Photoby Dan iel Dubois e~~H4~jpuhfk~ hJp~ ~itg cJJnak 75th in gruwl ~tgk Few people real ize the.amount of effort and pl anning that goes into a 75th anniversary celebration. As the director of public relations at Harding University, David Crouch has complete grasp of what it takes to celebrate 75 years. Crouch graduated from Harding in 1970 with a B.S. in biology. Even though his teachers in high school urged him to pursue an academic career in English or journalism, Crouch had his eyes set on a career in the fi eld of biology and teaching. "I was going to teach biology and chemistry and coach pee-wee basketball," Crouch said. Acall from Harding University in July of 1970, one month after the class of '70 commencement ceremonies, changed those plans. Harding offered Crouch a position as di - rector of the news bureau in the public relations office. For the next five yea rs he practiced the writing skills that his high school teachers had encouraged, composing news releases for the University. "I was sti ll interested in biology," Crouch said. "But I've never really pursued it." Crouch later served as director of placement and alumni relations until President David Burks offered him his current position in 1987. This year marked the second major ann iversary that Crouch has been present for at Harding. "I was here for the 50th anniversary, " Crouch said. "The 50th and 75th year are different from any other years. We do all the normal things throughout the year, plus all the anniversary things ." Serving as the public relations representative of the 75th Anniversary Steering Committee, Crouch was in charge of coordinating the radio and television advertisements, brochures, programs, publicity events and news releases. He also worked closely with such programs as the American Studies Institute Distinguished Lecture Series. The ASIl ectures for the 1998-1999 academic year included top political personalities Mikhail Gorbachev and John Majors. "Normallw we' ll have maybe one big speaker in a year," Crouch said. "But this year we had several. The thing I enjoymost about my job is that no two days are alike and I get to have contact with many people on campus." The public relations job also invo lved wo rking with people and firms off campus. Harding just joined forces with a public relations firm in Pennsylvania to gain more national prominence. That's in addition to the firm they currently work with in Little Rock. Crouch described his earlier years serving in alumni relations as "insightful as to how Harding is viewed." This helped him understand how to develop Harding's positive image in the eyes of the public, alumni and other audiences. "It has been a learning process," Crouch said, "and it continues to be a learning process." Since this was hi s second major anniversary celebration at Harding, Crouch looks forward to the future. "The 50th and 75th [years I are historic milestones," he said. "I could very well be around for the 100th. They may have to wheel me around, but I hope to be here for the centennial." - Remie Beauli eu Tim Bruner leads a group discussion President's Council meeting. Bruner's job vancement required that he work c!ose~ members ofthe President 'sCouncil andhe/, dinate their meetings. ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTORS 145 •
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