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Joe Sparks followed his calling to a career aiding environment In retirement, Adair Countian and CU alumnus Joe Sparks continues to work. He serves on four boards: Lindsey Wilson College Board of Trustees, Duo-County Telephone Co-Op board of directors, Cumberland Cellular board of directors, and the Fudge Cemetery board of directors. He supports four colleges, Campbellsville University, Lindsey Wilson College, Morehead State University and the alma mater of his beloved late wife Marilyn, Georgetown College. Sparks and siblings Gayle and Willard completed degrees at Campbellsville in same year. Click on headline for complete story w/photo(s) By Linda Waggener From Campbellsville University For the Sparks siblings who grew up in southern Adair County, KY, education was a given. Their grandfather Sanford Hurt, a superintendent of public instruction, their mother Christine and father James E. Sparks brooked no discussion on the matter of their graduating from Breeding Elementary, going right through Adair County High School and straight to college. So the son whose name marks the fifth-generation of men with the initials J. E. Sparks, Joseph E. (Joe) Sparks, did just that, graduating from Campbellsville College in the same year as his sister Gayle and brother Willard - 1966. Had teaching job within four days of graduation at Campbellsville He said that he had a teaching job within four days of his graduation from CU but after teaching for five and a half years, he decided to follow his calling to work with the environment and went to Morehead State University for his master's degree. However, he said, it was the teaching certificate from CU on top of his degrees in the sciences that enabled him to enjoy 29 years of service in Kentucky's Cabinet for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, the Department for Environmental Protection Division of Water. Sparks worked in critical analysis of leaks into streams all over the state. He trained and then, because of his teacher's certificate, helped to create training programs enabling countless others to handle the biological side of wastewater treatment plants. Teaching degree from Campbellsville College opens career path he loved "Without the Campbellsville College teaching degree combined with chemistry and biology," he said, "I would not have been able to go into all 120 counties of the state getting paid to do something I loved." He said any counties that his work didn't take him into, he visited on his own, and remembered thinking the prettiest place in the state, biologically speaking, is Pine Mountain State Park. He recommends going there between late July and early September. In retirement, Sparks continues to work. He serves on four boards: Lindsey Wilson College Board of Trustees, Duo-County Telephone Co-Op board of directors, Cumberland Cellular board ofdirectors, and the Fudge Cemetery board of directors. He supports four colleges, Campbellsville University, Lindsey Wilson College, Morehead StateUniversity and the alma mater of his beloved late wife Marilyn, Georgetown College. Sparks starts Willard, Gayle, and Joe E. Sparks endowed scholarship At CU he has started the Willard, Gayle and Joe E. Sparks endowed scholarship to fund students in need of help working on their degrees in music, psychology, sociology, nursing, criminal justice and biology. Gifts for scholarships to Lindsey Wilson College and Georgetown College, he said, are in memory Marilyn Dudley Sparks. His sister Gayle and he toured the CU campus together not long ago. He said that the School of Music was Gayle's favorite area and she remembered it being housed in the 60s in the two-story house that is now the admissions offices. "She couldn't believe how it had grown into the Gosser Fine Arts building," he said, "we both were amazed at all the growth of the campus." - Linda Waggener This story was posted on 2014-02-24 09:14:34
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