2015 Alumni Awards Outstanding Alumni—Ron Black
Outstanding Alumni—Jerry Walker
In 22 years, Ron Black (MA 65, BA 64) brought 412 wins, four conference championships, two regional championships and two national tournament appearances to New Mexico Junior College (NMJC) as its head basketball coach. Ron joined Roger Staubach and Nolan Richardson as the inaugural inductees to the Western Junior College Athletic Conference Hall of Fame in 2005. The National Junior College Athletic Association recognized Ron twice as the Region Five Coach of the Year.
Jerry Walker (BS 67) is an Explosive Perforating Systems Engineer. He currently serves as the Senior Mechanical Advisor for Perforating Technology at Haliburton Energy Services. Prior to his time at Haliburton, Jerry spent 12 years with Texas Instruments and Teccor Electronics accumulating electronic design and engineering experience. At Texas Instruments, Jerry assisted in the construction of the first eight-digit programmable, commercial calculator. The United States Patent Office lists Jerry as having 21 patents. Jerry also holds numerous European patents spanning the electronics and petroleum industries. His patented inventions deal primarily with explosive perforating technology and equipment designed for use in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea area off the coast of Norway.
Ron now serves as President of the New Horizon Resources Foundation, a 501(c)(3) Corporation promoting economic development in Lea County, New Mexico. With offices in Hobbs, NM and Washington D.C., New Horizons has Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA’s) with the Department of Defense Labs nationwide to transfer technology developed in the government labs to the private sector.
Outstanding Alumni—Gayle Lovato
Distinguished Service—Mack C. Chase
Gayle Lovato (AD 74) currently serves as the Manager for the Pre-Service Unit of the United States Peace Corps Office of Health Services. Gayle earned her B.S.N. from DePaul University in 1983 and her M.S. in Nursing Administration from the same university in 1990.
Mack C. Chase founded the Chase Foundation with his wife Marilyn in 2006. Mack and Marilyn established the Chase Foundation to serve the community of Artesia and non-profit organizations in Southeastern New Mexico and West Texas. The foundation provides grants as well as scholarships. The grant focus areas include education, domestic violence, charity infrastructure and human services. The Chase Foundation also awards graduating seniors from Artesia High School scholarships and has a partnered with many New Mexico and West Texas schools to secure additional funding for Chase Scholars at their respective institutions with Eastern New Mexico University ranking among those higher education institutions. The 2015 scholarship class marks nearly $10 million in donations by the Chase Foundation.
Gayle is an internationally experienced public health professional who has spent her forty-year career in clinical, educational and managerial settings dealing with the urgent and frightening issues of infectious disease control including the early years of HIV/AIDS clinical trials, tuberculosis and multidrug resistant organisms. Gayle has also served as an educator and public health practitioner in various parts of the developing world, the Ghanaian capital of Accra, South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg and Honduras’ Western highland communities of San Miguelito, Yamaranguila and Intibuca. 16
Green & Silver | November 2015
