A space dedicated to the academic success of student-athletes at Northwest Missouri State University will soon bear the name of a family that instills a legacy of education, service and leadership at the institution and beyond.

According to a press release, with the approval of Northwest’s Board of Regents, the Student-Athlete Academic Center, located on the lower level of the Lamkin Activity Center, will be renamed the Harr Athletic Success Center.

A dedication ceremony is planned for 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 13, in the center, and the public is invited to attend.

“We talk about being forever green and there is no better personification than Dr. Harr,” Northwest President Dr. John Jasinski said. “His family’s impact on the University and our region is decades long, and Doc has helped so many people and supports our student-athletes in a matter-of-fact manner. His devotion to lifelong learning, scholarship and positive impacts is modeled by his wife, Teri, and his family – modeled after his mom and dad. The Board of Regents is thrilled to honor Doc in this way, and we are all so much better for having Doc and the Harr family as part of our heritage.”

The naming honors Dr. Patrick Harr’s decades of service as a volunteer physician for Northwest athletic teams, setting lasting examples for the Maryville community and its student-athletes. Harr also has served as a member of the Board of Regents since 2013 and served as chair of the Board since 2015. Born and raised in Maryville, Harr attended Northwest’s Horace Mann Laboratory School as a child and began his college coursework at Northwest in the 1960s before transferring to the University of Missouri-Columbia for medical school. He returned to Maryville in 1974 to begin his career as a family physician.

Additionally, Harr’s father, the late Dr. John L. Harr, was a member of the Northwest faculty from 1944 until 1979. During that time, he served as chair of the history department and, as the Homecoming faculty chairman for 20 years, helped develop many of the Homecoming traditions that continue at Northwest today. Patrick Harr’s mother, the late Helen Harr, also was a trained teacher.

Northwest opened the Student-Athlete Academic Center, which formerly was the University’s fitness center, after the 2015 opening of the Robert and Virginia Foster Fitness Center. A leisure lounge for student-athletes with couches, tables, chairs and TVs, the space provides an area to students-athletes for study and socialization.

-Press release-