Jane E. Eckert '70

Jane E. Eckert created one of the most successful tourism farms in North America and now helps members of the travel and agricultural industries tap into the agritourism market.

A sixth-generation farmer's daughter, Jane grew up on her family's agritourism-focused apple orchard outside St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated from Stetson in 1970 with a Bachelor of Business degree in Marketing.

After a 15-year exectuive career in corporate marketing with such giants as Atlantic Richfield Oil Company, Jane decided to combine her marketing expertise and passion for agriculture as vice president of marketing for Eckert's Country Store and Farms. Through her innovative ideas and by working closely with agritourism groups, she helped develop the farm into one of metropolitan St. Louis' most popular entertainment and tourist destinations, attracting more than 500,000 guests annually. In 1994, the farm was named the Family Business of the Year for the Mississippi Valley.

In 2001, Jane created Eckert AgriMarketing, a full-service marketing and consulting firm offering a variety of services to the tourism industry and agricultural operations. In recognition of those efforts, she received the outstanding leadership award in 2005 from the North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association and was elected to the group's Hall of Fame in 2008. The same year, she was awarded the Agri Tourism Excellence Achievement Award at the World Agri Tourism Day conference in Pune, India. She is also founder and CEO of Rural Bounty, LLC, which promotes farms, ranches, wineries, community supported agriculture programs, farmers' markets and other businesses with rural roots.

A recognized expert, Jane has helped thousands of tourism and agriculture professionals see the financial benefits of promoting agritourism through her speeches and workshops. She has been interviewed by hundreds of publications around the country, including U.S.A. Today, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Lewis M. Kling '71

Lewis M. Kling is one of the nation's leading business executives with more than 35 years of experience leading manufacturing operations and holding key management positions in large global businesses.

He currently is executive vice chairman of Flowserve Corporation, a $4 billion-plus New York Stock Exchange S&P 500 company and the recognized world leader in supplying flow control products to the power, oil, gas, chemical and other industries in more than 70 countries. He previously served as president, chief executive officer, and chief operating officer of the corporation. He also is a director of Eastman Chemical Company.

In 2006, Lewis wasthe recipient of the highest honor given by the Chinese government to a foreign business leader, the Marco Polo Award. In 2009, he was chosen by a panel of business, academic and community leaders for an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in Southwest Area-North.

Prior to joining Flowserve in 2004, Lewis was group president and corporate vice president of SPX Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, for seven years. He previously was president of Dielectric Communications, a division of General Signal Corporation, which was acquired by SPX in 1988. He also has held senior leadership positions with AlliedSignal Aerospace and Harris Corporation. While at AlliedSignal, in addition to serving as senior vice president and manager of Commercial Avionics Systems, he served as chairman of the board of the American Russian Integrated Avionics joint venture. He began his career in the Apollo Support Department at General Electric Company, where he served for 24 years in a number of management positions in programs, international marketing, engineering and manufacturing operations, simulation programs and design engineering.

Michael H. Yeargan '68

Michael H. Yeargan, a world-renowned set designer for theater, opera and ballet, is currently a professor (adjunct) of Stage Design at the Yale School of Drama and the resident designer for the Yale Repertory Theatre. From this academic base, he has fashioned a remarkable career.

One of opera's most in-demand designers, Michael has worked with some of the world's best-known companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Australian Opera, La Scala, and London's Royal Opera House. He has done set designs in London's West End and Canada's Stratford Festival.

Michael also has worked extensively with America's regional theaters, the New York Shakespeare Festival, the American Repertory Theatre and the Dallas Theater Center.

His career accomplishments have been recognized with numerous awards and nominations. The winner of two Tony Awards for Best Scenic Design in a Musical, he received his first in 2005 for The Light in the Piazza, which also earned him a Drama Desk Award and American Theatre Wing Henry Hewes Design Award. In 2006, he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Scenic Design in a Play, and won the Drama Desk Award, for Awake and Sing! South Pacific brought him a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination in 2008, and he again received a Tony nomination in 2009 for Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

Michael graduated from Stetson University in 1969 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre and Speech. During his time at Stetson, he participated in many Stover Theatre productions, both as an actor and a set-builder. He spent a year studying in Spain before being accepted at the Yale School of Drama, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1973. Only a year after his graduation, he joined the faculty at Yale, where he continues to teach.