University trustee continues family’s storied service to UCA
There was never a doubt that Elizabeth Farris ’77 would attend the University of Central Arkansas. After all, her family has a long history with the institution.
Her father, Jefferson Farris Jr. ’50, became the university’s sixth president in 1975. Her grandmother was the secretary to the registrar, and her grandfather was the head of the health and physical education department, as well as the athletic director. Her siblings and parents all attended UCA.
Farris has continued that legacy through years of service to the institution, including being a part of its Board of Trustees since 2012.
“Something that means as much as this university does to myself and to my family, it’s really an honor to be able to give back to it because we’ve taken so much from it,” she said. “We’ve taken an education from it. It provided a living for our grandparents, provided a living for my family, and it’s just always been really important to me.”
The importance of education was always made clear to Farris and her siblings. The significance of UCA was also made clear through her father’s admiration for the institution.
“It was just his life, really,” said Farris, who studied business administration. “I mean, he loved this school. I guess it was just his attitude about it, whether it was football games or whether it was a student performance or piano recital. Whatever it was, it was great.”
After college, Farris, a resident of Hot Springs, went on to work in the banking industry and three years ago retired as president of Regions Bank in Hot Springs. Prior to being appointed as a trustee, she served on the board of directors for the UCA Alumni Association and the UCA Foundation, experiences that allowed her to become reacquainted with former classmates and the university.
Farris said her proudest moment as a trustee was hiring President Houston Davis.
“It’s fun to watch him, the twists that he puts on the school, and the changes he makes, and the improvements he makes and the way he wants to see it,” she said. “I think he’s had a lot of big-school higher ed experience. He’s brought in some things that we maybe hadn’t thought about doing.”
In her free time, Farris enjoys attending UCA football games and Reynolds Performance Hall productions. When away from campus, she enjoys playing duplicate bridge, reading, hiking and traveling.
“When my time on the board is up, I hope people will realize that the positions I took were because I thought they were the best for the university, and [I] didn’t really have any ulterior motives other than just wanting UCA to be the best it can,” she said.