Fayetteville Jewelers Make Gift to Benefit Walton College Faculty

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Bill and LeAnn Underwood of Fayetteville have pledged $200,000 to the Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, to recruit and retain top-quality faculty.

In recognition of this generous gift to the Faculty Support Fund, the Honors Program Computer Laboratory in the Business Building will be named the Bill and LeAnn Underwood Family Honors Lab.

“Many of our talented faculty are constantly being pursued for recruitment by other top business schools,” said Walton College Dean Doyle Z. Williams. “One of the college’s major objectives is to retain and recruit high quality faculty for our students, and this gift from Bill and LeAnn will go a long way toward supporting that objective.”

The Underwood Faculty Support Fund will provide funds for salary supplements for summer teaching and research stipends, moving expenses, and other expenses for faculty.

Vice Chancellor for University Advancement G. David Gearhart said: “We’d like to thank Bill and LeAnn Underwood for their generosity to the University of Arkansas and for supporting our efforts to build and maintain quality faculty. From their business experience they certainly understand how quality makes a difference.”

Bill Underwood founded Underwood’s Jewelers Inc. in 1957. He met and married the former LeAnn Ritter, daughter of the founder of AQ Chicken House, the late Roy Ritter, in 1958. LeAnn graduated from the U of A with a bachelor of arts in 1958. Bill graduated with a bachelor of science in business administration in marketing and advertising from the Walton College in 1961. LeAnn and Bill worked closely together at Underwood’s over the decades until she retired in 2000. The couple has three children.

In 2003, the Walton College awarded Bill the Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year award for his long-term success in the ever-changing jewelry business and for his recognition as a nationally and internationally known expert in the field. Both Bill and LeAnn are charter and gold members of the UA Chancellor’s Society and were recently inducted into the Towers of Old Main. LeAnn is a member of the Women’s Giving Circle.

Bill Underwood has been actively engaged in the jewelry industry since 1950.  He became a registered jeweler in 1959. He is a graduate gemologist and has been a certified gemologist since 1961 and a certified gemologist appraiser since 1983, one of the first 34 jewelers in the country to qualify for this advanced degree. He is also a graduate of Southwestern State University in horology, the science of measuring time, and the Gemological Institute of America.

He was founding chairman of the AGS Gemological Laboratory, president of the American Gem Society, and director of the American Gem Society’s International Board. He was inducted into the National Jeweler Hall of Fame in 1991, and Underwood’s was named “Best Single Jewelry Store in the U.S.” in 1991. Among the many publications in which he has published articles are USA Today, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Spectra, National Jeweler, New York Diamonds, and Professional Jeweler. He wrote and distributed nationally, “The Seven Secrets of Success,” a film on positioning and marketing the jewelry store for success. He has traveled around the world to research and buy gems and jewelry for his store.

Within the Fayetteville community, Bill Underwood has served as chairman of the Fayetteville Housing Authority and the Civil Service Commission. He was a director in the Fayetteville Rotary Club and served as director for First Variable Life Insurance Co. and Boatmen’s Bank of Northwest Arkansas.

Campaign for the Twenty-First Century Update

. Campaign for the Twenty-First Century goal: $1 billion
 
. The Campaign total — counts all gifts and pledges to academic and athletic purposes as of June 10, 2005: $981.6 million.
 
. Campaign funds are being used for: student and faculty endowments, program creation and enhancement, capital projects, annual support and endowment growth.