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Fred Paxton (second from right) joins other Paducah Rotary
Club members on Nov. 30, 1994, in giving $100,000
to raise the engineering school pledge to $8.1 million.
Others are (from left) Marshall Nemer, David Denton, Len
O’Hara and Steve Polston. |
Research wing
named for late
PMG chairman
“The school was a goal of Fred’s,
and it really took precedence over a
lot of things for two or three years.
He just couldn’t have been happier
when it opened.”
Peggy Paxton,
Widow of Fred Paxton.
Fred Paxton told David Denton in the early 1990s that he
thought it would take only
three months to raise $8 million
for a Paducah engineering
school if Denton agreed to steer
the fundraiser.
“It took three years and
put a lot of gray hairs on my
head,” Denton said.
“Not only
was Fred a powerful salesman,
but he was in on it from the getgo.
He was the superstar of the
campaign.”On Friday, the Kentucky
Community & Technical College
System Board of Regents
formally named the school’s
planned research wing after
the former chairman of Paxton
Media Group, who died in
April 2006.
The 12,000-squarefoot“Fred Paxton Engineering”
addition will be part of an
Emerging Technology Center
to be built starting in March,
with completion planned for
June 2009.
Paxton’s wife, Peggy, pledged
$600,000 over four years from
the couple’s endowment to complete
a $1.2 million local drive
for the addition. The University
of Kentucky, which operates the
school at West Kentucky Community & Technical College,
committed $1 million.
“The school was a goal of
Fred’s, and it really took precedence
over a lot of things for
two or three years,” Peggy Paxton
said. “He just couldn’t have
been happier when it opened.”
President Barbara Veazey
pushed hard for the wing and
attended Friday’s meeting.
She said the board praised the
college and community for
supporting the project.
“When Fred put his seal of
approval on the school, that’s
when people got behind it,”
Veazey said.
Len O’Hara, former Paducah
Community College president,
said Paxton introduced him
to barge line magnate George
Crounse, who with his wife donated
$4 million to the school,
now called Crounse Hall.
“You could not find a better
way to name that project up
there, than for Fred,” O’Hara
said. “I’m just overjoyed the
college has seen fit to do this.”
At Paxton’s urging, Lee
Todd spoke repeatedly as a
businessman and former UK
engineering professor about
the need for the school before
he became president of UK.
He said the school has superior
faculty.
“I think they were able to
attract those people because
of the passion and support of
the community,” Todd said.
“Fred was obviously a leader
in all that.”
The wing will provide badly
needed space for teachers and
students to do research, particularly
for Paducah Gaseous
Diffusion Plant cleanup. UK
Dean of Engineering Tom Lester
said he never envisioned
the need when he met Paxton
in 1990 to conceptualize the
school.
The school has more than
100 students now, and a similar
number have graduated
since it opened in April 1998.
Although engineering education
is currently stagnant
statewide, “I think the school
will ultimately grow to the 200
to 250 students we visualized,”
Lester said.
The school sprang from
difficulty finding and keeping
engineers at the diffusion
plant. Former plant manager
Steve Polston worked on the
campaign with Paxton.
“When he spoke, governors
listened, legislators listened,
everyone listened,” Polston
said. “He was talented, but
integrity was his greatest attribute.”
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