By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Marvin O. Looney wasn’t just the first president of Missouri Western State University. He guided the university from a two-year junior college to a four-year institution.
“He’s instrumental,” Kennedy tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “If it weren’t for Dr. Looney, I’m not sure we would have been here.”
Current Missouri Western President, Elizabeth Kennedy, says Looney undertook no small task to move the school from one building in downtown St. Joseph to its current campus on the eastern edge of the city. Kennedy says it didn’t just have a big impact on the college, but on the community as well.
“Going from a junior college to a state college has had and then, again, when we (moved) from a state college to a university. The impact that we’ve had on the community,” Kennedy says. “What a wonderful opportunity for Dr. Looney to be the leader of that.”
Looney died September 29th in Mountain Home, Arkansas. He was 97.
Kennedy says Looney had a vision of what Missouri Western could be when he took over leadership of the junior college in 1967. Two years later, he led Missouri Western to become a four-year institution on the new, spacious campus in St. Joseph.
Kennedy says it must have been an exciting time as Looney led the college to its new campus and new role.
“To move it from that building, one building, and to say we are going to move this to this area to provide for the city of St. Joseph and our region another four-year college where folks can come and earn, at that time, both associate degrees and bachelor degrees to really add to the economic prosperity of our community,” Kennedy says.
Kennedy says she takes lessons from Looney’s tenure.
“It’s always important from my perspective to think about the university doesn’t operate on an island or in a vacuum,” Kennedy says. “And I am always thinking about what is the benefits of the university to our community? Beyond our students, beyond our faculty, beyond our staff, beyond our administrators, what are we doing to really add to quality of life for St. Joseph and our region? Because that is the function of a regional public university.”
Kennedy says she had a chance of meet Looney in 2021 when his son gave him a tour of the St. Joseph campus and came to her office.
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