LSU Alumni Magazine - Fall 2010

a l u m n i

m a g a z i n e

Fall 2010, Volume 86, Number 3

Encouraging the Spirit to Soar

A Message From the

Chancellor

Optimism Amid the Sobering Reality of Finances Spring is traditionally the time of year for renewal. Magnolias bloom, the grass turns green, and the weather warms. On college campuses, renewal comes in the fall. Students return, faculty and staff are refreshed from vacations, and images of crystal footballs dance in our heads.

“We are expecting one of the largest freshman classes in years ...”

So, as we enter the fall semester at LSU, there is much reason for optimism.

We are expecting one of the largest freshman classes in years as the best and brightest high school students in Louisiana and surrounding states choose to pursue their academic careers as Tigers.

Our year-long celebration of LSU’s 150th anniversary continues. The signature event of the sesquicentennial year is LSU Day, postponed this past spring due to bad weather and now scheduled for Nov. 13 when it will share the stage with Homecoming for the biggest “open house” in school history.

LSU continues to be a leader in research. As a summer that will long be remembered for the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico winds down, we can all be grateful for the work of our LSU researchers, to whom the world turned for analysis and expertise in saving our cherished coast. (See story on page 32.)

Hope springs eternal in Death Valley. We look forward to autumn Saturdays when families gather to tailgate and the lights of Tiger Stadium brighten south Louisiana nights as our beloved Tigers embark on another season of LSU football. And the support of our University from private donors has never been stronger. We near the end of a successful Forever LSU fundraising campaign and expect to reach our goal of $750 million by year’s end, proving once again that winners invest in winners.

Meanwhile, much continues to be written and discussed about funding for higher education in Louisiana. Amidst the optimism of the new fall semester, the realism of dire future finances is sobering. Over the course of the last eighteen months, LSU’s budget has been trimmed by more than $42 million. And if the exercise recently requested by the LSU System becomes a reality, we would lose an additional $46 million for the fiscal year 2011-12.

Now, more than ever, we need our friends and supporters to make a statement. The greatest travesty of our budget situation is the lost opportunities for students who dream of attending LSU. Among the cruelest budget cuts of all are the reduction in scholarships that allow in-need students to earn an education and entice high-achieving students to choose LSU. Soon we will be calling on many of our supporters to help us fill the financial hole created by cuts to scholarships. As we come to the stretch drive of the Forever LSU campaign, there is no better investment than in the young people who will be future graduates of LSU and future leaders of Louisiana and beyond.

Though our fall semester may be tinged with apprehension about financial concerns, we remain steadfastly optimistic about our University, our students, and the future of our state’s flagship university, LSU.

Michael V. Martin Chancellor

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

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Publisher Charlie W. Roberts

Contents

Editor Jackie Bartkiewicz Editorial Assistants Amanda Haynes, Lana Hunt, Lindsey Meaux Advertising Kay Heath

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Features

32 Oil Spill – LSU Responds Since the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill tragedy began on April 20, LSU – in recognition of its unparalleled collective expertise – has served as the primary source of reference and advice for industry, state and federal governments, and the media. Read some of these stories in this issue.

Departments 1 A Message from the Chancellor

28 32 42

4 President’s Message 6 Forever LSU 8 LSU Alumni Association News 40 Locker Room 44 Focus on Faculty 46 Around Campus 60 Tiger Nation Cover: Two of LSU’s treasures – the Bicentennial Oak and the Journalism Building, originally known as Alumni Hall.

The building was constructed on the “old” downtown campus in the early 1900s, then disassembled and rebuilt on the present campus in the 1930s.

Cover photo by Eddy Perez

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Contributors Ernie Ballard, Ashley Berthelot, Barry Cowan, Matt Deville, Billy Gomila, Ginger Guttner, Bud Johnson, Ray Kron, Joseph LeDoux, Aaron Looney, Kent Lowe, Wendy Luedtke, Scott Madere, Norm Marcocci, Del Moon, Stephanie Riegel, and Charles H. Wade Photography Matt Deville, Kevin Duffy, Steve Franz, Chiaki Hara, Fumie Hoppe, Larry Hubbard, Pris LeDoux, Jason R. Peak, Eddy Perez, and Jim Zietz

28 Treasures of LSU LSU’s many treasures in various areas including architecture, the arts, research, natural beauty, long-standing tradition, and historical artifacts are featured in Treasures of LSU, published by the LSU Press. Printed in conjunction with University’s sesquicentennial celebration, Treasures features photographs, essays, and information on more than 100 of the iconic items.

Art Director Chuck Sanchez STUN Design & Advertising

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Printing Baton Rouge Printing Editorial and Advertising Office LSU Alumni Association 3838 West Lakeshore Drive Baton Rouge, LA 70808-4686 225-578-3838 • 888-RINGLSU www.lsualumni.org / e-mail: jackie@lsualumni.org LSU ALUMNI MAGAZINE is published quarterly in March, June, September and December by the LSU Alumni Association. A contribution of $50 or more for an annual subscription includes membership in the Alumni Association. Letters to the editor are encouraged. Please write to the address listed above. LSU ALUMNI MAGAZINE reserves the right to edit all material accepted for publication. Publication of material does not indicate endorsement of the author’s viewpoint by the magazine, the LSUAA or LSU. © 2010 by LSU ALUMNI MAGAZINE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to LSU ALUMNI MAGAZINE, 3838 West Lakeshore Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70808-4686 The mission of the LSU Alumni Association is to protect, promote, and foster the welfare of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College and to create and nurture mutually beneficial relationships between the University and its alumni and friends. The Association, using the talents and resources of alumni and friends of Louisiana State University, supports the University in pursuit of excellence in teaching, research and public service to future and current alumni.

NATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS Gregory J. “Gregg” Cordaro Chair, Baton Rouge, La. Guy Campbell III Chair-Elect, Monroe, La. Patricia C. “Pat” Hewlett Bodin Past Chair, Houston, Texas

Scott L. Anderson, Monroe, La. Jan K. Liuzza, Kenner, La. Jack A. Andonie, Metairie, La. Ted A Martin, Baton Rouge, La. Mary Lou Applewhite, New Orleans, La. Louis R. Minksy, Baton Rouge, La. Jon D. “Jay” Babb, Baton Rouge, La. Charles H. Moniotte, Baton Rouge, La. J. Hals Benhard, Palmetto, La. Richard C. “Ricky” Oustalet, Jennings, La. C. A. “Buddy” Brice III, Biloxi, Miss.

John T. Shelton, Jr., Houston, Texas John S. “Johnny” Butler, Austin, Texas Carl J. Streva, Morgan City, La. Robert W. Dugas, Baton Rouge, La. Susan K. Whitelaw, Shreveport, La. Theresa M. Gallion, Tampa, Fla. Michael H. Woods, Shreveport, La. Ronald M. Johnson, Baton Rouge, La. Lodwrick M. Cook, Director Emeritus Sherman Oaks, Calif.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

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President’s

MESSAGE

LSU Alumni Association Is a Gift to LSU Recently we received a copy of California Magazine, the official magazine of the University of California at Berkeley. Tuck Coop, executive director of the California Berkeley Alumni Association, which parallels the LSU Alumni Association, penned an excellent article whose message also describes our organization.

Cal Berkeley, LSU, and seventeen other alumni associations, all members of the SelfGoverning Alumni Forum, are totally independent of the universities and colleges they support – thus, we share many goals, priorities, and challenges.

In the United States, there are more than 2,600 institutions of higher education.

As I mentioned above, the LSU Alumni Association is one of nineteen that operates independently, that is, we receive no financial support from our campus (or the state), and no one on our staff is an LSU employee. Indeed, the LSU Alumni Association is an asset provided to the University at no cost, unlike the majority of alumni groups, which are funded by their institutions.

Our status as an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit works to our advantage, as well as to the University’s. The Association can do things that the campus cannot – including advocating on the University’s behalf. When a collective voice is needed, we can speak on behalf of the 225,000 alumni with an independent voice.

There is, however, a price we pay for our independence. To survive and grow, we must generate all of our own operating funds. We do so primarily through our membership and merchandising programs; The Cook Hotel; our travel programs – Touring Tigers and Traveling Tigers; and our affinity partnership programs such as the credit card, insurance, and Crescent Condominiums. And we rely heavily on the generosity of our many alumni who contribute each year.

So, what do we do with the revenue? First, our mission is to support LSU by connecting alumni to the campus and to each other. We do this through LSU Alumni Magazine and the monthly E-Letter; by hosting events such as the Hall of Distinction, Accolades Banquet, Scholars Banquet, Chapter Leadership Workshop, Tiger Band Reunion, Golden Girls Reunion, Senior Celebration (held in the fall and spring), and FreshFest; by providing funding for the Top 100 Scholarship, Cain Scholars, and Chancellors Leadership Scholarship programs, as well as fifteen departmental professorships and thirty alumni professorships; and by supporting 125 chapters worldwide.

I imagine that you, just as I do, receive plenty of solicitations. When you receive the next letter from the LSU Alumni Association asking for your support, please give our request serious consideration. With the state’s continued funding reductions, LSU needs you more than ever.

Forever LSU,

Charlie W. Roberts President LSU Alumni Association

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From Our Readers Dear Jackie: What fun it was to see mom's/my picture in the alumni magazine.

Thank you for taking the time to include it. I also love the article about the 92-year-old twins from LSU! Becky Heard Fike, 1967 BACH EDUC To the Publisher: Billy Cannon was a great football player. However, he did other things in his life that do not merit his selection for the 2010 Hall of Distinction.

I’ve been a loyal supporter of the LSU Alumni Association and Tiger Athletics thru [sic] scholarships, Annual Fund contributions, and season tickets for over forty years. However, through the years, I’ve learned that only very significant donors (millions) ever get recognized for the contributions. It appears that both the LSU Alumni Association and the Tiger Athletic Foundation recognize “money” above any other traits of the benefactor.

What a lesson to be teaching our young LSU graduates. I worked at the old Alumni House during my LSU years with some great mentors seemingly less focused on “big bucks.” It’s no wonder that less than 20 percent of LSU graduates ever contribute to the Annual Fund.

I take issue with the selection of Dr. Billy Cannon as Alumnus of the Year. I think it would have been best to follow his “humble” conversation with you and make another selection.

Roger Bourgeois, 1966 BACH AGR To the Editor: It was with much interest that I read the summer edition of the LSU Alumni Magazine and the story about Dr. Billy Cannon as the Alumnus of the Year Award recipient. I am sure that the award has caused mixed feelings for many LSU alumni. However, I believe that it was the right thing to do.

Although some might question the character of Dr. Cannon since his football playing days, the award speaks well of the character of

the Alumni Association. It is obvious that the selection committee viewed the entirety of his life, not merely three years in Tiger Stadium. Billy doesn’t need any more athletic awards or honors.

What he needs is acceptance, forgiveness, and appreciation for meeting the challenge to turn his life around, face the doubters, and move forward in his quest to become a better person. Did he do something wrong? Yes. Did the Alumni Association do something right? Yes. The true failure of Dr. Cannon would have been to give up and accept the negative labels that were given him. However, he chose not to do that but to find a way to redeem himself. And that is what I believe the Alumni Association has honored. Additionally, the Alumni Association has created an example for many others about the quality of forgiveness and redemption.

Finally, I must say that as the years have gone by, the impact of LSU on my life has continually grown. A university education can last a lifetime. To paraphrase an often repeated statement perhaps it is now time to ask not what Dr. Billy Cannon did for LSU, but rather what can LSU do for Billy Cannon?

Robert J. Ackerman, Ph.D., 1971 BACH HSS 2005 Hall of Distinction To the Editor: Quite disturbing that “we” would pick a convicted felon as Alumnus of the Year. Way more graduates that display great school and community citizenship out there. Shame on the Alumni Association.

Ed Dardis, 1970 BACH BUS Jackie, Nolde and I so appreciate your article in the alumni newsletter (Tigers in Print Vol. 86 No. 2). It's that kind of publicity that lets people know what alums are doing with their lives after LSU! Thanks so much, Judy Kahn, 1067 BACH HSS

Editor’s note: The name of the College of Arts & Sciences (A&S) has been changed to College of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS); the College of Basic Sciences (BASC) is now the College of Science (SCI).

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LSU Students Achieve National Recognition with Support from Alumni and Friends 2010 Another Banner Year for Student Achievement

By Scott M. Madere

Continuing what has become a tradition for the University’s best and brightest, five LSU students recently received nationally competitive awards that reflect both the excellence of LSU’s academic environment and the impact philanthropic support can have in the classroom.

Their honors – Harry S. Truman Scholar, Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, Fulbright Scholar, Udall Scholar, and Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship – are among the loftiest in higher education and elevate LSU’s stature among universities worldwide. LSU’s ability to attract, retain, and shape these outstanding leaders, as well as thousands of other high-performing students, is due in part to the generosity of friends and alumni who have contributed to one of the Forever LSU campaign’s central goals: student scholarship support.

“The quality of LSU’s student body is at the highest level in its 150-year history,” said Maj. Gen. William G. Bowdon, president and CEO of the LSU Foundation.

“We have raised our academic standards and expectations and focused on increasing student support. Scholarship support allows the University to recruit high-caliber students who elevate the entire academic experience at LSU.” All of LSU’s 2010 national scholars received scholarships and student support from the LSU Foundation, LSU Alumni Association, or Tiger Athletic Foundation.

Devon Wade, of Houston, is LSU’s sixth

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Harry S. Truman Scholar. The Truman Scholarship recognizes students who demonstrate outstanding leadership and high academic achievement.

A double major in sociology (with a concentration in criminology) and African & African American studies, Wade will graduate in December 2010. He is a recipient of the A. P. Tureaud Milestone Award, the Ronald McNair Research for Scholars award, and the Danton Whitley Endowed Scholarship. Wade also serves as a veteran representative and mentor for the organization No More Victims, Inc., which aids children of incarcerated parents.

His parents were incarcerated during his childhood, and he hopes to use his personal and academic experiences to aid children in similar situations.

“They do not have to be a victim of their circumstances or surroundings,” Wade said. “I want to show them that I did not let that determine my path in life, and neither should they.”

Tyler Crosby, of Bush, La., earned national recognition as a 2010 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, one of the most competitive awards for students who pursue careers in science, engineering, and mathematics. He was selected from 1,111 applicants nationwide.

Crosby, an LSU Honors College student, is a Chancellors Alumni Scholar, winner of the Distinguished Freshman Award, and a Pegues Scholarship recipient. He is a biological engineering major and will

Forever LSU:

The Campaign for Louisiana State University is the most ambitious fundraising campaign in LSU's history with a goal of raising $750 million by 2010. World-class institutions like LSU need world-class endowments to position them among leading public institutions in higher education.

Please visit www.foreverlsu.org today because now, more than ever, FOREVER depends on YOU.

graduate from LSU in May 2011. Crosby plans to pursue a joint M.D./Ph.D. and conduct clinical research on genetic therapies that can combat diseases.

“As I start preparing for graduation, I realize I owe my accomplishments to the support of a community and an institution that has become dedicated to excellence,” said Crosby. “I hope our state will continue to support the exemplary efforts and achievements of the LSU faculty, administration, and student body.”

Charlotte Gates, of Shreveport, La., is a 2010 Fulbright Scholar. The highly competitive scholarships are sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and awarded to excellent students who intend to study or work abroad. The Fulbright Program is the largest U.S. international exchange program, having benefited more than 47,000 American students and 152,000 students outside the U.S. Gates is an LSU Alumni Association Top 100 Scholar, a recipient of the Hoguet Alexandar Major Memorial Scholarship ,and winner of the Paul C. Young Academic Excellence Award. A senior studying psychology and French, she intends to focus on clinical psychology in graduate school.

Anna Normand, of Opelousas, La., is a 2010 Udall Scholar. She is one of eighty students selected from sixty-three colleges and universities to receive the award, which recognizes outstanding students committed to careers in the environment, health care, or tribal public policy.

Normand is also a recipient of an LSU Centennial Award, the Tom W. Dutton Scholarship Award, and the A. R. Choppin Scholarship. She is an LSU Honors College student and a chemistry major. Normand is passionate about public service as it relates to the environment. She regularly

participates in the annual Acorns for Hope bike ride across Louisiana, planting live oak saplings as she rides, and is the founder of the Louisiana Marsh University service trip, which brought thirty LSU students to Grand Isle to plant beach grass.

Normand intends to pursue a Ph.D. in environmental science and then work for Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

Katherine Smith , of Baton Rouge, received a Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship this year. The national fellowship program began awarding outstanding students for exceptional undergraduate performance, leadership, and potential for excellence in graduate study in 1932.

Smith, an LSU Honors College senior majoring in math, is also the recipient of a Tiger Athletic Foundation Award, the Brandon J. Latiolais Memorial Scholarship, and the Roddy L. Richard General Studies Scholarship. She is a member of the LSU Color Guard and plans to enter medical school at either Johns Hopkins University or Washington University in St. Louis.

“LSU taught me a lot about leadership and offered me a great foundation in academics,” Smith said. “There are a million different opportunities on campus, definitely something for everyone.”

There are many ways for alumni and friends of LSU to support students through scholarships, whether by supporting an existing program or creating a new opportunity to help high-achieving students succeed. As these outstanding Tigers demonstrate, investing in LSU students pays big dividends to LSU’s academic stature.

Coming Soon New LSU Ornament Start a new LSU tradition with commemorative ornaments celebrating LSU’s 150th anniversary and the LSU Foundation’s 50th anniversary. Introduced in the fall of 2009, the sesquicentennial ornament is still available for purchase at www.lsuornament.com.

A new ornament featuring Mike VI will be available in early October.

Ornaments are $20 each, with all proceeds benefiting LSU’s Campus Beautification Fund.

ON THE WEB: Visit www.foreverlsu.org to find out how you can be a part of the next great student achievement at LSU.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

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LSU Alumni Association

news

Story and photos by Matt Deville

Retired Faculty, Staff Honored at July 4th Event Two-hundred and fifty retired LSU faculty and staff members attended a 4th of July celebration dinner on June 29, one of two annual events honoring LSU retirees.

LSU Alumni Association President Charlie Roberts served as emcee of the event, which included a sing-along of patriotic songs and the awarding of dozens of door prizes. Dinner, served by Association staffers, consisted of traditional 4th of July cuisine – barbecue chicken, potato salad, baked beans, iced tea, and strawberry shortcake.

Happy 4th of July!

Mary Elizabeth Norckauer and Jerry Juneau, pictured with Association President Charlie Roberts, were named the best “4th of July” dressed.

LSU Alumni Association Executive Vice President Cliff Vannoy welcomes Jerry Juneau, Oscar Richard, and Gene Tims.

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LSU Alumni Association Director of Scholarships Jamie Berthelot Bueche serves barbecue chicken dinners to Tom and Martha Burch.

Senior Rings Presented

at Sunday Ceremony

Story and photos by Matt Deville

With graduation just three weeks away, LSU’s graduating seniors got a little taste of commencement on May 1.

More than 200 seniors were recognized in the 2010 Spring Ring Ceremony.

The LSU Alumni Association has hosted the event for twelve years.

“In years past, anyone could order an LSU ring, anywhere, in any design, even if they didn’t graduate from LSU,” Association Executive Vice President Cliff Vannoy told the seniors at Sunday’s ceremony. “So in 1998, the LSU Alumni Association teamed with Balfour to create an official LSU ring.”

