Randolph-Macon College issued the following announcement on Oct. 15
Five Yellow Jacket Alums Honored During Annual Society of Alumni Dinner
Randolph-Macon’s Society of Alumni (SOA), the sixth oldest of its kind in the nation, honored several remarkable alumni and one faculty member during its annual awards ceremony on Friday, October 8 in Birdsong Hall’s Dalton Family Dining Room.
The evening’s featured speaker, Dr. Donna Fricke Klepper ’75, was among the first class of women to enter R-MC 50 years ago and talked about her experiences as one of the 49 female Yellow Jackets entering the previously men-only College.
During that first year, all female students lived in Mary Branch Hall, and Klepper joked about how the doors of the dorm were intended to lock after 10 p.m., but the women found ways around the rule. When they objected to the fact that the same curfew did not apply to male students, they protested for equal rights and were successful in overturning the differential treatment. The experience even landed the R-MC women on the front page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“I believe R-MC gave us women lifelong skills from so many experiences, including the amazing liberal arts education we received,” Dr. Klepper said. “We learned to think critically, to use reasoning and logic to think about our world, but it also gave us a broad understanding of what it meant to be an educated and participative member of society. We learned what it means to be resilient when disappointment came our way and to celebrate the good things in life.”
SOA President Dr. Robyn Diehl McDougle ’98 presented Dr. Klepper and several other Yellow Jackets with the awards listed below.
Young Alumna Achievement Award
Jazmine “Jaz” Battle Funes ’15 (Music and Communications double-major) and her husband, Steven, own and operate their very own Chick-fil-A in Toronto, Canada, making her the company’s first Black international franchisee. Funes began working at Chick-fil-A during her Yellow Jacket days and continued working at Ashland’s “Center of the Universe” location after graduation as Director of Operations. Last February, Funes and her husband opened the Toronto location, which is off to a booming start with a team of 100+ staff members and more than 1,000 customers every day.
“Her steady rise in a global enterprise is a testament to hard work and steadfast determination,” Dr. McDougle said. “Jazmine has taken her majors in Music and Communication into the business arena, proving that a strong liberal arts education can lead in any direction.”
Susan H. Donavant Volunteer Award
William “Bill” Sprinkle ’67 (General Science major) is known by all for his unparalleled support of the College’s Refer a Yellow Jacket program and the R-MC Show Choir. Sprinkle—an ex-officio member of R-MC’s Board of Associates, liaison to the Society of Alumni Board, and Boydton Society Executive Committee member—holds the honor of having referred more Yellow Jackets than any other person in College history. He also works closely with Show Choir Director Adam Pulver to recruit new students into the program.
“In the spirit of the Refer a Yellow Jacket program, Bill has been a mentor to the students after they have enrolled, developing meaningful and supportive relationships with all the performers,” Dr. McDougle said. “When the awards committee considered the best representative of the Susan Donavant Award, the choice was easy.”
Distinguished Alumnus Award
Jim Kelley ’74 (History major) is an expert in international maritime law. Kelley was unable to attend the event due to a work-related scheduling conflict and will be recognized at a later date.
Distinguished Alumna Award
Dr. Donna Fricke Klepper ’75 (Sociology major) went on to earn a M.Ed in counselor education and a Ed.D. in higher education from the University of Virginia (UVA) and has more than 30 years’ experience leading adult continuing education and professional studies organizations and programs.
The founding director of the Piedmont Virginia Community College’s Center for Training and Workforce Development, Dr. Klepper’s commitment to adult education and training is clear. In 2016, Dr. Klepper joined the faculty at the Federal Executive Institute (FEI) as a full-time faculty member after working as an adjunct faculty member there since the 1990s. She currently teaches in FEI’s Leadership for a Democratic Society (LDS) program, where she also leads LDS’s executive coaching program.
“Leadership is a quality, a calling, an ability to inspire others,” Dr. McDougle said. “Leadership is something that Donna Klepper has expertly taught for decades and in myriad organizations. Leadership is something that Donna embodies and exhibits in all areas of her life.”
The Noë-Kilgore Award
The Noë-Kilgore Award, established in 1998 by an anonymous alumnus of the College, is named in honor of retired Randolph-Macon professors William Stanton Noë and Peter Kilgore. The award recognizes Randolph-Macon College faculty emeriti for outstanding teaching and service. This year’s recipient is Dr. C. Barry Knisley, Paul H. Wornom Professor of Biology, Emeritus.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Political Science Dr. Alisa Rosenthal spoke of Dr. Knisley’s high regard among students and colleagues. Dr. Knisley earned tenure in just three years after joining R-MC in 1979, and in 2000 he was appointed the inaugural Paul H. Wornom Professor of Biological Sciences in February 2000, an honor he held until his retirement in 2008.
He is considered the world’s foremost expert on tiger beetles, largely responsible for preserving the phylogenetic tree of various tiger beetle species around the planet. As a result of Dr. Knisley’s research and advocacy, hundreds of miles of shoreline and thousands of acres of deserts have been protected, and he is celebrated for preservation of a species on the edge of extinction.
Dr. Rosenthal quoted Stephen H. Watts Professor of Science and Director of the Environmental Studies Program Dr. Michael Fenster, who said of Dr. Knisley:
“I stand in awe of what Barry Knisley has done to preserve our planet. He has sacrificed time and time again for the betterment of the organisms that inhabit this planet, and to ensure that future generations understand the import of this work. He is a man of passion, courage, wisdom, and vision.”
Original source can be found here.
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