Alumni Association announces major gift for Cooper Alumni Center history room

Feb. 3, 2005 - The Alumni Association of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro announced a major gift today from Betty Jackson of Conway in honor of her late husband, former State Banking Commissioner Marlin Jackson.

The contribution was given toward the $5 million, 20,000 square-foot Cooper Alumni Center. It will contain a room dedicated to ASU history which will be named the Marlin D. Jackson History Room.

"On behalf of more than 50,000 alumni of Arkansas State University, I'd like to thank the Jackson family for their generous gift which names the history room of the Cooper Alumni Center in honor of their late husband and father, Marlin D. Jackson, said ASU Alumni Association President Bob Earwood of Collierville, Tenn.

"As a longtime friend of the university it is only fitting that his name be associated with an area of the alumni center that will serve as the primary focal point for both current and former students who visit this great campus. The building will be a testament to the dedication and hard work of many people who make ASU one of the finest institutions of higher learning in the country. We are very grateful for friends like the Jackson family, who through their leadership, are helping us make this facility a reality."

Mrs. Jackson said, "We chose to give this gift in Marlin's memory because he always felt a commitment to education was a commitment to excellence. The history room is particularly appropriate, because he believed history is a great part of making us what we are. It's a great privilege for us to honor Marlin's memory in this way. He felt truly blessed to have the opportunity to attend school at ASU. He made many wonderful friends there who meant a lot to him, including some of the professors who had him in class. It was just a real honor for Marlin to attend ASU."

Marlin Jackson was born in 1934, the son of a farmer and logger near the Buffalo Island area of Craighead county. He attended Dixie High School, graduating as valedictorian. He graduated from ASU in 1958 with a bachelor's degree in agriculture economics and was first in his class, an honor graduate and was named a student of distinction.

In a banking career which spanned 35 years, he led Citizens Bank of Jonesboro, Security Bank of Paragould, Worthen National Bank of Conway and Union Planters Bank of Northeast Arkansas. He served Arkansas as state banking commissioner from 1983 to 1987, and was widely praised for averting a banking crisis in 1985.

He attended a number of graduate courses at American Bankers Association schools, was an instructor at the Louisiana State University and Southern Methodist University schools of banking, and was honor graduate at the Harvard Graduate School of Business.

Jackson was a life member of the FFA Foundation, the Arkansas 4-H Club Foundation and served as chairman of the ASU Foundation board of directors and president of the ASU Alumni Association. He was named Jaycees Outstanding Man of the Year in 1969 and was a member of the President's Advisory Council of Winrock International, treasurer of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce, and president of the Paragould Chamber of Commerce. He was Justice of the Peace in Greene County for 23 years and served on the board for the Arkansas Department of Higher Education for 10 years. In 1985, he was named a Distinguished Alumnus of ASU.

Despite his many achievements, he embraced his rural roots in agriculture and called himself a "farmer at heart" and a "country banker."

Marlin Jackson died in 1998 at age 64, and was survived by his wife, Betty Nunn Jackson; two daughters, Janet Jackson Criswell and Marla Jane Jackson, both of Conway; and two sons, Samuel D. Jackson of Rogers and R.D. Jackson of Jonesboro, who graduated from ASU in 1983. He was also survived by five grandchildren, Marlin Tyler Jackson, Annie, Callie, Courtney and Candice Criswell.

ASU Alumni Association president Earwood praised the Jackson family for their gift to the alumni center. “The Cooper Alumni Center will provide a place for all ASU alumni to visit and meet with friends and family," he said. "It will be an asset to the university by promoting alumni involvement. The Alumni Center will be available to both campus and civic groups for meetings and events. It will truly be a building for the community and will foster good relations between the university and Northeast Arkansas.”

In 2004, the ASU Alumni Association celebrated its 80^th year of service to alumni. There are more than 55,000 ASU alumni, with more than 60 percent residing in Arkansas. The Alumni Center will be built near the lake across from the current student pavilion at ASU and named for Darrell and Charlotte Pugh Cooper of Clarkston, Mich.

Along with a library, history room, multipurpose areas and reception rooms, offices for the ASU Alumni Association, the Office of Development and the ASU Foundation will also be located in the building. Funding is not complete, but preliminary groundbreaking on the construction site is expected soon.

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