Endowment Established in Honor of Bobby Patty Dampier

MCC ESTABLISHES ENDOWMENT IN HONOR OF BOBBY AND PATTY DAMPIER

Madisonville Community College (MCC) has announced the establishment of its latest endowed gift and accompanying program named in honor of long-time local health-care leader Bobby Dampier and his wife Patty. The Dampiers were recently recognized at a luncheon hosted by MCC President Dr. Judy Rhoads on the stage of the Glema Mahr Center for the Arts with over 50 professional colleagues, close friends, family and college leadership in attendance.

The new endowment has been named the Bobby and Patty Dampier Endowment for Community and Professional Excellence in recognition of the couple s years of professional, educational, and cultural leadership supporting different areas of Hopkins County quality of life issues. The endowment has been made possible through a $100,000 gift provided by the Hopkins County Development Corporation; that total will be matched by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System s Endowment Match Program creating a $200,000 working fund. Steve Cox represented the Corporation at the event and reiterated the Corporation s commitment to education and to fostering ideas of citizenship and community involvement. The Corporation has made two similar gifts over the past three years to MCC s Health Sciences Campus in honor of local attorney William Logan and health care visionary Dr. Loman Trover.

During her remarks, Dr. Rhoads praised the Dampier s decades of community service and reminded everyone that Mr. Dampier was a past two-term chair of the college s Board of Directors. As CEO of Trover Health System, he approved financial support needed for the college to enhance and expand the nursing program into one of the nation s finest, in addition to supporting the physical therapist assistant and arts programming. Rhoads also praised Mrs. Dampier for her years of service as a Hopkins County teacher and her leadership roles in area environmental issues.

MCC s Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Deborah Cox, outlined the initial application of the endowment, keeping the Dampier s variety of interests in mind. We are going to use the Dampier Endowment initially to support expansion of our Common Reader Program across different disciplines, especially in the integrated technology and biological sciences areas. stated Cox. Next March we have a national author, Kristen Iverson, coming to the Glema Center to talk about her book, Full Body Burden. The book is the Common Reader selection for the 2013-2014 academic year. Iverson s presentation will be open to the community

President Rhoads also praised the Hopkins County Development Corporation for its generosity, thanking officers Steve Cox, James Miner, Kim Ashby, the late Morris Coffman, and Mark Eastin. The Corporation has been MCC s largest contributor since 2009 and has provided $350,000 for endowments and endowed professorships since 2010; all of these gifts have also been matched.