A Decade of Change

1990-1991

School opened this year with 170 cadets enrolled. This year proved to be memorable, not just from relatively low enrollment.

Col. Mac Sellers, Sr., died on 5 September at the age of 95. He had been a resident of the Santa Fe Trails nursing home for a short time before this. His funeral on 8 September in the Chapel brought family, friends, cadets, alumni, staff and faculty from all directions. After the funeral message by Lt. Col. Ralph Short, Academy Chaplain, a horse-drawn hearse, led by a “caparisoned horse,” complete with saber and reversed boots, carried his casket to Machpelah Cemetery. Those gathered at the Chapel followed on foot in a long column to attend the graveside service. This was a fitting send-off for the old gentleman who had been a beloved part of Wentworth for seventy years.

Lt. Col. Short said in his message that it “…soon became clear to the boys that their mentor was their friend… Sure, he was a strong disciplinarian, and sure, he was a stern taskmaster, but all the same, he was still their friend, and like a good friend could always be counted upon to give his best, never asking more than he was willing to give.” This captured the essence of the man who was at the heart of Wentworth for seventy years.

Col. James M. Sellers, Jr., resigned on 15 September as superintendent. He had announced the previous year that he would resign within two years, but, the enrollment difficulties and deficit problems caused he and the board of trustees to agree that it must happen sooner. A faculty, staff and board search team began to seek a new head for the institution.

The search committee interviewed several candidates and the Board of Trustees announced in mid-December that it had selected Lt. General Robert Arter to be the next superintendent. He took over in January 1991.

Lt. Gen. Arter had retired in 1986 from the U.S. Army as Commanding General, Sixth United States Army, Presidio of San Francisco. He took over as superintendent in January 1991 and shortly resigned the position for personal reasons. Another search began and Lt. Col. John Edwards, Operations Officer, took over again as interim superintendent.

The calendar year of 1990 ended without a predicted earthquake for which most institutions in Missouri had taken some preparation measures. No one thought that they had wasted their time in making preparations for something many scientists think would eventually strike the Midwest.

The Wentworth Band raised money and traveled to London, England, over the Christmas break to march in a large New Year’s parade. The trip was accomplished without incident in a world that was enduring a war in the Middle East over Kuwait. One faculty member and one staff member were mobilized for service in that war along with a number of Wentworth alumni. They both returned safely.

The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Institutions of Higher Education paid another one of its periodic visits to the campus to gather data in order to decide if the school’s accreditation would be continued. The visit took place in April, 1991, and resulted in the accreditation being renewed for another five years.

The Board of Trustees announced that it had hired Brig. Gen. Gerald Childress as the new superintendent. Gen. Childress agreed to take the position for at least three years and brought twelve years experience as superintendent of New Mexico Military Institute and two years experience as a fund raiser for the Betty Ford Clinic in Palm Springs, Calif. He took over in May and set to work raising money.

A new commandant took up his position on 1 May. He was Lt. Col. Tony Taranto, who had retired from the U.S. Army as an instructor at the U. S. Army command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth.

Fifty students graduated that year, twenty-seven from the junior college and twenty-three from the high school.

1991-1992

School opened that year with 175 entering or returning students and expanded to 281 by the end of the year. It had been a busy summer with the completion of many renovations to the campus such as the laying of new asphalt on all campus roads and parking areas; remodeling and repainting the dining hall; and installing new aluminum bleachers on the visitor’s side of the football stadium as well as a host of minor tasks. The new superintendent raised $1.2 million dollars and made a major improvement in the appearance and efficiency of the campus.

A new means of assuring faculty participation was inaugurated with the chartering of the Faculty Association and its five committees to deal with academic affairs, student affairs, faculty welfare, social relations, and professional development. The committees deal with on-going issues and new problems in their areas and make recommendations to the association as a whole and it makes its recommendations to the administration.

During the Christmas break academic staff installed twenty new IBM PS2 computers with a network and had them ready for the second semester. This generation would be used for the next five years.

