LSU Alumni Magazine_Spring 2019 Issue

Spring 2019, Volume 95, Number 1

YOUR

FRONT

DOOR TO THE FUTURE

FASTEST GROWING TIGER BUSINESSES

From the

PRESIDENT

Our Future Knows No Bounds LSU has set its course for the future, and together with you, our faithful alumni and friends, we are ready to embark upon our next chapter.

Our students and faculty are already known around the world for their leadership, service, scholarship and research. Seven LSU faculty members were recently acknowledged among the world’s most cited scholars, while others had research featured in the New York Times, on Fox News and CNN, and in the Washington Post, among other prominent news outlets.

In addition to the $5.1 billion in economic impact LSU brings to Louisiana annually, the University also recently brought in $11.5 million from the National Institutes of Health in the form of a pulmonary research center at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine.

And our students continue to bring in national awards.

LSU Law Center’s Advocacy Programs claimed another national championship this weekend after taking first place in the John L. Costello National Criminal Trial Competition in Fairfax, Va. Noah Harper, a sophomore majoring in plant and soil systems in the LSU College of Agriculture just received the National Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants Foundation for Environmental Agriculture Education Jensen Memorial Scholarship.

So just imagine what we will do when all cylinders — across all eight LSU campuses — are firing simultaneously in the same direction.

Your loyalty and support have helped us navigate our path to greatness thus far, and working as one, our future knows no bounds.

I’m so excited to enter this new phase with you, our exceptional base of alumni and friends, and can’t wait to share our collective victories with you all.

Geaux Tigers!

F. King Alexander LSU President @lsuprez

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

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Publisher LSU Alumni Association

Contents

Editor Jackie Bartkiewicz Advertising Emily Johnson

Feature

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16 Your Front Door to the Future

Your LSU Alumni Association has undertaken an inspiring movement to create a more vibrant alumni base that will impact the world by increasing the number of graduates, former students, supporters, and future alumni engaged professionally, socially, and philanthropically with LSU and with each other. By providing the resources, benefits, and programming that allow alumni to live their best lives after graduation and stay connected to their beloved alma mater, we will support the University in maximizing its connection with alumni, strengthen the well-being of Tiger Nation, and grow the value and reputation of LSU around the globe.

22 What Was Your Favorite Gig?

Baton Rouge fans of The Rolling Stones could not believe their good luck. The Louisiana Superdome's opening had been delayed. The bad boys of rock 'n' roll would open their "Tour of the Americas '75" in Red Stick in the LSU Assembly Center. Two shows! More than 1.5 million ticket holders would see The Stones in North, South, and Central America, but Baton Rouge would see them first.

"BR has arrived," the Gumbo crowed. Hundreds of topflight entertainers jumped, glided, and gyrated into “The Deaf Dome” during the LSU Assembly Center’s heyday.

Ed Cullen’s story and Jim Zietz’s photos are sure to bring back memories of your favorite show.

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In Each Issue 1

From the President

4

President/CEO Message

6

LSU Alumni Association News

34 Around Campus 42 Focus on Faculty 44 Locker Room 50 Tiger Nation On the cover: There’s place for everyone in Tiger Nation through our Front Door to the Future.

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Editorial Assistants Patti Garner, Brenda Macon, Rachel Rhodes Contributors Barry Cowan, Ed Cullen, Libby Haydel, Rachel Holland, Brian Hudgins, Aaron Hyder, Bud Johnson, Kaylee Poche Photography William Lee Boyd II, Mark Claesgens, College of Engineering, Ray Dry, French Kitchen, Johnny Gordon, Mignon Kastanos, IAAF Athletics Federation, LSU Athletics, Eddy Perez/LSU Strategic Communications, Romaire Studios, Steve Smiley, Student Veterans of America, Jim Zietz Printing Baton Rouge Printing NATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS Beverly G. Shea Chair, New Iberia, La.

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Jeffrey M. “Jeff” Mohr Chair-elect, Baton Rouge, La. Susan K. Whitelaw Immediate Past Chair, Shreveport, La. Stanley L. “Stan” Williams National Fund Chair, Fort Worth, Texas Jack A. Andonie Director Emeritus, Metairie, La.

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28 The Leaders

In the third and final installment of “The Leaders,” this issue highlights LSU Student Government presidents from the 1990s to 2019. Their stories are a reminder of how much things change and how much they stay the same.

Visit lsualumni.org/blog/sga-presidents-then-and-now.

Art Director Chuck Sanchez STUN Design & Interactive

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Lodwrick M. Cook Director Emeritus, Sherman Oaks, Calif.

J. Ofori Agboka, Rochester Hills, Mich. Matthew K. “Matt” Juneau, Baton Rouge, La. Mark Kent Anderson, Jr., Monroe, La. Michael J. Kantrow, Jr., New York, N.Y. Karen Brack, San Diego, Calif.

Kevin F. Knobloch, Baton Rouge, La. David B. Braddock, Dallas, Texas Brandon Landry, Baton Rouge, La. Stephen “Steve” Brown, Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Fred Gillis “Gil” Rew, Mansfield, La. Kathryn “Kathy” Fives, New Orleans, La. Bart B. Schmolke, Alexandria, La. Mario J. Garner, Spring, Texas Van P. Whitfield, Houston, Texas Leo C. Hamilton, Baton Rouge, La. LSU ALUMNI MAGAZINE is published quarterly in March, June, September, and December by the LSU Alumni Association. Annual donations are $50, of which $6 is allocated for a subscription to LSU Alumni Magazine. The LSU Alumni Association is not liable for any loss that might be incurred by a purchaser responding to an advertisement in this magazine.

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 © 2019 by LSU ALUMNI MAGAZINE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to LSU ALUMNI MAGAZINE, 3838 West Lakeshore Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70808-4686 Letters to the editor are encouraged. LSU ALUMNI MAGAZINE reserves the right to edit all materials accepted for publication.

Publication of material does not indicate endorsement of the author’s viewpoint by the magazine, the Association, or LSU.

WAITING ON RESIZE

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

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President and CEO

MESSAGE

Strategic Planning for a New Era We entered 2019 with great anticipation, excitement, and energy. In November 2018, the LSU Alumni Association Board of Directors voted to approve a long-range strategic plan focused on new programs and projects that meaningfully engage LSU alumni and friends to help them thrive professionally, socially, and philanthropically and ultimately strengthen their bonds to LSU and to each other.

In the spring of 2017 we surveyed 120,428 donors/members, future donors/members, and alumni chapter leaders to seek opinions as to: • How we better engage new generations of graduates, former students, and previously active alumni?

• What should we do to effectively reach and involve future alumni early on?

• What are key motivations of alumni and friends that would inspire new and increased support?

• What meaningful programs can we provide for young alumni, long-time members and not yet engaged alumni and friends?

Photo by William Lee Boyd II

“Network • Inform Engage • Inspire”

Armed with responses from all fifty states and a wide variety of class years and age groups, we researched best practices from other universities, conducted a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis and formed a strategic plan working committee. We engaged the help of award-winning strategic planning consultant Emergent Method, which led to our long-range plan, comprehensive business plan, goals and metrics, and a financial pro forma.

Our vision is to ensure that all graduates and friends of LSU are engaged with each other and committed to the betterment of the University and LSU Tiger Nation. The “Cliff Notes” about the LSU Alumni Association Strategic Plan can be found on page 16. Please take a few minutes to review this comprehensive plan. It grew from a desire to be the best alumni association for you and all future alumni, friends, and the LSU family – LSU Tiger Nation.

As I mentioned in an earlier letter, YOU, our loyal ambassadors, were at the heart of the discussions, meetings, and planning sessions that resulted in the plan. Future generation graduates will thank you for your loyalty and support of this endeavor – a new plan for a new era.

I ask you to consider increasing your support of the Association . . . upgrade to the next contribution level, make a special strategic plan gift, help us underwrite new technologies, programs, and additional team members.

Geaux Tigers

Cliff Vannoy President/CEO @LSUAlumniPrez

LSU Alumni Association

AlumniLSU

P.S. Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler with the LSU Alumni Association 2019 Coast to Coast Crawfish Boils. Details regarding our famous “Parties with a Purpose” can be found at lsualumni.org/coast-to-coast

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TRUE TIGERS

THANK YOU, BOUCVALT FAMILY for your extraordinary gift.

L

awrence X. “Trey” Boucvalt III, of Austin, Texas, has the hallmarks of a True Tiger.

Involved in all aspects of LSU, he is committed to the University’s academic programs and supports athletic programs through the Tiger Athletic Foundation. He is dedicated to the traditions and growth of the LSU Alumni Association.

Trey earned a bachelor’s degree from LSU in industrial engineering in 1991.

In 1994, he created Environmental Safety & Health Inc. (ES&H), an organization that provides environmental emergency response and management services throughout Texas, North Louisiana, and the Gulf of Mexico region. This year ES&H celebrates the milestone of twenty-five years in business. In 2018, Trey became the owner of La Tour Golf Club and residential/commercial development.

