Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Four chosen to join hall of honor
FAYETTEVILLE — Conrad Odom remembers tumbling down the court at Fayetteville High School basketball games with his friends to give a hearty “F” to the crowd, followed by the “H” and the “S.”
Odom, along with Mireya Reith, Lolly Greenwood and Carmen Lierly were announced Tuesday as this year’s inductees into the Fayetteville Public Education Foundation’s Hall of Honor. A ceremony is set for Oct. 1 at the Fayetteville Town Center.
The inductees and family members stood before a part of the same parquet floor Odom tumbled upon. It now adorns a wall of the high school cafeteria.
Odom, a 1984 graduate, said he wasn’t sure where his life would take him in those days.
“The only thing I could see next was the ‘H,’” he said. “Whatever was right in front of me.”
He went on to serve on the City Council, Planning Commission, Board of Education and other civic bodies.
Family made the difference, Odom said. He received his law degree from the University of Arkansas in 1992 and joined his father’s law firm the same year.
Reith, founder of Arkansas United, a local immigrants’ rights advocacy organization and 1997 graduate, said both the good and the bad experiences she had influenced her decision to return to the region. Reith said she experienced racism early on, but her teachers at Fayetteville schools believed in her, especially when she struggled with English in her younger years.
Reith earned her undergraduate degree from Williams College and master’s degree from Columbia University. She spent years traveling the globe, working across five continents with various nonprofit groups, the Peace Corps in El Salvador and the United Nations. In 2010, she returned home because of her father’s illness and founded Arkansas United two years later.
“It wasn’t originally my plan to stay,” Reith said. “That was all Arkansas’ doing.”
Greenwood joined the Fayetteville Public Library staff in 1991 and became known as “Ms. Lolly” to countless children. She stayed 27 years before retiring last year.
Greenwood helped create and sustain numerous enrichment programs, including the True Lit festival. She will be inducted as a friend of the School District.
It was never the “Ms. Lolly” show, Greenwood said. Her partnerships with school officials brought crucial learning opportunities to the children who didn’t frequent the library. Those programs helped promote literacy and the love of reading, enhancing what the schools were doing, she said.
Today, she gets approached by people who are married with children, telling her she used to read to them.
“It’s a great feeling to know I touched that many lives,” Greenwood said.
Lierly will be inducted posthumously. An educator who served in World War II and retired as a lieutenant colonel, Lierly helped establish the Uptown Alternative School for at-risk children. The school enabled students to complete their GED. Lierly, along with Martha Agee, is the namesake of the Agee-Lierly Life Preparation Services Center.
His granddaughter, Caryn Finney, said after serving as principal of Woodland Junior High School, Lierly would sometimes get frustrated with having his hands tied while trying to reach the most troubled students.
“I think when he got the opportunity to do the Uptown school, he started to have that freedom to try new things,” she said.
Lierly’s mother, Velma, had a huge influence on his desire to help the kids who needed it most, said Carmen Lierly’s daughter, Carolyn Schmitt. Velma Lierly didn’t have a chance to finish grade school, living during the Depression.
Carmen Lierly died nine years ago. He left a lasting legacy on his family — three more generations became Fayetteville High School graduates, Schmitt said. His induction in the Hall of Honor will help share that legacy, she said.