01/16/2004

The University of Nebraska Board of Regents has elected Don Blank as chairman for the fourth time - an honor it has bestowed only once before in the past 60 years. Blank previously served as chairman in 1990, 1991 and 1996. He represents District 7 on the Board, which encompasses 34 counties in western Nebraska, and nearly one-half the area of the state.

A McCook dentist, Blank was first elected to the Board of Regents in 1986, and was re-elected in 1992 and again in 1998. He is a former Mayor of McCook and has served as president of the Nebraska Jaycees and as national vice president of the U.S. Jaycees. He has served on the boards of the University of Nebraska College of Dentistry Alumni Association and the NEBRASKAland Foundation, and organized and served as president of the Southwest Nebraska Community Theatre Association. He is past president of the McCook Rotary Club.

Blank is a member of the Nebraska Dental Association Hall of Fame and the Nebraska Jaycees Association Hall of Fame. An avid barbershop singer, he was honored last August by the Nebraska Chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA). He and his wife, Jan, have three adult sons, Jeffrey, Steven, and Randal.

University records show that, since the end of World War II, only one other regent was elected chairman four times: John Payne of Kearney, who served from 1981 to 1999.