A major decision was taken in January 1992, to reinstate the junior college football program the following fall. The program had previously been discontinued in 1974. The administration responded to requests from alumni and community members to revive the institution as a means of enabling local students to gain an education and play football at the same time. The new activity was implemented under rules established by the National Junior College Athletic Association.

During the spring, a ceremony was held on campus in honor of Lt. Col. Weldon W. Perry, commandant in the early 1970s. He was well respected and lives in retirement in Lexington. A crowd of over 130 former cadets, staff members, former co-workers and friends honored him at a banquet and dress parade.

There were fifty graduates at commencement, twenty-seven from the junior college and twenty-three from the high school.

1992-1993

The opening of school saw enrollment at 320. The newly reconstituted college football team began drills in August and the ninety-two members of the team turned in a 6-3-1 record their first year after a seventeen-year layoff.

The board of Trustees announced in their October 30th meeting that female cadets would be enrolled in the 1993-1994 school year. The news caused a great deal of discussion among current cadets and alumni. The decision was taken to modernize Wentworth’s enrollment policies and to broaden the recruiting base for the academy. All of the service academies admitted women, as did a number of the other military junior colleges. The school’s administration looked forward to implementing the program in the next academic year.

A new commandant of cadets took over in December. He Was Lt. Col. Charles (Chuck) Williams. He came to Wentworth bringing sixteen years experience in military educational institutions, the most recent was a nine-year appointment as commandant of the Army-Navy Academy at Carlsbad, California. He was a retired veteran of thirty years in the U.S. Army.

Before school ended that year, they announced two new policies: junior college day students would no longer be required to wear uniforms and be members of the corps if they did not participate in the ROTC programs. It was thought that more college-age students from the local area would be attracted to the school. The second policy was to allow five-day boarding students to live at the academy during the week and go home on the weekends. These experiments were tried for a few years to make the academy more responsive to new marketing trends.

The civilian clothes rule for the junior college became permanent and the five-day boarding cadet program was dropped after a two-year trial as being unproductive and detrimental to discipline.

There were fifty-eight graduates, twenty-three in the junior college and thirty-five in high school.

1993-1994

A major player in Wentworth’s past died on August 3, 1993. Col. James McBrayer Sellers, Jr., ’46, died after a long bout with cancer. He had resigned as superintendent in the fall of 1990 and had been fighting the disease since that time. He was the last of three generations of his family to administer the school over the one hundred ten years since his grandfather began to operate the academy in 1880. Col. Sellers, Jr., became superintendent in 1973.

The summer of 1993 was a difficult one for Lexington. The enormous amount of rain that fell on the Midwest throughout the spring and summer of 1993 made the Missouri River expand out into its whole flood plain and cut the northern approaches to the Lexington Bridge. The flood caused a great deal of inconvenience for WMA employees and Lexington townspeople.

Throughout the summer, the academy summer school and continuing education program stayed open, even when the rising waters cut off the Lexington water supply. Summer school students filled sandbags during the worst of the high water and endured the short freshwater supplies. Wentworth did have to establish a temporary teaching center in Richmond to handle the night students from north of the river during the first semester.

That fall, school opened with a total of 290 cadets enrolled. Eleven of them were females, for the first time, as corps members. Attitudes changed rapidly when the women arrived. Male cadets, for the most part, found that the ladies fit it very well and resentment was practically nil after a very few years.

Lt. Col. Gilbert Fletcher was appointed as Academic Dean. He held a Ph.D. In Zoology and Chemistry from the University of Illinois and had been on the faculty since the late 1980s. He got to preside over the renovation and upgrading of the college biology lab. Fund raising was also underway to renovate the college chemistry lab and that task would be completed the following year. Dr. Terry Davis left the academy in the summer after having served as the dean since 1974.

At the end of the school year, sixty-eight graduated, forty-three from the junior college and twenty five from the high school.

1994-1995

The usual summer routine ended in late August with a new event on campus: the arrival of the University of Missouri, Columbia, football team. That fall and the next five would see the Mizzou football teams descend on the campus for a week to hold two-a-day football drills. They sought a facility away from the campus in Columbia and were also carrying out a public relations program for UMC athletics.