Mike the Tiger was on hand to present the seniors with their class rings. After the event, the grads-to-be were encouraged to rub the head of the bronzed “Mike the Tiger” statue in The Cook Hotel lobby for good luck.

The event was sponsored by Balfour and Coca-Cola.

Grads-to-be show off their new class rings.

Seniors donning their new class rings rub the head of the bronze Mike the Tiger statue for good luck.

Auction Winner Gets Alex Box Ball

By Del Moon

The Atlanta Alumni Chapter’s Crawfish Craze helped raise nearly $5,400 to help advance the chapter and its scholarship endowment fund.

One chunk of the gain was provided by the auction of the 2009 Alex Box Stadium First Pitch Dedication Baseball, and in June Del Moon, chapter vice president, personally presented the ball to auction winner Chris Nelson and his wife, Marie, in front of Alex Box Stadium.

S. Alex Box, of Augusta, Ga., donated the baseball for the auction. He said part of the motivation for donating the ball was because he was raised by his grandparents in Mississippi and did not have the opportunity to attend LSU, and it makes him happy to feel that the donation will help a student in Georgia go to LSU. When informed of this, Nelson commented that he did not get to attend LSU either and also appreciates where the money is going.

After the presentation, Nelson invited Moon to his home to view his impressive sports collection that includes all but one of the 1958 Tigers football programs and other rare programs going back to the 1920s. Before parting, Nelson insisted on donating two items for future LSU Atlanta auctions – a Charlie McLendon autograph and a 1978 LSU basketball program autographed by the entire team and Coach Dale Brown.

Details about the chapter’s current auction – the LSU Atlanta Ultimate Tiger Fan Experience for the North Carolina game – can be found at www.LSUatlanta.com/auctions.

Del Moon accepts the 2009 Alex Box Stadium First Pitch Dedication Baseball from donor S. Alex Box, of Augusta, Ga.

Baseball winner Chris Nelson, center, with wife Marie and Atlanta Alumni Chapter Vice President Del Moon, in front of the new Alex Box Stadium.

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LSU Alumni Association News

Association Manager, CFO Named Mark S. Wilson has joined the Cook Hotel and Conference Center at LSU as general manager.

Wilson most recently served as director of Mark Wilson marketing and sales for the Roosevelt New Orleans, reopened as part of the Waldorf Astoria Collection in New Orleans in 2009. Working closely with the city Michael Garner of New Orleans, he spearheaded marketing and branding efforts in the $170 million historic preservation and reopening of the landmark hotel.

A 25-year hospitality industry veteran, Wilson began his career with the San Francisco Hilton. He has since held various management positions at such hotels as the Sheraton New Orleans, Fairmont, and Royal Sonesta.

Wilson served as president of the French Quarter Business Association in New Orleans from 2006-08, is currently

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president of the Friends of the Vieux Carré Commission, and is a board member of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation and the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience.

Wilson earned his an M.B.A. from Tulane University and is a graduate of the University of Denver’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management.

Garner Fills CFO Slot Michael L. “Mike” Garner was named chief financial officer of the LSU Alumni Association in May. Garner, who has extensive experience in the fields of finance and accounting, was most recently vice president of finance at Capital Area United Way. He also has worked in controller and business manger positions at Barrister Global Services Network of Hammond, Allied Waste, Inc., Citadel Communications, Strategic Staff Management of Omaha, Neb., Milliken and Michaels, Inc., and the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington. D.C. Garner earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from LSU in 1981 and his C.P.A. certification and license in 1984. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1968-78 and in the Louisiana Air National Guard from 1978-91.

The LSU Alumni Association invites you to attend the

2010 Annual Meeting 11:30 am Friday, September 17, 2010 Noland-Laborde Hall Lod Cook Alumni Center RSVP to Amy Parrino at 225-578-3835 or amy@lsualumni.org

LSU Alumni Association

Fall Chapter Events

September 4

LSU vs. North Carolina (Georgia dome-Atlanta)

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Traveling Tigers - LSU vs. Vanderbilt (A)

14

Freshfest - Freshman Welcome Event

17

Alumni/Hotel Board of Directors Meeting/Annual Meeting/Past Presidents Lunch

18

LSU vs. Mississippi State University (H)

22-23

Senior Celebration

25

LSU vs. West Virginia (H)

October 2

LSU vs. Tennessee (H)

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Traveling Tigers - LSU v. Florida (A)

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LSU vs. McNeese St. (H) - Band Reunion

23

Traveling Tigers - LSU vs. Auburn (A)

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Scholars Banquet

November 6

LSU vs. Alabama (H)

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LSU Alumni Golf Tournament

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LSU vs. UL Monroe (H) - LSU Day/Homecoming

17

Senior Ring Ceremony

19

Alumni/Hotel Board of Directors Meeting

20

LSU vs. Ole Miss (H)

27

Traveling Tigers - LSU vs. Arkansas (A)

December 7

Retired Faculty – Christmas Party

17

Fall Commencement

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LSU Alumni Association News

Golden Tigers Celebrate Class of 1960

By Matt Deville Photos by Matt Deville and Larry Hubbard

The Class of 1960 was in the limelight at the 2010 Golden Tigers Reunion held May 20-21 at the Lod Cook Alumni Center. Members of the class returned to the Ole War Skule to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their commencement as a part of the Golden Tigers reunion.

The event, hosted annually by the LSU Alumni Association in conjunction with spring commencement, honors former graduates of fifty or more years with a weekend of activities capped off by graduation ceremonies in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

“This is always one of our most popular events,” said Association President Charlie Roberts. “These golden graduates take a great deal of pride in returning to LSU to remember their days on campus over a half a century ago.”

The weekend consisted of a full slate of events and activities, including a campus tour on Thursday afternoon, an evening gala in the Noland Hall of the Lod Cook Alumni Center – during which the Class of 1960 received Golden Tiger medallions – and a Friday morning breakfast prior to commencement exercises. The Golden Tigers donned gold caps and gowns for the ceremony, at which they were recognized.

The reunion fell in conjunction with the sixteenth anniversary of the opening of the Lod Cook Alumni Center. The facility opened on May 20, 1994, and was attended by Lod and Carole Cook as well as former U.S. presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush. Cook, a Golden Tiger himself, was on hand for the 2010 reunion and spoke during the Thursday night gala. Following his address to more than 150 Golden Tigers in attendance, Cook blew out sixteen candles on a birthday cake commemorating the alumni center’s anniversary.

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Betty Jo and Betty

By Jackie Bartkiewicz Photo by Matt DeVille

Best Friends Forever The years and miles have separated them, and their reunions are infrequent, but Betty Jo Caldwell Sibley and Betty Kleinpeter Kershaw are still – after sixty-two years – the best of friends.

The two met at the Golden Tiger Reunion in May, and the delightful spirit of their longtime friendship was very much in evidence as they reminisced about their days on campus and life after LSU. Amidst much laughter, and often finishing each other’s sentences, they recalled friends, classes, jobs – and the day they met at Parker Dorm [LSU’s first women’s residence hall, known today as Pleasant Hall].

“Dad put me out on the steps, just dropped me off in front of the dorm,” recalls Sibley (1952 BACH AGR), a selfdescribed country girl from Saline, La., who now resides in Gulf Breeze, Fla. She soon met her roommate – and best friend forever – Betty.

Kershaw (1952 BACH EDUC) lived in Baton Rouge, “but we really lived in the

country, too, on Kleinpeter farm, way out at that time,” she says.

The two country girls took on LSU, helping each other through bouts of homesickness – “I didn’t go home until Christmas,” says Sibley – and getting involved in campus activities.

Kershaw served as a treasurer of Delta Zeta, was a sophomore and senior adviser, served as vice president of Kappa Delta Pi, and was a member of Alpha Lambda Delta, Mu Sigma Rho, Phi Sigma Iota, Pi Gamma Mu, and Newman Club.

Sibley was a sophomore adviser, secretary of the Ag Fair Association, vice president of the Home Economics Club, state president of the Louisiana Home Economics Association/College Division, served on the Student Senate and was sophomore class president, was treasurer of AWS, a member of the WRA Council and the Baptist Student Union Council, received the Phi Upsilon Award for Outstanding Agriculture Freshman, and was on the College of Agriculture Court.

Betty Kleinpeter Kershaw

Betty Jo Caldwell Sibley

Continued on page 14

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

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LSU Alumni Association News “I worked my way through school in the University’s dairy department,” Sibley says, “and also worked at some hamburger joint in Tiger Town.”

The girls were assigned to Laville Hall the next year—one in East and one in West—but remained fast friends throughout Betty Kershaw and Betty Jo Sibley have remained close their college careers. friends since their freshman days at LSU in 1948.

The duo headed to work after graduation.

Sibley, with a degree in vocational agricultural education, taught at Baker High School, eventually heading up the home economics department. Kershaw, whose degree was in secondary education, taught at St. Joseph’s Academy.

Marriages soon followed. Betty Jo Caldwell tied the knot with Ray Sibley (1951

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BACH AGR), and Betty Kleinpeter became the bride of Donald Kershaw (1960 BACH BUS), whose college career was postponed by the Korean War. “Since he graduated after I did, he loves to tease me about being older than he is,” Kershaw says, laughing.

Their husbands’ careers and family demands separated the former roomies for years.

“For many years, it was a just a Christmas card,” Kershaw recalls, with Sibley quickly adding, “But we kept in touch!”

In the early 1960s Kershaw joined friends for a Florida vacation and contacted Sibley.

“She called, and I went to pick her up,” Sibley explains, ”and it was as if we’d never been apart at all.”

They attended their first Golden Tiger reunion in 2002 and proudly proclaim themselves “regulars.”

“We’ve only missed a few,” says Sibley, emphasizing proudly, “for sure, we’re some of the oldest Tigers around.”

your A lu mni Doll ars at Wo r k

Among those recognized at the University-wide Distinguished Faculty Awards Ceremony on April 27 were five faculty and one graduate student who received LSU Alumni Association Association-funded awards.

LSU Alumni Professorship, $6,500 of the professorship stipend Marybeth Lima, Professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering Cliff & Nancy Spanier Alumni Professorship

Faculty Excellence Award, $1,000 Geoffrey Clayton, Professor of Physics & Astronomy Anne Grove, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Guoqiang Li, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Darius Spieth, Associate Professor of Art History

LSUAA Teaching Assistant Award, $250 Kristi Melancon, College of Arts & Sciences

www.lsualumni.org/contribute 1-888-RING-LSU (toll free) LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

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LSU Alumni Association News

Chapter Events

Left: Tampa Bay Executive Committee members, from left, Steve Ochsner, Suzanne Ochsner, President Scott Springer, Rick Emerson (kneeling), David Bilyeu, Mary Lou England, and Doug Herbert. Right: Mudbug lovers.

Shay Gregory with LSU delight cake.

Tampa Bay – The Tampa Bay Alumni Chapter’s annual crawfish boil took place on April 17 at the Moose Lodge in north Tampa. Some 350 mudbug lovers attended, feasting on 1,200 pounds of crawfish and 100 pounds of shrimp, as well as jambalaya and fried turkeys.

“Abita donated beer, as did several of our members, and chapter member David Bilyeu prepared the jambalaya and fried turkeys, which were incredible,” says Scott Springer, chapter president. Bilyeau, who owns a catering company, also provided the sound system and music, offering a selection of Zydeco and Tiger music. Member Chris Moore provided gourmet desserts. The event raised more than $3,000 for the scholarship fund.

“Superbly Purpley and Bay Area Tigers – San Francisco Tigers were back at Pine Lake Park for the 2010 Boldly Goldly.” LSU Alumni Crawfish Boil. “The weather – Denny North couldn't have been any nicer, the Abita any colder, or the ’dads any hotter, and more than 200 Tigers, family, and friends

Casey Leach and his future Lady Tiger dance to “Hey Baby.”

Robert Landry does the Heisman Trophy pose with an LSU football lamp.

Left: Panhandle Bayou Bengals President John Spurny ready for the raffle.

Right: More than 120 Tigers enjoyed some 750 pounds of crawfish at the boil.

Photos by Lenny Maughan

Bay Area Tigers President Denny North asks, “How about another praline?”

Panhandle Bayou Bengals – The potentially grim outlook for the Gulf Coast caused by April’s major oil spill didn’t dampen the mood of a spirited group of LSU alumni on the Florida Panhandle. The Panhandle Bayou Bengals LSU Alumni Chapter hosted more than 120 for its annual crawfish boil on May 1 at the Pensacola Beach home of Sally Chamberlin. There were 750 pounds of mudbugs on the tables, as well as plenty of spicy boudin for the purple-and-gold partygoers. Zydeco deejay Isaac Papillion, an Opelousas native now living on the Panhandle, served up Cajun and Zydeco music throughout the afternoon, and the silent auction and raffle brought in more than $2,000 to fund the chapter’s many scholarships.

Photos by Matt Deville

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devoured 1,200 pounds of those unofficial Louisiana state bugs,” says Bay Area Tigers President Denny North. The silent auction bought in nearly $2,000 for the chapter’s scholarship program.

Central Virginia – Tigers in the Richmond, Va., area enjoyed a “great ride” in the Bon Air Victorian Day Festival and Parade on May 8. “As usual, we were a big hit and won first place in the float competition. We were the only float!” says Sam Rosenthal. The parade is sponsored annually by the Bon Air Historical Society.

Central Virginia Tigers Sam Rosenthal, Emily Junkmann, Robin LaHaye, Stephen LaHaye,Daniel Alexander Hudson, Clota Gerhardt, Karen LaHaye, Christian Goodwin, Connie DeBaugh, Alys Goodwin, Bridgett Hurley, Keith Goodwin, Martha Junkmann, and Bill Bagley, ride in the Bon Air Victorian Day Parade.

Twin Cities – Some seventy Tiger faithful, along with a handful of Ole Miss and Tennessee alumni, feasted on 150+ pounds of crawfish – double last year’s amount – at the Twin Cities Alumni Chapter third annual crawfish boil. The boil took place on June 5 in Lilydale, Minn.

A group of Twin Cities Tigers gather for a snapshot.

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LSU Alumni Association News Story by Matt Deville Photo courtesy of Sally Stiel

Jennifer Doerle, Sally Stiel, and Suzy Chauvin are all smiles at the San Diego crawfish bash.

San Diego Boil Attendance Sets Record Someone call the Guinness Book of World Records.

It is uncertain whether the 2010 San Diego Crawfish Boil was the largest crawfish gathering in recorded history, but you’d be hard-pressed to find another event of its kind any larger. More than 3,500 people packed the Old Chargers Practice Field near Qualcomm Stadium in sunny San Diego for the annual San Diego Alumni Chapter Crawfish Boil. An unimaginable 19,000 pounds of crawfish – that’s nine and a half tons! – were boiled and four trucks equipped with eight beer taps per vehicle were on site to service the massive LSU gathering held on May 30.

The 2010 boil attracted 3,500 people, up from 2,800 in 2009, drawing people from three states, including Nevada and Arizona.

“We had people come from Las Vegas, Phoenix, and a lot from Los Angeles,” said San Diego chapter member Jeff Matens.

“They love a good party and come back year after year.”

Matens said that a large number of folks who attend aren’t necessarily LSU fans, but that afternoon they are “definitely bathed in purple and gold.”

Matens is “not exactly sure” the San Diego crawfish bonanza is the largest of its kind anywhere, but, he says, “The crawfish vendor from Lafayette who supplied the crawfish said it’s the biggest he’s ever heard of.”

Party goers enjoyed an afternoon of festivities, including traditional Louisiana music performed by Zydeco Patrol, a local band with ties to the Lafayette area.

Memphis Tigers – Neither thunderstorms, nor

Doug Gremillion and Johnnie Gross.

Chad Harris, vice president; Renee Chighizola; Johnnie Gross; Cathy Gremillion; Doug Gremillion president, Snookie Newman, corresponding secretary; and Erin Cochran Zahrly, treasurer.

rising flood waters, nor threatening tornadoes could cancel the LSU Memphis Alumni Chapter May 1 crawfish boil. As heavy rains fell on the city and sirens sounded almost constantly, chapter leaders queried members by e-mail to see if anyone would attend if the event were moved indoors. It’s probably no surprise that 95 percent of those who had made reservations replied “see you at 3 p.m.” Some 140 alums passed a good time at Zaman Grotto, polishing off 450 pounds of crawfish with all the trimmings.

Pete Wood and Chris Parrino.

LSU License Plates on the Way to Maryland Efforts are underway by the Greater Washington, DC and Baltimore alumni chapters to make license plates with the LSU name and logo available.

To make the dream a reality, a minimum of twenty-five people is needed to sign up. To sign up, contact Norm Marcocci at NormLSU88@yahoo.com or 703-263-9771 with the following information: name, e-mail address, phone number, and current Maryland license plate number. That is all the information required for now; do not send money, checks, or Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration forms at this time. More information and instructions will be sent once twenty-five sign-ups have been obtained.

The cost for the license plates is a one-time fee of $25, which is separate from the twoyear vehicle registration fee. Cars, pick-up trucks, and SUVs are eligible to receive LSU license plates.

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LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

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LSU Alumni Association News

Story and photos by Matt Deville

Coach Les Miles received standing ovations at events held in Minden and Shreveport.

Coach Les Miles chats with Sugar Woods and guests at the Caddo-Bossier Alumni Chapter event in Shreveport.

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Miles Makes Spirited Visit to Northwest Louisiana Coach Les Miles was the headliner at two LSU alumni events in northwest Louisiana on June 14.

However, the Tigers’ sixth-year head man found himself upstaged by his seven-year-old daughter, Macy Grace, who accompanied her famous father to fundraisers in Minden and Shreveport. The precocious seven-year-old, nicknamed “Amazing Grace” by LSU Alumni Association President Charlie Roberts, delighted fans who turned out for both events.

Miles clearly enjoyed his youngest child being at his side for the day. Fans had the chance to take a rare glimpse into the personal life of the LSU coach, who chatted and laughed with her throughout the day at both events.

“He was truly having a good time,” said Larry Higdon, one of the organizers of the Shreveport event. “He was in no hurry. He was relaxed, confident, and took time to shake hands and speak with everyone who spoke to him. He was a joy.”

Miles’ day began just before noon when he and Macy Grace arrived at Pine Hills Country Club in Minden for a luncheon hosted by the Webster Parish Alumni Chapter. Miles was greeted with a standing ovation by the 125-plus in attendance. As Roberts took his seat, young Macy Grace complimented him on a job well done.

“Good job!” she said flatly.

Miles showered the Minden alumni group with thanks and praise.

“This group typifies LSU,” he said. “They have a very ambitious alumni group here in Webster and Claiborne parishes. I enjoy coming here to see the scholarships given out to students who really love LSU. I enjoy seeing the dePengré family honoring their father with their scholarship. That’s what makes LSU special. I’m proud to represent LSU because of the people here.”

Top Photo: Martha and Dr. Cliff Salmon, Macy Grace Miles, Coach Les Miles, and Minden chapter President Kay Elzen.

Left Photo: Macy Grace Miles, Coach Les Miles, Don and Brenda Odom, and LSU Alumni Association President Charlie Roberts at the Webster Parish Alumni Chapter meeting.

J.C. Johnson was recognized for his years of service to the organization, and scholarship recipients Dave Parks and Bo Parker were introduced and received plaques. The Major dePengré Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Preston Wise

by Jerri dePengré.

