Rison, Arkansas, he was raised in a loving Christian home where he learned the importance and power of a local community to mold and shape the life of a child. It was in Rison that he gained an appreciation for the natural beauty of his native state and learned to savor the sights, sounds and smells of rivers, timberlands, chainsaws and tractors. Working alongside his father’s employees provided insights into human nature that served him well as a leader later in life. He began life as a son of the soil and grew into a talented leader who loved people and invested his life in them. He came to love college-age students in particular and ultimately discovered that it was on this age group that the focus of his calling rested.

I was introduced to the name Ben M. Elrod through the Honors Program at Ouachita Baptist University as a student. When he left Ouachita and moved to Kentucky to become president of Georgetown College his friends at OBU created the Ben M. Elrod Scholarship as an award to be given to the most outstanding student in the honor’s program each year and to provide funding for their research, including overseas research if needed. It is an unusual honor to have a scholarship created in an administrator’s name in the middle of his career, but it is an indicator of the standing he enjoyed with faculty and friends that they wished to associate him with the best and brightest of students. He served as an example for them of a man of learning and a man of faith.

This book will explore some of the major motifs that provide insight into the multiple facets