MUNCIE, Ind. - John C. Board has spent his life around teachers, but he remembers particularly well five he encountered as a Ball State Teachers College student during the ’50s.

His recent gift of the ceramic sculpture "Incandescents" by Rudy Arne Autio (1926-) to the Ball State University Museum of Art proves Board hasn’t forgotten the teachers who influenced his education, career and life.

The $12,000 gift and pledge of similar future gifts was given in honor of teachers he studied with or knew during his Ball State years: Lucile Clifton, English; Louis Ingelhart, journalism; Alice W. Nichols, art; and Floy Ruth Painter and Phyllis Nelson Yuhas, history/social sciences.

Board said each professor opened up a part of the world to him.

"I can say with all honesty that one lecture Lucile Clifton gave in class was the most memorable, astounding lecture I have ever heard," he said. "Louis Ingelhart was very supportive of journalism students and the Orient yearbook staff."

Alice Nichols, a teacher Board never had for class, deserved recognition for her creative, unorthodox spirit. And Floy Ruth Painter taught him a lesson for life.

"I listened to what other students said about her and put off taking sociology with her," he said. "She didn’t put up with nonsense. But she had a great heart and insightful mind. I learned to never depend on what someone says about another person."

History professor Phyllis Nelson Yuhas made an especially strong impression on the young Board, who found himself in her world history course his first quarter at Ball State.

"She did her part in exposing her students to history through the Ball State gallery," he said. "I wanted to give her credit for bringing students to the gallery who never would have walked in otherwise."

Introduction to the gallery, now known as the Museum of Art, so early in his education helped Board find a home at Ball State.

"It was in the gallery that I was first exposed to fine historic and contemporary art, and my world grew as a result of that exposure," he said. "The gallery became my retreat on campus -- a place for growth, solace and reflection."

In the 40 years since he received his social studies degree, Board has worked with the Montana and Connecticut Education Associations, but he often thought of the teachers he met at Ball State.

"It was time for me to give back a portion of what I received," he said.

Working with Alain Joyaux, director of the museum, Board chose a piece by an artist close to his heart--and home.

World-renowned ceramics artist Rudy Autio not only works in a studio about 100 miles from Board’s Helena, Mont., home, but is a former teacher himself. Born and raised in Montana, Autio recently retired as the head of the ceramics department at the University of Montana.

The gift, "Incandescents," is a thick-walled clay cylinder with three protruding lobes, or "ears" as Autio calls them, with colorful women and an acrobatic horse tumbling across the surface. The ears correspond to the shapes of knees, the bottom of a foot, a bent back, and the rounded belly of a diving horse.

"The two-dimensional and three-dimensional elements are intricately interrelated," Joyaux said. "The figures are dependent on the vessel’s shape to give them form, and the vessel is dependent on the figures to lead the eye around its shape."

With his effort to thank those who inspired him, Board has endowed the university with another source of inspiration --- for future students and all who understand his gift.

"He’s not an artist himself, but a supporter of the art world," said Ingelhart of the "hero" who helped finish the student yearbook when extra help was required. "And he’s been a great supporter of educators."

The other surviving teacher named in Board’s gift, Yuhas said she was humbled by the honor.

"You don’t realize how so many years later someone will still remember you," she said. "It’s nice to think he had such happy memories of Ball State."

"I’m surprised a person would make such a tangible testimony involving me," Ingelhart said. "I’ll never forget him."