Caddo-Bossier East Ridge Country Club was the setting for the evening event hosted by the Caddo-Bossier Chapter, and more than 400 people turned out for the meet and greet with Miles, who again had the spirited Macy Grace in tow.

The coach met with local media then visited with Nancy Hester, the mother of former LSU running back Jacob Hester, as well as prominent LSU supporters Scotty Moran and Sugar Woods.

Caddo-Bossier president Anne Higdon served as master of ceremonies and began the evening by introducing Dr. Eugene Charles St. Martin. One of the founding physicians of the LSU Medical Center in Shreveport, Dr. St. Martin was recognized for his recent induction to the 2010 LSU Alumni Association Hall of Distinction. A scholarship in his honor is in the process of being funded.

The chapter is the leader in total number of Top 100 scholarships funded, which are then awarded by the LSU Alumni Association to incoming freshmen.

“Our goal is to keep the best and brightest at LSU,” said Larry Higdon. “That is why our chapter focuses solely on funding these scholarships. Everything we raise goes toward our sending these deserving young people to LSU.” Following a boisterous reception from the throng of fans in attendance, Miles introduce the young Macy Grace to the crowd.

He said he and his daughter had attended the Bayou Country Superfest in Tiger Stadium over Memorial Day weekend, adding that Macy Grace spent some time with her favorite country singer, Taylor Swift. The football enthusiasts in the crowd didn’t seem to mind putting off the football talk for a few moments as Macy Grace belted out the lyrics to “Love Story.”

The crowd roared with applause. Her dad was all smiles.

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LSU Alumni Association News

DC Chapter Happenings

By Norm Marcocci

The Greater Washington, DC Alumni Chapter showed its support for the baseball Tigers by hosting view-ins at Penn Quarter Sports Tavern in Washington. A party with Tulane alumni took place on May 18.

Greater DC alumni show off their purple and gold at the May 29 crawfish boil at Fort Hunt Park in Alexandria, Va.

LSU alumni joined other Louisiana college alumni associations in the area on May 29 for Bayou Fete VII, the annual crawfish boil, held this year at Fort Hunt Park in Alexandria, Va. More than 1,500 alums and friends feasted on five tons of crawfish, twenty-five kegs of beer, jambalaya, andouille sausages, potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, soft drinks, and ice cream and danced played jazz, Cajun, and zydeco music provided by a live band.

On July 1, the chapter and other Louisiana college alumni associations raised more than $1,000 at a Gulf Coast oil spill fundraiser at the 18th Amendment on Capitol Hill with proceeds going to the Nature Conservancy, Greater New Orleans Foundation’s Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund, and Gulf Aid Acadiana.

Chapter members took in a tailgate party and saw the DC United take on the LA Galaxy in a soccer game at RFK Stadium on July 18 as part of the DC United’s College Alumni Night. Sports outings continued with the LSU chapter and the Louisiana State Society teaming up for a Washington Nationals baseball game on July 31 at Nationals Ballpark.

The DC chapter has two locations for football view-ins – the 18th Amendment in the city and Bailey’s Pub and Grille, Ballston Common Mall, in Arlington.

To find out about events and keep up with chapter news, visit www.lsudcalumni.com or join the e-mail list at dclsualumni@yahoo.com.

East Tennessee – LSU defensive coordinator Coach John Chavis joined Tigers in East Tennessee on May 2 for the group’s annual crawfish boil at Lashbrooke Community Pavilion, located just outside of Knoxville, overlooking the Tennessee River. More than fifty fans and supporters attended the event, consuming much-anticipated crawfish as well as jambalaya and hot dogs while listening to LSU and Cajun music in the background.

Members are selling raffle tickets for a 2009 National Championship baseball bat, with proceeds to go the chapter scholarship fund.

Tarrant Tigers – Fort Worth-area Tigers gathered at Granbury Lake on June 26 for their annual fish fry.

The silent auction brought in more than $700 for the chapter’s scholarship fund, which supports an award for an incoming LSU freshman from the Fort Worth Metroplex area. Rachel Alvis of Paradise, Texas, was awarded the Gold Scholarship, valued at $1,000, and Bryant Garcin, of Pilot Point, Texas, took home the $750 Purple Scholarship.

Clockwise from left to right: 1. Cooks Tom Schech in back and Joey Berry.

2. Michael Mooney and Gary Taylor at the registration table. 3. Purple Award Scholarship recipient Bryant Garcin, of Pilot Point, Texas, center, with chapter President Tom Schech and Linda Taylor, scholarship chair. 4. Gold Scholarship recipient Rachel Alvis of Springtown, Texas, with Tom Schech and Linda Taylor.

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LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

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LSU Alumni Association News

Ensminger, Hawthorne Highlight Desoto Golf Classic Weekend

Story and photos by Matt Deville

LSU tight ends coach Steve Ensminger and “Voice of the Tigers” Jim Hawthorne were the featured speakers at a banquet following the 2010 LSU Alumni Association Dr. Don Taylor Golf Classic, held July 9-10 at Cypress Bend Resort near Many.

National LSU Alumni Association board member Susan Whitelaw, second from left, is pictured with her husband, Steve, left, and Espy and Scotty Moran.

Dr. John Russell and DeSoto Parish chapter President Dr. Gil Rew.

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Dr. Gil Rew, president of the Desoto Parish Alumni Chapter, said the event LSU assistant coach Steve Ensminger, second from raised more than $40,000 for the chapter’s left, with his wife, Amy, and “Voice of the Tigers” Jim Hawthorne and wife Carol. scholarships and professorships.

“The event allowed us to exceed our financial goals to establish several scholarships as we provided a great time for all,” Rew said. “We celebrated the bonds that being an alumnus, an alumnus by choice, or Tiger fans with Jim Hawthorne and coach Steve Ensminger.”

More than 220 golfers took part in the two-day golf tournament, which featured an earlybird round Friday afternoon followed by a Saturday morning flight as well as afternoon session. The tournament was held on the championship golf course at Cypress Bend Resort.

A Friday night fish fry was followed by a “Gameday Q&A Session” with Ensminger and Hawthorne, and the evening ended with live entertainment from the Magnolia Brown Band. Saturday’s festivities got off to an early start then golfers were treated to a hamburger lunch buffet at the club house. The afternoon flight followed.

The day’s activities were capped with a banquet, featuring both Ensminger and Hawthorne.

“The greatest sense of accomplish came in doing our part in addressing the very serious membership issue that we who love LSU have neglected and taken for granted for too many years,” Rew said. “We have increased our areas membership in the LSU Alumni Association at LSU, and not just at the chapter level. We only made a small dent in the deficiency of membership, but we are continuing to do what we can. I know if we all get our Tiger friends back in the fold of the LSU Alumni Association family, we will return to the top.”

The Desoto chapter has funded its second Top 100 Scholarship, in the name of Dr. Don Taylor, and a third scholarship commitment was announced at the event. Also, a scholarship in the name of Walter Dorroh, a former Desoto chapter Alumnus of the Year, was presented by David Means of the LSU Foundation.

The chapter also sponsors a room at The Cook Hotel; funds the DeSoto Parish Alumni Professorship held by Dr. Mark Hafner, professor of biological sciences; awards six leadership scholarships; and has awarded thirty-two local scholars awards.

Rew gave special thanks to Dr. John Russell, Tommy Craig, Dr. John Gregory, and Scott and Amy Atkins for their efforts in making the golf weekend a success.

“Any one of these people would deflect any credit,” Rew said. “But we all share that on this one weekend it is all about we and not about me.”

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T

reasures

Encouraging the Spirit to Soar

By Aaron Looney Photos by Jim Zietz, Eddy Perez, Kevin Duffy, and Jason R. Peak

Anyone who has attended or even visited the LSU campus can attest to the fact that the University holds numerous treasures in various areas including architecture, the arts, research, natural beauty, long-standing tradition, or historical artifacts.

OPPOSITE PAGE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Interior stairs at La Maison Française, home of the Honors College; a Lilly Daché hat; Mike the Tiger’s habitat; In Unity Ascending by Frank Hayden; a panoramic view of the Claude L. Shaver Theatre.

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Treasures of LSU is a new high-quality, 232-page book published by LSU Press that will feature more than 100 of these iconic items as well as essays and information on their respective backgrounds and relevance to LSU. Set for release on Sept. 27, the large-format book will be sold in bookstores and through LSU Press. Two versions of the book will be produced — 250 copies of a limited-edition cloth version and 2,500 copies of a soft-cover edition.

Edited by Laura Lindsay, professor emerita in the Manship School of Mass Communication and current interim dean of the College of Education, Treasures of LSU showcases many of the University's treasures and brings them to life through a series of interpretive essays, written by faculty and graduate and research assistants, and through 168 vibrant photographs. While the book is being published specifically for LSU Sesquicentennial Celebration in 2010, it is also a highlight of LSU Press’ 75th anniversary.

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All reflect expressions of superb quality.

All encourage, in one way or another,

the human spirit to soar.

The ‘Aha’ Moment

OPPOSITE PAGE FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: A panoramic view of the Burden property showing a side of the Rural Life Museum; Lyon & Healy harp, Style 23 concert grand; fresco mural in the east corridor of Allen Hall; close-up side view of fossilized Basilosaurus back teeth.

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“The entire Treasures endeavor has been a fascinating learning experience, taking the editorial team into many different areas of the campus,” Lindsay says. “The big ‘aha’ has been recognizing that we could only include a small part of the truly extraordinary artistic, cultural, and scientific works that are central to the educational enterprise of the University."

While the treasures included in the book are only a sampling of the intriguing and engaging lore of LSU, the book captures the wealth and diversity of LSU’s resources and affirms the University’s numerous cultural contributions to the world community.

Some of these treasures act as artistic backdrops to everyday campus life at LSU. In Unity Ascending, the striking Frank Hayden sculpture, greets all who enter the LSU Student Union, while vibrant Depression-era murals decorate the corridors of Allen Hall.

Other treasures reside in out-of-the-way places. For example, the Department of Geology and Geophysics houses the Henry V. Howe Type Collection of shelled microorganisms—tiny, beautifully varied fossils that frequently aid geologists in determining the ages of rocks and features of ancient environments. Also, the LSU Museum of Natural Science in Foster Hall holds one of the largest and most prestigious research collections of bird specimens in the world.

An LSU cadet uniform and a hand-spun Acadian quilt from the LSU Textile & Costume Museum; an enchanting silky-camellia specimen from the collections of the LSU Herbarium, founded in 1869; pottery by Walter Anderson and portraits by William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds from the LSU Museum of Art – all showcase the immense variety of LSU’s assets.

Other featured treasures include a historic dogtrot house at the LSU Rural Life Museum, John James Audubon’s double elephant folio, Birds of America, from the E. A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection at Hill Memorial Library, and cherished campus landmarks like the Indian Mounds, the French House, and Mike the Tiger’s habitat.

More than two dozen of the treasures featured in the book are currently housed at the LSU Museum of Art, which had more entries than any other department. From 18th century portraits to silver egg boilers, all the museum’s “treasures” are currently on display and marked with the official LSU sesquicentennial anniversary logo. They include a painting by early American master Rembrandt Peale, prints by the English satirist William Hogarth, and photographs by Yousuf Karsh. Many of the treasures represent the museum's commitment to Louisiana arts, and particularly to LSU, including examples of New Orleans coin silver and a vase representing the museum's remarkable Newcomb collection. Prints by Caroline Durieux and John T. Scott, as well as paintings by Edward Pramuk, James Burke, and Michael Crespo, show the museum's current interest in modern and contemporary Louisiana art.

In honor of LSU’s sesquicentennial, the museum’s contributions to the book will be on display in the “Treasures of the LSU Museum of Art” exhibition throughout 2010.

As Chancellor Emeritus Paul W. Murrill declared of the treasures in his foreword, “All reflect expressions of superb quality. All encourage, in one way or another, the human spirit to soar.”

Treasures of LSU

Committee

Katrice Albert

Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Jackie Bartkiewicz

Editor, LSU Alumni Magazine

Jennifer Cargill

Dean, LSU Libraries

James M. Coleman

Boyd Professor Emeritus, Coastal Studies Institute

Michael Desmond

Professor, School of Architecture

Yasmine Dabbous

Ph. D. degree candidate, Manship School of Mass Communication

Gresdna Doty

Alumni Professor Emeritus, Theatre

Margaret Hart

Editor, LSU Press

Paul Hoffman

Paul and Nancy Murrill Distinguished Professor and Professor of History, LSU Department of History, ex officio

Laura Lindsay

Professor Emerita, Manship School of Mass Communication and Interim Dean, College of Education

Tom Livesay

Executive Director, LSU Museum of Art

Marchita Mauck

Professor, LSU School of Art

Tamara Mizell

Editor, Communications and University Relations

Michael Robinson

Senior Director of Development, LSU Foundation

Gary Saurage

LSU Alumnus and Community Representative

Judy Stahl

Coordinator, LSU Union Art Gallery

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From Idea to Reality

TOP LEFT: Men’s hunting case pocket watches by Hampden Watch Company, Elgin Watch Company, and American Waltham Watch Company.

TOP CENTER: The tiled, open-air patio of the “Old” Acadian Hall, including the original fountain.

TOP RIGHT: A scene from LSU Opera’s Willie Stark based on Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitizer Prize-winning All the King’s Men. OPPOSITE PAGE: Visitor center at Hilltop Arboreteum.

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The idea behind Treasures of LSU dates to 2003, when Gresdna Doty, alumni professor emerita in the Department of Theatre, originally presented a proposal for a book showcasing the University’s treasures. Around that time, Doty received a coffee table book from friend and world-renowned botanical artist Margaret Stones that highlighted artistic treasures at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

Like Treasures of LSU, the book was also printed to celebrate the university’s sesquicentennial. One of Stones’ pieces was featured in the book.

“I thought it was a wonderful idea to highlight the artists of the university,” Doty says. “The editor, Chris McAuliffe, said there was a similar book at Harvard.”

In consulting with McAuliffe, Doty says, he sent “a wealth of very helpful information, and he suggested that we take plenty of time, because he had to rush it.”

When Doty drew up a proposal to create such a book for LSU, she took it to thenProvost Risa Palm, who supported sending the book to then-Chancellor Mark Emmert but not before creating a budget to go along with the proposal. At the time when Doty obtained a preliminary budget from LSU Press, Emmert and Palm resigned their positions, a situation that Doty says left the project in question. When talk of organizing a celebration for the University’s sesquicentennial began to surface, the idea of the book was revisited.

Lindsay was soon selected as the editor of the book, bringing a great deal of experience to the project having served as dean of the Junior Division, interim provost, and interim director of the LSU Museum of Art. “The Chancellor and the vice chancellor for communications and university relations asked if I would be project director for the book,” Lindsay says. “At the time, I was on the faculty in the Manship College of Mass Communication and working on several projects for the Chancellor’s Office.”

After College of Art & Design professor, art historian, and former assistant dean Marchita Mauck joined the project to provide an artistic perspective, an editorial committee was formed to look into compiling treasures for the book, Doty says.

Nominations for items to be featured were taken through February 2008. The committee then reviewed more than 100 suggestions and eventually selected the treasures that appear in the published book. Once the list of treasures was set, it was simply a matter of compiling the imagery and essays into a visually stunning collection.

“Because the committee opened up nominations for treasures to a wide variety of objects and artifacts, the organization of the book became quite a challenge,” Lindsay says. “How could we weave ninety-two essays together in a way that made sense and was compelling for the reader? We also wanted the photographs to both reflect and inform the essays.”

Trivia

By Barry Cowan

How much do you know about LSU’s history? See how well you do on the sesquicentennial trivia quiz. Quizzes will appear in each issue of LSU Alumni Magazine throughout the sesquicentennial year.

Answers appear at the bottom of the page.

1. Why did the Seminary close on June 23, 1863?

The Civil War caused a shortage of students and faculty Union Gen. Nathaniel Banks’ Red River campaign threatened the Seminary Both A and B None of the above

This approach required the photographers to work with each of the authors, Lindsay says.

“University photographers Jim Zietz, Kevin Duffy, Jason R. Peak, and Eddy Perez spent more than a year working with the authors and the editorial team so that they could interpret the object through their lenses in a way that complemented the essay but also stood on its own,” she says.

Lindsay says that she feels the effort put into Treasures of LSU by all involved has led to an excellent product.

“I believe that everyone involved in producing Treasures of LSU considered it truly a labor of love for their part in the University’s life,” Lindsay says. “From the commitment of the faculty and staff who spent many hours researching, writing, and photographing these wonderful objects to the investment and care given to its production by the LSU Press, Treasures of LSU has been fantastic project with extraordinary results that LSU fans will want to enjoy and share.”

2. When did the first fraternities appear on campus?

1860 1885 1926 1958 3. How did Elena Carter Percy pay for her dorm room and board in 1932?

She was a waitress at the Faculty Club She was a tutor She traded nine head of cattle for it She sold her car 4. When were the first Ph.D.’s awarded 1869 1940

1926 1935

5. What was LSU’s first student-published literary magazine?

Delta Southern Review Pell Mell Whangdoodle 6. When was Army ROTC first opened to women?

1956 1969 1972 1980 7. Which alumnus led troops to victory at Guadalcanal, landed at Utah Beach on D-Day, and became Army Chief of Staff?

Douglas MacArthur John Archer Lejeune Joseph Lawton Collins Claire L. Chennault 8. Which alumnus was the NFL’s most valuable player in 1961 and 1963?

Billy Cannon Y.A. Tittle Jerry Stovall Doug Moreau 9. What are the oldest structures on campus created by humans?

The Indian mounds The buildings around the quad The engineering shops Thomas Boyd and David Boyd Halls 10. When was the Gumbo first published?

1872 1897 1900 1906

ON THE WEB: Treasures of LSU can be preordered by visiting the LSU Press website at www.lsu.edu/lsupress. From there, click on “Search” and search for “Treasures of LSU.” The book can also be preordered online through companies such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble Booksellers.

11. When did Middleton Library open?

1956 1959

1958 1964

12. Which construction project competed for funding with Middleton Library?

The Huey Long pool Johnston Hall The Electrical Engineering Building Enclosing the south end zone in Tiger Stadium Barry Cowan, associate librarian in Hill Memorial Library, is a member of the LSU Sesquicentennial Executive Committee.

Answers: 1.c; 2.b; 3.c; 4.d; 5.a; 6.c; 7.c; 8.b; 9.a; 10.c; 11.b; 12.d

Aaron Looney is an editor in the Office of Communications & University Relations.

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Since the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill tragedy began on April 20, LSU – in recognition of its unparalleled collective expertise – has served as the primary source of reference and advice for industry, state and federal governments, and the media.

LSU

RESPONDS 32 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

Many faculty members – from the basic sciences to the social sciences – are conducting research, often at their own expense, in their respective fields of study. The School of the Coast & Environment and the College of Engineering took leadership roles in responding to the disaster, and colleges, such as Science, Mass Communication, and Humanities and Social Sciences, have made significant contributions. University researchers have provided advisory services to state and federal government agencies and offered expert opinion for journalists from around the world, and LSU has

organized and hosted planning and advisory meetings for a variety of organizations.

LSU was the first university selected to receive a $5 million grant from BP to support research geared toward expanding scientific understanding of oil spills and their ecological impact. This funding is part of a $10 million commitment BP recently made to the University to support spill-related research for the next ten years.

