LES HEARSON
2002 CARDINAL CITEE
Lester (Les) L. Hearson, Ph.D., has been named to receive the 2002 Cardinal Citation Award from Labette Community College and the LCC Alumni
Association in Parsons, Kansas.Hearson was a 1954 graduate of Parsons Junior
College, which is now Labette Community College. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Pittsburg State University and his doctorate from Michigan State University. He retired from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1997 as registrar and professor of biology after being with the college in several positions for thirty years.He is active in community and church projects. He is a city council member and deputy mayor of Crawfordsville and chairs a committee for revitalization of downtown. He serves on a steering committee for Christians for Montgomery County and is on the staff parish committee of First United Methodist Church that is searching for a pastor. He has chaired numerous church boards and committees dealing with finances, administration, and education; was chair of the committee for Boy Scout Troop 332; and has been a church school teacher.
In 1998-99, Hearson was the architectural assistant and construction coordinator for a $22 million renovation and expansion program for three elementary schools in Crawfordsville. During his career, he taught biology at Park College, Michigan State University, Ohio State University, and Purdue University. His research studies at Purdue were supported by grants from The National Institutes of Health and The National Science Foundation. Research findings were presented at meetings of the American Society of Zoologists, Midwest Society of Developmental Biologists, and Indiana Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Hearson is widely published with academic books and papers. He has written a biweekly newspaper feature, “Science Notebook,” published in Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Gary, and South Bend, Indiana. He has served on the boards or chaired programs of the Kiwanis Club, Family Crisis Shelter, United Fund, Mayor’s Commission on the Environment, Mayor’s Beautification Committee, and Task Force on Pornography. He was president of the Crawfordsville Schools Board of Trustees, an elected position, for eight years, during which he completed a $32.5 million building project for the high school.
He received the 1997 Man of the Year Award from radio station WCVL in Crawfordsville and the 1999 Community Service Award for an Individual Who Gets Things Done from the station. His hobbies include construction and landscape architecture, oil and watercolor painting, spectator sports, and fishing. He and his wife, Patricia, have two grown children, Linda Burkhardt and Nathaniel Hearson.