Who the heck was Guy Fenter? I hear it often when I tell people where I work. It’s really easy to explain why the educational cooperative is named for him; he was the cofounder of the educational cooperatives in Arkansas but, as an educator, an administrator, and especially as a friend, he was so very much more.
Guy was born near Billstown, Arkansas in 1933. A product of the depression and abject poverty, he once told me the only people poorer than his family were the Campbell family who lived down the dirt road from them. Years later, while at a Glen Campbell concert, I saw Mr. Fenter talking on stage with the famous country music star. They were reliving old days of growing up together and Glen was checking on Mr. Fenter’s sister, a lady for whom he held a life-time crush.
Mr. Fenter was able to get together enough money to attend what is now UCA for a semester. He said he quickly decided attending college was a lot easier than working in the hot cotton fields. Finishing his degree, he taught and coached first at Paris. He was an assistant there during Paris undefeated 1956 season and had some outstanding basketball teams but he always told me his biggest accomplishment was marrying one of his former students, the beautiful Shelby Gray. In 1960, he was hired as principal at Charleston High school and later moved up to the superintendent position. Today, Charleston attributes much of its educational reputation to reforms implemented by Mr. Fenter.
One of his school board members was Mr. Dale Bumpers. They became close friends, so much so that Mr. Fenter served as one of the campaign for Mr. Bumpers who was first governor, later Senator, and a prime candidate for President. After Mr. Bumpers first election, someone from the state department called Mr. Fenter questioning him about the position he wanted in the new administration. With characteristic modesty, Mr. Fenter replied, “I am just an old school teacher and the only job I need is right here in Charleston.’
Mr. Fenter continued in the education field, and was instrumental is setting up the unique system of educational cooperatives in the state. He became the first director of the coop, later named for him, and set up office in the inconspicuous old superintendent house vacated on the County Line School campus. That institution has now grown to include some 50 employees who assist 22 school districts and dozens of schools in the River Valley. In 1998, he helped start the Western Arkansas Technical center at U/AFS. Coming from his background, he realized that all kids are not college bound but all kids need skills and training to help them through life. He retired in 2015 and passed away soon afterward but he left a legacy for educators to follow.
He was a leader, a man that shot from the hip and stood up for things he thought right. With all his success and achievements, he was accessible, likeable, and modest. After visiting in Charleston, I remarked to him he was a famous enough to have a street named for him. He smiled and replied, “Curtis, on one end of that street is the dog pound, on the other end is the sewer plant!
The coop’s mascot is the starfish and it came from Mr. Fenter’s favorite story about a young man walking down the beach throwing grounded starfish back into the ocean. A cynical older man remarked to the boy, “Son, you’re wasting your time, you can’t save all those starfish.” The young man replied as he threw another starfish back into the sea, “I may not save them all, but I can surely make a difference in this one life.”
When you pass by the cooperative and see the name Guy Fenter, know that he didn’t save them all but he sure made a difference in many lives he touched during a career that extended nearly sixty years.