Here are the stories of some of the LSU efforts.

PERTT - One of a Kin d, Han ds-On Training

By Ernie Ballard Photo by Jim Zietz

There is only one university in North America where future petroleum engineers can get hands-on training in well control by working at a full-scale well control research and training facility, and that university is LSU. The Petroleum Engineering Research & Technology Transfer, or PERTT, Laboratory – also commonly referred to as the Well Facility – is an industrial-scale facility with full-scale equipment and instrumentation for conducting training and research related to borehole technology.

“We believe it’s a really important and unique resource we have here at LSU,” said John Rogers Smith, associate professor of petroleum engineering and holder of the Campanile Charities Professorship of Offshore Mining and Petroleum Engineering. “We’re the only school in the United States that offers and requires hands-on training in well control and understanding hydrostatics and pressure control in wells using actual wells.”

“They’re learning from the real behavior of real fluids - mud and natural gas - in real wells using real equipment so the behaviors they see are not just theoretical or something generated from a training simulator,” Smith said.

The lab, run by the Craft and Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering in the College of Engineering, is used as a training facility for both students and industry professionals.

“This facility is a full-scale facility that provides some unique learning opportunities for our engineering students, not only in terms of the classes they can take here but also the large part-time student staff that helps maintain it, so they actually get to reduce a lot of what they are learning in class into practice,” said Darryl Bourgoyne, PERTT Lab director. “It helps them understand the work they’re going into.”

Smith and Bourgoyne bring years of industry experience and knowledge as drilling engineers to the classroom and hope to be able to pass that experience on to their students.

“We continue to be involved with research and help our industry colleagues as we develop new techniques and as we develop new equipment,” Smith said. “We try to take advantage of what we’ve learned. What we know has been important to us in our careers in terms of what we try to deliver to the students.”

Smith said they focus on fundamental concepts and techniques students can use in multiple ways to tackle the problems they may encounter in the field. And, he says, the industry recognizes LSU as one of the best petroleum engineering schools in the country.

“The fact that LSU has this long tradition of generating engineers who are ready to go to work when they graduate has helped maintain the quality and the magnitude of the recruiting that’s done at LSU by major companies,” he said.

In addition to training with real equipment, students train on computer simulators designed for well control. In one course they complete a number of exercises learning to operate equipment, such as pump startup and shutdown, and simulations of field operations, such as pressure testing casing and pressure testing on formations, which are simulated full-scale.

“We try to give the students a good combination of the hands-on experience with real equipment,” Smith said, “and tie in back to the theories they’re learning so they’ll be able to then go apply the theories and concepts in the field to situations they’re going to encounter that will be different than the ones we’ve shown them.”

With the Deepwater Horizon disaster and Gulf oil spill, the faculty and staff at the LSU PERTT Lab have been looked to by media nationwide to provide perspective and information on everything from blowout prevention to drilling techniques and oilfield history.

They’re learning from the real behavior of real fluids . . . in real wells using real equipment so the behaviors they see are not just theoretical or something that’s generated from a training simulator.

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On June 4, the lab opened its doors to media for a demonstration of a well control exercise and to discuss blowout prevention.

“Deep water is obviously a focus today,” Smith said. “We’re finding there are still challenges; that we’re not as prepared as we’d like to be. Originally, the LSU model well for floating drilling operations was configured to represent a 6,000 foot well in 3,000 feet of water with the equipment in the well being representative of the geometries we would have in a deep-water well in 3,000 feet of water to do well control research and training. That allowed realistic research and training not available anywhere else and helped establish the basis for the methods taught and used today.

The well has since been reconfigured – still as a model well for floating drilling but with flexibility for a bigger range of research.”

The PERTT Lab was established by Ted Bourgoyne, professor emeritus of petroleum engineering, and several other faculty members with funding from the U.S. Minerals Management Service, industry, and LSU. Much of their research, and especially Bourgoyne’s work, continues to be relevant and useful today.

“The LSU well facility, with thirty years of history, continues to be a unique resource for the industry and our profession,” Smith said. “This is a place where we can come safely try out new ideas, new equipment, find what works, and find how to make them better before we take those new technologies to the field.”

Ernie Ballard is director of media relations in the Office of Communications & University Relations.

an d Water – Vet School Caring for Gulf Animals Oil

Story and photos by Ginger Guttner

School of Veterinary Medicine students, faculty, and alumni helped care for animals directly impacted by the oil.

34 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

The School of Veterinary Medicine responded immediately after the Deepwater Horizon oil platform explosion and is assisting with the disaster response in two ways – providing medical care for animals directly affected by the oil spill along the Gulf Coast and providing medical care for non-oiled injured animals brought to LSU by state and/or animal rescue groups.

Arriving along the Gulf Coast on May 1, Charity Uman, Tristan Colonius, and Margaret Jensen were some of the first veterinary students to provide support to the Louisiana State Animal Response Team, or LSART, the International Bird Rescue Research Center, or IBRRC, and the Tri-State Bird Rescue in South Louisiana. The LSART mobile unit is providing Internet access and a mobile command unit to the IBRRC and Tri-State personnel and volunteers at the rehabilitation center at Fort Jackson in Plaquemines Parish.

As the disaster response continues, veterinary students are taking the lead with alumna Renee Poirrier, LSART director, facilitating and communicating between Tri-State and LSART. The vet school volunteers, who underwent special hazardous materials training, are located at two sites along the coast – the rehabilitation center at Fort Jackson in Buras, La., and the Grand Isle Stabilization Center. Student Eli Landry works with companies

contracted to transport the oiled animals from various marinas to Fort Jackson. Steven Buco and other veterinary students are staffing and leading the Grand Isle stabilization site. Uman originally coordinated the Grand Isle site, which is now being coordinated by Buco. Current student Melanie Reed was key in assisting with the set-up at the rehabilitation site at Fort Jackson and is a communicator for LSART. In addition to transporting animals, veterinary students are working as wildlife paraprofessionals under the direction of the TriState, IBRRC, and LSART. Working under the direct supervision of veterinarians, the students are stabilizing the oiled animals with oral fluids and nutrition. The School of Veterinary Medicine’s mobile emergency response unit is on stand-by and ready to support the stabilization stations if needed.

At the request of the Department of Wildlife & Fisheries, the school received the first non-oiled injured bird, a yellow-crowned night heron found by Tri-State Bird Rescue and transferred by LSART to the Wildlife Hospital of Louisiana. The bird, which presented with a clavicle fracture, will remain at the hospital while the fracture heals and will be returned to the wild once rehabilitated. LSU has also received another night heron, seven brown pelicans, two white pelicans, a cormorant, three laughing gulls, a purple gallinule, a tern, and a gannet.

Ginger Guttner is the public relations coordinator for the School of Veterinary Medicine.

A d dressing

the Issues

The Consortium for Ocean Leadership held a meeting at LSU in June to address the response to and impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Researchers from around the world attended to help identify the existing gaps in scientific knowledge, opportunities to fill those gaps, and priorities for short- and long-term research needs to understand the impact of the spill on the Gulf ecosystems and human health.

Along with the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, the meeting was sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA; U.S. Geological Survey, or USGS; National Science Foundation, or NSF; and LSU. The meeting was led by non-federal scientists to discuss the urgent issues involved with both short-term response actions for the spill and long-term monitoring of the environmental and human health impacts. Federal representatives provided an update on the response to date and on the existing federal research efforts, while also learning from the experience of the extramural research community.

As the efforts continue in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, we need to ensure that we bring the full capabilities of the nation’s research community to deal with the short-term and long-term impacts of this incident said Gagosian.

Presentations and remarks were made by Robert Gagosian, president of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership; Chris D’Elia, dean of the LSU School of the Coast & Environment; Nancy Targett, Consortium for Ocean Leadership board chair; Jane Lubchenco, NOAA administrator; Marcia McNutt, USGS director; Tim Killeen, assistant director for NSF; and John Farrington of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Researchers from around the world attended the June symposium to address the response to and impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco provides an update on response to date and on the existing federal research efforts in the Gulf.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

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LBTC Tenant Working on Cleanup services, and environmental emergency response. And LBTC offers As oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster reached the shores business counseling to companies that do not meet the basic business of the Gulf Coast, a new company – created by business professionals requirements to work with BP. with the support of the Louisiana Business & Technology Center, or In Mulhearn’s opinion, the Gulf Coast cannot rely on the people LBTC – is helping small, local businesses maintain work opportunities at fault to adequately remedy the problem. According to him, local and restore the coastline. companies, including Seashore Environmental, have the strongest Seashore Environmental LLC is the newest tenant company at the desire to restore the coast.

LSU Research Park within the LBTC. The company was created this year by Burns Mulhearn and Beau Dingler, founders of Geoshield LLC. Mulhearn, Geoshield’s president and the cofounder of Seashore Environmental, said it has We would like to see as much of the money spent been difficult for small local businesses to obtain on restoration as possible go to the workers contracts with BP. Seashore Environmental is working with actually doing the cleanup, so the people who a consortium of local companies to help have to live with damages caused by BP can them procure contracts with BP for the oil spill cleanup. Available services also include ensure our coastline is restored to their beach cleaning services. Businesses within the standards and not that of the parties at fault. database include heavy equipment and operators, excavators, hazardous waste treatment, marine Mulhearn said.

THE

PERFECT

SEASON “Bud Johnson’s account of LSU’s 1958 season is magnificent. The Perfect Season captures the excitement of that magical season while also bringing the reader back in time to re-live one of the greatest years in the history of LSU football. It’s a must read for any LSU enthusiast, especially one who has a passion for Tiger football.”

– LSU coach Les Miles

To order visit www.lsualumni.org/shop or call 225.383.0241.

Copies are also available at Shelton Gift Shop in the Cook Hotel, 3848 West Lakeshore Dr.

36 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

‘Sniffing Out’

Contaminate d Items

In response to consumer concerns about oil-contaminated seafood from the Gulf of Mexico reaching the marketplace, Louisiana Sea Grant, or LSG, housed at LSU, has produced a short video outlining the precautions taken to ensure that tainted shell and finfish don’t end up on the table.

“Nearly every day we hear stories of people afraid to eat shrimp or fish because of the oil spill,” said Chuck Wilson, executive director of LSG and LSU vice provost. “The seafood making it to restaurants and grocery stores remains safe. State and federal waters affected by the spill are closed to fishing, and dockside measures are in place to add an additional level of safety.”

video can The one-minute be viewed at:

rant.

r/LouisianaSeaG

m/use www.youtube.co

Survey

Reveals Impact, Long-Term Concern

Gulf Coast residents are worried about the BP oil spill right now; however, it’s the future that causes them the most concern, according to a survey conducted by LSU’s Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs.

In the survey, which consisted of coastal residents in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, 64 percent of respondents said the spill was having a major effect on current environmental conditions, while 48 percent said the spill was having a major effect on business conditions in their local communities.

Coastal residents in Louisiana were more likely than those in other states to say the spill was having a major effect. Seventyfive percent of Louisiana coastal residents

said the spill was having a major effect on environment conditions, and 55 percent said the spill was having a major effect on local business. But when asked about the long-term effects of the spill, 84 percent of Louisiana respondents said the spill would have a major effect on environmental conditions while 70 percent said it would have a major effect on local business conditions.

Specifically, respondents perceive the greatest threat to the seafood industry.

Ninety percent of respondents said the spill was having a major effect on the seafood industry compared to 54 percent who said the spill was having a major effect on the oil and gas industry and 59 percent on tourism.

When asked to rate how worried they were about the safety of local seafood, 41 percent of respondents rated their level of concern as a 10 on a 10-point scale. Moreover, 57 percent of respondents said they were less likely to buy local seafood as a result of the spill.

Coastal residents give low marks to BP and the federal government for their response to the spill, as 60 percent of respondents rated BP’s response as not so good or poor, with 46 percent rating the federal government’s response as not so good or poor.

State governments fared much better, as only 19 percent of respondents rated the response of their state government as not so good or poor. Louisiana fared the most positively with 24 percent of respondents rating the state government response as excellent and an additional 30 percent rating the response as good.

Opinion on offshore drilling in general is mixed. A majority of coastal residents – 52 percent – favor offshore drilling. Louisiana had the highest support for drilling, with 58 percent favoring compared to 44 percent in other coastal states. But, when asked to make a direct tradeoff between protecting coastal wetlands and continued drilling offshore, 67 percent of respondents opt for protecting wetlands and wildlife.

Consortium to Stu dy, Minimize Oil Spill Effects LSU is partnering with two prestigious oceanographic institutions to determine the myriad impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil discharge into the Gulf of Mexico and to devise and implement possible solutions to the disaster.

A Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, has been signed with The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, or WHOI, and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, or LUMCON, to form a consortium called the Gulf Oil Research Program, or GORP. The purpose of the consortium is to work cooperatively to plan, secure funding for, execute, and report on a program of scientific research to describe and quantify the effects of the oil spill on varied environments, communities, and species in the affected region and to develop and implement remediation where feasible.

“The three partners are very complementary,” said Chris D’Elia, dean of LSU’s School of the Coast & Environment. “Our school has particularly strong faculty expertise in wetland, coastal, pollution, and fisheries sciences. The Oceanographic is renowned for its expertise for advanced technology open-ocean and deep-sea research. LUMCON, which is situated right on the coast, includes other Louisiana universities and has superb research facilities and ready access to the most productive coastal and estuarine waters in the Gulf. Partnerships such as this can help us study and respond to some of the world’s most challenging environmental problems. The Deepwater Horizon spill certainly qualifies as such.”

The MOU will be in effect for an initial term of three years with an option to renew.

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37

Overton’s

Expertise Gets National Attention Edward Overton, professor emeritus of environmental sciences in the School of the Coast & Environment, who has assisted hundreds of journalists from around the world in educating the media since the Deepwater Horizon tragedy began, brought his expertise to New York to speak with David Letterman about the Gulf oil spill. He appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman” on May 24.

Overton has been interviewed by nearly every major media outlet in the country, and many others spanning the globe. Those include ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, MSNBC, the New York Times, NPR, the “Rachel Maddow Show,” and CNN among others.

LONI Provides High-Spee d Network Access to NOAA

Edward Overton

38 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

As teams from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, deployed to Louisiana and responded to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, or LONI, assisted the efforts by providing the NOAA team with access to high-speed networking connections.

Because there is no central NOAA office in Louisiana, the response teams otherwise would have to rely on low-bandwidth Internet connections available in hotels or on WiFi connections in public places to transfer data to NOAA’s main office in Washington, D.C. This would be a long, slow process, especially since the NOAA teams must send large data files and coastal satellite imagery to coordinate response efforts at the federal level with on-site teams.

LONI, a high-speed, fiber optic network that connects supercomputing resources among six universities – LSU, Southern University, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech University, University of New Orleans, and Tulane University, along with the LSU health sciences centers in New Orleans and Shreveport, provides NOAA with high-bandwidth network access so they can share and transfer data quickly.

Charting Demographics of Oil Spill Region A multidisciplinary group of LSU researchers has developed a series of maps charting the population demographics of the region surrounding the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The oil spill has implications for multiple demographic segments of the population,” said Troy Blanchard, LSU professor of sociology. “It’s important that we be able to identify at risk populations in order to determine where needs for support infrastructures may fall.”

In addition to Blanchard, the group consists of Tim Slack, assistant professor of sociology, and Matthew Fannin and Mark Schafer, both from the Department of Agricultural Economics & Agribusiness at the LSU AgCenter. The group’s primary research, funded by the Minerals Management Service, includes population dynamics, education, poverty, and the fiscal health of local governments.

Satellite Imagery Satellite imagery of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is available through the LSU Earth Scan Lab’s Web site at www.esl.lsu.edu/home/.

The Earth Scan Lab, in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences within the School of the Coast & Environment, is a satellite data receiving station and image processing facility for environmental data from six unique Earth observing sensor systems. It specializes in real-time access to satellite imagery and measurements of the atmosphere, oceans, and coastal areas within the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea region. The data is obtained directly from satellite transmissions to three antennas on LSU rooftops.

Skimming

Great Oil Leak Poster Project LSU art students and alumni are participating with dozens of other artists from around the world in the Great Oil Leak of 2010 Poster Project, a collaborative effort that is using art to help the Gulf Coast fishermen that have been devastated by the BP oil leak.

The project includes more than forty posters and will be shown at exhibitions around the state.

LSU participants whose posters were selected from more than 140 submissions include undergraduate students Anna Boyer and David Achee, graduate student Phil Winfield and alumni Grant Hurlburt, Brandon Jantz, Alise Johnson, and Erin Olcsvary.

for Oil

Chandra Theegala, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering, has invented a full-sized skimmer prototype that could be used in the oil cleanup – one that is more cost- and energy-efficient than those currently being used in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Most skimmers pull oil and water into tubing in such a way that forms an emulsion. Once in that form, a centrifuge – and an incredible amount of energy – is required,” said Theegala. “My skimmer doesn’t emulsify the oil and water. It relies on basic principles of physics and has a simple, sturdy design that makes it easier to use and more effective overall.”

As well as being inexpensive, it is locally made and doesn’t require extensive training for use – according to Theegala, it’s as simple as using a wet-vac. He is waiting for approval from the U.S. Coast guard and BP to test the skimmer.

ON THE WEB: Production deadlines did not permit the inclusion of many of the oil-spill response stories featuring LSU people and programs. To see these articles, visit www.lsu.edu - click on “The Gulf Oil Spill” Stories for this article were contributed by Ashley Berthelot, Billy Gomila, and Aaron Looney, writers/editors in the Office of Communications & University Relations; Wendy Luedtke director of alumni and external relations for the E.J. Ourso College of Business; and Ray Kron, outreach and communications director for the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

39

Locker

ROOM

By Kent Lowe Photos by Steve Franz/LSU Sports Information

Volleyball player Brittnee Cooper, the third player in the program history to take home American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American First-Team honors.

40 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

In the ‘Sportslight’ It seems months since the 2009-10 athletic year finished, and now it just seems like days until it all kicks off again with the fall sports highlighted by football, soccer, and volleyball.

In the time between one season and another, there is the opportunity to look back at some of the year’s stars and team finishes that garnered LSU its fifth straight top 20 ranking in the Learfield Sports Director’s Cup standings. The year saw LSU claim a pair of SEC regular season championships – volleyball won its first SEC title since 1991, and the women’s outdoor track and field team was crowned SEC champions for the eleventh time in program history. Baseball followed up a national championship season with a third straight SEC tournament title, becoming the first school in league history to achieve that feat.

One of the major highlights of the season was the performance by gymnast Susan Jackson, who saved her best season for last as she racked up a list of firsts in LSU history during her senior year. Jackson became the first LSU gymnast to be named the Roy F. Kramer SEC Female Athlete of the Year, the first LSU gymnast to win the Corbett Award as top amateur female athlete in Louisiana, the first to win the Honda Sports Award for Gymnastics, and the first to win the prestigious AAI Award that goes to the top senior gymnast in the nation.

In football, for the first time since 1997, a member of the team was recognized as the Southeastern Conference’s most outstanding blocker as senior tackle Ciron Black was named the recipient of the 2009 SEC Jacobs Blocking Trophy. Black becomes the fifth Tiger in school history to claim the award and the first since All-American Alan Faneca did so in 1997. The award has been presented annually to the league’s top blocker since 1935.

