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On behalf of Lyon College, we would like to thank all of our current donors for their generosity and support.
(Editor’s Note: Dr. Doin Hicks ’53 delivered the following remarks at the Club 50 inaugural luncheon October 23 at this year’s LyonFest. We wanted to share his remarks because they provide an eloquent explanation of the benefits of planned giving.) By DR. DOIN HICKS ’53 Each of us left Lyon with a quality college experience and having grown in a number of significant ways. For this we were deeply indebted. We have repaid much of that debt through our lives of productive work and service and, for most of us, sharing a bit of our financial resources with Lyon. Click here for full story
Tradition and duty. For Basil and Dale Hicks, they are more than words -- they embody their commitment to Lyon College and a Presbyterian education. The Hickses are doing what they consider their duty by funding a scholarship at Lyon. The endowed scholarship is named after Basil's parents, Clyde and Delpha Beasley Hicks. That scholarship fund will grow in the future through two gift annuities the Hickses have established, one through the Texas Presbyterian Foundation and one through Lyon College, as well as contributions from other family members. "I believe God gave me what I have, and I have to return part of that for a good use," said Basil Hicks, a retired Presbyterian minister who now resides in Little Rock, Ark. "I believe in education. Most of the first 100 colleges were started by the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, mostly by the Presbyterians because they've always had an emphasis on education." While the Presbyterian church has historically supported education, the Hickses and their family have historically supported a Presbyterian education. Basil is a 1940 graduate of Lyon, then Arkansas College. Dale is an alumnae of Agnes Scott College in Georgia. Basil's brothers, Roy and Doin, graduated from Lyon, as did their wives, Maxine and Wanda. Basil and Dale's niece, Melissa, is also a Lyon graduate. Each of Basil and Dale's children also graduated from a Presbyterian school. Besides making gifts to the College, Basil Hicks served his alma mater as a member of the board of trustees and as president of the alumni council. Basil Hicks came to Lyon on the recommendation of Dr. John Crockett. At the time, Crockett was a frequent preacher on a church circuit in southern Missouri where Hicks lived. Crockett, who would later become president of Arkansas College, found out Hicks was considering entering the ministry and recommended Arkansas College as the best place he knew to prepare a young man for the ministry. Basil Hicks went on to Columbia Theological Seminary in Georgia and spent more than 40 years as a full-time and interim pastor. Lyon is grateful that the tradition of quality higher education will be available to young men and women through the generosity of the Hicks family.
Lois Ferguson was first introduced to Lyon College in 1996 when she attended the Presbyterian Women’s Conference on the campus that year. She returned in 1998 as conference director. “I felt so good about being in this place,” she said. “God led me to Lyon.” The relationship has only grown closer in the following years. She served on the Board of Church Advocates from 1999-2002 and was re-appointed this year for another three-year term. She has represented the College on Higher Education Sunday several times in recent years and served as coordinator for her church to host the College’s Concert Choir during their 1999 spring tour. In 1999, she established the Robert W. and Lois R. Ferguson Annual Scholarship in memory of her late husband, Bob. The scholarship is awarded to a student majoring in chemistry. Mr. Ferguson was a chemical engineer. “Lyon is very much in my heart,” she explained. “It has given me a reason to go on without Bob.” Lyon attracts a different group of students than other colleges, she said. “Students come here with a real purpose.” The New Jersey native moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana, with her husband in 1960. She was a Realtor for 28 years and also served as director of marketing and membership for the Greater Lake Charles Chamber of Commerce. She also has been heavily involved in music. She studied voice and violin in New Jersey and when she moved to Louisiana, “I brought my voice but left the violin behind.” She was a dramatic soprano at McNeese State University for six years and has performed in musicals and “in every church in Lake Charles.” Mrs. Ferguson continues to be very active in the Presbyterian Church and has served as a medical missionary to Cuba three times. Mrs. Ferguson also has been active in Business and Professional Women and the American Association of University Women. She has two daughters and two grandchildren. “Lyon College is in my heart to stay,” she said. “I will continue to support Lyon.”
