Len Cotton of Dardanelle was elected by his fellow trustees to serve as chairman of the Arkansas Tech University Board of Trustees for the 2024 calendar year on Thursday, Dec. 14.
Cotton was appointed to a five-year term on the ATU Board of Trustees by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in January 2020.
Other Arkansas Tech Board of Trustees officers for 2024 are Bill Clary of Conway, vice chairman, and Michael Lamoureux of Russellville, secretary. They will be joined on the board in 2024 by Stephanie Duffield of Russellville.
The fifth member of the ATU Board of Trustees for 2024 will be appointed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Jim Smith of Fayetteville, who is ATU Board of Trustees chairman in 2023, will continue as a board member through the end of his five-year appointment on Jan. 14, 2024.
Cotton served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and earned the Army Commendation Medal, the Air Medal and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge.
He was a member of the committee that helped bring the Arkansas Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the State Capitol grounds in Little Rock.
Cotton worked for the Arkansas Department of Health for 37 years, including service as district manager for the counties of Johnson, Logan, Pope and Yell from 2001 until the time of his retirement in 2009.
A long-time cattle farmer in Yell County, Cotton has rendered volunteer service as chairman of the American Legion Arkansas Boys State Commission and as a member of the Arkansas Veterans Commission, the Tri-County Regional Water Board, Dardanelle Rotary Club, the Dardanelle Chamber of Commerce, the Yell County Wildlife Federation, the Dardanelle City Youth Baseball Commission and the Dardanelle High School Athletic Booster Club.
Cotton has served as the public address announcer at Dardanelle High School football games for more than 30 years, and he is a lifelong member of Dardanelle Methodist Church.
A 1963 graduate of Dardanelle High School, Cotton earned an Associate of Science degree from Arkansas Tech in 1965, a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture from the University of Arkansas in 1967 and a Master of Science degree from the University of Arkansas in 1971.
Cotton and his wife, Avis, are parents of Sarah Cotton Patterson, attorney and partner at Friday, Eldredge and Clark in Little Rock; and Tom Cotton, U.S. senator from Arkansas.
