SAU Alumni Association to honor nine Distinguished Alumni
By Dale Gathright, Jr., 04/1/23 1:54 PMMAGNOLIA -The Southern Arkansas University Alumni Association, Inc., will honor nine outstanding SAU alumni during the annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 4th. Two of the honorees have Hope and Prescott connections.
The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Dr. Kathleen Mallory (posthumous); Dr. John Cotton and Janet Poppleton will be recognized as the Distinguished Golden Muleriders; Rhonda Rhynes, Joey Baker, Allen Loe, and Eric Cowling will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award; Rickey Burnell and Isaac Woods will be honored as Distinguished Young Alumni.
Tickets may be purchased online at www.saualumni.com/alumnidinner or by calling the Alumni Office at (870) 235-4079. Individual tickets are $20, or a table with eight seats can be purchased for $160.
Dr. Kathleen Mallory – Lifetime Achievement Award (posthumous) Dr. Mallory was one of the first two black students to attend classes at Southern State College while she was teaching at Carver School in Stephens, AR. Dr. Mallory graduated from Philander Smith College in 1955 and earned her master’s degree from the University of Arkansas in 1957. While teaching at SSC, she completed a doctoral degree at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Dr. Mallory taught in public schools across the region, including Crossett, Camden, and Hope, earning Hope-Hempstead County’s Teacher of the Year in 1971. On August 29, 1974, Dr. Mallory became the first black faculty member in the general education program at SSC. As an English professor at SSC and later Southern Arkansas University, she made extraordinary contributions to the University and English curriculum across Arkansas.
After spending over half a century in the classroom, Dr. Kathleen Mallory retired from Southern Arkansas University in 2010. She educated students, invested in their lives, and made an impact on their futures. Looking back at her career, Dr. Mallory said, “I’ve always been happy to know that my students were successful.”
Dr. Mallory was actively involved in community efforts, which included being a charter advocate for the Single Parent Scholarship Fund, Magnolia Housing Commission, SAU Foundation Board of Governors, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. She began the Youth Writing Festival at SAU with the aim to get students more involved in writing and to recognize the outstanding works of students across the region.
Allen Loe, ’78 (Columbia, LA) – Distinguished Alumni Award Robert Allen Loe was born in El Dorado, Arkansas, in 1954. Later moving to Prescott, Arkansas, with his family, he graduated from Prescott High in 1972. After working for a couple of years, Allen chose to attend Southern State College (SAU).
His interest in the biological world began at an early age following his grandfather, a logger, through the hardwood forests of southwest Arkansas. This interest was ultimately fulfilled by studying under Dr. Henry Robison, Dr. Hugh Johnson, and Dr. Dan England here at SAU. Upon graduation in 1978 and with the encouragement of Dr. Robison, Allen was accepted into the University of Louisiana at Monroe (NLU) Graduate School of Biology. It was there he earned his M.S. Degree, in Aquatic Biology specializing in freshwater ecology.
In 1979 Allen began his career in Public Health Disease Monitoring and Transmission at the newly formed Ouachita Parish Mosquito Abatement District. After becoming director of the program in 1984, his education in epidemiology continued with the US centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in Atlanta, Georgia, and Denver, Colorado. There he earned Certification in Arthropod-Borne Transmissible Diseases including Encephalitis, Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever, Malaria, Dog heartworm, Tularemia, and others.
In 1991, as President and CEO, Allen and his best friend Dr. Matthew L Evans, MD, (SAU) as secretary/treasurer, started Vector Disease Control, Inc. (www.vdci.net) an Arkansas-based company providing mosquito control services, and protection from the diseases they transmit. Over the next 20 years, VDCI grew to be the second-largest mosquito protection provider in the United States. Upon Dr. Evans’ passing in 2007, Allen became sole owner of the company. VDCI grew to have offices in 23 states and three foreign countries, employed 250 people, and owned more than 150 vehicles. VDCI’s fleet of aircraft were contracted with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to aid both disease and disaster situations across the U.S. Its fleet of 14 aircraft have assisted nationwide with every significant hurricane making landfall since 1997. With the outbreak of West Nile Virus in New York City in 1999 and its subsequent spread, VDCI’s epidemiology teams worked closely with federal, state, and local Departments of Health nationwide. After his retirement in 2011, VDCI has continued his legacy adding additional areas in the United States. And with expansion into India and Africa, VDCI has truly become a global-international company.
Though their friendship began in college, it was during their 17-year professional relationship that Allen and Dr. Evans became owners of a 1,486-acre rice/bean farm in North Louisiana. Remembering his roots in Southwest Arkansas, the pull to return to the natural world was strong. Over the years, Allen has restored 680 acres to natural hardwood forest and over 200 acres to natural wetlands. The abundance of natural habitat and the birds and mammals attracted there has made Slackwater Farms a sought-after hunting destination by sportsmen from across the country and abroad. The construction of a 4200 square-foot lodge in 2000 also provides a natural venue for weddings, family reunions and corporate retreats. With an unbridled entrepreneurial drive, Allen formed RAL Ventures, Inc., in 1999. RALV is a holding company involved in investments, real estate, and oil and gas production and leases.
During his career, Allen has been a member of and held board positions in many organizations in several states. He has been a guest on local and national television and radio, interviewed on ABC, CBS, FOX and has been quoted in USA Today. He has been a guest speaker before national and international organizations and stood before federal and state panels to provide expert testimony regarding public health issues. Still today, Allen is recognized as consultant to FEMA, the CDC, and state departments of health across the U.S.
The importance of education is the common thread running through his life and all of Allen’s companies. Understanding the life-changing impact of professional educators who have made an impact on his life, he has provided, promoted, and championed the education of others. Whether through continuing education programs for his employees, providing public health information to community and civic organizations, or hands-on demonstrations to 3rd and 4th graders about the natural world, Allen continues to believe that the human race is not doomed to its own demise. Hopefully, it will eventually recognize that we all live in a natural world and must protect every aspect of it. Our continued existence depends on the protection of all ecosystems. Perhaps Allen’s greatest community service and most generous acts are sharing freely his innate intelligence and hard-earned education both from the natural world and academia. Whether in the world of transmissible diseases or a duck blind, he freely shares his knowledge of biology and statistics. It could be said that his most treasured gift to the world has been his interaction and relationship with his employees, his friends and acquaintances and a giving spirit with total strangers, wherever he goes.
Allen’s hobbies are not only science-driven; he also enjoys hunting, fishing, winter sports, and off-road driving in the Tetons and is an avid collector of select and vintage automobiles. He enjoys the world of music, especially the blues genre and at one time owned and promoted a blues club in Monroe, Louisiana. He’s played guitar from his early college days, and he and Matt both entertained at live concerts, including one at SAU’s Harton Theater. Another love has been the countless hours training black Labrador Retrievers that have served as his most steady and devoted companions. Allen is a private pilot with over 2800 hours of flight time and rated in eight different aircraft. Allen and Abigail split their time between homes in North Louisiana, Arkansas, and Teton County, Idaho.
