For the Stillwell family, Tuesday afternoon in Bay Hall was a full-circle kind of moment.
Brothers and alums Paul Stillwell ’66 and Mark Stillwell ’67, their families, and several dozen friends and well-wishers gathered to honor their father, the late Carl Stillwell, as his name was forever placed above the door of a room Drury University President Dr. Jeff Frederick referred to as “one of the most important, most used spaces on our campus.”
Known informally around campus for years as the Hearth Room, the newly named Carl Stillwell Room is where hundreds of future Drury students are received when they visit campus for the first time.
“Bay Hall is the heartbeat of the campus,” Frederick said. “The students who enter this building will walk under the Carl Stillwell name into an area where they’ll learn more about an experience at Drury and how we can prepare them for the rest of their lives.”
Born in 1912, Carl Stillwell lived a life of service. He was a banker, an officer in the Merchant Marines, a pastor, a city councilman, former Mayor of Springfield and, for a time, an air raid warden in Dayton, Ohio, during World War II.
Stillwell also made a major impact at Drury, where he served in a variety of leadership roles in his nearly 30 years on campus, including business manager, vice president, and even interim president. Between 1945 and 1971, he shepherded the construction of nearly a dozen buildings.
Both Paul and Mark have remained connected to Drury and Springfield over the years. Paul received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the university in 2023 and is a Navy historian and former editor-in-chief of Naval History magazine. Mark spent 37 years as the Sports Information Director at Missouri State and was inducted into the Drury Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019. He is a current member of the Drury Alumni Council.
“This is a special, special thing for our family,” Mark said. “We are deeply grateful Drury is allowing us to do this and name this room after our dad. My dad led a life of service. Everything was for someone else. He set a tremendous example for us.”
The naming was made possible through an endowment established by the Stillwell brothers and their families.