Today, he is the proud owner and CEO of more than eight successful companies.

Trey’s early career and financial successes, his commitment to recruiting Tigers for his businesses, and his “giving back by paying forward” philosophy, earned him a spot in the LSU Alumni Association Hall of Distinction as the 2005 Young Alumnus of the Year.

The Boucvalt Suite in The Cook Hotel & Conference Center – named for Trey, wife Brandi, son Lex, and daughter Ori – was Trey’s first major gift to the Association, and his philanthropy continues. A recent three-year pledge has been earmarked to support the overall mission and vision of the LSU Alumni Association through the initiatives of the organization’s new strategic plan – Your Front Door to the Future.

The Boucvalt family of LSU Tigers is proud to give back to the University through our gift supporting the LSU Alumni Association’s newly launched strategic plan. As we continue to find ways for alumni and friends to connect with one another and with their alma mater, we ensure that current and future Tigers inherit a strong and ever more successful LSU.

Help us inspire, engage, network and inform thousands of Tigers worldwide by increasing your support of the LSU Alumni Association. To donate, visit lsualumni.org or call Rhett Butler, Vice President of Advancement 22.578.3856.

LSUatAlumni Magazine | Spring 2019 5

LSU Alumni Association

NEWS

Jessica and David Wimberly with Patrick Walsh.

Chapter Events

Barbara Sullivan with Terri and Ryan Hatten.

Mary Gallagher, Melissa Olivier, and Mary Lee Jansen.

Caddo Boo Bash – The Caddo-Bossier LSU Alumni & Fans Chapter held its Boo Bama Bash Tailgate Party in November at Cordaro’s Event Center, offering food, drinks, games, and raffle prizes, including tailgate supplies and three tickets to the LSU-Bama game. Event proceeds benefited the chapter’s sixteenth scholarship named for Susan K. Whitelaw, avid LSU fan, longtime chapter supporter, and a member and 2018 chair of the LSU Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Displaying a symbolic check marking funding completion for the Anne and Larry Higdon Scholarship, are front, from left, Mary Lee Jansen, Jessica Wimberly, Susan Whitelaw, LSU Alumni Association President Cliff Vannoy, Berry Glassell, Karen Peace, Charlie Olivier, Melissa Olivier, and Allison Walsh; back, Steve Glassell, Brad Peace, and Patrick Walsh.

Central Oklahoma – LSU Alumni Association staffers Sally Stiel and Brittany Ernest, front, joined LSU Alumni of Central Oklahoma members, from left, Adam Causey, Pete Gaskin, Jim Schnabel, Michelle Callegan, and George Fulco at a chapter leaders dinner meeting in November.

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From left Cheryl Davis, treasurer; Jennifer Lindsay, advisor; Cynthia Cannazzario, sponsorship director; Lisa Bunch, president; Brooke Graham, secretary; Cheryl Fussulo, advisor; Amanda Eccles, email manager; Steve Stewart, communications director; and Wiley Graham, golf tournament director.

LSU Houston – More than seventy Houston-area alums gathered at Brennan’s of Houston last fall for a Geaux Brunch featuring a jazz band and lots of networking.

From left, front, Matthew Wallace, Laura Rempert Kraeuter, and Bridget Conrad; back, Dana Hart, Matthew Spradley, Carmen Austin, Sandi Neely, and Olivia Olinde.

Flores MBA – Members of the Flores MBA Alumni Association presented the MBA Program a check for $14,000 to help fund international scholarships for student travel.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

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LSU Alumni Association News

Chapter Events

Cook-Off Folks: Barry Thomas Memorial Award for Best Dessert winners – the 4721 Confections team, from left, Wendy Brown, Craig Fairley, Peter Brown, and Chef Christina Fairley.

Amateur Award winner Kenny Haynes.

Cajun Cravings – Gumbo, jambalaya, etouffee, and king cake were plentiful at the 3rd Annual A Taste of Louisiana Food Festival & Cook-Off held in Birmingham last fall. Hungry crowds converged on the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium to sample the tasty offerings and cast a vote for their favorite teams competed for best dish in the amateur and professional divisions. A special award for best dessert was presented in honor of former chapter president and board member, the late Barry Thomas, and more than $10,000 was raised with proceeds benefitting the Sid Strong Foundation, an organization which helps in the fight against pediatric cancer, and the chapter scholarship fund for local students. Hosted by the LSU Greater Birmingham Alumni Association, the event is the chapter’s largest fundraiser and continues to grow each year.

Janie Davis, a.k.a. Ditsee the clown, from Clowning 4 His Glory Ministries, and a future Tiger at the Kid Zone.

Indiana View-in – LSU alumni and friends in the LSU Indiana chapter gathered at the home of Tom and Susan Aycock in Noblesville, Ind., to cheer on the Tigers against Auburn last fall.

To find or join a chapter in your area, visit lsualumni.org/chapters.

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Jordan West cooks jambalaya at the Auburn game.

Don Stripling decked out in purple and gold for the Florida tailgate.

Central Florida –LSU Alumni of Central Florida hosted three football tailgates during the 2018 season. Crawfish etouffee and jambalaya were on the menu for “Clash of the Tigers” party and the onepoint win over Auburn.

Fans took a road trip to Gainesville for the “LSU vs. Florida Tailgate” and game, and more than 125 guests danced to music and Barbara Coy at the Arkansas cochon enjoyed food and drink. de lait.

Roast pig accompanied by other Louisiana favorites highlighted the “LSU vs. Arkansas Cochon de Lait.” Proceeds from the events were earmarked for the Central Florida Chapter scholarship fund.

Rachita Malhotra, Kelly Stone, Laura Donnan, and LSU Chicago board member Kenneth Lirette at the LSU vs. Alabama watch party last fall.

Chicago Tigers – LSU alums in the Windy City gathered at Standard Bar & Grill for 2018 football watch parties.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

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LSU Alumni Association News

Snapshots

Barbara Jackson with Barbara and Robert Mills.

Dan and Stephenie Teichman, Denver Loupe, Elva Bourgeois, and Alden and Lori Main.

Jane and Bill Metcalf, Barbara Wittkopf, and Thorton Cofield.

Dan and Elizabeth Walsh, LSU Faculty-Staff Retirees Club President Roger Hinson and Jan Hinson, LSU Alumni Association President Cliff Vannoy, and guest speaker Ed Cullen.

Yuletide Celebration – LSU retired

“Most Festively Dressed” winners Larry Hubbard, Lorry Trotter, and Jerry Exner.

faculty and staff kicked off the holiday season at the annual Retired Faculty/ Staff Christmas Celebration at the Lod Cook Alumni Center in December.

Ed Cullen, retired Advocate journalist, entertained the crowd with selections from Letter in a Woodpile, a collection of his essays for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” and guests joined in caroling and games of bingo. The LSU Alumni Association Willis and Connie Stelly. hosts Christmas and July 4th events to recognize the retired men and women who dedicated their lives to educating thousands of LSU alumni.

Photos by Johnny Gordon

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32nd Annual Band Reunion The Tigers Come Marching In Photos by Johnny Gordon

The Alumni Band performing in the stands.

Tiger Band alums joined the current band for halftime performance at the LSU-Rice game during the 2018 Alumni Band Reunion. Photo by Steve Smiley

From left, front, Wayne Dryden, Aaron Chaisson, Lena Chaisson, Karrie Dryden, Heidi Molaison, and Jennifer Melancon; back, Tim Rodrigue, Andre Duplantier, Melissa Kennedy, and Kara Duplantier.

1970s Golden Girls, front, from left, Jaye Brice, Dinah Bradford, Debbie Kuehne, Sally Bourgeois, Faith Wakefield, Lana Cocreham, and Marlene Luparello; back, Christine Lemoine, Ann Schultz, Debra Sledge, Jan Waguespack, Charlene Favre, Andie Schexnayder, Liz Martin Leslie Day, Linda Kidd, Juanita Jacob, and Marlene Winn.

Nearly 700 former band members – a record-breaking reunion attendance – returned to campus in November to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Golden Band from Tigerland.

Tiger Marching Band drum majors Mindy Aguillard, Jeff Gunia, Mary Bahlinger, Collin Barry, and Carl Coutant.

The Alumni Band joined the current Tiger Marching Band at the LSU vs. Rice game for the halftime drill and musical Tom Guillot, Chris Belleau, and John Butler. performance, which paid tribute to the band’s musical heritage and honored former directors Castro Carazo, represented by his daughter, Nina Carazo-Snapp; Billy Swor; and Frank Wickes.

Original 1959 Golden Girls Shirley Lichenstein, Glenda Lofton, and Jo Ann Davis.

