Former Lincoln University Professor Willis E. Byrd - fired by LU's Board of Curators in 1988 for "failure to teach assigned classes" - will be honored with a bust to be placed in the Page Library, the current curators decided Friday during a closed session.
The bust was requested, and is to be paid for, by an alumni group, and will be placed in the Inman E. Page Library's Lloyd Gaines Room.
The board's closed-session decision was announced in a news release late Tuesday morning.
Curators voted last Friday to go into closed session, as allowed by the state's Sunshine law, for legal actions; leasing, purchase or sale of real estate; sealed bids and related documents; and "records which are protected from disclosure by law."
No personnel issues were listed among the reasons for holding a closed session, but LU President Kevin Rome said Tuesday, "Because of Dr. Byrd's long history of employment with Lincoln University it was considered a personnel matter. The conversation included information related to his employment."
According to the Missouri Supreme Court's October 1993 ruling in the case, Byrd was a tenured professor at LU when, in March 1987, then-Interim President John Chavis sent a letter "informing Byrd that his salary would be suspended effective February 13, 1987, due to a failure to perform official teaching duties. On March 12, 1987, Chavis sent a second letter notifying Byrd that dismissal proceedings had been instituted due to Byrd's failure to teach assigned classes during the fall semester of 1986 and the academic year of 1985-86.
"Byrd was informed that he had ten working days in which to make a response or request a hearing."
On Aug. 20, 1987, Norman Auburn, who had followed Chavis as interim president, sent Byrd another letter, "informing him that he had failed to respond (to Chavis) by requesting a hearing and that a recommendation would be submitted to the board of curators for termination of Byrd's services," and he again was told "he had ten working days in which to request a hearing on the president's decision."
Byrd sent a letter appealing the recommendation, but never asked for a hearing and, on Oct. 15, 1988, the board of curators terminated Byrd's services.
He twice sent letters asking the board to set aside that decision, and was rejected - but, again, never asked for a hearing.
He sued in 1990, but lost at the trial, appeals and Supreme Court levels.
The Supreme Court upheld the lower court rulings that Byrd should have appealed dismissal within 30 days, so that his lawsuit was filed too late.
Then-Judge John Holstein wrote for the high court: "A party who has exhausted administrative remedies and who is aggrieved in a contested case must institute a petition for review within thirty days after the mailing or delivery of the notice of the agency's final decision. ...
"Having failed to file the petition within thirty days following the final decision of the board of curators, the petition was properly dismissed."