The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 21

EZ3 Agriculture Stocks Commodities Local business Personal finance Consumer information Monday, Jan. 6, 1986 The Pantagraph Business HIGHLIGHTS Reagan not the only president giving push for Eureka College By TOM GUMBRELL Pantagraph staff The occasion was a pre-Christmas open house at the Eureka College president's home. George Hearne and his EDITOR'SJOTE: Today's feature Eureka College President George Hearne is one of a series of occasional articles following the on-and-off-the-job lifestyles of top executives of some of the major employers in the Pantagraph area. -'j KSr V- i 1 ft? 1 r'. 7 4 if7 77 IJs 1 A I wife Jean entertained most of the faculty and fully 25 percent of the student body.

As impressive as the student turnout was to Hearne, something even more satisfying lingered in his mind. One of the students there was a freshman with whom the president had played an intramural golf match in the fall. Hearne remembered him as typically unsettled, cowed, unsure of himself. Two months later the young man seemed a different person. "He was excited and confident," said Hearne, "very much into things, and very exciting for me to see." Coming from an administrator who speaks unemotionally to both the problems and prospects of privately endowed higher education, the story of the encounter could not be underrated.

Says Hearne: "Involvement, interaction, the sense of belonging these are natural things here, with great importance for all of us, for all of society." Eureka College, founded 130 years ago, until recently has been a school without much visibility beyond Illinois. More than 90 percent of its students traditionally were Illinoisans. Now the percentage is down to 80, and the newcomers include an international representation not much attracted to Eureka in earlier years. Because of Ronald W. Reagan, class of '32, the college is on a map that spans the globe.

"All the good things in my life began at Eureka." That sentiment has been expressed often by the 40th U.S. president. The subject of his alma mater arises often and unexpectedly, as in a recent TV network special, for example, when Variety Club entertainers honoring Reagan staged a skit with cheerleaders doing the Eureka College fight song. To George A. Hearne, college president since last July, the Reagan impact is much more than an increase in traffic off Interstate 74 carrying tourists who "drive through the campus, stop and take pictures, get back into their cars and are gone." It is more, too, than the boost visibility lends to fund-raising.

"The college was like many good, solid institutions that many people had not heard of. That's changed. People know the name now, and they're more likely to give support." Most important to Hearne is that President Reagan represents "the perfect symbol" of old college goals achieved an education that emphasizes preparation for life, moral values carefully intertwined. None of this is by accident. Morality, says Hearne, is written into the college charter.

The institution was founded in 1855 by Kentucky abolitionists who came north to free their slaves. They also were a religious people, who The Pantagraph MAUREEN O'CONNOR Eureka College President George Hearne relaxed in his office during a break in his day. sought from their church and its schools a single rationality dedicated to Christ's teaching. The college, though owned by an independent board, retains a close relationship with the Christian Church Disciples of Christ. Some, not nearly all, of the board, staff and faculty are church members; 15-20 percent of students have a background in the church.

Ronald Reagan came to Eureka in 1928 because his mother led him into the Christian Church at Dixon, and because the minister there recommended the college some 80 miles to the south. George Hearne walked only a few steps to the college president's office in July, but he came to Eureka, in 1960, because of his own church background. He is an ordained minister of the Christian Church who held a pulpit two years, then decided that college work was a "phase of ministry" worth trying. It stuck. Hearne held various administrative posts before being appointed executive vice president in 1980.

The latter job gave him "oversight of the business operations," and doubtless was a key factor in his selection from among 90 applicants to succeed Daniel Gilbert as president. The key responsibility is called "resource development." It takes Hearne on frequent trips in search of funds for a private college to survive in a highly competitive market. He refers to the task as being "alert to those who can be encouraged to provide." The underlying problem was spelled out upfront in Hearne's first president's report, commending trustees for taking a "number of difficult steps" in late 1984 to bring the budget in balance. Among them: a supplementary increase in tuition, a reduction in staff, a freeze on salaries, and an across-the-board reduction in departmental expenses." But the governing board's initiatives also included refinancing of debt at more favorable rates, and a program called the Anniversary Challenge in which the 28 trustees (including Reagan's brother Neil) made "personal commitments to match all new or increased gifts to the Annual Fund during the year." Thus inspired, gifts during 1984-85 reached a record $1.5 million, almost 25 percent higher than any previous Mazda, Deere venture A Japanese newspaper reported this weekend that Mazda Motor Corp. plans to develop rotary engines for light aircraft and helicopters in a joint venture with Deere the U.S.

tractor maker. Quoting informed sources, Sankei Shimbun said Mazda will shortly begin negotiations with the Moline-based Deere Co. on details of the project. Development of the engines is to begin in three years, the daily said. Sankei said Mazda may remodel a 185-horsepower engine which is now used for its RX-7 Coupe, a small passenger car.

