The upcoming Founders Day weekend, April 20-22 at Southwestern College, will celebrate several community members that will be enshrined into various halls of fame.

Meals and refreshments will be served for the Hall of Fame entrants and their friends and families.  Reservations are required by April 10.  For more information, contact Ashlee Mayo, director of alumni engagement, at (620) 229-6155.

Hall of Fame festivities will begin at 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 21, with a dinner in Deets Library for those entering the Leaders in Service Hall of Fame for the Social Sciences.  The induction ceremony will begin at 6:15 p.m. The cost is $25, limited seating is available, and RSVP is necessary.

On Saturday, April 22, the Business Hall of Fame reception will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the Christy lobby, followed immediately by the induction ceremony at 8:45 a.m., in Richardson Performing Arts Center; RSVP is appreciated. 

At 10:15 a.m., a reception will be held for the inductees of the Fine Arts Hall of Fame in the Christy lobby followed by the induction ceremony at 10:30 a.m., in Richardson Performing Arts Center; RSVP is appreciated.   

A luncheon will be held for the Educators Hall of Fame in Deets Library at noon, with the induction ceremony to begin at approximately 12:45 p.m.  Lunch cost is $25, seating is limited, and RSVP is needed.

Area inductees include:

Barbara (Chapman) White ’80.  White, a 2020 inductee into the Kansas Teachers’ Hall of Fame, will enter the Southwestern College Educators Hall of Fame.  She is a 1980 graduate of Southwestern College, earning her bachelor of arts degree in elementary education. She also earned a master of arts degree in educational psychology with an emphasis in gifted education from Wichita State University.  She has earned numerous awards including being a Kansas Teacher of the Year (KTOY) Congressional Region IV Awardee and state Finalist and member of the state KTOY team in 1995.  She was a Presidential Award of Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching state finalist in 1996.  She received the Richard LeMaster Teacher of Excellence Award USD 353 in 1996 and the Friends of Special Education USD 353 Golden Apple Award in 2015.

Brent Wolf ’03/’15, will enter the Educators Hall of Fame. Wolf is the Principal at Derby Hills Elementary School in Derby, as well as a member of the board of education for USD 465 Winfield.  Prior to becoming principal, Wolf taught elementary and middle school for 16 years. For approximately 10 years, he has taught as an adjunct professor at Baker University, Southwestern College, Wichita State University, and Cowley College. Wolf has been recognized with several honors including making the first-ever website for Winfield Public Schools with his students through the GenY program. In 2015, he was named the KAKE News Golden Apple Award Recipient. In 2017, Wolf was Derby Public School’s Secondary Teacher of the Year.

Tabatha (McMullen) Rosproy ’09, will enter the Educators Hall of Fame.  She is a 13-year early childhood educator, and the first preschool teacher to ever be named National Teacher of the Year. She was awarded this honor in 2020 and has spent the last several years speaking for organizations around the country, elevating the work of early childhood educators and the students and families they serve. Rosproy has transitioned into a new role with Kansas Parent Information Resource Center where she travels the state training schools on best practices in Early Childhood Education and Family Engagement.

Roger Moon ’70 (posthumous) and Allyson (Stark) Moon ’76 will enter the Fine Arts Hall of Fame. In the summer of 1987, the Horsefeathers and Applesauce Summer Dinner Theatre was brought back into production, and the Moon’s assisted in the process. As a follow-up to that return, Southwestern offered them positions in theatre starting in the summer of 1988. Roger became the director of theatre and Allyson became a member of the theatre faculty and the managing director of the summer theatre program. For the next 30 years, the Moon’s collaborated on class and degree offerings, student advising, recruitment, theatrical productions, and summer theatre programming. In the summers, they acted, designed lights, built sets, served dinners, and did whatever was needed to get the show up.  In 1999 and 2006, productions directed by Roger were selected to perform at the Region V Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF). Roger and Allyson’s work as directors and educators resulted in numerous commendations from KCACTF for their students and for them. In 2007, Roger and Allyson were honored with the KCACTF’s highest honor, the Gold Medallion. Throughout the 2010 school year, Roger advised the process of the Richardson Auditorium renovation which re-opened in 2011 as the Richardson Performing Arts Center. He continued his work as an advisor guiding the renovation of the TOMARI Technical Center which opened in 2014. In 2012, Allyson was honored with the Charles H. and Vera R. Kopke Award for Distinguished Teaching. Her work with creativity theory and improvisational acting contributed to this honor. In the spring of 2016, Southwestern sent Roger to China as a visiting professor where he taught English to college students and strengthened relationships with a cooperating university in Huangshan. After returning, Roger taught for two more years and retired in the spring of 2018. Allyson continued as director of theatre until the fall of 2021 and as a member of the theatre faculty through the spring of 2023. In the fall of 2020, both Roger and Allyson were recognized for their teaching on both the high school and college levels with the receipt of the Mary Jane Teal Award for Outstanding Theatre Educators. 

Tim Shook will enter the Fine Arts Hall of Fame.  Shook has been a Southwestern College faculty member since 1988 and served as chair of the performing arts division for 13 years. He collaborated with faculty members and administration on Southwestern College projects such as forming the Cole Family Summer Music Festival, creating the Community Music School, producing the Fine Arts Hall of Fame, and renovating the Richardson Performing Arts Center. Tim’s heart is in exceptional teaching, confirmed by receiving the Charles H. and Verda R. Kopke Award for Distinguished Teaching at Southwestern College and the United Methodist Exemplary Teaching Award.

David Nichols ’60 (posthumous) will enter the Leaders in Service Hall of Fame. At SC, Nichols taught economics, became chair of the business division, and then moved on to the development office, where he oversaw a major capital campaign. From there, he became the academic dean of Southwestern College and served in this role for 11 years. As academic dean, Nichols had many accomplishments including adding tenure for faculty, reworking the college’s accreditation evaluation, and starting the program for giving undergraduate students access to laptop computers. During his retirement, he established himself as one of the leading scholars on Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency. He published three books during this time, all of which are considered groundbreaking within scholarship on Eisenhower’s presidency: “A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution” (Simon & Schuster, 2007); “Eisenhower 1956: The President’s Year of Crisis—Suez and the Brink of War” (Simon & Schuster, 2011); and “Ike and McCarthy: Dwight Eisenhower’s Secret Campaign Against Joseph McCarthy” (Simon & Schuster, 2017). These three books continue to be debated amongst U.S. presidential historians and taught in both graduate and undergraduate classes throughout the United States, including the criminal justice and political science departments at Southwestern.

The weekend celebration will conclude with the inauguration of President Liz Frombgen at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 22, in Richardson Performing Arts Center.

See Full Founders Weekend Schedule