Bella Vista Couple, Tyson Give UA Gifts

John A. Cooper Jr., president and CEO of Cooper Communities Inc. of Bella Vista, and Pat McInnis Cooper donated $525,000 to provide initial funding for a faculty chair position at the University of Arkansas.The money will be used to endow the position in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

The UA, through its “Campaign for the 21st Century,” hopes to raise $500 million by June 30, 2004, for use with endowed faculty positions, academic programs, libraries and new and improved facilities.

Randall Woods will hold the first endowed faculty chair position. Woods currently serves as dean of Fulbright College and has been at the UA since 1971. The Coopers are both on the campaign steering committee.

On Dec. 14, Tyson Foods’ chairman and CEO John Tyson also gave generously to the campaign with a $500,000 contribution from the Tyson Foundation to the Randal Tyson Memorial Endowed Scholarship/Fellowship Fund. The Randal Tyson Memorial Scholarship was established by the Tyson family in 1993 and benefits juniors and seniors who are poultry science majors in the UA’s Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.