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LSU Alumni Association News

Association Names New Officers, Elects Two to Board

Photos by Mignon Kastanos

LSU Alumni Association Chair Beverly Shea and Chairelect Jeff Mohr assumed leadership on Jan. 1, 2019.

Alumni Professor Ravi Rau, past board Chair Dr. Mary Lou Applewhite, Alumni Professor Dominique Homberger, and 2018 board Chair Susan Whitelaw.

COO Steve Helmke, board member Dr. Gil Rew, Connor Snellings, and board member Mark Kent Anderson, Jr.

Board members Van Whitfield and Jeff Mohr, Alumni Professor and Interim Provost Stacia Haynie, and CFO Mike Garner.

President Cliff Vannoy presents outgoing Board of Directors Chair Susan Whitelaw with a souvenir chair recognizing her exemplary service.

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Past board member John Shelton, Senior Director of Alumni Engagement Sally Stiel, past board Chair Jerry Shea, and Vice President of Development Rhett Butler.

Susan Whitelaw, outgoing board chair, and President Cliff Vannoy recognize CFO Mike Garner, center, for his nine years of service. Garner retired on Jan. 31, 2019.

Beverly Shea was named chair and Jeff Mohr chair-elect of the LSU Alumni Association Global Board of Directors at the organization’s Annual Meeting and Past Chairs Luncheon on Friday, Nov. 16.

Ofori Agboka, of Rochester Hills, Mich., executive director of human resourcesNorth America, Middle East and North Africa at General Motors, and Michael Kantrow, Jr., of New York City, founder, CEO and managing partner of Makeable, The Innovation Company.

Re-elected for three-year terms were Kevin Knobloch, managing directorinvestments with Wells Fargo, District 1; Leo Hamilton, a partner in Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson, at-large; Matt Juneau, retired executive vice president of corporate strategy with Albemarle Corp., at-large; and Van Whitfield, of Houston, retired director of Cobalt International Energy, Inc., at-large.

Stan Williams, Fort Worth, Texas, Director of Sales, Western US with HeartFlow, Inc., was re-elected for a oneyear term as National Fund Chair.

All terms began on Jan. 1, 2019.

Past chairs recognized at the event were Dr. Mary Lou Applewhite (1992), Jerry Shea, Jr. (1999, 2000), Jay Babb (2005, 2006), Dr. Louis Minsky (2007, 2008), Dr. Gil Rew (2015, 2015), and Leo Hamilton (2017).

Shea, of New Iberia, is a community volunteer and currently serves on the Shadows-on-the-Teche Council and the Parish Foundation. She represents District 3 and was elected to the board in 2012. Mohr, president of Lewis Mohr Real Estate and Insurance Agency in Baton Rouge, joined the board in 2017 as an at-large member.

Two new at-large members were elected for three-year terms. They are

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

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LSU Alumni Association News

Students Recognized at 2018 Scholars Banquet

Photos by Johnny Gordon

Paula and Paul Dupuy; Webster Gordon, recipient of the Barry D. Root Memorial Endowed Flagship Scholarship; and Cricket and Stewart Gordon.

President’s Alumni Scholars, from left, Thomas Arnold, Rohin Gilman, Sarah Cherry, Aimée Galatas, Adam Langlois, Amina Meselhe, Catherine Smith, Blaire Peterson, and Christian Weicks.

Linda Young, second from right, LSU Dallas scholarship and recruiting director, and her husband, Ron, present a $40,000 check for the Dallas Chapter Scholarship Fund to LSU President F. King Alexander and LSU Alumni Association Board of Directors Chair Susan Whitelaw.

Benjamin Vinson, recipient of the Tom D. Jones, Jr. and Evelyn H. Jones Endowed Flagship Scholarship; and LSU Alumni Association Assistant Vice President Tracy Jones.

Layla Elkhan, right, recipient of the Beverly and Jerry Shea, Jr. Endowed Flagship Scholarship, with the Sheas.

President’s Alumni Scholars and Flagship Scholars – LSU’s best and brightest future alumni – and the donors who funded their scholarships were recognized at the 30th Annual Scholars Awards event in November.

President’s Alumni Scholar Blair Peterson, left, with Flagship Scholars Sarah Glass and Julianne Lamy.

From left, Flagship Scholars Justin Nijoka, Justin Anderson, and Clay Knight with President’s Alumni Scholar Rohin Gilman.

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LSU’s “Top 10” students received prestigious President’s Alumni Scholars awards.

They are: Thomas Arnold, of Carriere, Miss.; Sarah Cherry, of Reno, Nev.; Aimée Galatas, of Humble, Texas; Rohin Gilman, of Baton Rouge; Adam Langlois, of Baton Rouge; Amina Meselhe, of Lafayette, La.; Blaire Peterson, of St. Amant, La.; Catherine Smith, of Pearland, Texas; Christian Weicks, of Mandeville, La.; and Xinyue Yu, of Baton Rouge.

The President’s Alumni Scholars, also known as Cain Scholars, received scholarships funded through the Association from an endowment made in memory of Ola and Ruth Cain by Gordon A. Cain and Mary H. Cain. Flagship Scholarships are funded through the Association by individual donors, organizations, and alumni chapters. Resident and nonresident students receive the full cost of attendance for eight semesters.

The current value for Louisiana residents is approximately $32,000 per year; for nonresidents, $49,000; the award includes a $2,000 stipend to study abroad.

There were 268 Flagship Scholarships awarded. The scholarships, funded by individuals, organizations, and alumni chapters are valued at $3,500 per year for residents and $20,500 per year for nonresidents. Recipients can earn up to an additional $1,550 through the President’s Student Aide Program, working in one of LSU many campus departments.

To establish or donate to a scholarship, visit lsualumni.org/giving.

Thanks From Our Scholars Thank you so much for providing me with the opportunity to excel while at LSU. I look forward to using the benefits of the President’s Alumni Scholarship to take advantage of every possible opportunity. –Aimée Galatas The impact this scholarship has had on my life is nearly unfathomable. I have been offered a unique opportunity most students only dream of. Because of your efforts, I have been able to pursue activities that otherwise would have been impossible. I hope to study abroad and pursue a career helping others only slightly differently than the fashion in which they have helped me. –Amina Meselhe The life of another is forever changed when generosity and care are shown. Forever grateful.

–Catherine Smith

Investing in Tigers, Transforming Lives I’m a sophomore from Johns Creek, Ga., majoring in coastal environmental science.

Since middle school, I’ve wanted to protect the natural environment. The President’s Alumni Scholars Award and LSU’s unique coastal studies program make it all possible. I quickly strengthened my leadership skills in Student Government Freshman Leadership Council, and I serve our local community through the Honors College Louisiana Service & Leadership Program (LASAL), through which I learn about poverty and how wetland loss affects coastal people and economies. Through President’s Future Leaders in Research, I assist with coastal research with Professor Michael Polito and undertook a project in the marshes off Port Sulphur, La. During my time in the marsh and through my lessons from LASAL, the

Thank you for the Frederick Dougherty Broussard Memorial Endowed Flagship Scholarship. It was instrumental in my decision to attend LSU. –Jean Guillot

beauty and peril of our fragile ecosystem became real

Thanks to the President’s Alumni Scholarship, I have been able to pursue experiences on campus that I would not have been able to otherwise. I am pursuing a major in biological engineering in hopes of going to medical school, and I am thoroughly enjoying the curriculum. Your generosity has had a huge impact on my college experience so far. –Adam Langlois

Association, LSU is able to attract more students

Sincerest thanks for the President’s Alumni Scholarship. I have been afforded a large handful of opportunities that I may not have had access to otherwise, notably a generous study abroad stipend.

This scholarship has opened so many doors for me.

–Christian Weicks Because of this Flagship Scholarship, I’ve been able to use my time on studies instead of working long hours. I am enjoying Ogden Honors College program.

Electrical engineering is a good fit for me, and I’m very blessed to come to LSU. –Jacob Chandler I am majoring in biochemistry (pre-med) and pursuing a minor in psychology. Thanks to my scholarship, I also have a research job in a chemistry lab, which is very interesting. –Blaire Peterson

for me. Thank you, LSU alumni, for helping me be a part of the solution.

Because of your contributions to the LSU Alumni like Catherine every year. This doesn’t just make a difference now; it makes a difference for the future, for students like Catherine will be tomorrow’s top scientists, educators, and business leaders. And you make that possible.

CATHERINE SMITH President’s Alumni Scholar

To contribute to or endow a scholarship, visit www.lsualumni.org/giving or call 225.578.3838.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

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YOUR

FRONT

DOOR TO THE FUTURE

Y

our LSU Alumni Association – ever committed to a better and brighter tomorrow for LSU and all its constituencies – in 2017 embarked upon a journey to create a blueprint for the future.

We envisioned an inspiring movement to create a more engaged and fulfilled alumni base and to that end surveyed thousands of donors, members, graduates, former students, supporters, and future alumni how best to engage professionally, socially, and philanthropically with the University and with each other.

