In honor of Veteran’s Day, Speech-Language Pathology faculty members Jeff Adams and John Lowe paid tribute to Jim Thurman, an associate professor of Speech-Language Pathology, by purchasing a brick in his honor at the Veterans Memorial in Maumelle. The idea behind the memorial is to salute our country’s Vietnam military veterans.
Thurman was in Vietnam 1962-63, which was before the war era. He was honorably discharged after 5 months 26 days in country with a thirty percent military connected disability. Thurman, like most early Special Force airborne Vietnam Veterans was at least a three-time volunteer. He volunteered for the Army in 1959, volunteered for 82nd Airborne in 1960, volunteered for 5th Special Forces Airborne in 1961 and volunteered to go to Vietnam for one year in 1962.
Only about 38 Americans had been killed when Thurman was in Vietnam, however over 58,000 Americans were killed by the year 1975, he said.
After Vietnam, Thurman received a football scholarship from Coach Bright at UCA. Thurman is now starting his 39th year as associate professor in the UCA Speech-Language Pathology Department.
“I wanted to honor Jim because Vietnam Veterans were not appropriately honored for their service when they returned home yet they still answered the call to serve our nation,” Adams said. “Jim has been a faculty member here at UCA for over three decades. His service to our country and to UCA is admirable and deserving of honor. I am glad to be able to thank him for his service with the brick purchase. Jim is a mentor to me. As a veteran faculty member, he is very student-focused and cares deeply about the Department of Speech-Language Pathology. The UCA community is fortunate to have him on the faculty.”
The process of placing a brick in Maumelle took ten months to complete. Thurman’s brick is among the hundreds that have been placed along the walkway in honor of the Vietnam soldiers.
“Jim Thurman is a special and unique person. He served in the Special Forces during the early years of the Viet Nam war, then came to UCA on a football scholarship in the mid 1960’s, and has been a student and then a faculty member through all of these years,” said John Lowe. “Literally hundreds of students have been influenced through his administrative roles in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and by his teaching, particularly in his very popular Sign Language course. He is the most beloved faculty member in the history of the Department, and his colleagues have often said, ‘if one can’t get along with Jim Thurman, they simply can’t get along with anyone.’ “