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[ Dr. Alva Matherly Clutts ] - [ Dr. C. Ray Franklin ] - [ Dr. Harry B. Gray ]
In 1953, Dr. Clutts served as a cost engineer for Texas Instruments and was, "on the scene," during the company's development of the transistor and its first listing on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1955, Clutts was controller for Lanpar Company in Dallas, Texas and from 1961-64 worked as an accountant for Clutts and Parker Architects. Dr. Clutts began a distinguished 14-year tenure at Southern Methodist University in 1964 as assistant professor in quantitative analysis at SMU's School of Business Administration. She was an integral part of the university's efforts in launching its interdisciplinary program teaching in the University College. Dr. Clutts earned assistant professor status at SMU in 1971 and became an associate professor in 1975. She retired from full-time teaching at the university in 1978. Dr. Clutts volunteer and public service work in Dallas through the University Park United Methodist Church resulted in significant accomplishments. Dr. Clutts chaired the board for the Wesley-Rankin Community Center in Dallas Opera Guild. She has also served on the board of the Parent Club, St. Mark's School of Texas; Parents Club, The Hockaday School; the United Methodist Women and the Pastoral Counseling and Education Center in Dallas. Dr. Clutts and her husband have three children. James Arthur Clutts, Jr. is an attorney in Dallas, Mary Alva Clutts is an architect in California and John Richard Clutts is an art director in Dallas.
Franklin began collecting early American antiques while a student at Harvard and his love and interest in antiques, especially furniture, led to a position as advisor to Mrs. John F. Kennedy during her redecoration of the White House. Franklin owned one of the finest private collections of American antiques and had some of his rare pieces exhibited at times in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as other museums. Included among Franklin's treasures was George Washington's collapsible, portable field bed, made of mahogany. Franklin retired to Asheville, North Carolina purchasing a reproduction of the Virginia mansion, Gunston Hall, built in the 18th century for revolutionary war colonel George Mason. In 1974, Franklin and his wife, Ruth Holman Franklin, made a scholarship gift to the College Heights Foundation and 1978 donated 19 pieces of rare antique furniture to Western's Kentucky Museum. Included in Franklin's gifts to Western is a bust of his ancestor, Benjamin Franklin. Dr. Franklin died in 1985.
Dr. Gray has given more than 100 lectures in recent years in the U.S. and abroad and was honored as the 1990 recipient of the American Institute of Chemistry's Gold Medal Award, the organization's highest honor and generally regarded as one of the top three awards in American chemistry. Gray has also received the National Medal of Science during White House ceremonies, and has received numerous other awards throughout his professional career. Dr. Gray has served as a member of the Council of the National Academic of Sciences (1986-89), the governing board of the National Research Council (1986-1989), chairman of the NSF Advisory Committee for Chemistry (1982-83) and chairman of the NAS Section of Chemisty (1982-85). Gray and his wife, Shirley, have three children; Vicky, Andrew and Noah. A native of the western Kentucky coal field area, Dr. Garry Lacefield today is a leader in Kentucky's forage-live-stock industry. The McHenry (Ohio County) native spent two and one-half years in Germany in the U.S. Army before entering Western where he received his B.S. and M.S. degrees with a major in Agriculture and Biology in 1970. After graduating from Western, Dr. Lacefield attended the University of Missouri where he completed Ph. D. requirements in 1974 and joined the University Kentucky staff as Extension Forage Specialist. Lacefield has authored and coauthored more than 300 extension publications, papers, articles and book chapters and is coauthor of the book, Southern Forages. He developed and is the senior author of a monthly newsletter and writes a monthly column for the Kentucky Beef Cattle Association magazine. Dr. Lacefield emphasizes the "team approach" in his forage extension programs and has traveled to lecture in Japan, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Canada, Argentina and Canada. He organized the Kentucky Alfalfa Conference in 1980 and serves as its organizer each year. Selected as a "Fellow" in the American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society of America, Lacefield was named the 1989 Alumnus of the Year by Western Kentucky's University's Department of Agriculture and receive the 1991 Alfalfa Extension Award and the 1992 American Society of Agronomy Agronomic Extensions Education Award and was the 1993 Progressive Farmer's "Man of the Year in Agriculture." Dr. Lacefield is also active in his Princeton, Kentucky community serving on the chamber of commerce board and is married to the former Cheryl Cavender, a Western graduate, and has two sons, Brian ('96, '98) and Brad (a senior at Western).
Wilcutt piloted the STS-88 (Endeavor) launched from the Kennedy Space Center on September 30, 1994 as part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The mission used the second of three advanced radars and a carbon-monoxide pollution sensor to study the Earth's surface and atmosphere. After 183 orbits of Earth in which more than 14,000 photographs were taken, the 11-day mission ended with the Endeavor touching down at Edwards Air Force Base, California October 11, 1994. Wilcutt logged 269 hours and 46 minutes in space and is scheduled for a return trip to space next spring. Wilcutt's parents remain residents of Russellville and he is married to the former Robin Jo Moyers of Louisville and they have two sons, Andrew Brian, age 11 and Aaron Michael, 6.
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