You spoke and we listened.

We discovered new methods of networking, informing, and engaging longtime members, new generations of graduates, and previously active alumni, as well as key motivations that inspire increased connection with those whose years on campus had impact for a lifetime – truly reflecting “Forever LSU.”

Your Association’s newly unveiled dynamic, five-year plan targets specific strategies to help alumni connect, learn, grow, and thrive.

By providing the resources, benefits, and programming that allow alumni to live their best lives after graduation and stay connected to their beloved alma mater, we will support the University in maximizing its connection with alumni, strengthen the well-being of Tiger Nation, and grow the value and reputation of LSU around the globe.

We stand on the brink of a new era filled with promise and unlimited potential, motivated by a new vision for tomorrow and ready to welcome ever-greater numbers of Tigers home – through LSU’s front door, the LSU Alumni Association.

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M I S S I O N STAT E M E N T

Engage LSU alumni and friends to help them thrive professionally, socially, and philanthropically; and ultimately strengthen their bonds and support to LSU and to each other.

V I S I O N STAT E M E N T

Every alumni and friend of LSU engaged with each other and committed to the betterment of the University and LSU Tiger Nation.

OUR COMMITMENT TO INSPIRE

1

We remind you that you belong to something bigger and you always have a home under the stately oaks and broad magnolias and wherever life takes you through our network of chapters around the globe.

2

We help you to always remember your experience and we keep LSU’s tradition alive in you and through you.

3

We make connections so you can build relationships with fellow members of the LSU family and enhance relationships with your college comrades.

4

We provide you with exceptional resources and keep you informed so you can easily connect, learn, grow, and thrive.

5

We commit to valuing your perspective and diverse opinions and representing them to the University.

“Creating this blueprint for the future has been a rewarding, exciting venture, and I am privileged to serve as chair during the first stages of implementing our new five-year strategic plan. We are committed to preserving the board’s legacy of leadership in strengthening relationships among members of the LSU family and to that end will provide the resources to help alumni, future alumni, friends, and supporters connect, grow, and thrive today, tomorrow, and ‘Forever LSU.’” – Beverly Shea, Chair, LSU Alumni Association Global Board of Directors

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INSPIRE

NETWORK

INFORM

ENGAGE

Be the catalyst for alumni networking and professional development and political advocacy

Become the primary hub for information exchange between the University, colleges, and alumni

Improve membership engagement opportunities and the local chapter experience nationwide

GOALS IN ACTION MEMBERSHIP GROWTH • Grow membership to 30,000 by 2024 • Grow future alumni membership to 4,000+ • Increase membership of young professionals by 40% by 2022

INFORMING & NETWORKING • Launch an online platform to support career growth, relationship building, professional development, and easily accessible mentoring • Enhance professional growth for alumni and future alumni through innovative in-person networking events and training • Build partnerships with LSU Career Services, toptier corporations, and alumni-owned businesses to mutually benefit LSU Tiger Nation and the business community it impacts

MEMBERSHIP EXPERIENCE • Provide new and improved membership benefits resources, events, and communications

• Increase the focus on future alumni through postcollegiate success initiatives – LSUAA Student Programming Grant Program, educational programs, and new events • Establish a Young Alumni Council to improve recruitment and engagement strategies

POLITICAL ADVOCACY • Expand the Tiger Advocates Program to give Tiger Nation a voice in communicating LSU’s goals to Louisiana legislators, thereby improving funding and quality of education for Louisiana’s flagship institution

CHAPTERS • Create an online chapters system that functions to support local chapters with event promotion and management, membership growth and engagement, chapter operations, and enables chapter leaders across the globe to collaborate • Improve the quality and consistency of the local LSU experience and support of local chapters through increased staff support, communications, and resources LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

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YOUR FRONT DOOR : A 1 5 0 -Y E A R L E G AC Y

F

or more than 150 years alumni have played major roles in the growth and progress of Louisiana State University, challenging each generation to new heights of achievement and impact.

The first alumni organization, the Society of the Alumni of Louisiana State University, was created in 1869. Though unchartered and primarily a social club, its members strongly urged and ultimately convinced Thomas D. Boyd to accept the presidency of the University in 1896 – creating a foundation for LSU alumni to network, inform, engage, and inspire.

Formally incorporated in 1905, the Society felt the need to demonstrate to alumni the paramount importance of their financial contributions if LSU was to continue to be a great university. This was accomplished by raising funds to finish David Boyd Memorial Hall – the Society’s first home.

“In keeping with our tradition of nurturing strong relationships, we have launched a dynamic plan focused on programs and projects that engage LSU alumni and friends and help them thrive professionally, socially, and philanthropically. Our vision in this new plan for a new era is to ensure that all graduates and friends of LSU are engaged with each other and committed to the betterment of the University and LSU Tiger Nation.”

– Cliff Vannoy, LSU Alumni Association President & CEO

Renamed Alumni Hall in its infancy, this building was the first structure to dominate the visitor’s view upon arriving at the downtown campus – the front door to Louisiana State University.

The Society became the LSU Alumni Federation in 1913 and through this new front door fostered steady, enthusiastic growth and services to the University through decades of social, economic, political, and cultural changes that resulted in phenomenal progress for both LSU and the alumni organization.

In the 1980s, the Federation was transformed into the LSU Alumni Association, an independent, nonprofit entity committed to nurturing strong relationships between the University and its former students, friends, and supporters and creating a new home base for Tiger Nation – the Lod Cook Complex, LSU’s front door to the future.

20 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

From top: Thanks to alumni contributions, Alumni Hall – today the Journalism Building – was moved brick by brick from LSU’s downtown campus in 1934.

The Alumni House, formerly the President’s House, on Highland Road. The Lod Cook Complex, home to the Lod Cook Alumni Center and the boutique hotel known as The Cook Hotel & Conference Center.

Photos of Alumni Hall and Alumni House courtesy LSU Special Collections

C O N N E C T.

L EA R N .

G R OW.

T H R I VE .

Join Us In 2019

MEMBER

GOLD CLUB

TOWER CLUB

You are a loyal supporter of LSU and the LSU Alumni Association. Whether you’re an alum, fan, or friend - you take great pride in being a Tiger. It is important to you to stay involved with your LSU family and support how you can because you know that every gift makes a difference. ($50-$499)

You have taken your support of LSU and LSU Alumni Association to the next level. It is important to you to set the gold standard and be an integral part of LSU’s future success. ($500-$999)

You are established in your alumni life and understand the significance of giving to your alma mater. You believe in the future of LSU and know that your financial support will propel LSU to achieve its strategic goals. Your status as a philanthropist and major donor is truly revered. ($1000+)

Tower Club Testimonial

"I will forever cherish my years at LSU. It is the place where my road to adulthood began, my interest for servant leadership was heightened, my appreciation for the essentiality of friendship was strengthened and the trajectory for my career was established."

– Mario Garner, Ed.D., FACHE

President, CHI St. Luke’s Vintage Hospital LSU Alumnus (2002 BS Microbiology) 2016 LSU Young Alumnus of the Year Member, LSU Alumni Association Board of Directors Tower Club Member

LSUALUMNI.ORG

BY ED CULLEN

22 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

I

PHOTOS JIM ZIETZ

Rolling Stones, June 1975.

BATON ROUGE FANS OF THE ROLLING STONES COULD NOT BELIEVE THEIR GOOD LUCK. The Louisiana Superdome's opening had been delayed. The bad boys of rock 'n' roll would open their "Tour of the Americas '75" in Red Stick in the LSU Assembly Center. Two shows! More than 1.5 million ticket holders would see The Stones in North, South, and Central America, but Baton Rouge would see them first. "BR has arrived," the Gumbo crowed.

Mick Jagger called the show in the little dome a tune up for the tour.

Compared to the Superdome, the Assembly Center was like a honky-tonk with thousands of young people and young-in-the-moment people jammed inside. It was intimate, like looking over Mose Allison’s shoulder as he played the piano in the confines of old Chief ’s on Highland Road.

The boys jumped onto a blossom-shaped stage as what resembled a giant, air-filled condom waved howdy to fans who moved like a field of wheat on the floor of the arena. When Mick pranced onto the wings of the stage, young women dancing between seats in the bleachers reached out as though to touch his fingertips. A San Antonio newspaper – San Antonio was the stop after Baton Rouge – said of the waving condom, “Born in Baton Rouge, castrated in San Antonio.” No El-wavo for San Antonio.

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B

efore the Superdome and the Centroplex (Raising Cane River Center), the casinos and smaller cities' “activity centers,” the acts that played the Assembly Center, before it was renamed for Pistol Pete Maravich (PMAC), read like a directory of American entertainment. Governors held their inaugural balls in the spaceship-looking building across the road from Tiger Stadium.