Three programs – soccer, women’s volleyball, and softball – hosted NCAA rounds at home this season and had stars that helped lead the way to their success.

Volleyball player Brittnee Cooper became the third player in program history to take home American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) AllAmerican First-Team honors as the Tigers captured their first SEC championship since 1991.

In softball, Kirsten Shortridge notched Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association [NFCA] All-America First-Team accolades, and Malorie Rutledge wrapped up the most prolific career in the history of the LSU soccer program as she earned consensus AllAmerica honors.

Women’s golf had one of those wow moments when All-American Megan McChrystal in the final All-America gymnast Susan Jackson racked up round of the NCAA Division a list of firsts in LSU history.

I Women’s Championships set school, course, and NCAA Championship records when she posted an eight-under par 64.

The men’s golf team also had a good year and advanced to the NCAA Division I men’s golf championship for the first time since 1997.

In basketball, Tasmin Mitchell finished his career as the No. 3 scorer in LSU history and Allison Hightower finished her career as a State Farm All-American selection. And the tennis seasons were highlighted by the play of Keri Frankenberger of the LSU women’s tennis team, who became only the third freshman Lady Tiger to be named to an All-Southeastern Conference Team.

Jane Trepp, who earned two honorable mention All-American honors, was the top Lady Tiger swimmer for the second straight year, while Hannes Heyl, James Meyers, Andrei Tuomola, and Sean LeNeave each earned four honorable mention All-American mentions on the men’s side.

Great stars, great moments, and more to come.

Kent Lowe is senior associate sports information director for LSU Athletics.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

41

LSU Alumni Locker RoomAssociation News

Stovall Selected to

College Football Hall of Fame

By Bud Johnson

If optimism was a deadly disease, Jerry Stovall would have six months to live.

Maybe less.

It was his magnetic enthusiasm and football versatility that propelled the slender sophomore into the LSU huddle fifty years ago. That and his unequaled dedication helped him to become one of LSU’s all-time great players.

On Dec. 7, Stovall will be inducted into the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame – the twelfth Tiger to be so honored.

“I just wanted a chance to play,” he recalled recently. “I just wanted to show what I could do. There was no thought given to any honors or awards when you are young. We played for the fun of it. For the competition. For the camaraderie of being a member of a team.”

In Stovall’s time it helped to be versatile. Players had to excel at both offense and defense, or they would not get much playing time.

He did it all. Runner. Receiver. Defensive star. Punter. Kick returner.

He excelled in every phase of the game. Getting him in the game was easy. Replacing him was difficult.

The Starting Lineup With the opener against Texas A&M less than two weeks away in September of 1960, Stovall was still trying to crack the starting lineup. He was the No. 2 left halfback behind Jimmy Field. At times, he was the No. 2 right halfback behind Wendell Harris or Tommy Neck. It seemed that constant juggling failed to produce the right combination.

Finally, the coaching staff moved Field to quarterback and selected Stovall as the starter at left halfback. His all-around skills and special talent as a punter separated Stovall from the rest. That decision was vindicated by Stovall’s touchdown-saving tackle against A&M. He quickly became one of the team leaders.

He was a two-time All-SEC selection. As a senior in 1962, he was a consensus All-America selection and the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. He was voted the Most Valuable Player in the Southeastern Conference. He led LSU to bowl victories over Colorado in the Orange Bowl in 1962 and Texas in the 1963 Cotton Bowl.

“I am honored to have been a A Scholar-Athlete part of a great tradition; a long He was a model student-athlete. Academics had always been emphasized in the Stovall household. After his senior year at West Monroe, Stovall signed a scholarship offer with a line of great players, outstanding young LSU assistant coach named Larry Jones. But Jones got a stern warning from Jerry’s coaches, and loyal fans have mother. made LSU football special.” “If he makes one C, I’m bringing him home,” Mrs. Stovall said.

Even though he had an outstanding professional career with the St. Louis Cardinals, Stovall most treasures his association with LSU. “I am honored to have been a part of a great tradition,” Stovall said. “A long line of great players, outstanding coaches, and loyal fans have made LSU football special. I am so blessed to have been a part of it. Wherever we played, our fans found a way to get there.

When we got off the bus in Gainesville or Lexington or Miami, you would see some of the same people there. That kind of support means a lot to a young player.”

He values his association with former teammates.

“Fred Miller was certainly the best lineman I played with – possibly one of LSU’s best

42 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

ever,” he said. “One of the most explosive runners I had to tackle as a college player was my own teammate, Bo Campbell.”

What game sticks out after all these years?

“We beat an outstanding and unbeaten Texas team, 13-0, in the Cotton Bowl after the 1962 season. It was a big win for LSU and for Coach (Charles) McClendon at the time.”

“I was fortunate to have coached some good players, too,” he said.

He singled out some memorable Tiger players – Lance Smith, Eric Martin, Herman Fontenot, Leonard Marshall, Ramsey Dardar, Liffort Hobley, and Dalton Hilliard.

In four seasons as LSU coach, Stovall compiled a 22-21-2 record. There were some big wins along the way, but none was more satisfying than the Tigers’ 20-10 victory over eighthranked Alabama and Bear Bryant in 1982.

Today, Stovall is president of the Baton Rouge Area Sports Foundation.

Bud Johnson, director of the Jack & Priscilla Andonie Museum, is a former LSU Sports Information director and author of The Perfect Season: LSU’s Magic Year – 1958.

Jerry Stovall

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

43

Focus on

Alumni Professor Ray Ferrell

Faculty

By Lindsey Meaux

Webster Parish Chapter Alumni Professor Ray Ferrell retired from LSU in the spring, after a forty-four year career, and he and his wife are enjoying a yearlong European tour. He has applied for emeritus status position in hopes of continuing his career at the University.

Why LSU? It was serendipity. In academics, you have to apply for jobs wherever and whenever they open in your field of specialization. As I was completing applications for the available three or four openings, one professor with connections at LSU told me that the University had just received a large National Science Foundation grant to enhance the science and math departments. The award meant funds would be available to purchase the laboratory equipment I would need to establish a program in clay studies. I interviewed and was offered a position as an assistant professor. I never dreamed I would return to my home state and LSU would keep me challenged for forty-four years.

Webster Parish Chapter Alumni Professor of Geology & Geophysics Ray Ferrell was awarded honorary membership in the Spanish Clay Society during the group’s fiftieth anniversary celebration in Seville in 2009. He is seen here with Professor Patricia Aparício of the University of Seville, who introduced him.

How did you get here?

I attended Louisiana State University in New Orleans (now UNO) in 1958, stayed there for two years, then transferred to the present-day University of Louisiana at Lafayette and earned my bachelor’s degree in geology in 1962. I had to attend a summer field course in geology, but none was offered. With three of my classmates, I enrolled in the University of Illinois field camp in Sheridan, Wyo. There I developed an even greater interest in geoscience as the things that had only been pages in textbooks came to life. I also learned that four students from Louisiana could compete grade wise with students from large, toprated universities.

I subsequently enrolled in graduate school at the University of Illinois where I learned to appreciate the role of clay-sized minerals in geochemical and sedimentological aspects of Earth science. I completed my M.S. and Ph.D. in geology in 1965 and 1966, respectively.

When you become interested in geology?

As a typical K-12 student in Louisiana, I had little knowledge of the importance of geology to society, but I did know that geologists were concerned with the development of oil and gas and other natural resources. In my pre-college years, I was also always interested in the outdoors. I read tales of the frontiersmen and explorers. I learned Native American crafts and joined the Boy Scouts. In my freshman year at LSU-NO, my professor showed me ways that these interests could be part of a career. I was hooked.

What have you taught?

There have been many classes, but some stand out. Upon arrival, two of us were given the task of updating the mineralogy classes that are an integral part of the undergraduate program. Stan Heath and I started out on a wholesale revision that brought the use of the polarizing microscope for mineral identification and exercises dealing with advanced analytical methods such as X-ray powder diffraction into the beginning classes. We increased the “hands-on” activities associated with the courses.

For several years, I used this approach – active learning – in the initial section of an honors course in introductory physical geology and for a special section of historical geology focused on the geologic history of the Grand Canyon. That course allowed me to teach outdoors as it included a ten-day field trip to the Grand Canyon.

The mainstay of my undergraduate teaching has been GEOL 1001: An Introduction to Physical Geology. In this class, usually involving more than 250 students, I try to make the students feel I have a personal interest in their success and that the topics we cover will be of life-long importance to them. I encourage critical thinking and writing skills through the use of subjective examinations. In spite of arguments to the contrary, I do not think that “bubble tests” are the best way to assess and encourage learning. To make the grading process manageable, I rely on student volunteers to assist with the task. In these grading sessions, the students learn even more about the subject matter and how others comprehend what has been discussed.

44 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

At the graduate level, my favorite class has always been dealing with the geology, geochemistry, and environmental aspects of clay minerals, GEOL 7134. Through the years, this class has been attended by an interdisciplinary mix of students from geology, geophysics, civil and environmental engineering, environmental studies, oceanography, and soil science.

Your favorite class? Most rewarding experience?

Each class presents different challenges and rewards, but I’d give a slight advantage to the introductory geology course. It provides the opportunity to have an impact on a large number of students and the challenge to arouse an interest in the subject matter among students whose only reason for taking the course is to fulfill a general education requirement.

In every class there are students who experience what could be called a “learning epiphany.” They suddenly get what you are trying to tell them or they ask a question that indicates they are thinking critically about applications of their new knowledge.

And your spare time?

Family, travel, and working with wood. My wife and I have four children and twelve grandchildren, so holidays, special events, and the activities of the young ones provide many enjoyable and rewarding moments. I like to make furniture, do household projects, and involve the grandchildren in making things from birdhouses to toy boats and pinewood derby racers to demonstration cross-bows. This is probably another manifestation of my life-long dedication to teaching.

Lindsey Meaux is a senior in the Manship School of Mass Communication, concentrating in public relations.

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45

Around

campus

2010 Legislative Session Session Ends Well but Major Problems on the Horizon When the Legislature concluded business on June 21, LSU’s state support was not cut. Overall, LSU’s budget was more stable than expected, and several building projects were given approval to proceed.

While that sounds like very good news, there are storm clouds gathering. A midyear budget cut is highly probable, and the amount of federal stimulus funds propping up LSU’s budget increased from $38.6 million to $56.5 million (28 percent of state appropriations). For the first time in history, LSU students are paying more for their education than the state.

“The LSU Alumni Association hopes to challenge the chapters, members, and all alumni to engage their local legislators and let them know how important LSU is to their area and to our state.”

LSU Made Gains The University’s state funding was reduced by $46 million prior to the session, and the mood of the Legislature was to continue cutting. The low graduation rates statewide and the perceived inefficiencies of universities were cited as reasons to reduce state funding of higher education. In every instance, LSU countered with the facts: • LSU has the highest graduation rate in the state and closest to its peer group.

• Research funding has increased by 50 percent in the past decade.

• Increased funding between 2006 and 2008 had gone to the Flagship Agenda goals of more faculty, more graduate students, and more scholarships.

• LSU has only one-third of the executive level positions enjoyed by its peers.

• LSU has the largest share of its budget allocated directly to academic programs and the smaller share allocated to administration.

The state’s agreement regarding the federal stimulus funds prevented deeper cuts to higher education for the time being.

Under the pact, universities’ budgets could only be reduced by a certain amount. In the end, the only cuts to higher education were at the management board offices, such as the Board of Supervisors, and non-degree granting units of higher education. The LSU AgCenter is not protected by the

46 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

stimulus agreement, but money was placed in the budget to keep the center whole.

The budget situation was also helped by the Louisiana Granting Resources for Autonomy and Diplomas (LA GRAD) Act. The act allows universities to raise tuition by 10 percent annually in exchange for greater performance. For LSU, the LA GRAD Act means $11 million more in revenue, which will be put toward offsetting $14 million in new mandated costs that are primarily related to retirement and insurance. Business and community leaders statewide were instrumental in the passage of the LA GRAD Act. In terms of facilities, the state provided money for the purchase of land at South Campus, the renovation of the Old Engineering Shops for the art department, and the construction of a disease diagnostic laboratory near the School of Veterinary Medicine. The LSU College of Agriculture/ LSU AgCenter received funds to complete the Animal & Food Science Building.

Continued improvement of the facilities, even in these difficult times, is critical to supporting the academic and research programs. LSU’s deferred maintenance list totals more than $400 million in the facility deficiencies and underground utilities.

Planning for “the Cliff” When the session concluded, financial experts determined that there would likely be a mid-year budget cut. The economy had not improved quite as hoped, and the effects of the oil spill were unknown. A mid-year budget cut would be a prelude to the loss of federal stimulus funds at the end of the year, a situation often referred to as “the cliff.” LSU decided to stick to the LSU Plan for Greater Impact for Louisiana by narrowing its focus and seeking efficiencies.

Just as the legislative session wrapped up, the LSU System initiated an exercise to prepare universities for the loss of federal stimulus funds for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2011. LSU and all other campuses in the LSU system were asked to prepare for a 23 percent budget reduction in FY 2011-12.

The product of that exercise can be viewed

at http://www.lsu.edu/FY12BudgetCrisis/.

Unfortunately, LSU cannot wait until the call for cuts becomes official because some employment agreements and academic programs require extended periods of time. LSU intends to stick with its Plan for Greater Impact, but major cuts to academic departments cannot be avoided.

Is LSU in Your Backyard?

The real tragedy of the budget cuts is the realization that our most talented youth may perceive this as a decline in quality and decide to leave Louisiana to pursue their college careers. Statistics show that they just don’t come back home once they leave.

A legislator was quoted in The Advocate (Baton Rouge) as saying, “I don’t have an LSU.” This statement portrays many legislators’ prioritization of local demands versus those of the statewide services.

It also highlights why the LSU Alumni Association is so important.

LSU was created by the state 150 years ago to provide higher education to the

people of our state. By serving Louisiana, LSU is a part of everyone’s backyard. Our fellow citizens need to be reminded that a strong LSU is in everyone’s best interest.

Over the next year, the LSU Alumni Association hopes to challenge its chapters, members, and all alumni to engage their local legislators and let them know how important LSU is to their area and to the state.

LSU reaches out to the state with the Louisiana Business & Technology Center’s mobile classroom for small businesses; assists small towns with tourism projects and truancy programs in numerous parishes; the list goes on and on. A Web site showing LSU’s outreach and presence in the various regions of the state – as well as the numbers of student and alumni in each parish – can be viewed at www.lsu.edu/impact.

Please get involved.

ON THE WEB: www.lsu.edu/impact

Memorial Day 2010 - As the nation observed Memorial Day, LSU honored its proud

Photo by Jim Zietz

military heritage while remembering the sacrifices and contributions of all U.S. veterans.

The University and Cadets of the Ole War Skule co-hosted the annual LSU Memorial Day Ceremony on May 31, a tribute to former students who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country and whose names are inscribed on the LSU War Memorial Wall of Honor.

During the ceremony, the name of Sgt. 1st Class Severin "Sev" West Summers, III, was unveiled on the wall. Summers, a native of Lafayette, attended LSU from 1993-95. He was killed by an improvised explosive device in 2009 while conducting combat operations in the Qole Gerdsar, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He was serving as a Special Forces engineer with the Mississippi Army National Guard Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne).

Supercharged - State Rep Hunter Green, Chancellor Michael Martin, and Dr. Mary Lou Applewhite discuss the University’s new Illumnia GAIIx genome sequencer with Boyd Professor Mark Batzer, the Dr. Mary Lou Applewhite Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. The acquisition of the sequencer will take Batzer’s internationally lauded work and research into an entirely new realm, bringing next-generation capabilities to Batzer as well as other researchers throughout Southeast Louisiana.

Photo by Jim Zietz

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

47

LSU Alumni Around Campus Association News

Photos by Jim Zietz

Distinguished Research Masters Nina Lam and Sumanta Acharya.

Jasson Vindas

Raluca Cozma

Acharya, Lam Named Research Masters Sumanta Acharya and Nina Lam were named Distinguished Research Masters on May 11 during ceremonies at the LSU Faculty Club. Raluca Cozma and Jasson Vindas were recognized as recipients of Distinguished Dissertation awards.

The Distinguished Research Master award, presented by the LSU Council on Research, recognizes outstanding accomplishments in research and scholarship in the categories of engineering, science, and technology and the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The LSU Alumni Association and the Graduate School sponsor the Distinguished Dissertation awards, given to doctoral students whose research and writing demonstrate superior scholarship.

Acharya holds the L. R. Daniel Professorship and the Fritz & Francis M. Blumer Professorship in mechanical engineering. He is the founding director of the Center for Turbine Innovation and Energy Research, or TIER, which focuses on energy generation and propulsion research. His research sponsorship portfolio has reached near $25 million during his twenty-seven years at LSU. Lam, professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences, is a renowned expert in GIS, remote sensing, spatial analysis, and environmental and public health. In 2004, Lam received the Outstanding Contributions in Remote Sensing Award by the Remote Sensing Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers. She received an LSU Distinguished Faculty Award in 2006 and was named an LSU Rainmaker in 2008.

Cozma received the Josephine A. Roberts Alumni Association Distinguished Dissertation Award in Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences for her dissertation titled “The Murrow Tradition: What Was It, and Does It Still Live?” This project compared the quality of news presentation between CBS during World War II and contemporary National Public Radio’s coverage of the Iraq War II. Vindas is the recipient of the LSU Alumni Association Distinguished Dissertation Award in Science, Engineering, and Technology. His dissertation, “Local Behavior of Distributions and Applications,” studied local and global properties of generalized functions, particularly distributions.

Happy Birthday, Mike – Mike VI, LSU’s live tiger mascot, turned five on July 23. Mike joined the LSU community on September 1, 2007, was officially declared Mike VI at a ceremony held on September 14, 2007, and debuted in Tiger Stadium on the evening of the Florida vs. LSU football game on Saturday, October 6, 2007. He weighs 460 pounds and is expected to reach approximately 500-600 pounds at maturity. Mike is most active early in the morning and in the evening; he sleeps most of the day, keeping cool in the shade. He receives about 100,000 visitors each year.

48 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

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4.

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7.

8.

Nike Sideline Fashions • Fall 2010 9.

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LSU Alumni Around Campus Association News

Preserving Tiger Stadium For LSU fans, there’s nothing better than a night in Tiger Stadium. LSU home football games are events talked about year round, and stories about being in Tiger Stadium are passed from generation to generation.

Home to one of the University’s greatest traditions – Tiger football – the stadium, beginning in 1936 also served for many years as a dormitory for approximately 1,500 students.

In addition, while Broussard Hall, formerly the LSU Athletics dormitory, was being renovated during the fall of 1986, the football players lived in Tiger Stadium.

Today more than 400 windows in the North End of Tiger Stadium are in disrepair.

In addition to being an eyesore, the broken windows provide no protection from the elements. LSU Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Joe Alleva recently unveiled renderings for the Preservation of Tiger Stadium project to replace those windows, the initial step in the eventual renovation and restoration of Tiger Stadium.

The project, supported through a private fundraising campaign sponsored by Tiger Athletic Foundation, offers sponsors a chance to permanently put their mark on Tiger Stadium for $2,000 a window. Donors who fund the replacement of a window will be permanently recognized around Tiger Stadium for their support.

To get involved, visit www.lsutaf.org or call 225-578-4823.

