
Patsy Manion speaks to the audience after the UCA Board of Trustees voted Dec. 12 to rename Laney Hall to Laney-Manion Hall in honor of her late husband, Jerry Manion.
The University of Central Arkansas Board of Trustees on Friday approved the renaming of a campus building in honor of the university’s longest-serving professor, Jerald “Jerry” M. Manion.
The board renamed Laney Hall, which was built in 1994 and named after former Gov. Benjamin T. Laney, as Laney-Manion Hall. Friday’s board meeting was attended by several of Manion’s family members.
“I can’t imagine any honor that he would have wanted more than to be recognized by this university,” Manion’s son, Danny, said at the meeting.
Manon spent nearly 50 years at UCA, working in the Department of Chemistry — which is housed in Laney Hall — as a professor, chair, mentor and ambassador. He died in July.
“He had a great life,” his wife, Patsy, said. “He loved what he did. He loved this university. He loved the students, and we couldn’t go anywhere in 48 states and not run into one of his students.”
Manion earned his bachelor’s in chemistry from Harding University in 1962, and a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Mississippi in 1965.
Manion served as the chemistry department’s chair from 1965 to 1992. He also served three terms as faculty senate president, and was the 1999 UCA Public Service Award winner. In 2010, alumni honored Manion with an endowed departmental award bearing his name and given annually to an outstanding chemistry student.