When we asked for people's memories of the Assembly Center, it was the entertainers they remembered best, who they attended the concert with, and hearing someone named Bruce Springsteen for the first time. A few have photos that place them at a concert but no memory of being there. Most have their memories intact years later as they take grandchildren to basketball games in the PMAC or walk past its sweeping ramps to see Mike the Tiger. Any LSU child will tell you that if you drop a quarter on one of the ramps, let it roll.

You'll kill yourself trying to pick it up.

Today, Karen Martin is editor of The Advocate's lifestyle and entertainment sections. Forty-two years ago, she was a young woman about to be introduced to Springsteen's America. "I don't think we'd heard of him," she said. "We went to the show, probably because tickets were just $6, and we were blown away. Everyone was going, 'Who is this guy?'"

Musicians weren't much older than their fans. Some played two-hour "sets," no breaks. Linda Ronstadt was great, but she wasn't Mick or Bruce when it came to musical marathoning, Martin said. "She never once talked to the audience; she did an hour and was gone."

A year or two later, it was again the price to hear Bruce that had Carey Lockhart, now a CPA living near Richmond, Va., plunking down $7.50 for a ticket. That was the price of one of the best seats, Lockhart said. This summer, Lockhart paid about 100 times more to hear Springsteen on Broadway. In December 1978, Assembly Center management let Lockhart, with a second-row seat, take flash-less photos with a 35mm Nikon. Lockhart has the

24 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

photos, along with the stub of the ticket obtained by standing in line overnight. In an undated photo with no description in a 1970s Gumbo, students are seen tent camping in the fog around the bottoms of the Assembly Center ramps. Lockhart heard Billy Joel, the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO to the faithful), and Bob Dylan at the Assembly Center.

Lockhart, Martin and other alums who shared their memories knew the Assembly Center when the acts read like a roll call of American pop musicians.

Among those who jumped, glided, and gyrated into “The Deaf Dome” were Alice Cooper, Arlo Guthrie, Bad Company, Barry Manilow, Berlin, Billy Currington, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Bon Jovi,Boston, Boz Scaggs, Bruce Springsteen, Bush, Cat Stevens, Charley Pride, Chicago, Commodores, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Culture Club, David Bowie, Def Leppard, Diana Ross, Doug Kershaw, Eagles, Earth, Wind & Fire, Electric Light Orchestra, Elton John, Elvis Presley, Fleetwood Mac, Foghat, Garth Brooks, George Harrison, George Strait, Grateful Dead, Guns N' Roses, Harry Chapin, Heart, Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, Joan Baez, John Denver, John Mellencamp, Joni Mitchell, Journey, KC and the Sunshine Band, Kenny Rogers, KISS, Led Zeppelin, Liberace, Linda Ronstadt, Lionel Richie, Little Big Town, Marvin Gaye, Metallica, Neil Diamond, Neil Young, Olivia Newton-John, Oak Ridge Boys, Pat Benatar, Peter Frampton, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., REO Speedwagon, Statler Brothers, Rod Stewart, Skid Row, Sonny and Cher, Sting, Styx, The Doobie Brothers, The Go-Go's, The Jackson 5, The Moody Blues, The O'Jays, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Wreckers, Tina Turner, U2, Van Halen, Willie Nelson, Yes, and ZZ Top. (Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved Dec. 7, 2018.)

In 1977, the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd was in a plane crash on its way to play at the Assembly Center from the band’s last show in Greenville, S.C. Several band members, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, died in the crash. A brash, young Eddie Murphy and a flippy-dippy weatherman named George Carlin trod the boards of the Assembly Center.

Billy Joel, November 1978.

Eric Clapton, November 1976.

Bob Dylan, November 1978.

Harry Chapin, August 1977.

Rod Stewart, November 1977.

Frank Zappa, September 1977.

Eagles, November 1976.

Joni Mitchell, February 1976.

Yes, December 1975.

Charlie Daniels Band, November 1976.

Bruce Springsteen, December 1978.

Carey Lockhart has the stub of his 1978 Bruce Springsteen ticket, obtained by standing in line overnight.

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Mike Matassa shares a poster and an Instamatic photo from an Emerson, Lake & Palmer concert. “The hair styles in front of us are interesting; you really can’t tell the boys from the girls, “he writes.

26 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

he Assembly Center, built at a cost of $14 million, opened in 1972. In 1988, it was renamed for basketball phenom Pete Maravich, who never played college ball in the building that bears his name but did play in the building in an exhibition game with his Atlanta Hawks teammates. Maravich raised the popularity of basketball at LSU sufficiently to give the University justification for replacing the John M. Parker Agricultural Center, “The Cow Palace,” as LSU’s premier gathering place for big events was called. In the Ag Center, students filed through livestock chutes on their way to graduation and life beyond the Ole War Skule.

Students bought tickets to shows, and they earned money working at the Assembly Center. Some of them parleyed their student jobs into careers in the entertainment business, said Will Wilton, director from 1981 to 1996. Wilton retired from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. “It was great,” Wilton said. “We booked 250 event days a year with a skeleton staff.”

While most mission statements were just words on paper, the Assembly Center’s mission statement was simple and real, Wilton said. “There was a major swing at LSU,” he said. “We came up with a mission statement that included the building, the University, and the athletic department.”

Kids who started off as stage riggers on student wages went on to run convention centers and concert halls around the country, Wilton said. “A guy from Plaquemine, Max, became Billy Joel’s tour manager. He left with Springsteen’s group one night.”

Built by Guy Hopkins Construction of Baton Rouge with design by Tom Holden Architects of Baton Rouge and RDG Sports of Des Moines, Iowa, the PMAC played little sibling to Tiger Stadium in aerial shots of the campus. The facility has been managed by LSU Athletics since 2004. The white-topped dome plays host to graduations, convocations, governors’ inaugural balls and LSU basketball, along with volleyball and gymnastics. The building seats 13,215 with 11,230 permanent seats on two levels.

Another 2,000 seats are provided on retractable risers.

After Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the building, with 800 beds, became the largest triage and acute care field hospital in U.S. history. Helicopters landed next door at Bernie Moore Track Stadium. Hurricane victims were either transferred to other hospitals or housed in nearby Carl Maddox Field House. The PMAC field hospital was staffed by volunteers, ordinary people, and medical personnel.

Bart Schmolke’s memories of the Assembly Center include The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, and Eric Clapton. M. Diamond remembers Chicago, Elton John, Village People, Barry Manilow, Kenny G, Peabo Bryson, Gloria Estefan, and the Miami Sound Machine.

For Samuel Moore, it was the Eagles Long Run concert that opened with Hotel California in pitch black darkness suddenly broken by thousands of tiny flames from cigarette lighters that burned throughout the song. Moore called it, “Electric.” And Bruce again – Springsteen, Born in the USA Tour – two-and-a-half hours, no break, two encores, ending with “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” It was the first Saturday in December 1984.

f ll o a c pop ol l A r rican ped, m Ame ns ju ated a ici gyr me.” s d u n m ,a f Do d a e e d gl i T h e D “ i nt o

Longtime LSU photographer Jim Zietz shot photos for the Reveille and the Gumbo when he was a student. He worked or attended concerts by Eric Clapton, The Stones, Dylan, The Eagles (twice), Springsteen, Billy Joel, Led Zeppelin, Ronstadt, Rod Stewart, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, Harry Chapin, Foghat, Bowie and, change of pace, Red Skelton. Zietz’ status as an official photographer got him in free to most concerts. Usually, he brought a camera. “There were also concerts in the Centroplex,” he said.

“We put (the photos) in the Gumbo, so we got passes to those shows, too. Fleetwood Mac and Genesis come to mind. The good ol’ days.”

Bill Hite, director of the LSU Union Theatre and man in charge of the Pop Entertainment Committee, booked shows at the Cow Palace and, then, the Assembly Center from 1970 to 1980. He remembers a show by “Chicago” as a mess, with thick, low clouds of dust rising from the dirt floor that rodeo clowns chewed with their baseball spikes as they ran for their lives from enraged bulls.

The University made money on the big name acts that played the Assembly Center, Hite said. “We made 10 percent of the gross, the building got paid as well as the Pop Entertainment Committee.”

One June day in 1975, Hite got a call on the desk phone in his office. The caller, whose voice Hite recognized, wanted Hite to measure the distance “between the dashers,” the puck-proof windows that protect hockey fans from the game of hockey.

“We don’t play hockey in here,” Hite said.

Then, measure the floor of the arena from side to side, the caller said.

“Who you bringing?” Hite asked.

Can’t say, said the caller.

“The Rolling Stones will do extremely well here,” Hite told the Stones’ stage manager.

The Stones played an afternoon concert and an evening concert, recalled former Assembly Center ticket manager Tom Wilton, Will’s younger brother. When The Stones got to Baton Rouge, it was without their lead guitar player. When the musician arrived, the band had to rehearse. The Rolling Stones, “the greatest rock and roll band in the world,” rehearsed in an empty Assembly Center with Bill Hite sitting front row center.

