By Sarah Carlson, Arts Editor
When Dr. Bo Green, professor of mathematics, was a student in the early 1960s, he had trouble staying awake in Sam McReynolds Jr.’s calculus class.
It wasn’t because he was bored or didn’t get enough sleep at night; rather, he has narcolepsy, which is a sleep disorder marked by sudden and uncontrollable urges to sleep, although he didn’t know the diagnosis at the time.
McReynolds, associate professor emeritus of mathematics, didn’t like people sleeping in his class, Green said, and gave a pop quiz one day after seeing Green sleeping.
“Mr. Green, where you asleep or just resting your eyes?” McReynolds asked his student.
Green said he explained to McReynolds that he suffered from a hereditary problem of sleep disorders, and although McReynolds wasn’t happy with him sleeping in class, he excused his behavior as long as Green kept his grades up.
Green remembers McReynolds fondly and worked beside him in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science from 1972 to 1998, when McReynolds retired after 38 years of teaching.
McReynolds, 78, died Feb. 23 from congestive heart failure at Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene and was buried in his home of Morrilton, Ark., Wednesday. An initial funeral was Sunday at the Elliott-Hamil Chapel of Memories in Abilene, which wasn’t large enough to hold all those paying their respects, Green said.
“So many people loved him and wanted to attend his funeral,” he said.
His parents, whom Green said McReynolds was very close to, died several years ago, and he was an only child. His five cousins and their children who live in Arkansas, where he spent his holidays, survive him.
After spending 1945-46 in the U.S. Navy and teaching math and physics at Pepperdine University, McReynolds joined the ACU faculty in 1960 as an assistant professor of mathematics. He became an associate professor in 1966, was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 1981 and was named an outstanding professor in the then College of Natural and Applied Sciences in 1987.
Green described McReynolds as very thorough, well-prepared and patient, dedicating most of his time to teaching and challenging his students to work hard. He loved golf, reading about history and Abraham Lincoln, and working with his church, South 11th and Willis Church of Christ, which he considered family along with his math family, Green said.
When Green was chair of the Mathematics Department, and Dr. Royce Money became president of the university in 1991, the university experienced a budget crunch, and Green’s department took several hits, losing faculty members.
Eventually, after a few years, the department was in the financial position to hire another faculty member, but couldn’t decide between two candidates: Dr. David Hendricks and Dr. Carol Williams. Green said he remembers that McReynolds wanted both to be hired, so he approached the administration, asking for his own pay to be cut in half so both Hendricks and Williams could be hired. The administration agreed, Green said, and McReynolds continued working for half his salary until he retired.
“That tells you want kind of person he was,” Green said. “He loved this school and this department in particular.”
