BOLIVAR, Mo. — Southwest Baptist University joined with Enactus USA to pay tribute to recently retired Enactus CEO and 1979 SBU graduate Dr. Alvin Rohrs at a tree dedication ceremony Monday, Oct. 31, on the Bolivar campus.
In 1982, as a member of the SBU faculty, Rohrs was assigned to lead SBU’s Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE), now Enactus, by then-president Dr. Jim Sells.
"SIFE was basically dying,” current SBU president Dr. C. Pat Taylor said. “We had a recession in the early ’80s and business wasn’t very good, contributions were drying up and basically, the fledgling organization looked like it would be history.
“SBU stepped in and former president, Dr. Sells, one of our university heroes, saw the need. He assigned a junior staff member to help with this project, and look at what it’s become – an international organization – because of Dr. Rohrs’ leadership.”
When Rohrs assumed his role at SBU, there were only 18 SIFE organizations across various
campuses in the United States.
“SIFE needed a new champion – someone to take up the mission and move it forward,” said Dr. Troy Bethards, dean of the Robert W. Plaster College of Business and Computer Science. “They needed a visionary – someone who would share what the organization could do. And just as important, what the organization could become.
“And they needed commitment. They needed someone who would work to positively impact the lives of others. SIFE was also looking for a leader. Someone others could rally behind.”
Rohrs was that person, and more, for 34 years.
“Under his leadership, he’s grown the organization from 18 teams to over 1,700 teams,” Bethards said. “That is phenomenal growth. At the same time, he went from operating an organization in a few states in the United States to operating in over 36 different countries.”
The organization, which changed its name from SIFE to Enactus in 2012, and whose world headquarters are located in Springfield, Mo., “is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring students to improve the world through entrepreneurial action,” according to its website.
Under the guidance of Enactus and educators, and with the support of business leaders, university students create development projects designed to not only impact and empower their community, but themselves and the world.
“I’ve seen it first-hand, here at SBU,” Bethards said. “We see it with our students that engage in Enactus. They participate in Enactus in an attempt to impact other people’s lives, and at the same time, their own life is impacted. And they emerge more as a servant leader than they were when they started.
“That is one of the key components of our mission at SBU. We are developing students to be servant leaders in a global society. Enactus certainly helps us achieve that. But that doesn’t just happen at this institution. That happens at over 1,700 institutions around the world.”
And that reach wouldn’t have been possible with Rohrs’ leadership.
“When I reflect on that and where we’re standing, it couldn’t have happened without you (SBU),” Alex Perwich, president of Enactus USA, said. “God only knows where we would be today had it not been for the intersection of that point and time here on this campus with Alvin.”
The gift of the blaze maple tree was the perfect choice to honor Rohrs’ legacy.
“I think this is incredibly fitting,” Perwich said. “We thought the first place, the genesis of the organization, wasn’t the headquarters building; it may or may not endure. This place (SBU) will endure, and this place had something to do with its (Enactus) foundation and with its starting.
“What he has grown is a solid foundation with really deep roots and it’s incumbent upon us that are still with Enactus, going forward, to take it and keep it relevant as we move forward.”
Rohrs said he is honored that the tree was planted at SBU, and in front of the Robert W. Plaster College of Business and Computer Science, named for one of his closest and dearest friends.
“I want to thank Alex and the Enactus USA team for the gift of this maple tree,” Rohrs said. “I really am fond of trees – from ‘God’s Mighty Oak’ (a reference to a play in which his wife, Elizabeth, performed during her time at SBU) to the ones on my farm.
“The maple tree is one of my favorites because in the fall, which is one of my favorite times of the year, it’s always a beautiful red – a crimson red.
“If you think about the maple tree and you think about all these other trees, the reality is that the red doesn’t show up in the fall, or doesn’t start in the fall. The red is a color that is always there. But in the spring, the chlorophyll starts filling up those leaves and they turn green and they’re green all summer just like every other tree. And then when the chlorophyll stops, the leaves go back to what is their real, true color, and what makes them unique and different from all the other trees.”
Rohrs then offered a challenge to SBU’s Enactus students.
“What in your life is chlorophyll that is keeping you from being the distinct, colorful color you really are versus what you are trying to make people think you are?
“Stay true to your true color. Find your true color. That is how you can follow your passion.”
For more information about Enactus, contact Nathan Wright, assistant professor of business administration and Enactus advisor, at (417) 328-1753 or nwright@SBUniv.edu.
CUTLINES: 1. Dr. Alvin Rohrs thanks Enactus USA for the retirement gift of a blaze maple tree. 2. Dr. Alvin Rohrs (third from left) gathers with a group of Enactus students and faculty near his blaze maple tree, which is planted in front of the Gene Taylor National Free Enterprise Center on SBU’s Bolivar campus.