“I tell that story,” Hite said, “and people say, ‘Right.’”

Ed Cullen, an LSU journalism graduate, is author of Letter in a Woodpile, a collection of his essays for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” He is retired from the Baton Rouge Advocate where he wrote the Sunday column “Attic Salt.”

Care to share your memories of days or nights in the Assembly Center? And, what show do you remember seeing that’s not listed in the Wikipedia info? Email jackie@lsualumni.org.

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This is the final story in a series on LSU Student Government presidents, which appears on the LSU Alumni Association website and in LSU Alumni Magazine.

THE LEADERS

BY ED CULLEN

1990s

Laurie White Adams (1992

BACH H&SS, 1994 MPA), SGA president in 1991-92, saw Chancellor William “Bud” Davis unhappy just once in her tenure. For that and other reasons, she calls the day SGA cancelled Free Speech Alley the most memorable day in her presidency.

SGA’s Free Speech Alley coordinator had invited all candidates for Louisiana governor in 1991 to take part in a special edition of Free Speech Alley. The state and the nation were paying particular attention to two of the candidates, former Gov. Edwin Edwards and David Duke – a former KKK Grand Wizard.

Edwards would win the election and a fourth non-consecutive term. “We awoke that morning to a campus covered in ‘Duke Rally Today!’ posters,” Adams said. “Concerned students called the SGA office to complain that Free Speech Alley was being hijacked and turned into a Duke rally.”

When the signs weren’t removed, SGA cancelled the special Free Speech Alley. CNN, in town to cover the event, called Chancellor’s Davis’ office to pose the question of First Amendment rights. Chancellor Davis called Adams.

“It was a long walk to the Chancellor’s Office preparing to defend my decision and position,” Adams said. “It was the only time I saw Chancellor Davis not pleased. After a thorough and somewhat heated discussion, he understood what had happened and the terrible position the Duke campaign had put the SGA staff in. Definitely the most memorable day of my tenure.”

Laurie White Adams and SGA VP Sean Ardoin.

Photo: 1992 Gumbo

Campus safety was a big issue in Adams’ time on campus. SGA pushed for call boxes around campus and operated the Women’s Transit System, later renamed Campus Transit, to let students know everyone was welcome to call to get a ride home after the regular buses stopped running for the day.

“Repeat/delete” was less successful. “Students wanted the ability to retake a class, achieve a better grade, and have the new grade replace a previous grade,” Adams said.

“The Faculty Senate was not swayed by our passionate pleas to implement this policy.”

Adams, with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and a master’s degree in public administration, is director of advancement and enrollment management at Parkview Baptist School in Baton Rouge and a deacon at First Presbyterian Church.

Married to Johnny Adams, whose law degree is from LSU, the couple’s two children are LSU students.

Adams came to Baton Rouge from Birmingham, Ala. “My first month at LSU, my stomach was upset from all the spicy food in the cafeteria. I learned about crawfish, tailgating, dancing, large families, hunting, outrageous politics, front porches, and so much more. I was hooked and have lived here since. I cannot imagine my life without LSU and everything Louisiana has to offer.”

Adams calls helping get the University License Plate Scholarship Program through the state Legislature her biggest accomplishment as SGA president. “Every time I pass a car with a University License Plate, I feel a sense of accomplishment,” she said.

Stephen Moret (1995 BACH ENGR) ran on a campaign to fix the SGA in 1993. “Many students felt that SGA was broken,” he said from Richmond, Va., where he is president and CEO of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP).

There was the feeling that Student Government at LSU had become “a microcosm of the worst of state government in Louisiana, that it had become too political and, most importantly, that it wasn’t focused on what students really cared about,” Moret said.

Considered a dark horse with little chance of winning the election for SGA president, the mechanical engineering major who grew up in small Mississippi towns, led the effort to dissolve the SGA and restart it. “We created an entirely new constitution” and bylaws in the summer of 1993. Students overwhelmingly approved the new government.

The big issue on campus is the same as today, Moret said. “Louisiana was not, and is not, sufficiently funding its flagship state research university.” To dramatize the state’s neglect of LSU in the early 1990s, students organized a day in which they helped paint classrooms the University couldn’t afford to paint.

Under Moret, Student Government worked to bring back the Gumbo yearbook, which had suspended publication; published teacher evaluations; and created a dead week before finals. “which we did with the support of the Faculty Senate.”

Moret was president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce before becoming Gov. Bobby Jindal’s secretary of economic development. He was president and CEO of the LSU Foundation before taking the VEDP job in Virginia.

Moret, who earned an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and an Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, counts among his accomplishments in Louisiana

a nationally recognized workforce development program and helping secure from management consultants McKinsey and Company a pro bono project that helped secure billions in housing recovery funds from the federal government for the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina. “It would be difficult to overstate the impact of the housing recovery program to the overall economic recovery of New Orleans,” said Moret, who once worked for McKinsey. “I think McKinsey’s work was instrumental in making the case for those funds.”

“My experience at LSU and in the College of Engineering was magical,” Moret said. “My professors and instructors were outstanding. I met some of my best friends in my fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, which also helped me to develop as a young man, given that my father had been largely absent from my life.

“I’m deeply grateful to so many people at LSU who greatly contributed to my development,” Moret said. “For example, former LSU Chancellor and President William Jenkins, who has been a role model for me in public leadership and personal integrity; Elva Bourgeois in the School of Human Ecology, who was a trusted, informal adviser; Bud Richey and Randy Gurie, who helped me develop as a student leader; my first semester calculus teacher, George Cochran, and my argumentative writing instructor, Shirley Mundt, both of whom had an immeasurable impact on my academic development; former LSU Chancellor James Wharton, my outstanding chemistry professor who later became my most valued thought partner on higher education reform; and, of course, the wonderful mechanical engineering faculty including Dimitris Nikitopoulos, Mehdy Sabbaghian, and Sumanta Acharya.”

LSU gave Eric Monday, president 1995-96, an unanticipated career choice and an “understanding and love of American higher education.”

Monday (1996 BACH BUS, 2005 MBA, 2016 PHD HS&E), executive vice president for finance and administration at the University of Kentucky, is the chief non-academic officer on the Lexington campus of more than 30,000 students and 20,000 full- and part-time employees. He oversees a budget of $3.9 billion. His interests include auxiliary and business services, student retention strategies, public-private university partnerships, and “the financial wellness of college students.”

“When I think about my time at LSU,” Monday said, “I recall some of the best memories of my life. I was challenged academically in the classroom. At the same time, my outsidethe-classroom experiences helped shape me into the person I am today. I gained a deep understanding of team building, the importance of written and verbal communications, and the value of mentorship.”

“When I think about my time at LSU, I recall some of the best memories of my life.”

Top: Stephen Moret.

Bottom: Eric Monday and SG VP Beth Allen. Photo: 1996 Gumbo

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Jenee Slocum and SG VP Greg Trahan.

Photo: The Daily Reveille, April 1998

During Monday’s presidency, issues included “repeat/delete,” students wanting to repeat a course and delete the previous grade. The proposal died for lack of faculty support, he said. Other concerns included students’ wanting a one-stop shop for answers to their concerns and questions, budget cuts, and maintaining “existing tuition pricing,” Monday said.

“The 1990s were a challenging time for LSU Student Government,” he said. “The SG elections were cancelled in 1993, the SG constitution was rewritten in 1994, and the number of students voting in elections was declining.”

Monday counts among his successes as SG president “opening the first computer lab on campus,” establishing a student action telephone, the one-stop shop students had requested, “excellent communications with the University administration,” and “creating a network of student leaders who served the University for many more years.”

He considers his biggest success “a wonderful family with my amazing wife, Sybil, and two great sons, Jack, fifteen, and Hampton, ten.”

Jenee Slocum (1999 MCOM) credits her success as an LSU Student Government president to working with student administrations before and after her 1998-99 tenure.

“As a sophomore, under the Paul Estes administration, I led creation of ‘Groovin’ on the Grounds,’” at first an outdoor concert, “which just completed its 20th or 21st iteration,” said

Slocum, director of the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs at the Manship School of Mass Communication She attempted to pass a student support fee for the annual “Groovin’” during her administration. The fee initiative failed in 1999, but passed the next year under Sterling Foster, Slocum said.

In her junior year, Slocum was part of a move to establish a student technology fee. “ … We spent about six months, two days a week at 7:30 a.m., with the provost working on this initiative.”

The fee was approved during her presidency.

SGA became SG after SGA was dissolved and restarted with a new constitution and bylaws during Stephen Moret’s student body presidency, 1993-94.

Slocum addressed the student alcohol culture during her tenure. “The LSU community was transitioning to a new alcohol culture in the late 1990s,” she said. “Because the 21 drinking age was implemented in the fall of 1995, many students arrived at LSU with the legal ability to drink, and, then, were made illegal overnight. There was a great deal of resistance to the change, and students found ways around the law.”