A visit to their alma mater -- Arkansas College, now Lyon -- helped them make their decision. "That was what clinched our decision," said Mary, a retired speech therapist. “It is such a beautiful campus, and the students are wonderful. We were able to visit with several, and that made up our mind. I want our grandchildren to come here." The Bensbergs both graduated in 1947. Mary, an only child, was guided to the school by her mother. Jerry, now a retired professor of special education and psychology, followed in the footsteps of two older siblings who graduated from AC. Both cited the school's religious affiliation as a big reason why they attended the College. The school's willingness to work with families on a student’s tuition was another factor for Jerry. He said if someone wanted to receive a college education, the administration would find some way to help with tuition. "Back then, there used to be these canning groups that went from town to town," Jerry said. "You would be able to can your vegetables and butcher your livestock when they came through. We'd cook stew and can it in these gallon jars. Well, I know one time my father swapped a hundred gallons of beef stew for a semester of school. "I'm not sure my classmates appreciated that stew as much as I did though," Jerry said with a laugh. That's why the Bensbergs felt their gifts to Lyon through a charitable gift annuity were important -- they wanted to help students make it through Lyon, whether their gift helps fund scholarships, hire faculty or is used to meet other needs. "The good thing about a charitable gift annuity is that both we and the school benefit from it. I feel obligated to the College. The faculty really helped me mature," Jerry said. Thanks to the Bensbergs, today's faculty can continue to help Lyon students. Dr. Bensberg passed away in June of 2006. His wife, Mary is still living.
"College was a wonderful experience," the Poughkeepsie, Arkansas, native said in an interview shortly before her death in November 2002. After retirement, Mrs. Knight resided in Evanston, Illinois, where she was an educator at Evanston schools and Northwestern University for many years. Her love for Lyon College and her interest in education led her to establish an endowed scholarship through an estate gift in memory of her parents, Dr. Everett Lester and Jeffie Bacon Sullivan. Helen originally planned to attend AC only two years, but she loved it so much she stayed and received her degree in English in 1931. She also developed a great interest in speech at AC and had a "wonderful teacher," Lois Ball, who also directed the Harlequin Theatre. In her junior year, the Harlequin Theatre participated in a festival at Northwestern. The next year, Helen had the lead role in the play that was to compete. Unfortunately, Helen came down with a severe case of influenza and the play could not be entered in the festival. However, Helen found her way back to Northwestern in 1933 while on the way to the World's Fair in Chicago. She soon found herself registered for graduate school at Northwestern and didn't get to the World's Fair for a month. She eventually received her master's degree and became an instructor in speech. During World War II she was invited to join the faculty at Evanston Township High School. She taught there from 1942 to 1973. She established a speech pathology clinic at the school that became a model program. She later returned to Northwestern as a visiting professor. She had a wonderful career and, she says, "it all started at Arkansas College."
For Dr. Theodore A. Stroud '32 of Des Moines, Iowa, the reason he decided to start two charitable gift annuities with Lyon College is simple. In an interview prior to his death in July of 2005, Dr. Stroud said, "It's mainly out of gratitude. It's out of gratitude for the chance to improve myself and the opportunities it opened up that my education there gave me." Stroud came to Lyon, then Arkansas College, in 1928. He was only 14 at the time. His family had moved closer to Batesville so that he could attend Lyon. "I was too young to go away" for college, he said. His family also had a hard time being able to afford the tuition for college. To compensate for it, Stroud worked in groundskeeping for the school for the first three years while he was at the College. While enrolled in college, the nation fell into the Great Depression. Lyon felt the financial straits of the day. Stroud said the College eventually had to let the school librarian go for financial reasons. Stroud, who was earning a double major in English and mathematics, was chosen to run the library during his senior year. "I always had an interest in books. I imagine I had read a few more books than many of the other students at the time. I read constantly from the time I was 4 or 5 years old. The former librarian understood and would help me out every now and then, telling me how she catalogued things and such," Stroud said. After graduation, Stroud spent a year teaching each at Swifton and Pleasant Plains, where he was also principal. The next year he taught in Fayetteville High School while working on a master's degree in English at the University of Arkansas. He would earn his doctorate at the University of Chicago and teach at several universities before settling at Drake University, where he retired in 1984. "I've lived frugally and have been able to save money. Now I want to use it to show my gratitude to those schools that helped me along in life," Stroud said.
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Hicks family found rewards in planned giving
Lois Ferguson says God led her to Lyon College
Jerry and Mary Bensberg of Wimberley, Texas, were searching for a way to diversify their investments. One possibility was a 
At age 14, Helen Sullivan Knight '31 was one of the youngest students to attend Lyon College (then Arkansas College). But she found "warmth and acceptance" from her fellow classmates.