CONWAY — Tom Courtway, former president of the University of Central Arkansas, “righted the ship, restored the faith,” and directed the university onto the correct path for the future during his tenure, according to current President Houston Davis.
In fact, without Courtway leading the “restoration” of soundness and stability, “I don’t think I’d have applied for this job,” added Davis. “His time as president was as meaningful and impactful as any in UCA’s history.”
On Thursday, UCA officially dedicated the erstwhile Health and Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) Center as the Thomas C. Courtway Student Recreation Center.
Having his name on that “magnificent facility” is apropos, because it’s a place where students cultivate healthy bodies and healthy minds, as well as making lifelong friendships, said Courtway, who led the university from 2011-2016. It’s “an incredible honor I will cherish all my days — my vocabulary (isn’t expansive enough) to truly describe what this means to me.
“I have so much pride in this university, a rock in Conway and a beacon of learning” for more than a century, added Courtway. During “tough times,” the UCA community — including members of the board of trustees, employees, students and families — “committed to changing the way we did things, and Arkansas families stuck with us, (rather than) losing faith.”
The UCA Board of Trustees approved renaming the building — a 72,000-square-foot facility that offers three basketball/volleyball/badminton courts, a pool, exercise studio, walking track, cardio fitness area and weight room area — for Courtway in October 2024.
Integrity, service, responsibility, community and dedication are all words that spring to mind when Davis thinks about Courtway, said UCA’s current president. “He helped re-engage students and alumni with pride in their university, and we are all eternally grateful.”
Courtway thanked his family Thursday for all their help through the years and noted that “UCA is in our fiber,” as numerous family members are graduates, including his parents.
“UCA is so special to our entire family,” and he’s grateful current university leadership “can see over the horizon” to plan for the future.
“I couldn’t be happier to see (UCA) now, with its young, dynamic leaders, and all the good it’s doing for Arkansans,” he said. The “next generation of students and families is very secure.”
Courtway, an attorney, former legislator and erstwhile former aide to members of the Arkansas congressional delegation, was also an administrator at UCA and Hendrix College, including serving as interim president of UCA before being named president. Courtway served in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001. He was also an interim director of the Arkansas Department of Education.
Highlights of his presidential tenure included the 50,000-square-foot expansion to the Lewis Science Center, the expansion of HPER that included addition of the pool and racquetball courts and doubling the size of the weight rooms, the beginnings of the Donaghey Corridor project — a 67,500-square-foot, four-story building located on the corner of Bruce Street and Donaghey Avenue for retail and residential space — and completion of the Greek Village Phase I, which houses five sororities on campus and chapter rooms for National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) fraternities and sororities, according to Davis. “Lots of great things happened during his tenure.”
Courtway, 72, was born in Wynne, graduated from Conway High School in 1971, and his father, Bob, taught at Hendrix College for nearly 30 years, while his mother, Betty, was a public school kindergarten teacher. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and business from Hendrix in 1975, a Juris Doctor with honors from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville in 1978 and a Master of Law and Technology from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1983.
Courtway was “always a great athlete, very smart, and Mr. Popularity, but chiefly I remember his humility,” a modesty that remained throughout his life’s various successes, said Michael Stanton, chairman of UCA’s board of trustees who has known Courtway “since I was 11.” Always “honest and full of integrity, that humility is why we love him so much, (and) I’m excited that now everyone will see his name” on the student recreation center.
