CaMPUS - University of Arkansas at Monticello

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS
10
UAM MAGAZINE
have a lot of college options. His
mother, the late Ruby Moseley Glover,
attended A&M when it was primarily
a high school and junior college.
After Rison High School won the state
football championship in 1950, all 11
seniors on the team were invited to
Arkansas A&M to talk to the coaching
staff.
Glover wasn’t offered a football
scholarship but decided A&M was the
place for him. He never regretted the
decision.
Like so many alumni from the
1950s, Glover has fond memories of
his time at Arkansas A&M. With
no more than 600 to 700 students,
the campus was like an extended
family. “We borrowed clothes from
each other, just like a brother or sister
would,” says Glover. “Very few of us
had automobiles and we all stayed on
campus. You got to know everybody
and everybody knew you. When you
don’t jump in a car and commute, it’s
a lot easier to get to know somebody.”
A lack of outside entertainment
and money usually led to pranks and
highjinks. Glover joined a group of 20
to 25 of his fellow students in carrying
another student’s car – a Model
A Ford – up the steps of what is now
the Babin Business Center. “It was
Halloween and a bunch of us walked
that car up the steps and left it right in
front of the door.,” Glover says.
Dean of Men J.E. Griner wasn’t
amused. “He was furious,” Glover
remembers. “We all acted like we were
amazed, but he looked at us and said
‘Ya’ll know exactly how this happened.
I’m going in my office. It better be
down by noon.’ We all got it down.”
Glover completed his bachelor of
science in business administration
degree in 1955, then went to his lo-
cal draft board and asked that he be
moved to the head of the line. “I knew
I was going to have to go in, so I asked
to be drafted,” Glover says. “Draftees
had a two-year active duty obligation
and I wanted to get it over with and
get on with my life.”
Glover’s life in the military soon
took on a Forrest Gump quality. As
a college graduate, he caught some
breaks from the Army. After basic
training at Fort Chaffee near Fort
Smith, Glover was sent to clerk-typist
school. While 38 members of the
class were eventually shipped to duty
in Greenland, Glover and one other
classmate were stationed at Fort Jackson,
South Carolina.
Next came a temporary duty
assignment for Glover and another
soldier at Fort Slocum, located in New
York harbor.
The other soldier, Fred Burns, Jr.,
was the son of a well-connected Washington
lobbyist. On the drive from
South Carolina to New York, Glover
and Burns stopped in D.C. to bunk
at his father’s apartment and attend a
party where Glover met a young senator
from Massachusetts named John F.
Kennedy. “He knew Fred’s father and
he just acted like we were a couple of
his kids,” says Glover. “Very down to
earth.”
When he reached New York,
Glover became a regular at Yankee
Stadium. The USO provided free
tickets to service men and women on
a first-come basis. “I knew a gal at the
USO and she made sure I had tickets,”
Glover says. “When the World Series
started that October, I asked her if I
was still going to get a ticket. She said
if you’re here on time, I’ll have one for
you.”
Glover was in his familiar spot in
the centerfield bleachers on October
8, 1956, the day the Yankees’ Don
Larsen pitched the only perfect game
in World Series history.
The next fall, Glover narrowly
missed being sent to Little Rock with
the 101st Airborne to quell the crisis at
Central High School. He mustered out
of active duty on October 13, 1957, and
headed to Crossett, where a job awaited
at the Bemis Bag Company.
Over the next 52 years, Glover
built a legacy of excellence in business
and community service. After leaving
Bemis Bag, he took a position as office
manager for Textile Paper Products
of Crossett before becoming business
manager for Ryburn Motor Company
of Monticello.
In 1967, he accepted a position as
vice president and general manager
of Ryburn Ford of Jonesboro before
returning to Monticello in 1968 as a
vice president and director of Commercial
Bank. From 1976 to 1979 he
served as president and director of
First State Bank of Crossett before
returning to Commercial Bank as
president, a post he held until 1999.
Glover retired from Commercial Bank
in 2009 and has spent much of the last
three years as a volunteer fund-raiser
for UAM.
Glover’s list of honors, awards, and
community service is a lengthy one.
He was previously honored by UAM
as the sixth recipient of the university’s
Alumni Award for Achievement and
Merit as well as the Continuing the
Connection Award, presented to the
person who best keeps alive the connection
between UAM and Arkansas
A&M. He was the third recipient
of the UAM Spirit Award, is a past
chair of the UAM Foundation Fund,
and helped create the UAM Sports