By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
A well-known Glasgow couple will be recognized as honorary alumni of Western Kentucky University during the 2025 Hilltopper Excellence Awards.
Kristen Bale graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Science in Special Education and taught for three and a half years in Fayette County Public Schools before settling in Glasgow.
In Glasgow she became a volunteer for the Glasgow Public Schools’ Special Education Program, taught adults to read at Barren County’s Mary Wood Weldon Library and served on numerous local and state boards, including those of the South Central Kentucky Cultural Center, First Christian Church, the Prichard Committee, Leadership Kentucky, the Lexington Theological Seminary Board of Trustees and the Kentucky Humanities Council Board. She presently serves on the Kentucky Center for Leadership Board.
The other honorary alumni is her husband, Phillip Bale, who has been a family doctor in Glasgow since 1979. Like Kristen, he has served on numerous local and state boards, including 12 years on the Glasgow Board of Education, serving as Chair the last eight years. Garnett Bale, his son, succeeded him on the Glasgow Independent School Board.
Phillip founded the University of Louisville-Glasgow Family Medicine Residency Program in 1997, is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and recently completed two consecutive three-year terms on the Board of The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.
Both Kristen and Phillip have served on the university’s board of regents. Kristen served from 1992 until 2005 with a two-year stint as board chair from 2000 to 2002. Phillip is a current regent since 2013 and will serve until 2027. He was Chair from 2017 to 2019 and 2021 to 2023, according to an alumni association release.
The award ceremony will be held on Thursday, Oct. 30 beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the Knicely Conference Center in Bowling Green
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