ETBU grad, former basketball MVP, killed in action in Iraq_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

ETBU grad, former basketball MVP, killed in action in Iraq

MARSHALL–A former East Texas Baptist University basketball star is among more than 700 American military personnel who have been killed in action in Iraq.

Capt. Arthur Felder of Lewisville, Ark., was one of four soldiers killed April 24 in Taji, Iraq, when mortar rounds hit their camp. He was assigned to the Army National Guard's 39th Support Battalion, 39th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division from Hazen, Ark.

Felder, 36, graduated from ETBU in 1989.

He played on the ETBU Tigers basketball team from 1985 to 1988 and was named Most Valuable Player during his senior season. Felder ranks 5th on the ETBU all-time rebounds list with a career total of 706.

Jim Webb, former basketball coach and now professor of kinesiology at ETBU, told the Marshall News Messenger: “Arthur knew what work it took to be successful and was willing to put forward that effort. His mother had taught him to work and respect education, and they valued it.”

Felder was “one of those youngsters that was smart, dependable and everybody that knew him loved him,” Webb said.

Felder was employed at Step One of Little Rock, Ark., a court-appointed alternative school for juveniles.

He was a member of St. Luke Baptist Church in Little Rock, where he served as youth director.

Felder is survived by his mother, Cheryl Stuart of Lewisville, Ark., and son, Jaelun, 8, and a daughter, Amari, 4.