In 1997, SAE pledge Ben Wynne died following a night of drinking. “The University cracked down in a manner that was not entirely conducive to students seeking help after imbibing excessively,” Slocum said. She and others worked to give drinking students a taxi ride home at low or no-cost and allow them to visit a hospital emergency room without university repercussions. Tipsy Taxi got pledges of support from beer and liquor associations, but not enough to cover the estimated cost, Slocum said.

“Subsequent administrations focused on lengthening the LSU bus service hours to accommodate after-2 a.m. ridership,” she said. “And, unrelated to any of our efforts, my understanding is that the current SG group is working on a deal with Uber or Lyft to provide discounted rides.”

Slocum earned master’s and doctoral degrees in higher education and organizational change from the University of California in 2008. That took her to Argentina and Brazil for research on access to higher education. She speaks fluent Portuguese and Spanish. Before joining the Manship School, Slocum was an agency higher education liaison with Louisiana Economic Development and the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

“There are so many things I learned as a student leader at LSU that continue to influence my life,” she said. “For one, don’t wait for someone else to fix a problem or address an issue … Rarely will someone ask you to lead. Women struggle in deciding to go for top positions, often choosing those that are more subordinate and out of the spotlight. I’m not sure what helped me make the decision to run for student body president, but doing so and winning influenced how I approach my professional career.”

“There are so many things I learned as a student leader at LSU that continue to influence my life.”

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2000s

Cassie Alsfeld (2008 BACH MCOM), president in

2007-08, thinks LSU alumni have something many graduates of other schools lack – “street smarts” and a built-in fan club. “ …

It makes me happy to see LSU shirts and hats everywhere I go, from Capitol Hill to Cancun, Boston to the Bahamas. I even met someone from LSU on a work trip to Amsterdam! We look out for our own. That is the most impressive and important thing about our school and community,” Alsfeld said.

Alsfeld encounters LSU alumni at all levels of the business and corporate world as owner of Shoreline Strategies, a communications consulting company specializing in copywriting, editing, email marketing, and online fundraising. She started the company after more than a decade in national, state, and local politics. “I live, primarily, in Washington, D.C., but I come home to New Orleans every few weeks or months,” she said.

Alsfeld lived on campus three of her four years at LSU. “I enjoyed living on campus. It made me feel like I was truly a part of the community,” she said. “It made it easier to get to and from classes, meetings, and events. I built so many strong relationships that I still enjoy today.”

The big issues during Alsfeld’s time at LSU included emphasis on making the University a walking campus, a safer campus, and trying to achieve “top-tier status as a university under the ‘Flagship Agenda,’” she said. “We had a capital campaign running which raised close to $1 billion, and we were preparing for the LSU Sesquicentennial.”

Like other LSU leaders over the years, Alsfeld would have liked more help from the legislature. “It’s discouraging to see the legislature strip away or neglect critical components of LSU – from courses to professors to entire programs to buildings.”

“It’s time the legislature put politics aside,” she said, “and put the students and state first. We shouldn’t put higher education and the TOPS program on the chopping block every year.”

Alsfeld includes in her successes as SG president a safer campus, improved bus routes, work on the Rec Center (now UREC), the “Magnolia Bowl” between LSU and Ole Miss football teams, and testifying before the legislature “on key issues and funding” for LSU. Her vote on the LSU Board of Supervisors gave students “a voice and a seat at the table for every major decision” made during her presidency. She helped maintain access to football tickets for students, implemented “Chats with the Chancellor,” and developed Travelin’ Tigers bus trips to away games, Alsfeld said.

What she took away from LSU led to her “stepping out of my comfort zone to move to D.C. and working my tail off to get jobs on Capitol Hill, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the Republican National Committee, and the Romney presidential campaign.”

“We also did our fair share of testifying at the Legislature and Board of Regents as LSU faced budget cuts in 2008 ...”

Colorado Robertson (2009 BACH AGR, 2011 MPA), assistant director of risk management at LSU, was named a 2016 Risk All Star by Risk and Insurance Magazine for leading the effort to save the University’s risk-management department $10 million.

His year as head of Student Government in 2008-09 was marked by a lot of things, large and small, that meant something to students. “Believe it or not, debit and credit cards were not accepted in the Student Union when I took office in 2008,”

Top: Cassie Alsfeld. Photo: 2008 Gumbo Bottom: Colorado Robertson. Photo: 2009 Gumbo

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Robertson said. “Students had to pay cash or use a pre-loaded Tiger Card, but our administration changed that.”

“Little things” accomplished during his time as SG president included keeping the library open later, passing out Scantrons and blue books during finals week, moving the tutoring center from the basement of Allen Hall to Middleton Library, and leading the transition from the Baton Rouge bus system to a private company managed by LSU. Turning to less seismic rumblings: Some students wanted the “Oh Wee Oh” chant back at football games. The chant ended in a rude declaration. It was allowed briefly before the band director pulled it. Again.

Robertson credits SG officers Shannon Bates, vice president, and Amanda Gammon, senator, with leading efforts to bring students together and get them involved in SG initiatives. “We had a great program called ‘Straight Talk with SG,’ Robertson said. “We staked out a spot in Free Speech Alley and talked with students about their everyday issues. We followed up on them throughout the year. Again, I think it was a lot of little things that my executive staff did that truly made our year successful.”

SG at LSU excelled after Hurricane Gustave wrecked Baton Rouge in August 2008. “Our executive team and senators volunteered to assist in the shelter set up at the PMAC, going door to door in local apartment complexes that had no power for several days to let students know they could get food at campus dining halls and a hot shower at the Rec,” Robertson said.

“We also did our fair share of testifying at the Legislature and Board of Regents as LSU faced budget cuts in 2008 ... I remember one morning we were out in the rain covering car windows that had been broken by flying debris (from Gustave) when I found out the Board of Regents was discussing the new funding formula. They hadn’t told the Council of Student Body Presidents. Within thirty minutes, I was in line to testify against the proposed funding allocation model while wearing the same wet clothes, just covered up with a sports coat.”

Anything else stand out? “Most importantly, I met my beautiful wife at LSU and fell in love,” he said. Robertson married Elizabeth Miller (2009 BACH MCOM).

“LSU has given a farm boy from St. Helena Parish so much, and, now, I’m able to return the goodwill. As a risk manager for LSU,” Robertson said, “I help ensure that our institution that is loved and cherished by so many is properly protected when the storm clouds gather.”

2010s

John S. Woodard (2014 BACH BUS), president

in 2013-14, is back in Louisiana after a few years away – in Washington, D.C., working for then-U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise and in Shreveport, La., working in Dr. Trey Baucum’s unsuccessful campaign for Congress; and for the Small Business Administration.

He’s working on an M.B.A. at Tulane, hoping to resume what LSU prepared him to do. “LSU gave me a couple of things, a passion for Louisiana and for where I’m from,” Woodard said.

He left LSU with “great friends” and wanting to “contribute to the economy. I got that from LSU.” The big issue during his presidency was state funding for LSU, Woodard said. “TOPS was fully funded, but budget cuts were affecting the University and students. We started

32 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

John Woodard and SG VP Taylor Parks.

Photo: 2013 Gumbo

‘Unite Louisiana’ to lobby Baton Rouge and Washington elected officials.”

The “we” was Woodard, president, and Taylor Parks, vice president. “We ran as a ticket,” Woodard said. “We worked well together. Today, we’re close friends … It was baby steps. Some of the Student Government leaders who followed us did a good job of picking up where we’d left off.”

Unlike early student body presidents, Woodard was a voting member on the LSU Board of Supervisors. “University President King Alexander’s first year coincided with my year as SG president,” Woodard said. “We had a good relationship.

My philosophy was consensus building. Leaders before us were in the news. That was neither Taylor’s nor my way. We avoided the media. We handled our business behind the scenes. King Alexander was helpful.”

“There was a lack of diversity among minority students,” Woodard said. “We worked on that. Taylor [an LSU Ambassador] and I had broad experience with classmates in a ton of different backgrounds. We involved our classmates and friends, for their ethnicity and experiences. [Ambassadors] are, essentially, orientation leaders. They hosted students and their families on tours. They are the face of the University. High-energy people.”

Working with the LSU Ambassadors and the Freshman Council, Student Government under Parks and Woodard helped freshmen fit into campus life. The Division of Student Affairs

LSU stude nts e le cte d the f irst black SGA

Stewart Lockett.

“LSU transformed me.

My thinking about the world and my ability to impact it changed.”

STRIPES program, was aimed at in-state and out-of-state firstyear students. It helped students, especially out-of-state students, learn the campus, Woodard said. “They were introduced to the Tiger tradition. It was, like, earning your Tiger stripes. It wasn’t an SG program, but a lot of SG people were involved with STRIPES,” Woodard said.