This annual event would prove to be a positive thing for the academy, generating publicity and free advertising and some cash for the school. It was a real boon to the town of Lexington, a place that has few peers in enthusiasm for football.

The academic year opened with two hundred forty-nine cadets enrolling. The lower enrollment at the start of the year can be explained by the discontinuance of the junior college football and basketball programs. The Board of Trustees decided that the financial drain of both of these programs were too much for this institution. The football program had been reinstated for the fall of 1992, the reader will remember, after being discontinued in 1973. It was restarted on a trial basis for two years and it was reviewed at the end of each season. High school athletics were retained at full-strength. The junior college basketball program was reinstated in academic year 1996-1997.

Lt. Col. Albin T. Zukowski was appointed as Academic Dean and served for one year. The Board of Trustees selected Col., Jerry E. Brown, U.S. Air Force, Retired, as the eighth permanent superintendent of Wentworth. He came to work in August of 1994 as Chief of Staff and director of Admissions and was installed as superintendent in December 1994. Brig. Gen. Childress retired to his home on a golf course in Roswell, NM, at the end of his three and one-half years tenure as he had intended when he came to Wentworth in 1991. During the rest of the year personnel changes continued with the creation of Roger N. Hamilton, Ed.D., as Vice-President of Academic Affairs and Provost. At the end of the year Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Ralph Short retired after twenty years of service to the Academy.

May 6, 1995, was declared to be William Mullenioux Day and the former commandant was honored with a dinner and “roast” to show the gratitude of many alumni for his service to them during their years at the school. The academic year ended with sixty-seven graduating, twenty-eight from the junior college and thirty-nine from the high school.

1995-1996

The academic year opened with 226 students enrolling in the boarding divisions. The devaluation of the Mexican peso caused a 61% shortfall in the international student program.

Major W.S. “Sam” Ratcliffe, ’65, served as interim commandant through the summer until the first part of the spring semester when he handed over the reins to the new permanent commandant, Lt. Col. Robert Herring, ’67. Major Ratcliffe became the public affairs officer.

Mr. Pat White was appointed as athletic director, coming to Wentworth following a career in athletics at Pembroke Day School in Kansas City. His wife, Heather Walls-White, is the daughter of former faculty member and coach, John Walls. She served as the Development Coordinator.

The first four female cadets were commissioned into the U.S. Army, and there were fifty-five graduates, twenty-one from the junior college and thirty from the high school. Three faculty members retired at that time. Bill Coulter, counselor, coach and special assistant to the superintendent retired after eighteen years. He was on the faculty from 1956-1970 and from 1992-1996. Col. John Hook, instructor and chair of modern languages from 1986-1996 went back to Miami, FL, for his retirement, and Lt. Col. Albin Zukowski, chair of the English department from 1985-1995 and Dean of the Junior College, 1995-1996, also retired in Florida, near Tampa.

1996-1997

School opened with 251 cadets enrolled that fall. The highlight of the fall was the rededication of the Wikoff Fieldhouse during Homecoming. The occasion marked the thirtieth year of the academy’s use of the building. The alumni donors supplied many (600+) gallons of paint to paint the entire interior (35,000-sq. ft.) and resurfaced the indoor track.

Katherine (Katie) Tutt retired on 1 November after over forty years of service to cadets in the infirmary and on campus. She remained in Lexington and was a frequent visitor to the campus, especially around Military Ball time and when alumni returned for reunions.

Much of the rest of the year was spent in finishing the self-study required by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The evaluation visit was scheduled for late February, 1997, and resulted in another five years of accreditation for the junior college. The previous NCA visit had taken place in March, 1991. Work was also begun in preparation for the visit by the Commission on Schools of the NCA to the high school, scheduled for academic year 1998-1999.

Paul Butherus (or Yogi, as he is known to all) was inducted into the Missouri High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame on April 4th in Columbia, MO. He came to Wentworth in 1958 and remained for over twenty-four years until his retirement in 1983 after suffering a stroke. Paul’s teams won 137 games in his high school coaching career, 98 of them while at Wentworth. They won one Western Missouri Conference title and one Central River Conference title during all those years. Paul and his wife still reside in retirement in Lexington.

