July 23, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. - A scientist whose research led to the development of Viagra, the chairman and CEO of Houchens Industries and a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist will join Western Kentucky University’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni this fall.
Dr. Sharron Halcomb Francis, Jimmie Gipson and the late Bill Strode will be inducted during WKU’s Homecoming celebration.
The 17th class of noted alumni will be inducted during a Homecoming week luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 31 at the Sloan Convention Center. For ticket information, contact the WKU Alumni Association at 1-888-WKU-ALUM.
Dr. Sharron Halcomb Francis
The next time you see an advertisement for Viagra, Cialis, Levitra or Revatio, you can thank Sharron H. Francis
for her role in research that led to development of drugs to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Dr. Francis graduated from WKU in 1965 with a degree in biology and was named Most Outstanding Biology Student. She earned her Ph.D. in Medical Physiology from Vanderbilt University in 1970 and completed postdoctoral work at Washington University in St. Louis and the National Heart and Lung Institute in Bethesda, Md. She joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1975 and works as a research professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. She also teaches and mentors doctoral and postdoctoral trainees.
Her research focuses on mechanisms cells use to regulate their functions, including cyclic nucleotide-dependent protein kinases and cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases and their role in hypertension, asthma, diabetes and male impotence. In the late 1970s, she began a collaboration with Professor Jackie D. Corbin, focusing on cyclic GMP, which regulates contraction in muscles surrounding blood vessels. They purified and extensively characterized a protein named phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE-5) that breaks down cGMP and modulates blood pressure.
In a clinical trial, scientists at Pfizer found another effect of PDE-5 on regulating blood vessel functions – a treatment for male impotence. Viagra was born. (PDE-5 also is the target of Levitra, Cialis and Revatio.)
Dr. Francis has published and edited extensively on PDE-5 and cGMP. She received a Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health and financial support from the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and numerous pharmaceutical companies.
In 2007, the alumna of Alpha Delta Pi sorority at WKU received the National Alpha Delta Pi Alumni Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Profession.
She is married to Dr. Robert S. Francis; they have two children.
Jimmie Gipson
Jimmie Gipson, a 1963 graduate of Bowling Green Business University, began working for Houchens as an 
accounting manager in 1965 and was named CEO in 1993.
Houchens Industries has been a household name in southern Kentucky since Ervin Houchens opened his first store in 1917, but the company’s portfolio has been diversified and strengthened with the leadership of Gipson.
In late 1988, in a series of events orchestrated by Gipson’s vision, the company’s employees became its owners. Today Houchens Industries is the largest 100 percent employee-owned company (ESOP) in the United States, and in staying with Gipson’s vision of diversification, now enjoys a presence in Insurance, Retail Fixture Manufacturing, Web Development, Retail Grocery and Convenience Stores, Quick-to-Service Restaurants, Construction, Paving, Trucking, Recycling, Fencing Manufacturing, Tanning Supply Distribution, Optical Stores, Financial Services and Property Management.
In November 2007 Gipson was named the 2007 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the Kentucky/Ohio region.
With Gipson at the helm, Houchens Industries projected net revenue for fiscal year 2007 has grown to in excess of $2 billion. The company currently has more than 15,000 employees. Houchens Industries was ranked No. 140 last year in Forbes magazine’s Largest Privately Held Companies list.
Gipson also fosters a culture in giving back to the communities. In 2007, the company made a significant contribution to WKU to enhance an expansion and renovation project of Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium. The company also is the primary sponsor of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s girls’ state basketball tournament at Diddle Arena bringing millions of dollars in revenue to the Bowling Green economy each year, is the primary sponsor of the annual Boys and Girls club golf tournament, the primary revenue stream for that nonprofits annual income, and enjoys sponsorships of non-profit causes and groups throughout the area that it services.
Gipson and his wife, Ann, live in Bowling Green and have six grown children.
Bill Strode
William H. “Bill” Strode is acknowledged as a pioneer and giant in the field of photojournalism.
Strode graduated from WKU in 1959 and began a 17-year career at The Courier-Journal in 1960. Strode and his staff elevated the newspaper’s reputation in photojournalism and shared two Pulitzer Prizes – one for public service in 1967 for a series of reports about strip mining in eastern Kentucky and one for feature photography in 1976 for coverage of court-ordered busing in Jefferson County.
Strode influenced a generation of photojournalists, including those who established WKU’s photojournalism program in the mid-1970s. As an adjunct faculty member, Strode was instrumental in enabling WKU to produce top quality photojournalists.
Many WKU graduates interned at The Courier-Journal or were staff photographers while Strode served as the paper’s assistant director of photography.
Strode, who was picture editor for the paper’s Sunday Magazine, left the Courier-Journal in 1976 to freelance and shot for National Geographic, Time, Life, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, The New York Times, The Washington Post and others. In 1984, he was hired by Humana to photograph artificial heart recipient William Schroeder.
In 1978, he founded William Strode Associates, a photography company. In 1984, he co-founded Harmony House Publications, which specializes in photography books.
Strode joined the National Press Photographers Association in 1957 and was the group’s president in 1974. He was the NPPA-University of Missouri Pictures of the Year Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 1966, was Region 4 Newspaper Photographer of the Year four consecutive times (1964-67), won the NPPA’s Joseph Costa Award in 1992, a Morris Berman Citation in 1967 and the President’s Award in 1965.
Strode is recognized as part of WKU’s Pulitzer Wall of Fame in Mass Media and Technology Hall. The Pulitzer Prize, administered by Columbia University, is regarded as the highest national honor in journalism, arts and letters.
Strode died on May 15, 2006. He is survived by four children.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Tracy Morrison at (270) 745-4395.
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