Southeast Missouri State University's renovated social science building will be named after the late Albert Sidney Johnson Carnahan, a former congressman and Gov. Mel Carnahan's father.

A.S.J. Carnahan graduated from the university, then Southeast Missouri State Teachers College, in 1926.

The regents unanimously approved the naming of the building Thursday.

Donald Dickerson, board president and a friend of Mel Carnahan, defended the decision after the meeting.

He said the university wasn't playing politics in an effort to get the governor's support for state funding for the school's River Campus project. Southeast wants state funding to turn a former Catholic seminary into a visual and performing arts school.

Dickerson said A.S.J. Carnahan was one of Southeast's most distinguished graduates.

He was awarded the university's Alumni Merit Award in 1962 in recognition of his career in public service. He died on March 24, 1968, at age 71.

Carnahan grew up in Carter County and served 14 years as congressman, retiring in January 1961. He then served two years as U.S. ambassador to Sierra Leone.

Before entering politics, Carnahan taught in rural schools and served as a school administrator in Carter, Reynolds and Shannon counties.

Dickerson said the Carnahan family has always believed in public service and he doesn't have a problem with honoring the father of a governor who has pushed for increased funding for higher education.

"He has been extremely good to Southeast," Dickerson said of the governor.

School officials plan to invite the governor to a naming ceremony for the renovated building this fall.

School officials said it made sense to name the social science building at the beginning of the school's 125th anniversary celebration, whose theme is "honoring yesterday, creating tomorrow."

Dr. Peter Bergerson, who chairs the political science department, welcomed the regents' decision.

"I am delighted we are memorializing a man whose life was devoted to public service and the intellectual pursuits of political science and history," Bergerson said in a prepared statement issued by the school.

Built in 1901-1902 as the "science hall," the social science building is the oldest structure on the Southeast campus.

While it had served the university for nearly a century, it was never formally named until Thursday.

The building, near Academic Hall, was gutted and renovated at a cost of $4.4 million.

The school closed the building in June 1993 because of structural concerns that surfaced during installation of an elevator. That led to the renovation project.

The building, which houses the political science and history departments, reopened in August.

A.S.J. CARNAHAN

Albert Sidney Johnson Carnahan's life took him from one-room schoolhouses in Carter County to the halls of Congress.

A.S.J. Carnahan was born on Jan. 9, 1897, on a farm near Ellsinore, the youngest of 11 children.

He attended the Crommertown one-room country school near his home.

In 1914, at age 17, he began teaching in the Crommertown School.

After two years of teaching at Crommertown, he taught two years at Hogan Hollow, another rural school in Carter County. He then taught grades 4 through 8 for a year at Ellsinore.

He spent a year in the Navy during World War II, serving in an aviation unit stationed in Ireland.

He returned home to begin a career as superintendent of schools in Missouri's hill counties.

In 1926, he earned a bachelor's degree in education from the university, then known as Southeast Missouri State Teachers College. In 1932, he received a master's degree from the University of Missouri.

Carnahan served as a school administrator in Carter, Reynolds and Shannon counties until 1944, when he received the Democratic nomination for the Southeast Missouri congressional seat.

He was elected to Congress in November 1944 and served seven terms, retiring in January 1961.

He was a delegate to the United Nations in 1957 and served as a congressional adviser to the U.S. delegation to the Second International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1958.

President John F. Kennedy appointed Carnahan as the U.S. ambassador to the then newly independent African nation of Sierra Leone in 1961. He served in that role for two years.

Upon his retirement from public life, Carnahan returned to his home in Ellsinore.

He continued his interest in international service as a member of the Poplar Bluff Rotary Club.

Regents Action

Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents Action

Conferred degrees upon graduate students

Created a bachelor of fine arts degree in visual arts

Agreed to submit the fiscal 2000 operating budget request to the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education

Issued $10.3 million in revenue bonds to fund renovations to the Towers Complex and Greek Housing.

Adopted a policy governing standards for signs and other visual symbols of the university.