Lindenwood Magazine - Fall 2018: Connecting to Alumni and Friends

Lindenwood University / CAMPUS NEWS WILKINSON COMMISSIONS PAINTING OF LARC BY NOTED ARTIST Lindenwood University / CAMPUS NEWS DILLARD WINS DREAM COME TRUE IN FIRST-PITCH RAFFLE Kay Wilkinson (’60) has long admired the work of Missouri artist John Stoeckley, whose pen and ink and vibrant watercolors have served him in capturing nature scenes, distinctive buildings, and other vistas throughout Missouri and the country, including some at Lindenwood. “I ran into him accidentally,” Wilkinson said. “I was looking for Lindenwood souvenirs on the Internet and his name popped up in a search. That was 10 or 12 years ago.” She later met him at an art festival in Quincy, Ill., where she lives, in summer of 2017 and suggested several buildings on the campus he could draw, including the new Library and Academic Resources Center, whose unique tree-patterned windows captivated her. “He said, ‘Why don’t you commission it?’” she said. “I told him to go ahead and draw it.” Wilkinson took delivery of the painting at the 2018 Festival of the Little Hills in St. Charles this summer and presented the painting to Lindenwood University System President Michael D. Shonrock in the LARC on Aug. 22. She rode down from Quincy with her cousin, Dean Dunham, for the occasion. “The idea from the beginning was to donate it to Lindenwood,” Wilkinson said. “I’m always trying to think of something to do for Lindenwood, and the library is such an exceptional building.” On Saturday afternoon, Sept. 22, prior to the start of the St. Louis Cardinals’ baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Maria Dillard (’97) found herself on the field throwing out a ceremonial first pitch. Surrounded by her husband Steve, father Ben, father-in-law Earl, and mother-in-law Millie, as well as Lindenwood Vice President Lisa O’Brien Enger and Fredbird, she posed for a quick picture before heading to the mound and firing an impressive fastball over the heart of the plate. “I’m telling you, she throws hard,” her husband said. Dillard won the opportunity through a raffle conducted by the university to support its Lions’ Reserve Fund, which exists to help Lindenwood students who are close to graduation but whose financial aid has run out (see story on page 5). Steve Dillard had purchased chances to the raffle in hopes that he would win and he could surprise her. It worked out. “He’s always doing things like that,” she said. Maria Dillard, originally from St. Louis, started work with Southwestern Bell more than 30 years ago. Now a vice president for AT&T, she and her husband currently live in Los Angeles. LINDENWOOD / FALL 2018 8 Kay Wilkinson (’60), cousin Dean Dunham, Development Officer Bryan Stone, and Lindenwood System President Michael Shonrock with an original John Stoeckley painting of the LARC windows, commissioned and donated to Lindenwood by Wilkinson