Midway College names John Marsden 10th president

The Midway College Board of Trustees has selected a new president, John P. Marsden, currently provost and vice president of academic affairs at Barton College in Wilson, N.C. He will take office Feb. 1 but will be welcomed to campus in ceremonies next Tuesday. (Barton College photo)

Marsden will succeed William Drake, who resigned in March after encountering difficulties with the college's since-abandoned effort to create a pharmacy school in Paintsville. Robert Vogel has been serving as interim president.

Marsden, who will be the 10th president of Midway, is a specialist in gerontology and the author of a book, Humanistic Design for Assisted Living. That background and the college's nursing program made him especially attractive to the board and its search committee, because of The Homeplace at Midway, the senior housing, assisted-living and nursing facilities to be built next to the Midway campus by Christian Care Communities.

"That was something that was a very positive aspect of his background," Donna Moore, chair of the search committee, said in an interview, but she cited other pluses, including "his experience in strategic planning, his enthusiasm, his energy" and his academic record.

Moore said in a press release, "The entire college participated in the selection process of Dr. Marsden and the excitement is growing for him to join our campus community." She said the board believes that "His experience, academic background and personality are a great match for Midway College and that he will build on our current momentum and help develop and implement a long term strategic plan for the college."

Fund-raising is often the prime responsibility of a college president. Marsden has been part of the "major gifts team" at Barton, "with a portfolio of prospects and fundraising and external relations duties," his official biography says. Before going to Barton in 2011, he was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He started his career at Auburn University and then the University of Florida.

Marsden earned his Ph.D. with a major in environment and behavior and a minor in gerontology from the University of Michigan. He earned his undergraduate degree in architecture with a minor in industrial management at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his master’s in architecture and graduate certificate in gerontology from the University of Arizona.

Marsden said in the release, "It is an honor to be selected as the next president of Midway College and to join an institution with a strong commitment to women’s undergraduate education as well as coeducational accelerated, graduate, and online programs. Midway College has a long tradition of providing students with a professionally oriented liberal arts education that prepares them for lives of leadership, service, and responsible citizenship. I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to collaboratively build a vision for the college based on its solid foundation."

Marsden and his wife are scheduled to arrive on campus at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning and walk up the “Pathway of Opportunity” next to the soccer field, accompanied by a bagpiper. He will make remarks in Pinkerton Hall, then host a press conference in Marrs Hall at 10:30. A receiving line in the student center will begin at 11:30 a.m.

Railroad Drug owner-pharmacist prefers small town

By Justin Wright
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

An old saying goes, “Everybody dies famous in a small town.” This comes from the notion that in a small, tight-knit community that everyone knows everything about all the people in town. Sometimes such intimate knowledge can be a good thing, while at other times it can be something to despise.

This leads many people to leave small towns and pursue other, supposedly bigger, opportunities in a place where no one knows their name and everyone is out of their business. But some who get away from the next-of-kin setting realize that being from a small town and knowing all about what is going on was just fine with them, because they were a name to somebody and not just another face in the crowd.

Knowing people on a first-name basis is one in which many small-town businesses take great pride, and on which they base their level of work and patronage to their community. This is how Railroad Drug owner Ken Glass, above, operates his business day to day.

“Running a pharmacy in a community like Midway is very personable,” Glass said. “I'm on a first name basis with all of my patients and fellow business owners.”

Railroad Drug is on Main Street in the heart of Midway and offers a nostalgia that many small town pharmacies once had. From the old-time soda fountain to meals served at your request, this drug store is a “blast from the past,” as one might put it, keeping in close touch with its small-town roots.

Glass grew up near Morehead, earned his pharmacy degree from the University of Kentucky and has lived in Midway for nine years while working for other pharmacies.

“I had always wanted to open my own pharmacy, and finally I just built up the nerve to do it.  Plus, I had grown tired of the chain-store setting,” said Glass, who worked for a two chain pharmacies and an independently owned store. 

How does running his pharmacy differ from running one in a city such as Lexington or Louisville? “In a community such as Midway, you know everyone,” he replied. “My patients aren't co-pays or Social Security numbers to me. I know them. I know their children, their parents, and their grandparents. It's very rewarding to have that kind of relationship with the people that patronize my store; you just can’t find this in a bigger city.”

