Van Meter Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award
William R. Brady, Lawrence, Kansas
received the 2002 William and Allene Guthrie Van Meter Outstanding Alumni
Achievement Award from Labette Community College and the LCC Alumni Association
at the annual Donor Appreciation Luncheon October 18 in Parsons. Brady
graduated from LCC in 1975.
“Bill and his family have a long history of
involvement with LCC,” says Sara Combs ’58, president of the LCC Alumni
Association board of directors. “Four sisters graduated from LCC and another
sister attended. His parents, Bill and Mary, enjoyed sports programs at the college
and participated in the senior citizen classes during their retirement years.
He and his mother taught courses part time and his sister, Kathy Stotts ’69, of
Parsons, worked at the college as a career counselor.”
Bill retired from the Kansas legislature
in 1996 after serving ten years in the House of Representatives and six years
in the Senate. He developed legislation establishing the State Hospital Closure
Commission in the mid-90s, designed after the federal military base closure
law. The Kansas law has the governor appointing a broad-based group of citizens
to weigh the facts and make a recommendation to the legislature.
“The commission model is less political
than if the legislature acted solely on its own,” says Brady. “The result saved
the Parsons State Hospital and Training Center from being closed.”
Other legislation he was actively involved
in that had long-term impact for southeast Kansas includes the 1988 highway
bill that rebuilt what is now U.S. Highway 400, establishment of the Labette
County Conservation Camp in Oswego, enhanced salaries for the direct-care staff
of state hospitals, and the 1992 school finance formula that lowered property
taxes in Labette County by 60 mills.
While serving in the Senate he had the
distinction of having the only district that contained three community
colleges. His position on the Ways and Means Committee enabled him to shepherd
through numerous increases in the base aid that the colleges received from the
state.
After leaving the Senate he became
business administrator at Parsons State Hospital and Training Center. He led a
Total Quality Management Team to reorganize the transportation system at the
facility. He has been executive director of the Minnesota Library Association
and since 1999 has been a contract lobbyist for Kansas Governmental Consulting,
Topeka.
Bill took his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Pittsburg State University. He and his wife Nancy have two children, Kevin 11 and Maureen 10.