The 6th annual Living Legends Awards Ceremony honored those who have made significant contributions to Arkansas State University and the community, while celebrating Black History Month. 

Maj. Gen. Elder Granger, M.D.; Lt. Col. Fredrick C. Turner, Jr.; Cora Martin; Arthur Ray Scales and Herman Strickland were honored as Living Legends. Elder Susan Woods Rodgers and Qubilah Jones were honored posthumously as Legacy Award winners. 

“The character of the individual is shaped by their journey years before the acknowledgment of their accomplishments,” Calvin White, provost and executive vice chancellor, said. “The African American community is well aware that our struggles come with triumph out of strife, joy out of the refusal to surrender and elation of the celebration of today.” 

Turner was one of the first Black graduates at A-State, the first Black A-State faculty member, a founding member of the A-State Strong Turner Alumni Association and has several scholarships and the Military Science Building named after him. 

Turner said those accomplishments belong not only to him but also to his classmates Walter Strong and Larry Williams. 

“This is not something that I did, this is something that we did,” Turner said. “The only problem I had with accepting these honors is that I think they should have been given to someone many years before me.”

Granger is the president and CEO of The 5Ps, a healthcare, education and leadership consulting organization. He served as the deputy director and program executive officer of the TRICARE Management Activity and Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs before retiring from the U.S. Army in 2009. 

Granger said he and his wife established two scholarships at Philander Smith University and two at A-State. One scholarship is in the College of Math and Science and the other with the Strong-Turner Alumni Association. Granger said he is preparing to establish another in the College of Math and Science. 

“My question is always as a Living Legend, what are you doing to instill in the hearts and minds of others?” Granger said. “That’s a huge responsibility as a Living Legend and an obligation to continue to do what you should be doing, but also hoping that the next generation not only achieves what you’ve achieved but most importantly, exceeds what you’ve done.”

Strickland taught sixth grade at the segregated Franklin Elementary School in Blytheville, Arkansas. 

In 1966, he taught math and science at Central Elementary School as one of the first African American teachers assigned to teach in the former all-white schools after the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education ruled the segregation of schools was unconstitutional. 

He joined the A-State faculty in 1972. He served as coordinator of professional education experiences, director of professional education programs and assistant dean of education. He retired in 2008 as emeritus associate professor of teacher education and dean of University College. 

Strickland said today there are opportunities for learning that formerly didn’t exist. 

“Education is a continuous process. You’re going to be learning the rest of your life because everything constantly changes and you can’t study enough to get ready for life,” Strickland said. “Life is education to me.”

Rev. Arthur Ray Scales is the founding pastor of New Mount Zion Missionary Baptist

Church of Jonesboro. He also served as pastor of First Baptist Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. He was the first African American employed by KAIT 8, serving as chief photojournalist for 22 years. 

He has served in many leadership roles and received many awards, including the keys to the city of Jonesboro and West Memphis, Arkansas. He also founded the Craighead County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade and helped establish a street named in King’s honor.  

“I didn’t do it alone. People helped me do it. People allowed me to do it and made a way for me to do it,” said Scales. “For that, I will always be thankful the doors were opened and I was being helped.”

Cora Martin graduated from A-State with a master’s degree in sociology in 1991 and worked for the Department of Human Services for 13 years, specializing in foster care and investigations before retiring.

Martin said she decided to come out of retirement in 2005 and started working at A-State in the financial aid department as an administrative specialist. 

“I would tell the students today to look back and remember the past and be a future legend,” Martin said. “Stay in school, get your education, do what you came here to do. Then you can do whatever you want to do.”

Ian Buchanan, staff senate president and chair of the Living Legends committee, said it’s important to recognize individuals who have made a lasting impact, even after they are gone when presenting the Legacy Awards. 

“These people have stories to tell. It is important that we honor our legends because they so often are overlooked,” said Buchanan. “It is important that we not only do the Living Legends, but now the Legacy Award for those who would if they were still alive, they would probably be deemed as a living legend. So we want to make sure that their stories are not lost.”

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