Multiple generations of Arkansas Tech University students learned history from Dr. Michael Link.
Provisions in his will and estate plan have ensured that his influence at ATU will continue well into the future.
The Michael Arthur Link and May Reid Kewen History Scholarship was announced on Monday, Dec. 10, in memory of the late professor and his mother.
The scholarship was endowed by a gift of $190,900.68 from Link’s estate. Beth Jones, administratix of the estate of Dr. Michael Arthur Link, made the check presentation with her husband, Mark Jones, and their son, Sam Jones.
Link joined the Arkansas Tech faculty in 1965. He held the rank of associate professor of history at the time of his passing on April 25, 2016. He was 79.
Link’s 51 years of service put him in company with Dr. Richard Cohoon (1960-2012) and David Krueger (1960-2010) as the only individuals to teach at the institution for 50 years or longer.
An alumnus of Henderson State University, Link earned Bachelor of Science (1962) and Master of Science (1963) degrees from the Arkadelphia-based institution.
He went on receive Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Mississippi State University in 1966 and the Protestant Faculty of Paris in France in 1976.
The new scholarship will be presented each year that funds are sufficient to an ATU senior student majoring in history with a demonstrated financial need.
For more information about scholarships administered by the Arkansas Tech University Foundation, visit www.atu.edu/scholarships or call (479) 968-0400.
Photographed (from left-to-right): Dr. Robin E. Bowen, ATU president; Dr. Jeff Woods, dean of the ATU College of Arts and Humanities; and Dr. David Blanks, head of the ATU Department of History and Political Science.