The Wentworth Band participated in the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) Military Tattoo on April 25th and 26th. The tattoo was held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the VMI band. It became a military band festival with LaSalle Military Academy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Randolph-Macon Academy, Massachusetts Maritime Academy and the Virginia Grays participating in the event.

The year ended with fifty-one graduates, twenty-one from the junior college and thirty from the high school.

LT. Col. Robert M. (Bob) Martin, age 73, died on June 4th after an illness of several weeks. Bob came to WMA as Dean of Admissions in 1973 and remained in service until he retired in the spring of 1997. He was Dean of Admissions more than once and was Director of Adult Education from 1991 to 1994. Bob was a friend to all and an avid sports fan as well as an accomplished outdoor cook. He was greatly missed by all that knew him.

Lt. Col. Pat White was named commandant for the next academic year. He had been at Wentworth for two years as athletic director and high school football coach. He began his new duties with the summer term.

1997-1998

School opened that year with 164 traditional students enrolled. The Scholastic Building was completely renovated during the summer with many improvements: all the exterior windows were replaced with aluminum, double-pane windows and new front entry doors were added. All the hallway tiles were replaced and new florescent lights were installed throughout the building; all of the hallways and classrooms that had not been recently done were repainted; and carpet and tile floors were recovered as needed in the classrooms. A new generation of computers was added to a refurbished laboratory for use of the high school students. All of this made an enormous improvement in the learning atmosphere in the building.

Medford (Med) Park, ’51, was hired in the fall to become Executive Director of the Wentworth Foundation, Inc., when it was formed in February 1998. The Foundation was established to acquire and invest and provide incoming funds to meet the needs of the academy for capital development. Med worked on the establishment of that corporation until he fell ill with cancer and subsequently died in July 1998. He was a former professional basketball player with the NBA’s St. Louis Hawks in the late 1950s. He was the son of Capt. A. R. Park, instructor of mathematics and guidance counselor from 1947 through 1956.

Wentworth and Central Missouri State University embarked on a pilot program for the U.S. Army Senior ROTC. Called the 2+2 Scholarship Program, it provides a solid program of military training and general education at Wentworth. The cadets receive a four-year Army ROTC scholarship and then attend Wentworth and Central Missouri State to receive their associate’s and bachelor’s degrees and further military training leading to a commission in the U.S. Army Reserve. The program will continue for three years and be evaluated to see if it should be expanded to other military schools.

Lt. Col. John R. Edwards, ’52, retired in April after twenty-two years of service to the academy. He had coached after his graduation from the University of Missouri, Columbia, in 1954 and entered the U.S. Army in 1956 where he served for the next twenty years, retiring as a Lt. Colonel in 1976. He joined the staff at Wentworth in the spring of 1976-1977 and served as Operations Officer until his retirement as well as taking over several other jobs, including that of interim superintendent. He retired to a warmer climate in northern Arkansas with his wife, Marylou, who also had served the academy and the community of Lexington, with distinction in a large number of volunteer positions.

1998-1999

The academic year opened with a total of 164 boarding cadets (traditional students) and a total of 355 college students, including both traditional cadets and non-traditional community students from all sites as well as the home campus.

Lt. Col. Roy Smith, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired, was appointed commandant. He was a Vietnam veteran with twenty-eight years of service in the Marine Corps. Col. Hibberd V.B. Kline, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Ret., was appointed as vice-president for administration at the same time as Lt. Col. Michael Lierman was created as vice-president for operations and Dr. Roger Hamilton was created vice president for academic affairs and provost. The Board of Trustees also gave the title of President to Col. Jerry Brown, who retained the title of superintendent. These changes brought the academy into line with current organizational structures used in other institutions of higher education. The changes were recommended in a previous North Central Association accreditation report.

Jack Otts, ’51, came to Wentworth to give something back to his alma mater. He became a volunteer visiting professor of physics and mathematics for the junior college. He also tutored high school students in math. Jack, and his wife Lucky, became familiar figures around the campus that semester, participating fully in the life of the campus.

Jack had spent over thirty years as a mechanical engineer with the Sandia National Laboratories, a nuclear weapons facility in Albuquerque, NM. He and his wife became valuable assets to the cadets at the academy and an inspiration of service to all.

During the year, the National Honor Society local chapter was reestablished to honor high school students who excel in academics. It took its place among side the Wentworth Honor Society and the Phi Theta Kappa honorary for academic achievement in the junior college.

The Civil War Living History Club was established to take advantage of the historical heritage and opportunities of Lexington. The club meets during the school year and attends one reenactment each semester and holds a living history summer camp when there is sufficient interest from both within and outside the corps of cadets to hold such an event.

Two events occurred at the end of the school year of note. The Basore Award, which is awarded to the company at the end of the year which has excelled in the measurable areas of scholastics, military training and discipline, and the intangible area of “espirit de corps,” was presented to Tango Company, the female cadet company. Women had now taken their place fully in the corps of cadets and had achieved or exceeded standards.

The other event was the attainment of the annual campaign goal of $500,000. The development office reported that the contributed funds totaled $538,208. This was significant because it showed that the school was capable of raising annual giving funds as well as embarking on the creation of an endowment through the Wentworth Foundation.

At the end of the year, sixty-two cadets graduated from Wentworth: twenty-six from the junior college and thirty-six from the high school. A total of seventy graduated from the junior college, both traditional and non-traditional students.

1999-2000

The school year ending the decade of the nineties began with 209 enrolled in the corps of cadets and a total of 347 enrolled in the junior college, all sites and all programs.

Major Steve Bacon, U.S. Air Force, Retired, was appointed as Commandant in the summer of 1999. This twenty-three year veteran of the Air Force came to Wentworth from a private preparatory school in Georgia and took over the Civil War Living History Club as well as becoming commandant.

One of the most significant events of the 1999-2000 academic year was the announcement of the plans to create The Ike Skelton National Military Museum of the Armed Forces. It will be built on the bluffs of the Missouri River on the grounds of the present Wentworth Golf Course. This military museum will be “comprehensive in scope covering all periods of history and all branches of service,“ according to speakers at the announcement ceremony.

Plans call for the museum to be built on the golf course property that will be contributed by Wentworth and could become a home for many of the military artifacts and research materials that have been collected by the academy over the years. The Missouri legislature allocated a substantial amount of money to be matched by private contributions.

The academy launched a capital campaign in the fall to raise money for the Foundation endowment and to build up to three new student residence buildings and to finish the J.M. Sellers Building that had been started in 1982-1983. The steering committee is to be chaired by Maj. Gen., U.S. Army, (Ret.) John H. Little, “61, and has embarked on an active fundraising program for the new buildings needed for the twenty-first Century.

Arrangements were made with H. Layton “Bud” Cooper of Hartsook and Associates, to act as executive director of the Foundation and to serve as the Academy’s Vice-President for Development. These organizational changes in the wake of the death of Med Park have shifted the fund-raising operations of the academy into high gear and are paying off in increased giving.

Lt. Col. Charles Mordan, U.S. Air Force, (Ret.) received the Missouri Governor’s Award for Excellence in teaching in Higher Education. Mordan teaches math subjects from algebra through calculus and has been a faculty member for ten years. He is the director of The Wentworth Falcon Scholar Program as well. Previous Wentworth recipients of the award were Jacque Maxwell and Rainelle Harris.

Besides the usual events, the rest of the year was occupied with planning and preparation for the Two Thousand in Two Thousand Alumni Reunion for October 2000. At the end of the academic year sixty-four cadets graduated; twenty-six from the junior college and thirty-eight from the high school. Forty-six non-traditional students graduated from the junior college, making a total of seventy-two college graduates.

The end of the Nineties and beginning of the new century saw an academy which had weathered storms of financial difficulty and personnel changes and was heading into a new era of sound financial management capable of coping with unexpected problems and the challenges of fundraising and of a building program.

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