50 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

51

LSU Alumni Around Campus Association News

Jindal Announces Appointments to Board of Supervisors Governor Bobby Jindal announced five appointments to the LSU Board of Supervisors on June 25.

Robert “Bobby” Yarborough

Sen. Ann Duplessis

Garret “Hank” Danos

Ray Lasseigne

52 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

Joining the board are Robert "Bobby" Yarborough, of Baton Rouge, chief executive officer and co-owner of Manda Fine Meats, who will serve as an at-large member of the board; state Sen. Ann Duplessis of New Orleans, senior vice president of Liberty Bank and Trust, representing the 2nd Congressional District; Garret "Hank" Danos (1971 BACH BUS) of Larose, chief executive officer of Danos & Curole Marine Contractors, representing the 3rd Congressional District; Ray Lasseigne (1971 BACH ENGR), of Bossier City, president and co-owner of TMR Exploration, Inc., Sandia Drilling, LLC, and Langston Drilling, LLP, representing the 4th Congressional District; and Ben Mount (1974 JD), of Lake Charles, an attorney with Bergstedt & Mount. Mount has served on the LSU Board of Supervisors since 2006 and was reappointed to serve a full six-year term representing the 7th Congressional District.

Ben Mount

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

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LSU Alumni Around Campus Association News

National Diversity Advisory Board Named LSU has assembled an international team of alumni and friends to assist the Office of Equity, Diversity & Community Outreach, or EDCO, in conceptualizing the future of diversity and community outreach at the University.

Members of the inaugural National Diversity Advisory Board include Katrice Albert, ex-officio, vice provost, EDCO; Cherie Arceneaux-Pinac (1991 BACH A&S; 1994 JD); vice president/general counsel, Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corporation; Marco Barker, ex-officio, assistant to the vice provost, EDCO; Jeff Boudreaux (1996 BACH BUS; 2000 JD), attorney, Kean Miller and Associates; Julie Dickinson, president-elect, Junior League of Baton Rouge; Dede Ferrara (1991 BACH A&S), attorney, Ferrara and Ferrara Law Firm; and John Paul Funes (1992 ACH A&S), president, Our Lady of the Lake

54 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

Foundation, all of Baton Rouge; Juanita Baranco (1977 JD), executive vice president/ chief operating officer, Baranco Automotive Group, Atlanta, Ga.; Cassandra Chandler (1979 BACH MCOM), senior investigative services executive, Bank of America/ retired special agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation, West End, N.C.; and Anita Chang (2002 BACH MCOM), writer/editor, Associated Press, Beijing, China.

Also, Mark Grant (1981 BACH MCOM), sports director, CBS Sports; Kellie Irving, director of diversity and inclusion, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana; Meg Mahoney, vice president, product development, Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce; John Noland (1970 JD), president, Noland Investments; Joseph Possa (1988 BACH A&S; 1991 JD), attorney/ partner, Tyler & Possa Law Firm; and Deborah Sternberg, senior vice president/

part owner, Starmount Life Insurance Company, all of Baton Rouge; Mario Garner (2002 BACH SCI), chief operating officer, HCA Healthcare, Lafayette; Monica Leach (1991 BACH AGR), assistant vice provost/ assistant professor of social work, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.; Francisco “Frank” Lopez, IV(1975 BACH A&S), group vice president, Universal Health Services, Amarillo, Texas; Claude Minor (1979 BACH A&S), general surgeon, Monroe Surgical Hospital, Monroe; David Sickey, vice chairman, Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, Lake Charles; and Leonard Stewart (1998 BACH ENGR), attorney, intellectual property, Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, Ill.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

55

Around Campus

Game On Cutting-Edge Creativity + Interactive Techniques = Original Video Games

By Ashley Berthelot

Winning LSU-led Companies & Games Best Audio Design and Best Visual Design Dark Tide Software, “Rise of the Urchins,” Keaton Robinson and Michael Davis Best Interaction Design B2 Bomber Games, “Power Putt,” Kevin Cherry and Katherine Herrin Best Bookends Kenchi Games, “Reach,” Jason Kincl and Sara Fradella Best Overall Game Play Magnetic Enigmatic, “POL,” Jason Meador and Lee Vanderlick.

Best audio design and best visual design award winner “Rise of the Urchins.”

56 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

When most people play a video game, they just focus on winning, unaware of the multiple science, computer programming, technology, and art elements that went into its makeup.

These critical elements are the focus of a course in which students work in teams to form “companies” and develop an original video game throughout the course of a semester. Listed as both an art and a computer science course and with interdisciplinary material, students from different academic backgrounds work together in creating a game. Computer science students work on many of the programming elements, while art students work on storyline and character creation.

LSU offers the video game design class in collaboration with University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Students attend class via high-definition video streaming broadcast from Chicago to Baton Rouge, and participants learn core concepts to develop and design video games, from storyline to character development to coding.

Jason Leigh, a UIC computer science professor and director of the university’s Electronic Visualization Laboratory, teaches the course in collaboration with Robert Kooima, adjunct faculty in the Department of Computer Science and a post-doctoral researcher with the Arts, Visualization, Advanced Technologies and Research, or AVATAR, Initiative in digital media.

The course is part of the curriculum for the AVATAR minor in digital media, which allows students to take courses in different departments to prepare for careers in digital art, animation, electronic composition, video game design, and related fields.

“The video game design class has been popular since we first offered it, and its success at LSU was one of many reasons we worked to create the digital media minor,” said Stephen David Beck, Derryl and Helen Haymon Professor of Music and AVATAR lead. “Many college students want to learn the necessary skills to work in these emerging industries, and we hope many of the students… will sign up to take other, related courses toward the digital media minor.”

The course had record participation, with fifty-three students between the two universities. They divided into twelve teams, or companies, and, with the exception of one all-UIC group, the companies had an equal balance of LSU and UIC members.

To give the class a place to experiment with multi-touch gaming, Kooima built a 52-inch TacTile LCD touch table with high-definition video.

“We always try to emphasize new trends and possibilities in the gaming industry with this course, and a current one is allowing people to touch and interact directly with the game,” Kooima said. “This table gives the students a platform to develop these types of popular games. In the coming semesters, we hope to try other new gaming techniques, such as super-high resolution gaming on tile displays, which occurs on multiple screens simultaneously.”

Students spent the final class period presenting the video games they created. Kooima and a judging panel of representatives from the Baton Rouge Area Digital Industries Consortium, Louisiana Tech Park, and the Electronic Arts Video Game Test Center in Baton Rouge evaluated the games. Tom DeFanti, Ph.D., an internationally recognized pioneer in visualization and virtual reality technologies, was a guest judge.

With the exception of Best Technical Achievement, which the all-UIC team won, teams with LSU members won in all the other categories, and the LSU students developed and implemented many of the winning techniques in these games, Kooima said.

AVATAR INITIATIVE www.avatar.lsu.edu Ashley Berthelot is an editor in the LSU Office of Communications & University Relations.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

57

Noteworthy

LSU Alumni Around Campus Association News

Several LSU post-graduate programs are ranked in the 2011 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools.” For the “Best Business Schools” ranking, a total of 99 schools were ranked out of 426 M.B.A. programs surveyed.

The Flores M.B.A.’s ranking among public institutions was 37, while its ranking overall was 71.

Arthur G. Bedeian

MaryKatherine Callaway

Charles D’Agostino

Ferreyra

Jayne Garno

The College of Engineering’s ranking among public institutions is 64, while it ranked 99 overall in the “Best Engineering Schools” list. Chemical engineering ranked 52; civil engineering, 65; and mechanical engineering, 73. A total of 144 schools were ranked out of 198 programs surveyed.

The LSU College of Education also placed as one of the top 100 post-graduate programs, ranking 96 overall with a total of 179 schools being ranked out of 278 programs surveyed for the “Best Education Schools.”

The report updated its list of rankings for the best programs in science fields, and the College of Science post-graduate programs are well represented. Biological sciences ranked 144; chemistry, 74; computer science, 99; Earth science, 58; math, 83; and physics, 77.

Arthur G. Bedeian, Boyd Professor and Ralph & Kacoo Olinde Distinguished Professor of Management in the Rucks Department of Management, has been named a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, an organizational affiliate of the American Psychological Association.

MaryKatherine Callaway, director of LSU Press, has been named president-elect of the Association of American University Presses. She has begun a three-year appointment to the board of directors of the association and will assume the duties of president in June 2011. The largest organization of non-profit scholarly publishers in the world, the AAUP dedicates itself to the support of creative and effective scholarly communications. Callaway joined LSU Press as director in 2003 after stints at Johns Hopkins University Press and the University of Georgia Press. Photo by Mercedes Jelinek Charles D’Agostino, executive director of the Louisiana Business & Technology Center at the E. J. Ourso College of Business, has been named to the Higher Education Advisory Committee, which is affiliated with the International Economic Development Council in Washington, D.C. The goal of the higher education strategy is to build the capacity of economic developers and higher education to work collaboratively to grow jobs, investment, and talent in a knowledge-based economy. D’Agostino has served as executive director of the LBTC since its inception in 1988.

Guillermo Ferreyra, former dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, now the College of Humanities & Social Sciences, has accepted a position with the Louisiana Department of Education as executive director of science, technology, engineering, and math. He is charged with improving student achievement in math, science, and other areas and developing and retaining high-quality science and math teachers. He will also serve as adviser to the state superintendent of education on those subjects.

LSU Assistant Professor of Chemistry Jayne Garno was recently recognized as a 2010 Camille-Dreyfus Teacher Scholar. She is one of only fourteen researchers in the country to receive such a prestigious honor. Garno has been recognized for excellence consistently throughout her career. Among her awards are the National Science Foundation Early Career Award (2009-2014); Howard Hughes Medical Institute Distinguished Mentor Award (2009-2010); six awards as an Emerging Investigator in Chemistry; three federal research grants; and the LSU Rainmaker Award (2009).

58 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

Former Manship School of Mass Communication Dean John M. Hamilton assumed the position of executive vice chancellor and provost on July 1 for a twoyear term, replacing Astrid Merget, who has taken a faculty position in the Public Administration Institute. He will remain on faculty at the Manship School.

John M. Hamilton Laura F. Lindsay Hamilton came to LSU in 1992 after more than two decades as a journalist and public servant. He is also an award-winning author with six books to his credit and is a finalist for the 2010 Tankard Book Award, in affiliation with the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the boards of the International Center for Journalists, the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, and Lamar Advertising Corp. In the fall of 2000, he was a fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy. He was appointed the LSU Foundation Hopkins P. Breazeale Professor in 1998, and the Freedom Forum named him the 2003 Journalism Administrator of the Year.

Laura F. Lindsay, professor emerita in the Manship School of Mass Communication, has been named the interim dean of the LSU College of Education, replacing M. Jayne Fleener, who accepted the dean’s post at North Carolina State University’s College of Education in May. Lindsay, who has been with LSU since 1979, has served as interim provost, vice provost, and associate vice chancellor in the Office of Academic Affairs and was associate dean and dean of LSU’s Junior Division, now known as the University College.

Matthew Lee and Carol O’Neil have been selected to represent LSU as fellows in the Southeastern Conference Academic Consortium Academic Leadership Development Program, or ALDP. Fellows are tenured, full professors or the equivalent who have demonstrated leadership ability through university administrative assignments. Lee is a professor of sociology and is currently serving as a provost fellow in the Office of Research and Economic Development. O’Neil, a professor of human ecology, was recently appointed interim associate vice chancellor in the same office.

LSU has been selected as a university that demonstrates an above average commitment to sustainability in terms of campus infrastructure, activities, and initiatives in the “Guide to 286 Green Colleges.” The “Guide,” which is based on a survey of hundreds of colleges nationwide, profiles the country’s most environmentally responsible campuses. For its release, Princeton Review partnered with the United States Green Building Council, a national non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in the design and construction of buildings.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

59

Tiger

NATION

1950s

Ulyesse J. LeGrange (1951 BACH BUS), retired senior vice president and chief financial officer of ExxonMobil Corp’s U.S. Oil and Gas Operations, was inducted into the Financial Executives International Hall of Fame’s 2010 class. The Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who epitomize the performance, leadership, and integrity of the most exemplary financial executives throughout their careers. LeGrange began his 40-year career at ExxonMobil as a clerical employee in the Baton Rouge refinery and held positions in the United States and London, such as president of Exxon Pipeline Co. and vice president and controller of Exxon Corp. He also served as chairman of the American Petroleum Institute Finance Division, Editor’s note: The name of the College of Arts & Sciences (A&S) has been changed to College of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS); the College of Basic Sciences (BASC) is now the College of Science (SCI).

Degrees BACH MAST PHD DVM JD

MD

DDS

Bachelor’s Degree Master’s Degree Doctorate Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Juris Doctorate (LSU Law School) Medical Doctor (LSU School of Medicine) Doctor of Dental Science (LSU School of Dentistry)

Colleges/Schools AGR A&D HSS SCI BUS EDUC ENGR M&DA MCOM SCE

SVM SW

Agriculture Art & Design Humanities and Social Sciences Science Business Education Engineering Music & Dramatic Arts Mass Communication School of the Coast & Environment School of Veterinary Medicine Social Work

60 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

board member of the American Institute of CPAs, chairman of the Audit Committee, and president of FEI’s Houston chapter.

LeGrange remained involved in higher education, serving on advisory boards for LSU, Carnegie Mellon, and Columbia and is a recipient of an LSU Foundation President’s Award for Lifetime Support. He will be honored at the FEI Hall of Fame Gala at the New York Palace on Nov. 15.

Douglas Perret Starr (1950 BACH JOUR) retired on July 15 after twenty-four years teaching journalism at Texas A&M University.

A veteran of World War II and the Korean War, he taught twelve years at the University of North Texas and worked thirteen years as a newsman for the Associated Press in New Orleans, Jackson, Miss., Miami, and Tallahassee, Fla.

1960s

Robert Boudreaux (1967 BACH EDUC), of Reidsville, N.C., was inducted into the inaugural Region 8 Men’s Gymnastics Hall of Fame in April. He is also a charter member of the North Carolina Men’s Gymnastics Hall of Fame (1998). While attending LSU, Boudreaux was captain of the gymnastics team and a two-time conference champion.

He has been a nationally certified judge for forty-five years and an internationally certified judge for twenty-four years and is president of the Carolina Gymnastics Judges Association. Region 8 includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Gary R. Wooley (1969 BACH ENGR; 1970 MAST ENGR; 1972 PHD ENGR), chair of the College of Engineering (CoE) Dean’s Advisory Council and member of the CoE Hall of Distinction, presented the Mechanical Engineering Alumni Achievement Lecture

in April. Alumni who have achieved exceptional levels of success are invited to present the lecture and are inducted into the Alumni Achievement Lecture Club.

Wooley, president of Wooley & Associates, Inc., is active with several professional organizations, including the ASME, and is a leader in a number of civic, educational, and religious organizations.

1970s

General Charles C. “Hondo” Campbell (1970 BACH HSS) retired as commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command in June after forty years of service in the U.S. Army, becoming the last continuously serving Army officer who saw service in Vietnam to leave active duty. In May, Gen. Campbell was honored for his longtime support of the Army chaplaincy program and was presented the Order of Aaron and Hur award during a ceremony at the Post Chapel at Fort McPherson, Ga. The award honors those who have been exemplary in “supporting the arms” of the Army chaplaincy. Campbell lives in Shreveport.

Henry A. Gremillion (1973 BACH; 1977 DDS), dean of the LSUHSC School of Dentistry (LSUSD) has received the American Academy of Orofacial Pain 2010 award for “exemplary and unselfish service.”

He was recognized for “dedication to educating the dental community about pain, not only to our academy members but to dental students, dentists and other health care professionals throughout the world.” In 1995, Dr. Gremillion received the designation of MAGD from the Academy of General Dentistry, which, in 2008, awarded him its most prestigious honor, the Thaddeus V. Weclew Award for dedication to education and commitment to comprehensive dental care. He was named dean of LSUSD in 2008.

Tom Hill (1974 BACH EDUC) has been selected to serve on the English Language Arts Content Advisory Committee for the National Evaluation Series, or NES, a meeting of educators from across the country to recommend performance standards expected of those new to the profession.

The National Benchmark Conference was held in St. Louis in July. Hill completes his eighth year as chair of the English department at Winfree Academy in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area this year.

Ronald “Ron” Jarnagin (1971 BACH BUS), staff scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., was installed in June as president-elect of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). He also serves as chair, ASHRAE Building Energy Quotient Ad Hoc Committee, has served as treasurer, vice president, director-at-large, consultant, and chair of the Standard 90.1 Committee, and chaired committees that wrote three Advanced Energy Design Guides on small offices, highway lodging, and warehouses and storage units. Jarnagin is a recipient of the Exceptional Service Award and the Distinguished Service Award. He earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1978 and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida in 1980. He and his wife, Linda, have a daughter, Kaitlin.

Debra Lockwood (BACH 1977 BUS; 1999) has been named chairwoman of the national board of directors of the American Heart Association, or AHA, for its 2010–11 fiscal year. She assumed the role on July 1. Lockwood is responsible for the overall administration of business affairs, public relations, and fundraising and will preside over meetings of the board of directors and administrative cabinet. Lockwood is the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Provident Resources Group, Inc. She became an AHA volunteer in 1996 with the Baton Rouge Capital Area Board and a year later chaired the

Baton Rouge Heart Walk, increasing event revenue by 120 percent. A member of the board of directors since 2006, she served as secretary-treasurer from 2007 to 2009 and was chairwoman of the association’s Greater Southeast Affiliate for the 2009–10 term. Lockwood is currently a member of the Vision for Volunteerism Task Force, which is working to increase volunteer involvement with the association at the community level.

Charles Pinckney (1972 BACH HSS), a partner in the Birmingham, Ala., office of Adams and Reese, has been appointed to the Dean’s Executive Committee of the College of Science. Pinckney advises banking and other business clients on securities, mergers and acquisitions, and business transactions matters. His experience entails a full range of matters arising under the federal and state securities laws. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America (Banking Law, Securities Law) and Chambers USA as a leader in the field of banking and finance.

Pinckney earned his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. Electrical and computer engineering alumnus and entrepreneur Farrokh Shokoo (1972 BACH ENGR; 1975 MAST ENGR; 1979 PHD ENGR) returned to campus in the spring to host a seminar and reception for students, faculty, alumni, and industry representatives. Currently president and CEO of Operation Technology, Inc., in Irvine, Calif., Shokooh leads the development of ETAP, the world’s industry-leading electric power system analysis and design software. During his visit, he donated twenty ETAP software licenses to LSU for use as an essential learning tool for students interested in careers in power engineering.

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LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

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Tiger Nation

1980s

John D. Dalier (1986 BACH BUS; 1990 JD) of McLean, Va., recently completed his fifteenth year of service at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) in Alexandria, Va., where he works primarily as a trademark examining attorney. In 2006, he served as a trademark litigation attorney on a long-term assignment to the USPTO’s Office of the Solicitor. In 2007, he was appointed to work with telework design initiatives helping to expand the USPTO’s Trademark Work at Home Program to more than 380 attorney participants, more than 80 percent of the Trademark Examining Attorney workforce, across the Washington, D.C., area and beyond, and still serves the USPTO in this role.

