An estimated 150 Missouri State University-West Plains (MSU-WP) nursing students, faculty, staff and community members came out to say “Thank you, Dr. Fowler” during a dedication ceremony March 10 officially naming the new lecture classroom in MSU-WP’s Looney Hall the “Dr. Marvin L. Fowler Lecture Hall.”

During the ceremony, MSU-WP Chancellor Dennis Lancaster and Josh Reeves, vice president of development and advocacy at Ozarks Healthcare in West Plains, touted Fowler’s many contributions to the university and community during nearly 70 years of living and working in the West Plains area.

This includes his efforts to help establish both institutions, as well as the university’s nursing program, which now has 140 students, and first endowed professorship, the Donna Jones Endowed Professorship of Nursing.

He’s also championed the university through his service on the Development Board and charter membership in the Friends of the Garnett Library and Grizzly Booster Club.

For his many contributions to MSU-WP and the Missouri State University Foundation, Fowler has been honored as a member of the Founders Club, given the President’s Medallion in 2022, and received the MSU-WP Granvil Vaughan Founder’s Award in 2018.