This is the life for Glass, who has no wish to return to a bigger establishment where pharmacists don’t see the same people every day.

“No contest,” he said. “I would hate not knowing my patients and in fact, have hated that exact issue in the past at previous workplaces. If I ever open another pharmacy in a bigger city, I would like to bring that kind of personal touch to it, so it seemed like it was a smaller community to the people who filled their prescriptions there.”

Stores such as Railroad Drug are keeping the tradition of down-home alive, one customer at a time, and offering hope that they and their like will be found in small towns for many years to come.

Case Clay, head of of Three Chimneys Farm, elected chair of Gluck Equine Research Foundation at UK

Case Clay, president and chief executive officer of Three Chimneys Farm near Midway, has become board chair of the University of Kentucky's Gluck Equine Research Foundation.

Clay told UK news writer Jenny Evans that his elevation “means a lot to me, as my grandfather, Albert G. Clay, was one of the founders and a board chair. My father, Robert Clay, also served on the board. I will take this honor very seriously, and I am excited to work with the board to take the world's only research facility with the majority of faculty doing full-time equine research to the next level.”

Clay joined the board almost three years ago. He was elected chair at its October meeting, succeeding Walter Zent, a veterinarian and former partner at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute. The foundation supports the work of the Gluck Center, where UK faculty conduct research in genetics and genomics, infectious diseases and immunology, musculoskeletal science, parasitology, pharmacology/toxicology and reproductive health.

“Case comes with a great knowledge of the horse industry and experience on numerous boards. This combination will provide him with the tools to be a very effective leader for the Gluck Foundation,” said Ed Squires, director of UK Ag Equine Programs and executive director of the foundation. (Read more)

Voters give city council three new members; Rollins re-elected; Chandler loses rural Midway, county

Three of the four Midway City Council members on the ballot won re-election yesterday, but Council Member Doris Leigh lost her seat, finishing seventh in a race with six winners and 10 candidates.

Vice Mayor Sharon Turner, right, again led the pack with 453 votes, but the next three winners were newcomers: Sara Hicks with 423, Grayson Vandegrift with 406 and Bruce Southworth with 379. Incumbents Aaron Hamilton (367) and Dan Roller (342) were re-elected. Leigh was close behind with 338. Kevin Locke got 323, Steven Craig 260 and Michael Ashton 201. All figures are from the website of the secretary of state. (An earlier version of this story had an incorrect result.) Council Member Joy Arnold did not seek re-election, and appointed Council Member Charlann Wombles did not run.

In other races of major local interest:

State Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, left, got 53.3 percent of the vote against Republican Douglass Jones of Lexington, who was boosted in the final week by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, speaking on a radio commercial paid for by his political action committee. Rollins won 10,851 to 9,522. He carried the Midway city precinct 543 to 235 and the rural Midway precinct 251 to 198. The precinct totals do not include absentee votes.

Republican lawyer Andy Barr of Lexington carried Midway's rural precinct, 247 to 201, in his victory over 6th District U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles. Chandler carried the city precinct 467 to 298. Independent Randolph Vance got 8 and 16 votes in the two precincts, respectively. In unofficial, incomplete returns, Barr got 50.6 percent of the district's vote and Chandler got 46.7 percent, and Chandler lost his home Woodford County by about the same percentages, 6,221 to 5,803. He carried only Franklin and Fayette counties.

Midway College to host panel of outstanding female athletes to mark 40th anniversary of Title IX

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Title IX, the 1972 law that bans sex discrimination in higher education intercollegiate athletics, tomorrow morning Midway College will host a guest panel of accomplished female athletes to discuss the impact that the ruling had on their sports careers and reflect on what this has meant for women.

The panel will include Kathy DeBoer, executive director of the American Volleyball Coaches Association and former University of Kentucky assistant athletic director; Micki King, 1972 Olympic gold medalist in springboard diving; Myra Blackwelter, former LPGA tour player and first female athletic full scholarship recipient at UK following Title IX; and Stacey Reed Sheppard, former UK Lady Cat and two-time member of state high school basketball championship teams at Laurel County High School.

Dave Baker, sportscaster with WKYT-TV, will moderate the panel Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 11 a.m. in the Duthie Auditorium in Anne Hart Raymond Building at Midway College. The public is invited.