In 2009, Dalier authored a Certification and Collective Marks Formalities position paper on behalf of the USPTO’s Office of Intellectual Property Policy and Enforcement for submission to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs, and Geographical Indications. He was recognized in October 2009 by the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) as a 2009 USPTO Trademark Examining Attorney of the Year. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the integrity of intellectual property law while in distinguished service at the USPTO. In May, Dalier appeared in the American Bar Association Journal Magazine discussing the cost-benefits of government tele-work and work-at-home programs.

Norman Loreto Marcocci (1988 MPA) received an associate in applied science degree in contract management from Northern Virginia Community College in May. He graduated summa cum laude and is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society. He expects to receive a certificate in personnel administration from the USDA Graduate

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School in December and aspires to become a contract specialist or procurement analyst with the federal government. Marcocci is active with the LSU Alumni Association and currently serves as secretary of the Greater Washington, DC Alumni Chapter.

He is also spearheading efforts to make LSU license plates available for alumni and supporters in Maryland. He is involved with Edward Douglass White Council of the Knights of Columbus in Arlington, Va., which named him Knight of the Month in June 2008, and he volunteers with the Nature Conservancy and the Ski Club of Washington, D.C., both in Arlington.

J. Keith Short (1989 BACH BUS) has been named executive vice president of IBERIABANK and president of the Collier and Lee counties (Florida) market, with responsibility for the bank’s retail/consumer and private banking activities in the area. He has been with IBERIABANK for ten years, as president of the Baton Rouge market and, prior to that, manager of the commercial and private banking teams in Lafayette, La. the company’s headquarters. Short earned an M.B.A. from Loyola University in New Orleans and also graduated from the Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University. Active in community affairs, he served on the board and executive committees of the Capital Area United Way and the Istrouma Boy Scouts, was a board member and past chair of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, and served on the LSU Honors College Advisory Council. He and his wife and three children reside in Naples, Fla.

1990s

Laura Alford (1991 MBA) has been named business development officer of Argent Financial Group, Inc., in Natchitoches, La. and works in client development for Red River, Sabine, DeSoto, Natchitoches, and Winn parishes. A Louisiana-commissioned

notary public, she has worked in the sales, accounting, and banking services industry for the past eighteen years. Prior to joining Argent, she served as cashier for Exchange Bank in Natchitoches. Alford earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Louisiana College.

Matthew C. Gaudet (1993 BACH HSS), an attorney in intellectual property practice with Duane Morris LLP, Atlanta, is featured in the 2010 edition of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.

Eric M. Kobrock (1993 BACH HSS) was recently promoted to manager of field clinical studies engineers, Biotronik Inc., an international leader in cardiac rhythm management, which he joined in 2002. He previously served as senior field clinical engineer responsible for Food & Drug Administration-regulated clinical trials of Biotronik pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators. Kobrock lives in New Orleans with his wife, Joni, and children, six-year-old Iris, pictured with her dad, and three-year-old Sam. Collin LeBlanc (1992 BACH HSS; 1996 JD), a partner with Keogh, Cox & Wilson Ltd., has been named chair of the Baton Rouge Big Buddy Program Board of Directors.

Brian Neese (1999 BACH HSS) presided over the roundtable discussion on global health medical education, “Prospects for the Future,” at the Global Health and Medical Education symposium hosted by the Medical School for International Health, or MSIH, in Beer-Sheva, Israel, in May. Dr. Neese, a 2005 MSIH graduate, took a year off between his third and fourth years of medical school to pursue his Master of Public Health degree at Harvard University.

A family physician in the U.S. Air Force, he

is stationed in Texas and is often deployed on humanitarian and military missions.

He published a book of his memoirs from medical school titled Living and Dying in the Fourth Year (Aventine Press).

Dr. Sid O’Bryant (1998 BACH HSS), an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, will study depression among rural Texas adults with the help of a research grant from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. His proposal was selected from a pool of fortyseven applicants from nineteen universities across Texas. The foundation awarded ten grants totaling nearly $150,000. The

one-year grants are capped at $15,000 each. O’Bryant is director of rural health research at the university’s F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health and principal investigator of Project FRONTIER, an ongoing epidemiological study of rural health.

Mohit “Mo” Vij (1997 MAST ENGR) , CEO of General Informatics, was named the 2010 Young Businessperson of the Year

by Baton Rouge Business Report. Vij’s company was named to Inc. 500|5000 list for 2009 as one of the fastest-growing private firms in the country. It won a 2009 special achievement award from the E.J. Ourso College of Business, was named LSU Louisiana Business

and Technology Center’s company of the year in 2007, and won a Microsoft award in 2006 for creating the best technology solution in the country for a small business. General Informatics’ “TotalCARE Vault” product was nominated for best product by the Louisiana Technology Council and recognized as one of fifty companies “the corridor can’t do without” by 10/12 magazine. Vij was one of Business Report’s Forty Under 40 in 2005.

Bob Wood (1994 PHD BUS) assumed duties as dean of Salisbury University’s Franklin P. Perdue School of Business in Salisbury, Md., on July 1.

Prior to joining Salisbury, he was associate and assistant dean of the Tennessee Tech University college of

Where Are You? Who are you? Where are you? What are you doing? Tell us and share news of your new job or

promotion, your wedding, honors, awards, new babies, and other celebrations with fellow alumni. Send your information, news items, and photos for publication to jackie@lsualumni.org or call 225-578-3370.

LSU Tiger Band Reunion 2010 Celebration Calling all former...

Band Members Golden Girls Tigerettes Color Guard members October 15th and 16th, 2010 LSU vs. McNeese State Register online only (deadline October 1st) Contact Brandli Roberts (brandli@lsualumni.org) or 578-3838

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Tiger Nation Business, as well as professor of finance.

He also has experience working for Dean Witter Reynolds, the Upjohn Company, and Abbott Laboratories. Wood earned B.S. and M.B.A. degrees from Arkansas State University.

2000s

Sonja Ardoin (2004 BACH EDUC) is the 2010 recipient of the Mortar Board Diane Selby Fellowship, a $5,000 award. Sonja was initiated into Mortar Board in 2003 and served as chapter president after which she volunteered as a Mortar Board national conference assistant for two years. She also served as one of Mortar Board’s national section coordinators, a position she currently holds for the

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Louisiana/Mississippi region. She is presently employed full-time as a student development specialist at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Ardoin earned master’s degree in higher education from Florida State University in 2006 and will attend North Carolina State University in the fall to pursue a Ph.D. in educational administration.

F. Margret Atkinson (2005 BACH EDUC; 2007 MAST EDUC), an educator in the gifted department of the Zachary Community School District, is one of only twenty-six U.S. educators and the only Louisiana participant chosen to travel to Israel and Europe and participate in the Jewish Resistance Teachers’ Program. The effort, a leader in Holocaust education

with a network of more than 900 graduates, provides collaboration with educators, Holocaust survivors, museum professionals, and others around the world to ensure the Holocaust and its lessons are not forgotten. The program began with workshops at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., in July. Participants visited and worked with educators and professionals at Holocaust sites, memorials, and museums in Israel, Germany, and Poland and concluded the trip in Washington with workshops designed to help teach the Holocaust and the use of literature to instruct at the Holocaust Memorial Museum. Atkinson has worked in the Zachary Community Schools for four years and collaborates with educators throughout the district and the Louisiana Resource Center for Educators.

WEDDING

BABY

BELLS

BENGALS

Ernie Ballard, III (2001 BACH MCOM ; 2003 MBA) and Ashley Allemand Ballard (2003 BACH BUS), of Baton Rouge, welcomed future Tiger Fisher Job – 9 lbs.

1 oz, 20 ¾ inches – on Mar. 12. Fisher is pictured with his big brother, Trace.

Angela Kopynec (2007 BACH HSS) and Patrick Henken (2007 BACH HSS) were married on April 24 at the Naval Aviation Memorial Chapel in Pensacola, Fla. They reside in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Mallory Schexnayder (2009 BACH MDA) and Tyler Heath (2009 BACH A&S) were married on May 1 at Houmas House Plantation in Darrow, La. The couple resides in New Orleans where Tyler works at Swelltone Labs under Larry Blake doing post-production sound for film and Mallory writes medical grants for the pathology department at Tulane University School of Medicine.

Edward Ashley Peters (2001 BACH AGR; 2004 MAST AGR) and Amy Peters, of Crowville, La., announce the birth of their future Tiger Nathan Edward on April 14.

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Tiger Nation

LSU at Crested Butte LSU was well represented at an Alpenglow community concert held at Crested Butte Center for the Arts in Crested Butte, Colo., in July. At the college night event, “LSU outshined the universities of Texas and Oklahoma,” says concert-goer Laura Field, of Baton Rouge, who with her husband, Jimmy, was visiting with Carolyn and Henson Moore at their Colorado home.

The family of Mike and Cille Ribaudo, of Ballwin, Mo.

Jimmy Field, Carolyn Huckabee, Laura Field, Henson and Carolyn Moore.

In Memoriam Kirt Bennett (1991 BACH HSS), LSU alumnus and former student body president, died May 3, 2010.

A financial representative for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, Bennett served as the second African-American student body president in LSU history, was a letter winner on LSU’s track and field team, and was selected for Leadership LSU. He was the first executive director of the Young Leaders Academy, a Baton Rouge organization that works to develop the leadership abilities of young African-American males. Under his tutelage, the academy made two appearances on the Oprah Winfrey TV show and Winfrey awarded the academy a $50,000 grant. Bennett earned an M.P.A. from Southern University and ran for office as a Democrat for a state house seat in 1993 and as a Republican for lieutenant governor in 2003. In 2008, Gov. Bobby Jindal appointed him to the Greater Baton Rouge Port Commission. Last year, Bennett helped revitalize the A.P. Tureaud, Sr. Black Alumni Chapter and served on its board.

Helen Lois Gold Haymon (1940 BACH HSS) died in Baton Rouge on May 21, 2010. After graduating from LSU, Haymon pursued graduate studies in social work at Sophie Newcomb College (Tulane) and worked for many years with the East Baton Rouge Parish welfare department. After retiring, she continued to serve the community. She served as a volunteer at Woman’s Hospital for more than forty years and was longtime member and supporter of Beth Shalom Synagogue.

She was a board member and financial supporter of the Jewish Children’s Regional Service, which recognized

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her leadership and dedication with the Sara Stone Board Leadership Award in 2004. She and her husband, Derryl, endowed professorships and scholarships in the School of Music and made generous gifts to the College of Engineering. Major donors to the LSU Alumni Association and The Cook Hotel, the couple received a Purple & Gold Award from the Association in 1996.

Roberta Nesbit “Bobbie” McDonald (1952 BACH BUS) died on July 9, 2010. She was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, Mortar Board, Beta Alpha Psi, Alpha Beta Chi, Who’s Who, Purple Jackets, and Panhellenic Council while attending LSU. A homemaker, she also worked as a census worker, insurance broker, and accountant for the state. She was a volunteer for many school and community activities, such as room mother and tutor at Melrose Elementary, Cub Scout den mother, St. Vincent de Paul, Mary Bird Perkins, and Our Lady of Mercy Church. She was a donor to the Food Bank, Salvation Army, Mary Bird Perkins, St. Vincent de Paul, Catholic Charities, and Our Lady of Mercy Church. She contributed generously to LSU Alumni Association professorships and scholarships, as well as the Jack & Phyllis Andonie Museum, the Lod Cook Alunni Center, and The Cook Hotel & Conference Center.

Earleene Dryer Nolan (1938 BACH HSS; 1939 MAST HSS; 1943 MLS) died on July 9, 2010, in Mer Rouge, La. Nolan taught at Bolton High School in World War II and in Baton Rouge at Highland Elementary School in the 1940s and ‘50s until

becoming principal at Southdowns Elementary School where she served for twenty-six years. She was involved in many educational organizations, including Alpha Delta Kappa, Parent Teacher Association, Louisiana Teacher’s Association/East Baton Rouge Branch, and East Baton Rouge Parish Elementary Principal Association. She established numerous scholarships for students through the LSU Alumni Association and endowed the Earleene Nolan Sanders Endowed Alumni Professorship. Nolan was listed in Community Leaders & Noteworthy American, Personalities of the South, and Who’s Who in Elementary School Principals. She was a founding member of Baton Rouge Teachers Federal Credit Union, now Neighbors CU, and served on the board of directors for more than forty years.

Nelson Ray “Coach” Stokley (1967 BACH BUS) died on June 5, 2010, in Lafayette, La. Stokley played on two championship bowl teams at LSU – the 1966 Cotton Bowl team and the 1968 Sugar Bowl team. An injury kept him from playing much against Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl. However, Stokley’s passing triggered a Tiger comeback win in the second half against No. 6 Wyoming in the Sugar Bowl. He was LSU’s leading passer in 1965 and 1967. He began his coaching career as an LSU graduate assistant in 1968, coached the LSU freshmen from 1968-72, was the quarterback coach at Virginia Tech from 1972-77, and offensive coordinator at Clemson University from 1979-86. He returned to Louisiana to become head coach of University of Southwestern Louisiana (University of Louisiana at Lafayette) Ragin’ Cajuns, and coached for thirteen years.

2010 Touring Tigers

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Johnny Henry Davis, Sr. Professor Emeritus of Agronomy June 7, 2010 Baton Rouge, La.

Janice Persac LeBlanc Traveling Tiger May 25, 2010 Gonzales, La.

James Tenney “Jim” Branch Jr. Traveling Tiger June 14, 2010 Minden, La.

John W. Chisholm Professor of Emeritus of Economics March 10, 2010 Baton Rouge, La.

Nicolas B. Poponjac Former Professor of History May 23, 2010 Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

1930s

1970s

Sam J. D’Amico, 1938 JD, May 22, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. Marion LeBlanc LaPlace, 1939 BACH, June 20, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. Clara V. Rayburn, 1939 MAST, May 12, 2010, Kerrville, Texas Monroe Young St. Amant, 1937 BACH; 1939 MAST, April 28, 2010, Hammond, La.

Diana G. Bard, 1972 MLS, April 20, 2010, Benton, Ark. John Edward O’Shee, 1978 BACH , April 16, 2010, Alexandria, La. Sherian Hadskey Reed, 1972 MAST, June 27, 2010, Bunkie, La. Colleen Phelps Robinson, 1971 BACH, April 30, 2010, Columbia, S.C. Errol Jean Savoie, 1974 BACH, June 17, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. William Clyde “Bill” Toadvin, 1976 BACH, June 16, 2010, Monroe, La.

1940s Stafford Beaubouef, 1947 BACH, Mary 5, 2010, Corsicana, Texas Glenny Paul “Glen” Blanchard, 1948 ENGR, June 9, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. Mary E. Carter, 1941 BACH, May 1, 2010, New Orleans, La. James G. Coleman, 1948 BACH, April 15, 2010, Memphis, Tenn.

Shirl E. “Shirley” Cook, 1941 MAST, March 23, 2010, Hereford, Ariz.

Jeptha Van “J.V.” Day, 1948 BACH, June 18, 2010, Baton Rouge, La Joel Clement Elkins, 1949 BACH, April 26, 1910, Baton Rouge, La. Laverne C. Harper, 1943 BACH; 1947 MAST, May 27, 1020, Baton Rouge, La. Marie Theresa Lacy Hendershot, 1942 BACH, June 7, 2010, Barton Rouge, La. Eugene F. Love, 1947 BACH; 1951 MAST, April 20, 2010, Winnfield, La. Elizabeth G. McDonald, 1944 BACH, April 26, 2010, Austin, Texas Walter A. Roth, 1945 BACH, May 10, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. Oscar F. Yates, 1940 BACH, April 28, 2010, Albuquerque, N.M.

1950s

1980s Bernard Ford McKenzie, 1983 BACHG, June 26, 2010, Monroe, La. Warren Guy Samuel, 1989 BACH, June 22, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. William D. Schulte, Jr., 1980 BACH; 1986 MAST, April 10, 2010, Winchester, Va.

2000s Lani Amanda Bewley, 2009 BACH, June 4, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. Douglas King Harris, Jr., 2008 BACH, May 13, 2010, Baron Rouge, La. Gordon Lewis Jones, 2003 BACH, April 20, 2010, Baton Rouge, La.

If you would like to make a gift to the LSU Alumni Association in memory of a family member, friend or classmate, please contact our office for additional information at 225-578-3838 or 1-888-746-4578.

Sam Allgood, Jr., 1951 BACH, May 3, 2010, Mandeville, La. Thomas Alan Austin, Sr., U.S. Army (Ret.), 1955 BACH, May 26, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. Allen J. Bergeron, Jr., 1959 BACH; 1968 JD, May 30, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. Narlene Wallace Barr “Skip” Boss, 1950 BACH, March 19, 2010, Huntington Beach, Calif.

William B. Catchings, Jr., 1952 BACH, April 18, 2010, Cary, N.C. Gerald K. Corley, 1956 MAST, April 23, 2010, Irmo, S.C. John William Davis, 1955 MAST, June 19, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. James Stuart Douglass, 1959 BACH, April 19, 2010, Metairie, La. Clarence Eugene “Mickey” Edgerton, 1951 BACH, May 12, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. John D. Edwards, 1957 MAST, April 14, 2010, West Monroe, La. William G. Gaude, 1952 BACH, April 28, 2010, Dubuque, Iowa Martin J. Gendron, 1954 BACH, May 13, 2010, Gulfport, Miss.

Robert B. Gibbs, 1951 BACH, Mary 6, 2010, Shreveport, La. Evelyn C. Laborde, 1957 BACH, April 26, 2010, Houston, Texas Gordon J. Landry, 1960 BACH, May 5, 2010, Kennesaw, Ga. Thomas Loman, 1959 MAST, April 13, 2010, Fort Pierce, Fla. Joanne J. Martin, 1957 BACH, May 9, 2010, The Woodlands, Texas Margaret E. McDonald, 1954 MAST, April 14, 2010, Cimarron, Kan. Gene A. “Spider” Murphy, 1954 BACH, June 22, 2010, New Albany, Ind. Robert E. Ogle, Sr., 1950 MAST, May 9, 2010, Lansing, Mich Jacob M. Weisler, 1951 BACH; 1954 MD, April 13, 2010, New Orleans, La.

1960s William E. Cleveland, 1968 BACH, May 6, 2010, Highland Ranch, Colo.

Henry Harold Cowart, Jr., 1969 BACH, June 27, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. Gordon J. Landry, 1960 MAST, May 5, 2010, Kennesaw, Ga. Robert Shands Leake, 1962 BACH; 1971 JD, June 3, 2010, Baton Rouge, La. Sarah Huyck Robinson, 1965 BACH, June 2, 2010, Walker, La. Andrew Elmer Sharp, 1960 BACH, April 16, 2010, Walker, La. William Lloyd “Bill” Strader, 1969 BACH, April 8, 2010, Mill Valley, Calif.

Brown George Turnipseed, Jr., 1966 BACH, May 10, 2010, New Orleans, La. Jack B. Usprich, 1965 BACH, Jan. 14, 2008, Paradis, La. Harold W. “Windy” Wendler, Jr., 1965 BACH, March 20, 2010, Atlanta, Ga. Gordon A. Yeomans, 1962 MAST; 1966 PHD, April 15, 2010, Knoxville, Tenn.

William A. “Bill” Young, 1965 PHD, June 4, 2010, DeQuincy, La.

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Tigers in Print Donald W. Davis, 1969 MAST HSS; 1973 PHD HSS The coastal lowlands are to Louisiana what the Everglades are to Florida, the Rocky Mountains to Colorado, or the Grand Canyon to Arizona – an easily identifiable landscape symbol – and Louisiana’s landscape icon. Donald Davis’ Washed Away?

