STACY PRAISES DEMPSTER

Dr. Bill Stacy misses Southeast Missouri State University, the school he guided as president for 10 years.

Stacy is president of California State University-San Marcos, a job he has held since leaving Southeast in 1989.

But Stacy has fond feelings for the Cape Girardeau school.

"I love being home. I miss the university. I miss its people. I miss the accomplishments," he told a crowd of about 500 at Monday's dedication of Southeast's new business building.

"And yes, I miss the Show Me Center," he said to the amusement of many in the audience. A controversy over the Show Me Center site occurred during Stacy's administration.

Stacy graduated from Southeast and later returned to teach speech before being named its president.

Stacy said he was influenced in life by President Harry Truman, former Southeast president Mark Scully, and Robert A. Dempster, for whom the business building is named.

Dempster, a Sikeston lawyer and civic leader, died March 24, 1995.

Stacy said Dempster was a personal friend as well as a friend of the university. "I loved him like a father."

Outwardly, Dempster was "a tough old goat," said Stacy, but beneath that exterior was a man who cared deeply about the university.

Stacy said Dempster helped him and others to succeed.

Stacy said the Dempster and his wife, Lynn, always wrote out the first check in any fund-raising campaign for Southeast.

"He told me that the first step and the first gift was usually the hardest," Stacy said.

Even though he retains strong feelings for Southeast, Stacy remains committed to his new school.

He has been president of the San Diego-area university from its inception.

"I was the first employee," he said in an interview prior to Monday's dedication. "I had no other employees, no building. I had to start in a rented office." There were no students and no faculty.

Today, the new school has grown to a 300-acre campus with about a dozen buildings, 200 faculty and 4,500 students.

Enrollment grew by 24 percent this year, Stacy said.

The state of California has continued to fund the school even in the middle of a recession. "They keep faith with this new little place," he said.

The California school operates on a $35 million budget, most of it provided by the state.

Unlike Southeast, Stacy's California university is one of four schools in its region.

"Now I am a little fish in the pond," Stacy said.