Ben "Todd" Parnell III is retired president of Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, co-founder and the retired CEO of THE BANK in Springfield, a community activist, an environmental advocate, an author, and keynote speaker. Parnell was sworn in as interim president at a faculty/staff meeting in Clara Thompson Hall on April 23, 2007, upon the resignation of John Sellars, Drury's fifteenth president. After a number of options were considered for the office, Parnell was formally inaugurated as Drury University's sixteenth president on April 20, 2008, by Drury's trustee-driven search committee. Parnell retired in 2013, serving his last day as president on May 31, 2013.
Parnell graduated from Drury University in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in business and economics. He then went on to earn an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in 1971. He later received a Masters in history from Missouri State University in 2010. [1]
Prior to his position as president of The Signature Bank, Parnell was president of Truman Bank and executive vice president of First National Bank, both located in Clayton, Missouri. Parnell has served as the Board Chairman of the Springfield, Missouri, Area Chamber of Commerce, member of the Springfield-Branson National Airport board, Board Chairman of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, member of the Rotary Club of Southeast Springfield, treasurer of the James River Basin Partnership, treasurer of the Upper White River Basin Foundation, and board member for Missouri Bankers Association and Wonders of Wildlife.
His father was Ben Parnell Jr. Ben was founder and President of People's Bank, now Ozark Mountain Bank, in Branson, MO. [2]
Parnell is the author of Postcards from Branson: A Century of Family Reminiscence. [3] Parnell has also authored two other books: "The Buffalo, Ben, and Me" and "Mom at War." Parnell was inducted into the Missouri Writer's Hall of Fame in 2012. [4] Parnell's book series "A Skunk Creek Trilogy" debuted with the first installment in September 2015, titled "Skunk Creek: An Ozarkian FolkTale." [5]
Taney County is a county located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 56,066. Its county seat is Forsyth. It is included in the Branson, Missouri, Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Harrison is a city and the county seat of Boone County, Arkansas, United States. It is named after General Marcus LaRue Harrison, a surveyor who laid out the city along Crooked Creek at Stifler Springs. According to 2019 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 13,069, up from 12,943 at the 2010 census and it is the 30th largest city in Arkansas based on official 2019 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Harrison is the principal city of the Harrison Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Boone and Newton counties.
Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 169,176. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which has an estimated 2021 population of 481,483 and includes the counties of Christian, Dallas, Greene, Polk, and Webster, and is the fastest growing metropolitan area in the state of Missouri.
Branson is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. Most of the city is situated in Taney County, with a small portion in the west extending into Stone County. Branson is in the Ozark Mountains. The community was named after Reuben Branson, postmaster and operator of a general store in the area in the 1880s. The population was 12,638 at the 2020 census.
The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant portion of northern Arkansas and most of the southern half of Missouri, extending from Interstate 40 in central Arkansas to Interstate 70 in central Missouri.
The U.S. state of Missouri has a storied musical history. It has been the scene of major developments in several popular music genres as well as the birthplace of many notable musicians. St. Louis was an important venue for early blues and jazz, as well as country and bluegrass. Kansas City is home to famous performers such as Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Lester Young, and its own distinct jazz style. Ragtime got its influential hold in the city of Sedalia, Missouri, thanks to Scott Joplin and his publisher John Stark, and through another Missouri native, James Scott.
The White River is a 722-mile (1,162 km) river that flows through the U.S. states of Arkansas and Missouri. Originating in the Boston Mountains of northwest Arkansas, it arcs northwards through southern Missouri before turning back into Arkansas, flowing southeast to its mouth at the Mississippi River.
Drury University, formerly Drury College and originally Springfield College, is a private university in Springfield, Missouri. The university enrolls about 1,700 undergraduates and graduate students in six master's programs, and 1,279 students in the College of Continuing Professional Studies. In 2013, the Drury Panthers men's basketball team won the NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Championship. The Drury men's and women's Panthers have accumulated 22 NCAA Division II National Championships between them, in addition to numerous NAIA titles before moving to the NCAA.
College of the Ozarks is a private Christian college in Point Lookout, Missouri. The college has an enrollment of 1,426 and over 30 academic majors in Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science programs.
BPS Direct, L.L.C, doing business as Bass Pro Shops, is an American privately held retailer which specializes in hunting, fishing, camping, and other related outdoor recreation merchandise. With headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, Bass Pro Shops has a workforce of about 40,000. Bass Pro also owns Cabela's, another retailer that specializes in similar categories.
The Springfield, Missouri, metropolitan area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of five counties in southwestern Missouri, anchored by the city of Springfield, the state's third largest city. Other primary population centers in the metro area include Nixa, Ozark, Republic, Bolivar, Marshfield and Willard. Currently, the city limits of Springfield reach the Ozark city limits at the Christian County line on US 65, the city limits of Republic at James River Freeway on the southwest side of the city, and the Strafford city limits on Route 744 on the northeast side of the city.
The Sphinx Head Society is the oldest senior honor society at Cornell University. Sphinx Head recognizes Cornell senior men and women who have demonstrated respectable strength of character on top of a dedication to leadership and service at Cornell University. In 1929 The New York Times held that election into Sphinx Head and similar societies constituted "the highest non-scholastic honor within reach of undergraduates."
Eric Burlison is the former representative for District 133 in the Missouri House of Representatives. A Republican, Burlison was elected to the House in November 2008 and left office at the end of 2016. In 2018 Eric was elected as a Missouri State Senator for Missouri Senate in District 20. While still a Missouri State Senator, Burlison is currently a candidate for Missouri's 7th congressional district.
Raeanne Presley is an American politician of the Republican Party, having served four terms as Mayor of Branson, Missouri. Presley had previously served as an alderman in Branson, and had lost an election for mayor to Lou Schaeffer in the mid-1990s. She was defeated for re-election in 2015 by Karen Best.
A total of eight special routes of U.S. Route 65 exist, divided between the U.S. states of Arkansas and Missouri. Currently, they are all business loops, although a spur route in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and bypass routes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Springfield, Missouri both existed in the past.
Bob Dixon is an American Republican politician currently serving as Presiding Commissioner of Greene County, Missouri. He formerly served in the Missouri House of Representatives and Missouri State Senate.
The Penn State Board of Trustees is the 38-member governing body for The Pennsylvania State University. Its members include the university's president, the Governor of the Commonwealth, and the state Secretaries of Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources, and Education, as well as a representative for the Governor. The other members include six trustees appointed by the Governor, nine elected by alumni, six elected by Pennsylvania agricultural societies, six by a board representing business and industry enterprises, 3 at-large, 1 student, and 1 academic trustee. Undergraduate students do not elect any trustees; the court case Benner v. Oswald ruled that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not require the undergraduate students be allowed to participate in the selection of trustees.
Paul Leslie Redfearn Jr. (1926–2018) was an American professor of botany, specializing in mosses and liverworts. He was the president of the American Bryological and Lichenological Society from 1971 to 1973. He was the mayor of Springfield, Missouri from 1978 to 1981.
Benjamin Altheimer was a German-born Jewish-American banker and philanthropist.