The Invisible Peoples of Louisiana’s Wetlands (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press) is the first in-depth look at the settlement, occupations, and environmental challenges of Louisiana’s coastal communities. The book provides readers with the historical background of South Louisiana’s swamps and marshes and the people who lived and worked there.

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Raj Nair, 1995 MAST ENGR Scaling of transistors and integrated circuits (IC) has brought about decades of wonders in electronics. As this progression in integration continues, electrical power consumed by integrated circuits and systems is seen to become a significant challenge and a critical design constraint.

Raj Nair’s new textbook, Power Integrity Analysis and Management for Integrated Circuits, introduces the reader to the rise of this challenge to electronic integration. More importantly, it highlights a less known challenge, that of power integrity, which plays a central role in determining IC power and energy consumption.

Katherine Krause Blake (1952-55) Katherine Maloy Newell (1952-53) Jeanette Plauché Parker (1955 BACH A&S) Growing Up In Lake Charles (Shell Beach Publishing, LLC) nostalgically recalls the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s through the experiences of Katherine Blake, Katherine Newell, and Jeannette Parker – friends who grew up together in Lake Charles.

Their remembrances of a less complicated lifestyle in those decades offer meaningful insights for later generations and conjure up fond memories for those who grew up in the era. The book relates events of the authors’ formative years, including school experiences and teachers that made their educations memorable and the lifestyle changes brought on by the ending Depression and World War II. The book’s cover design is by Jim Newell (1957 BACH SCI).

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Profile

Tiger Nation

By Stephanie Riegel Photos provided by Alphabotz

ABC Botz

Alphabotz Are Not Grandma’s Flash Cards As a mother of two and long-time elementary and university-level educator, Pat Vining (2007 MAST A&D) often wondered why educational materials for young children don’t have the same appeal as video games, say, or Harry Potter?

Top: Pat Vining, Nicole Sigsby, and Kelly Barton Bottom Left: Randy Barton Bottom Right: Award-winng Alphabotz Flash Cards

“Since Alphabotz was unveiled in August 2009, it has won eleven national awards and has been picked up by major retailers.”

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“Why can’t they be more fun?” Vining frequently asked herself. “There’s nothing more engaged than a four-year-old. Why not take advantage of that passion?”

It was a question that became something of an obsession, and, eventually, the inspiration for Alphabotz, a unique learning tool that teaches kids how to read using oversized phonics flash cards featuring an entertaining cast of brightly colored robot characters. Vining and her three partners, all LSU alumni, unveiled their creation one year ago, and since then have won rave reviews from educators, parenting resources, and toy Web sites alike.

“We were truly impressed by Alphabotz and would recommend them as the very best in children’s and parenting products,” noted the judges of California’s Family Choice Award, in a review that is typical of the reaction Alphabotz elicits.

For Vining, who not only received her graduate degree from the College of Art & Design but was an adjunct professor in graphic design there from 1997-2007, the creation and early success of Alphabotz has exceeded her wildest expectations. But it wouldn’t have been possible without the collaborative efforts of her partners, all former colleagues and friends – Kelly Barton (1990 BACH MCOM), Barton’s husband Randy Barton (1990 BACH ENGR, and Nicole Sigsby (1996 BACH MCOM).

“We all work so well together,” says Vining.

“It’s been very rewarding to work with such a talented, creative group of colleagues and friends.”

Vining says the idea for Alphabotz had been somewhere in the back of her mind for years, but it wasn’t until she moved to California in 2007 that things began to gel.

She took an entrepreneurial course at an arts college in Pasadena, where her assignment was to design a product and a plan to bring it to market. What she produced was the concept of Alphabotz, a phonics-based reading method that engages young users by interesting them in the stories of the robotic phonic characters contained on each flash card. Each so-called Superphonic Decoder Card contains a character with a letter or letter team on its chest and an icon on its head that serve as constant visual references to the sound the character represents. Each card also contains stats about the character that tell a story about its life and personality in order to make the sounds memorable and aid in development of letter recognition and phonemic awareness skills.

Vining’s professor realized she was on to something and encouraged her to turn her idea into a reality. That’s when she approached three former colleagues and friends in Baton Rouge. Kelly Barton and Vining had owned a successful graphic design and marketing firm for several years. Randy Barton, though a chemical engineer by day,

had an entrepreneurial itch and a creative streak that was waiting to be cultivated.

Sigsby had a background in marketing and had also worked with Vining and Barton.

They formed Ideopolis, LLC and set about building the components of the Alphabotz concept.

“Pat is the creator and the illustrator,” says Kelly Barton. “But we’ve all worked together on the creative aspects. We developed all the characters, wrote all the alliterative phrases, and really put the pieces together.”

They also all had a hand in the manufacturing, marketing, advertising, public relations, distribution, and fulfillment of the product. That was easier said than done. Though Vining, Sigsby, and Barton had a history in marketing and planning, taking their own product to market was unlike anything they’d ever done before.

“It’s hard when you’re so close to something.” Barton says.

It may have been challenging, but the Ideopolis partners got it down Since Alphabotz was unveiled in August 2009, it has won eleven national awards and has been picked up by major retailers such as Learning Express, ToysRUs.com, and Amazon.com.

This fall, Ideopolis will partner with select schools in Baton Rouge, Houston, and

Orange County, Calif., to test the product in pre-schools and kindergartens. And in early 2011, they’re planning to release a CD of original songs written and recorded by Randy Barton, as well as a storybook.

Vining and Barton say their LSU education played a key role in the development and success of their product. For Barton, the training she received in marketing proved particularly beneficial.

“You can have the best product in the world,” she says. “But if you can’t market it it’s going to sit on a shelf.”

In Vining’s case, she says being a faculty member taught her at least as much as being a graduate student.

“As far as my education, LSU was great.

They were flexible and let me combine business courses with my design courses.

They gave me wings and let me fly,” she says. “But being a professor was perhaps even more beneficial. My students were my greatest inspiration.”

Stephanie Riegel (1988 BACH HSS), a Baton Rouge-based writer, handles communications for the College of Art & Design.

A Sesquicentennial Event

LSU Day

Nov. 13 2010

LSU “opens its doors” to the public for a free, fun-filled day of exploration and discovery – highlighted by performing arts showcases, tours, and exhibitions showing off LSU’s history in all its purple and gold glory.

LSU Campus – University Recreation fields, LSU Union and South Campus Drive Visit www.lsu150.com/LSUDay

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Profile

Tiger Nation

LSU Alums Dance for Big Buddy Matt DeVille, director of communications & marketing for the LSU Alumni Association, joined other city celebrities at the fourth annual Dancing with the Stars Baton Rouge, strutting their stuff on stage to benefit the local Big Buddy Program.

Gay Mack

From top, left to right: Dr. Jay and Vicki Brooks, Beth Courtney, Louis DeAngelo, Brinkley, Maginnis, Tony Minnis, Matt Moscona, Christy Reeves, Dr. Rani Whitfield, Matt DeVille, Sylvia Weatherspoon and John Pastorek

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Other Tigers dancing for Big Buddy were Dr. Jay (MD MED NO) and Vicki Brooks (1983 MAST MED NO) Brooks, Ocshner Medical Center; Beth Courtney (1966 BACH HSS), Louisiana Public Broadcasting; Louis DeAngelo, Jr. (ABC), DeAngelo’s Casual Italian Dining; Brinkley Maginnis (2001 BACH AGR), BAM Casting; Tony Minnis (ABC), LSU Women’s Tennis; Matt Moscona (2004 BACH MCOM), Guaranty Broadcasting; Christy Reeves (1993 BACH HSS; 1995 MLS), Blue Cross; and Dr. Rani Whitfield (ABC), aka That Hip Hop Doc, physician.

Reeves was the Audience Choice Female Dancer and earned the Sassiest award, while Whitfield, aka Tha Hip Hop Doc, was Audience Choice Male Dancer and won the Highest Energy Dance Award. Deville was tapped Most Stylish and took home the Online Voters’ Choice Award.

Awards also went to the Brookses for Hottest Couple; Courtney, Hottest Gams; DeAngelo, Most Suave; Maginnis, Best Technique & Boom Boom; Minnis, Fastest Feet; and Moscona, Most Surprising.

LSU alum Gay Mack (1990 BACH BUS) is executive director of the Big Buddy Program.

Hosts for the evening were local television personalities Sylvia Weatherspoon (ABC) and John Pastorek (ABC). and Nicole Sigsby (1996 BACH MCOM).

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Tiger Nation

Career Change Brings Global Travel

By Lindsey Meaux

Reneé Fontenot’s decision to change careers has taken her around the globe. Since 2005 she has resided in Germany and Belgium, filling her passports with travel stamps during her downtime.

Until she faces another rotation in November 2011, Fontenot will be known as executive officer to the U.S. Deputy Military Representative to the NATO Military Committee. Fontenot (1994 BACH EDUC) was commissioned by the United States Air Force in 2005 while she was working on her master’s of science in exercise physiology and was a member of LSU Army ROTC. She spent time in Germany before being assigned to the U.S. Delegation to the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium, an assignment she claims “fell into her lap.”

The “dynamic” position affords Fontenot the opportunity to aid in representing the U.S. at NATO on the military side. It also ensures no two days are ever the same for her.

Prior to her re-enrollment at LSU, Fontenot received a master’s degree in sports administration from Northwestern State University and worked as an athletic trainer for several years. She has only her thesis to complete before receiving her master’s degree from LSU. “I tell people that through athletic training I got to see the [United States], and I joined the Air Force to see the world,” Fontenot explains with a laugh. “That’s what’s happened.

Through the Air Force I’ve seen some of the world – I’ve seen a good part of it.”

For now, Fontenot is living in the suburbs of Brussels where she counts an American family and a German among her neighbors. With the exception of traffic, she finds European life generally slower than in America. For example, in Germany, her previous station, public businesses are closed Sundays, as they are in Brussels, though, she says, “I occasionally find an open store.”

“Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest,” Fontenot explains. “People here don’t tend to be in as big of a hurry; it’s about spending time with their families and eating and resting.”

While the last sixteen years have taken Fontenot away from her family, her time at the University has helped her to make new friends in all her travels.

“One thing that has helped me to make friends is being from an SEC school,” she says. “You just start talking about football.”

Lindsey Meaux is a senior in the Manship School of Mass Communication, concentrating in public relations.

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Profile

Golden Story

By Lindsey Meaux

When Neal Golden (1966 MAST HSS) audited a not-for-credit course utilizing a mainframe computer large enough to fill the room in 1965, he had no idea the newly developed field would keep him challenged for the next several decades.

After receiving his master’s degree in mathematics, Golden pioneered what is thought to be the first computer Neal Golden science class in Louisiana before going on to teach such a class for forty years at Brother Martin High School in New Orleans – eventually breaking ground for high school students throughout the country.

“Writing what became the first high school textbook in the field was very rewarding because it gave me the opportunity to have an impact not only at my school but also at other schools across the nation,” Golden explained of his groundbreaking accomplishment.

Since spearheading the computer science program, Golden has worked constantly to stay abreast of technological advances through participation in workshops and summer courses. He currently teaches a wide variety of computer-based classes, from Microsoft Office for beginners to advanced programming and Web site design classes.

“I kind of saw [computer science] as just an adjunct to the math I was studying and something where I could enjoy using my math skills to program the computers,” Golden said. “I knew it was important for the future that the students were going to face. I can’t say that I saw that it would transform high school education.”

And, according to Golden, computers have transformed high schools across the country during his time as a teacher. Both the evolution of the personal computer and the advent of the Internet have guaranteed instant access to information for students — as well as a “literally worldwide view.”

Now, Golden is proud to say he has graduates scattered across the country working in computer science, including one at Microsoft, another at an Academy Award-winning movie production company, and two more with Ph.D.s in computer science.

Lindsey Meaux is a senior in the Manship School of Mass Communication, concentrating in public relations.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

77

YOUR

The Erosion of a Culture

VIEW

By Charles H. Wade

I ended up at LSU as an undergraduate following an unusual chain of events, which I will spare the reader. The culture shock of coming from the Lower Midwest to South Louisiana had a profound and resonant effect on me. The place was downright exotic. The food, accents, unusual names of both people and their hometowns caught my imagination and affirmed that I was indeed in another world. I found my way around, grew attached to Louisiana, and made lasting friendships.

After graduating, I returned to Ohio for my master’s degree. It was then I took in the great contrasts between the Midwest and Louisiana (what anthropologists call reverse culture shock). Under another unusual chain of events, I returned to LSU for my doctorate and experienced the Pelican State again. I had the chance to come back to Louisiana for a brief period after finishing my Ph.D. – and some tough realities began to sink in.

I am a geographer or, more specifically, a cultural geographer, which means I am fascinated by how culture varies from place to place and how culture is specific to places. Not only does LSU have a renowned geography department, but Louisiana is an excellent place to study cultural geography. LSU equipped me with a sophisticated understanding of people, cultures, and places, so I feel that I have some unusual insight into the state, speaking as both a Yankee and geographer. I learned about many of the idiosyncrasies and uniqueness of Louisiana early on.

Considering all I have learned about Louisiana since, I regret to say that some Louisianans, at least too many, seem to take their

78 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

distinct culture and history for granted. I do not profess to be an expert on Louisiana, but from my experiences living and traveling across the United States and in many countries, in addition to speaking as a geographer, I have encountered few places that can rival Louisiana in its cultural distinctiveness. The inaction to make serious strides to preserve and perpetuate Louisiana’s unique culture greatly disturbs, worries, and saddens me.

I am bothered by the continuous string of bad news and damaging events that persist in the state: high crime, widespread obesity and poor health, substandard public education, political corruption, illiteracy, pervasive drug and alcohol abuse, racial tensions, rural and urban poverty, and population loss. On top of its social problems, Louisiana must deal with coastal erosion, hurricanes, and the recent catastrophic oil rig accident and subsequent leak that occurred at one of the most inopportune times.

But there are other threats to Louisiana, particularly in a cultural sense, such as the deterioration of historic landmarks, the decline of French usage, unrecognized Indian tribes, dwindling ethnic minorities, and the disappearance of Acadian traditions. While economic and environmental problems are understandably foremost on everyone’s mind, we must remember that it is culture (broadly defined) and intangible qualities that make Louisiana what it is and distinguishes it from other places. Louisiana is a high-risk area for cultural loss and, given the long list of aforementioned problems, I worry about how stable the situation is for cultural preservation and how the state keeps moving it to the backburner. How many more hurricanes, oil spills, or budget cuts can the state take before we face real, irrecoverable loss? I am not trying to suggest that people do not care, but why is it that a monumental tragedy like Hurricane Katrina has to occur before people started paying attention to Louisiana?

One thing I have learned to appreciate about Louisiana’s culture is the fascinating

architectural styles found across the state (cultural or manmade, landscape is another major component of cultural geography).

These unique cultural treasures are threatened by neglect or natural disasters, and I believe we should do everything in our power to preserve them. But buildings and landmarks can be relatively easily restored, rebuilt, or even replaced, whereas a people and its culture cannot. Perhaps the most disappointing thing about the threat of cultural loss in Louisiana is that there are plenty of knowledgeable, qualified, and dedicated individuals who are willing and able to study, document, and work to preserve Louisiana’s cultural treasures but lack the opportunity or funding to do so.

Cultural and historic preservation is not cheap but would not be that expensive to implement and conduct when compared to many other ongoing projects across the state and the country. Universities, government agencies, and foundations are the principal actors that work in this area. LSU could unquestionably be a leader in helping to play a prominent role in such efforts, but it is not doing nearly as much as it could.

Of course, Louisiana should continue to further develop industry and other innovative projects in the higher sectors of the state’s economy, as its future will depend on this to prosper. But it must also capitalize on the intangible qualities which are arguably more valuable as they slowly wash away – like the coastline.

While the financial costs of working to preserve Louisiana’s unparalleled culture and history may be great, especially in such a tumultuous and uncertain economic climate, the risks and consequences for not working toward such a goal and facing major cultural losses is far greater.

Charles Wade received his B.A. and Ph.D. in geography from LSU in 2001 and 2009, respectively. This essay was inspired by a recent return to Louisiana, and the first draft was penned on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Jackson Square in May 2010.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

79

LSU

Coming Full Circle

Memoir

By Joseph LeDoux Photos by Pris LeDoux, Fumie Hoppe, and Chiaki Hara

The Countdowns

The Amygdloids

80 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall 2010

In 1968 I was a freshman at LSU, living (illegally) in the attic of the Lambda Chi house. I had not bonded with my dorm roommate, and the attic seemed like a good option. Occasionally, some of the brothers living down below came up for evening fun. The night Rick Smith, Moon Mullins, and I put on a musical show stands out. We adopted alter egos of rock stars in a fictional band, Cerebellum and the Medullas, words I remembered liking the ring of, from high school biology. Little did I know that forty years later I would be a brain scientist and also in a band called The Amygdaloids, named after the part of the brain I work on. Life has a way of coming full circle.

I grew up in Eunice, La., but a 4-H bull in the state competition took me to LSU when I was a junior in high school. I stayed in the Lambda Chi house, which revealed a new vision of life for me: the freedom and excitement living on your own, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer at will, and hanging out with beautiful, sophisticated girls from Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Shreveport. Senior year in high school was just marking time until I could get to LSU. My parents saw the stars in my eyes and got nervous. What about LSU-Eunice?

It was opening right after I graduated from high school. After months of fierce negotiation, we agreed I would study business administration and come back to Eunice to be a banker.

I indeed majored in business, and even got a master’s degree in marketing from LSU. I fantasized that I would somehow blend my business training with something I loved – music – and end up working for Columbia Records. But I also became fascinated with the topic of consumer motivation – why people buy the stuff they do. I ended up taking several psych courses and because of one of these, I ended up switching careers, entering a Ph.D. program in biological psychology at Stony Brook University on Long Island. Currently, I

work at New York University on how the brain forms and stores memories about emotional situations.

My son, Milo, has strong emotional ties to Louisiana because of our family connection to the state. He’s an avid LSU football fan. He goes to college at Oxford (no, not Ole Miss, but the University of Oxford in England), but we usually take in a game in the early fall before he starts school.

My years at LSU were good ones. I got to sow wild oats at the beginning, but then was given the opportunity to find my way into a career I have loved. And that night playing as Cerebellum and the Medullas is, for whatever reason, a powerful emotional memory that I have often recalled.

Who knows, maybe it created synaptic connections that paved the way for my more recent adventures in music.

Speaking of music, my band, The Amygdaloids, just released our second CD, and it features Rosanne Cash backing me on two songs. The songs are about love and life but are peppered with facts and ideas about mind and brain and mental disorders.

So while I never did get to blend my business education with the music business, I found something better. I was able to stitch together my scientific career with the act of making music.

Thanks, LSU, for those emotional memories. And here’s to the hope of some new ones when the 2010 football season is over.

Joseph LeDoux (1971 BACH BUS; 1974 MAST BUS) is a University Professor at New York University’s Center for Neural Science and directs the Emotional Brain Institute of the Nathan Kline Institute. He earned his Ph.D. from State University of New York, Stony Brook, in 1977.

ON THE WEB: www.amygdaloids.com and www.cns.nyu.edu/ ledoux Send your LSU memories – 400 words or less – to jackie@lsualumni.org.

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