Danny and Darlene Biggs, Great Bend, receive the BCCC Foundation Distinguished Service Award presented by Darnell Holopirek, center, Barton's executive director of institutional advancement, during Barton County Community College's 38th commencement ceremony May 15.

Photo: Linda Jerke

For more information, contact Darnell Holopirek, 620-792-9367.

May 16, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Prepared by: Linda Jerke

Barton Presents 2008 Distinguished Service Award to Danny and Darlene Biggs

The Barton County Community College Foundation named Danny and Darlene Biggs recipients of the 2008 Distinguished Service Award at Barton’s 38th Commencement on May 15 in the college gymnasium.

The Distinguished Service Award was created in 1981 by the BCCC Foundation to recognize individuals who have shown genuine regard for and have performed outstanding service to the college. A committee of college and foundation representatives selects the recipients from nominations received.

Barton has been the beneficiary of Danny and Darlene’s generosity and community spirit for many years. Danny served as a member of the Foundation Board of Directors from 1987 to 1990, and he and Darlene served as co-chairs of the Academic Enrichment Fund Campaign. They have established two endowments, the Danny and Darlene Biggs Academic Scholarship and the Danny and Darlene Biggs Nursing Scholarship.

In addition, Danny has been a member of the Cougar Booster Club since its inception in 1969 and served as president in 2005-2006. In August of 2006, Danny and Darlene donated the bleacher complex for the Jimmy Lawson Field on the Barton campus. They have often expressed in words and actions how proud they are of Barton County Community College. Both of their sons and daughters-in-law attended Barton.

Danny was born in 1936 and raised on a farm in Kingman. During high school, he was involved in both academics as the Student Council president and athletics as co-captain of the football team. After graduation, Danny began his lifelong career in the oil and gas industry. He began as a roughneck for Noble Drilling in both Kansas and Oklahoma before transferring to Herndon Drilling Co., drilling wildcat wells in Nebraska and South Dakota.
While in South Dakota, Danny met his wife of 51 years, Darlene Craig. Darlene was a teacher in Faith, S.D., and she and Danny were married a year after they met. They have three children, including two sons, Craig, and his wife, Jolene, Great Bend, and Kim and his wife, Kim, Lafayette, La.; and one daughter, Kelly, and her husband, Rob Bowman, Great Bend. They have eight grandchildren.

In 1958, Danny began his long association with Pickrell Drilling Company as an all-around oilfield hand. Over the years, he was promoted at every opportunity and in 1988 became stockholder and vice president of Pickrell and its subsidiaries, Mobil Drilling and Central Dirt Service.

Danny always championed the cause of the oil industry, stepping up as an advocate and supporter by serving on numerous boards and committees. Over the years, he has received many awards and much recognition for his work in both business and community affairs. But possibly his proudest achievements, outside of his family, have been the founding of the Kansas Oil and Gas Museum located in Great Bend and being named 2004 Citizen of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce.