Rick D. Niece, Ph.D. is a lifelong educator who has served as a classroom teacher, public school administrator, and university professor, provost, and president. In 1997, he was named president of the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas, where he served successfully until his retirement in 2013. During his 16 years of presiding over a campus of 600 students, Dr. Niece raised over $140 million and increased the university’s endowment from $25 million to $96 million. The university trustees honored Dr. Niece by naming him president emeritus of the university.

A small-town boy who has maintained his small-town values, Rick remembers his childhood with fond nostalgia. Growing up in picturesque DeGraff, Ohio, young Rickie was influenced by many endearing friends and neighbors who taught him the important life lessons that shaped his future—lessons he took with him from his early years as a newspaper boy to a distinguished career in academia. Perfect in Memory: A Son’s Tribute to His Mother is the third book in the award-winning Fanfare for a Hometown series. Each book in the series is an “automythography” about Niece’s upbringing in DeGraff. The books celebrate his childhood in rich, vivid detail. Considering himself a “memory keeper,” Niece takes readers with him on a poignant journey back in time to a safe haven of heartfelt remembrances. Perfect in Memory honors his beloved mother, Dodie Niece. Vibrant, poetic, and charming, Rick Niece’s writing captures a bygone time of innocence and communal caring that small towns and kinder times provided, making DeGraff an open book that anyone who appreciates a strong narrative and memorable characters will want to read.

Dr. Niece is the recipient of numerous awards both as an author and an educator. His first book, Side-Yard Superhero, was named the One Book, One Community reading program selection in Arkansas at the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton, and in Ohio with the Tuscarawas County Literacy Coalition and Kent State University.

Following his retirement in 2013 as president of the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas, Dr. Niece and his wife, Sherée, moved from the campus to Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, where they enjoy traveling and the slower pace retirement offers.