Mazda officials were not available to confirm the report due to the weekend holiday. Ford Motor Co. owns 25 percent of Mazda, Japan's No. 3 automaker. Name picked for Korean import General Motors Corp.

said yesterday that the sub-compact economy car it begins importing next year from South Korea will be called the Pontiac Le Mans The tiny car is scheduled to be imported in 1987 as a 1988 model. GM's Pontiac division hasn't given dates or said how many cars will be imported, although industry sources believe the number may exceed 100,000 annually. It was designed by GM's West German subsidiary Adam Opel AG and will be built by Daewoo Group which is 50 percent owned by GM. The move is one of many by GM to transfer production of lower-priced economy cars to foreign countries. GM currently imports two Chevrolet division subcompacts, the Sprint and the Spectrum, from, respectively, Suzuki Motor Co.

Ltd. and Isuzu Motor Co. Ltd. of Japan. Comparable worth dispute ended About 35,000 state workers, most of them women, could get at least a 2.5 percent raise in a settlement between Washington and its largest employees' union of a 12-year comparable worth dispute.

George Masten, chief negotiator for the Washington Federation of State Employees, and Gov. Booth Gardner called the settlement an important victory for pay equity. The $482 million accord was signed this week, the deadline set by the Legislature, which still must approve it along with a federal court. It would give the workers salary increases of at least 2.5 percent through a complex distribution formula. Chicago Board of Trade year The Chicago Board of Trade marked its 137th year of operation with trading volume totaling an unprecedented 83.8 million contracts, setting an annual trading record for the U.S.

futures industry, the board said in a statement. The record surpasses by 9.5 million contracts, or 12.7 percent, 1984's record annual volume of 74.4 million contracts. The board exceeded its 1984 volume total on Nov. 22, 1985, the board said. Over the last 18 years, the board has set 17 annual trading-volume records.

The trend began in 1968, the BOT said. Besides the overall annual trading record, 50 new volume- and open-interest records for individual contracts stood at year end, including 10 single-day volume highs, 11 monthly volume records and five annual records, the board said. Farm activist to run for Congress Wayne Cryts, the farm activist who made headlines in 1981 by taking his soybeans from a bankrupt grain elevator, reportedly will seek the Democratic nomination for Congress from southeast Missouri. The Southeast Missourian in Cape Girardeau published a story saying Cryts had decided to run in the primary for the right to challenge Rep. William Emerson, a Republican who has represented the 8th Congressional District since 1980, in the 1986 general election.

The newspaper did not identify the source of its information. Cryts told The Associated Press that he would announce his intentions at a news conference this morning in Sikeston. Ladies' Home Journal sale completed Meredith Corp. has completed the acquisition of the Ladies' Home Journal magazine from Family Media Inc. for $92 million.

The two companies previously had announced that Meredith would purchase the women's magazine and Health magazine for $96 million. Meredith, which is publicly held, said it has abandoned plans to buy Health, claiming Family Media could not guarantee that the name of the magazine was adequately protected by trademark laws. Meredith, based in Des Moines, Iowa, publishes several magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens, Metropolitan Home and Sail. It also has interests in broadcasting, in real estate marketing and franchising and in printing. Stabilization of yen The yen-dollar exchange rate should stabilize at the current rate, about 200 yen to the dollar, Bank of Japan Governor Satoshi Sumita said in an interview.

The rate should stabilize rather than swing in favor of the yen before the May summit of seven industrialized nations in Tokyo, Sumita said in an interview with Japan's Kyodo News Service. Kyodo said the interview had been conducted at the end of 1985, and was not in reaction to the dollar's latest fall against the yen in London. "The stabilization of the exchange rate should last for a long period to redress trade imbalances between Japan and its trading partners," Sumita was quoted as saying. Compiled by Pantagraph wire services Church, constituted a "struggle" financially for both Hearne and his parents. William and Marguerite Archer Hearne.

His father was an electrical engineer; in Tampa, where George was born and reared, his mother a homemaker. and teacher. Hearne completed his' Bethany studies with the aid of a scholarship and four-year campus job. A brother attended the University of Florida at Gaines. Three years' study at Yale University's School of Divinity came next for George Hearne.

He and Jean married in 1956. Also a graduate of Bethany College, she helped her husband by teaching. Mrs. Hearne taught until their children were born Dianna in 1960. Harrison in 1962 and resumed teaching after they entered the public schools.

Since 1969, Jean Hearne has taught first grade in Metamora. Last year she received honorable mention in the state's excellence in education program. "She and I both take pride in that," said her husband. Please see EUREKA, next page year's. Of the total, $1.1 million was given for annual operations, $440,000 for endowment.

Conceding "no blindness" to the problems facing small colleges in general, and Eureka College in particular, Hearne says he is "very encouraged" about the Eureka future. Perhaps the best indicator of his success so far is in the fact that new enrollment for 1986-87 is 60 percent higher than average. If Hearne's long-term hopes are met, it will have more than a little to do with his belief that quality education is inseparable from student life in the whole. That leads him to talk about teachers and students sharing a common cafeteria, or meeting in the campus social center, or joining in games. Do college freshmen often play golf (or volleyball) with college presidents? Perhaps not, but Hearne's recounting of a relationship that blossomed seemed proof enough that his theory of interaction has merit.

He is a tall, slim, proper man of 51 who claims no pedigree of birth or slatus. His student years at Bethany (W. Va.) College, another of several across the country linked to the Christian Trials, tribulations in the business world Murdoch Iacocca Walton Icahn Turner NEW YORK (API It was another year of trials and tribulations for the nation's business elite. But there was some good with the bad. Many of 1985's newsmakers were old hands, like Steven Jobs, Lee Iacocca and Ted Turner.

New to the celebrity scene were Robert Fomon, Thomas Murphy and Ivan Boeksy. The biggest feat of the year was Joseph Jamail's. The 60-year-old Houston lawyer persuaded a Texas jury to award $10.53 billion in damages to Pennzoil Co. from Texaco Inc. for enticing Getty Oil Co.

to break a merger agreement with Pennzoil. Another notable accomplishment was Sam Walton's. The 67-year-old founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. became the richest man in America, with a net worth of $2.8 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Donald Kelly, 63, made a big comeback as a participant in the proposed a $6.2 billion leveraged buyout of Beatrice Cos.

He was deposed as chairman of Esmark Inc. after Beatrice bought Esmark in 1984. Beatrice Chairman James Dutt, 60, was ousted during the summer before Beatrice agreed to be bought out by an investment group led by the investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Co. Thomas Murphy, 60, chairman of Capital Cities Communications made the news by pulling off a $3.5 chairman of Allied-Signal which was formed through the about $5 billion merger of Allied Corp. and Signals Cos.

Inc. He had been chairman of Allied. Allen Murray, 56-year-old president and chief operating officer of Mobil was also named chairman and chief executive officer of the nation's second-largest oil company, effective Feb, 1. He assumes the posts from retiring Rawleigh Warner 64. Donald Petersen, 59, as chairman, and Harold Poling, 60, as president, took the reins at Ford Motor the No.

2 automaker. Going in new directions: The Rockefeller family, seeking to make liquid some of its holdings, raised more than $1 billion in Please see TRIALS, next page billion friendly merger with the larger American Broadcasting Cos. in what was the first takeover of a network. Late in the year, John Welch, 50-year-old chairman of General Electric Co. enjoyed his coup: an agreement for a $6.28 billion takeover of RCA which owns the NBC network.

In a months-long and messy battle, Pantry Pride Inc. Chairman Ronald Perelman, 42, won Revlon whose own chairman, Michel Bergerac-, 53, came away with millions of dollars in severance payments. Financier Carl Icahn, frequently in the news for his takeover fights, Friday scrapped an agreement for him to buy Trans World Airjines and entered into a pact under which he controls its board. Icahn, 49, beat out Texas Air Corp. President Frank Lorenzo, 45, for control of TWA.

Atlanta broadcaster Ted Turner, 47, after making an unsuccessful $5.41 billion, no-cash bid for CBS reached a friendly agreement to take over MGM-UA Entertainment Co. for $1.5 billion. But he also has not wrapped up that deal. In the works, too, is 54-year-old publisher Rupert Murdoch's plan to create a fourth television network. He agreed to buy six major market TV stations from Metromedia Inc.

for $1.55 billion and he purchased the half of 20th Century Fox Film Corp. he did not already own. Murdoch also became an American citizen These men moved up the ladder in 1985: Edward Hennessy, 57, became INDEX Powerhouse revived D2 Small business information D2 Sales no joke to executive D3 The stock market in 1985 D3.