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FSCC names Outstanding Alumnus, Young Alumnus
Fort Scott Community College has announced that the 2007 Outstanding Alumnus and Young Alumnus have been chosen to speak at graduation ceremonies.
Retired educator Robert Nelson, known for his service to the Fort Scott community, was chosen as the 2007 Outstanding Alumnus and will speak at the graduation ceremony at 8 p.m. Friday at Memorial Hall.
Local attorney Justin Meeks, the 2007 Outstanding Young Alumnus, will address graduates at the 2 p.m. ceremony on Friday, also at Memorial Hall.
This year's recipients will be honored at a special reception to be conducted at 3:30 p.m. on graduation day in the Heritage Room in the FSCC Administration Building. Friends, family members and fellow alumni are invited to attend.
Nelson, a native of Fort Scott, graduated from Fort Scott High School in 1952. He attended Fort Scott Junior College from 1952-54, leaving after completing 58 credit hours -- two credit hours short of the requirements for a diploma. In 1969, he transferred a two-credit-hour course back to Fort Scott Community College and officially received his associate of arts degree.
In 1955, Nelson enlisted in the U.S. Army and received training as an army medical corpsman. While serving in Germany, he became interested in x-ray technology. After completing his active duty service, Nelson returned to the United States and was accepted into a radiography program sponsored by the Alexian Brothers Hospital in Chicago.
After completing the two-year program in radiography, he accepted a position in the radiology department at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. In 1966, Nelson was approached to head up the radiography program for a new community college that was being formed in Ann Arbor's Washtenaw County. He accepted the position for this new college that did not even have a campus, teaching his first classes in the basement of a church. The first year, 1,200 students enrolled in the college, and today it rests on a 285-acre campus and serves more than 28,000 students annually.
At Washtenaw he was president of the Michigan Society of Radiological Technologists and was named Technologist of the Year. While employed at Washtenaw, he earned a second associate's degree to qualify for admission into the Occupational Teacher Education Program at the University of Michigan, where he went on to earn his bachelor's and master's degrees in education.
Currently, Nelson serves on the FSCC Board of Trustees and on the board for the Kansas Association of Community College Trustees (KACCT). Since its inception, Nelson has been a member of the FSCC Gordon Parks Celebration Steering Committee. He is also a member of the "Students First -- Community Always" capital campaign committee and the FSCC Alumni Association Board.
Nelson remains an active member at the United Missionary Baptist Church, where he is a trustee. A committed volunteer to the community, he is a member of the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce, the Fort Scott Kiwanis Club and many other organizations. Nelson also shares his outstanding singing voice as a member of the Fort Scott Community Chorus.
He and his wife Evelyn have six children: Estella, Robert, Joyce, Gloria, Ronald and William. They also have 10 grandchildren.
Justin Byron Meeks attended local schools and graduated from FSCC in 1994. While there he was a member of the student government, the FSCC Ambassadors, a Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce volunteer, and was a Greyhound football player for two years. He was named FSCC's Student of the Year in 1994.
He went on to pursue his bachelor's degree at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo. in secondary education and social sciences (1996) and his master's degree in business administration (1998). He continued his football career at Lindenwood and was captain his senior year. Meeks was president of the student government during the 1995-96 school year.
He received the Lindenwood Student of the Year award for two years and the Easton Sibley Award. He was a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society, an Academic All-American, and a National Scholar Athlete. He also served as director of Student Activities and Intramurals at Lindenwood in 1996-99.
Meeks attended Washburn University of Law for his jurist doctorate and graduated in May 2001. At Washburn he was a Kansas Bar/American Bar Association student member and a member of Phi Alpha Delta. He was also named to "Who's Who in American Law Students" in 1998-99. In Topeka, he worked as a law clerk at Fairchild, Haney and Buck, P.A. and at Wright, Henson, Somers, Sebelius, Clark, and Baker.
His first job as an attorney came in August 2001 when he worked for the Kansas Association of School Boards in Topeka. In January 2003 he became partner at Snider, Mitchell, Meeks, and Klutman, LLC in Olathe. In Olathe he was a member of the Olathe Chamber of Commerce and the Johnson County Bar Association.
Since October 2004, Meeks has been a partner at Meeks and Klutman, LLC which has offices in Olathe and Fort Scott. In Fort Scott, Meeks is a member of the Fort Scott Rotary Board, the Court Appointed Special Advocates Board, the Gordon Parks Foundation Board, and is active in Gunn Park activities and the Bourbon County Bar Association.
He is the son of Joe Meeks of Fort Scott and Laura Meeks of Steubenville, Ohio.