They also worked with LSU Athletics to readjust the point system for how students were allocated tickets for football games and bowl games. “Student attendance was declining,” Woodard said. “Especially for hot, day games and games against weak opponents. Rather than lose student seating, students’ cards were scanned when they showed up at athletic events – not just football. There were Student Point Nights for gymnastics and basketball, too.”

Woodard worked in Hurricane Katrina relief as a high school student. At LSU, he made mission trips to Central America as a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity. The trips were “mostly Greek with a religious tilt” arranged through Magnificat Travel in Lafayette. “Students were of different religions,” he said.

Woodard, looking back from the advanced age of twenty-six, thinks his best work at LSU was getting scholarships into the hands of deserving students. “There were twenty scholarships allotted to each member of the Board of Supervisors,” Woodard said. “I was able to make a difference in people’s lives.”

president, Kerry Pourciau, in 1972. When Stewart Lockett, a black biological engineering student from New Iberia, La., was elected head of Student Government in April 2018, it was still no small thing, Lockett feels. “It’s a big deal,” he said, “because of the climate on our campus and in the state. It’s sometimes divisive. My election showed some progress. The people who voted care and want to see change.” The students who voted for him represent “a different demographic,” he said.

Lockett, on schedule to graduate in May 2019, has applied to medical schools inside and outside Louisiana. Whether he stays in Louisiana or not, he’ll take away good feelings about LSU, Lockett said. “LSU transformed me,” he said. “My thinking about the world and my ability to impact it changed.

I got a more mature outlook on life.”

It was deep summer as Lockett talked about his time as SG president with days moving slowly toward fall and a new semester. “I’ve only been in office four months, and most of that time has been summer,” he said. Still, he can point to helping rally support for the TOPS program during the Louisiana Legislature’s third special session. His and the efforts of other students, LSU administration. and legislators headed off a $2,200 cut in each student’s scholarship funding.

Lockett served on a Greek Life task force that made recommendations following the fraternity hazing death of freshman Max Gruver in September 2017. Eighteen-year-old Gruver was one month into his first year at LSU when he died in a hazing incident. His death led to passage by the legislature of the Max Gruver Act, which made hazing a felony and increased penalties, especially in cases of excessive alcohol consumption. “One of the Task Force’s recommendations moves tailgating to the fraternity houses with restrictions,” Lockett said. “We recommended hard alcohol be banned everywhere on campus, alumni included.”

The Task Force’s recommendation to move tailgating off the Parade Grounds came from testimony that some of the bigger problems, including fights, were caused by “outsiders,” Lockett said. “One of the biggest things we struggled with on campus is student engagement,” he explained. “Many of our students don’t know the names of campus administrators.

Some don’t know who the LSU president is or the dean of students or the vice president of student affairs.”

While many students can name F. King Alexander as president of the University, a surprising number cannot, as a video poll of students walking across campus showed a few years ago. Another such poll is planned, “not to embarrass students,” Lockett said. “It’s more, ‘You should know these people exist.’”

“A lot of students don’t know who I am,” said Lockett, citing his social media attempts to keep students informed on issues affecting them. Why the disconnect? “They’re focused on their social world, internships, research,” he guessed.

Ed Cullen, an LSU journalism graduate, is author of Letter in a Woodpile, a collection of his essays for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” He is retired from the Baton Rouge Advocate where he wrote the Sunday column “Attic Salt.”

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

33

Noteworthy

Around

CAMPUS

Natalie Anderson, a senior in the Manship School of Mass Communication and editor of The Daily Reveille is one of thirty-five students chosen from eighteen universities around the world to participate in the prestigious Carnegie-Knight News21 multimedia reporting initiative, which will investigate federal disaster relief.

The Coushatta, La., native will travel to Tempe, Ariz., this summer to research and report for the program. This is the third consecutive year a Manship School student has been selected for the elite News21 Fellowship.

Natalie Anderson

Brant C. Faircloth

Tabetha Boyajian

Johnny Matson

Stacia Haynie

Paul Frick

Marybeth Lima

Tabetha Boyajian, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, is the only woman to have a star named after her, and her story, “Tabby’s Star,” is included in CNN’s selected list of the “Top Space Stories of 2018.” “Tabby’s Star,” or KIC 8462852, is a star that has unique variations in brightness. With help from the citizen scientist group Planet Hunters, she and her colleagues are conducting research on this perplexing star.

Brant C. Faircloth, assistant professor of biological sciences and a research associate at the LSU Museum of Natural Science, and Johnny Matson, professor of psychology and Distinguished Research Master, were among the 6,078 top cited scholars worldwide this year based on journals indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection 2006-2016.

Paul Frick, the Roy Crumpler Memorial Chair and professor of psychology, is among 3,160 researchers who rank among the highest cited scholars in the world, with an h-index over 100 – 100 research papers cited more than 100 times. The h-index, named after physicist Jorge E. Hirsch, is an attempt to measure both productivity and impact of published papers, taking into account a researcher’s total number of papers and how many times each was cited by other scholars. Joining Frick on the list are Steven Heymsfield, professor at LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center; Claude Bouchard, Boyd Professor and John W. Barton, Sr. Endowed Chair in Genetics and Nutrition, also at Pennington; and D. Neil Granger, Boyd Professor Emeritus of Molecular & Cellular Physiology at the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport.

Stacia Haynie, was named executive vice president and provost in December 2018. Haynie has been an active member of the LSU community since joining the Department of Political Science in 1990. She served as dean of the College of Humanities & Social Sciences before being named interim executive vice president and provost in April 2018. She earned the J. W. Annison, Jr. Family Alumni Professorship and served in a number of administrative positions on the campus including department chair, associate dean and interim dean of the LSU Graduate School, as well as vice provost for academic affairs.

Marybeth Lima, the Cliff & Nancy Spanier Alumni Professor in the Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering, was recently named one of 32 “trailblazers” who have impacted engineering education in the 125th anniversary issue of Prism Magazine, the monthly publication of the American Society for Engineering Education. The publication recognized Lima’s twenty years of playground builds through her LSU Community Playground Project, which pairs undergraduate students with local schools and families to create more than thirty dream playgrounds that are enjoyed by more than 12,000 children each day. She has also published and presented extensively on community engagement in engineering, which helped earn her the ASEE’s 2018 Carlson Award.

34 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

Brittany O’Neill, a humanities and social sciences librarian, was one of fifteen who received a 2018 Up and Comer award from ATG Media, recognizing “librarians, library staff, vendors, publishers, MLIS students, instructors, consultants, and researchers who are new to their field or are in the early years of the profession.”

Suresh Rai, professor in the Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was selected for lifetime membership in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The honor is reserved for individuals who have “truly distinguished themselves through their sustained and lasting contributions to IEEE. Designees of this top echelon of membership are among the most active, engaged and influential volunteers.”

Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell, the Cecil “Pete” Taylor Endowed Alumni Professor of Literacy and Urban Education, was selected by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser for the 2019 Light Up for Literacy Award. The award, which has been given annually since 2015, is presented in partnership with the State Library of Louisiana’s Center for the Book and is part of the state humanities council’s effort to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to the study and understanding of the humanities.

Boyd Professor Isiah Warner was selected by Nature, the leading, international weekly journal of science, for the Nature Award for Mentoring in Science. The awards were founded in 2005 to celebrate mentorship, a crucial component of scientific career development that too often goes overlooked and unrewarded.

Through Warner’s leadership and mentorship, the Department of Chemistry has become the leading producer of doctoral degrees in chemistry for African Americans in the U.S. Under his direction, the LSU Office of Strategic Initiatives has mentored countless numbers of students across eight programs from the high school to doctoral levels.

Brittany O’Neill

Suresh Rai

Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell

Isiah Warner

For the first time in the history of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), all fourteen member universities have been designated as doctoral universities with the highest level of research activity by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. This top designation, historically known as Research 1 or R1, recognizes the nation’s most elite research universities. According to Carnegie Commission data, fewer than three percent of all U.S. educational institutions are included in the classification, and the SEC is one of only four NCAA conferences with all its members in the top category. Combined, SEC universities’ research and development expenditures total nearly $5 billion and their economic impact is approximately $65 billion.

Research from SEC institutions is wide-ranging, including agricultural advances aimed at improving the human condition, medical discoveries that save lives, and technological breakthroughs that protect the nation and its infrastructures.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

35

Around Campus

In Focus

Hall of Honor inductees and VIPS, left to right, seated, Judy Barnett, mother of deceased honoree Lt. Christopher Barnett; Lt. Col. Robert Freshley, Sr.; Col. Albert Perez, and Ben Franklin, III; standing, James Barnett, brother of Lt. Christopher Barnett; LSU Board of Supervisors member Mary Werner; Cadets of the Ole War Skule board member Laura Leach; President F. King Alexander; and Cadets of the Ole War Skule President John Milazzo, Jr.

LSU Salutes – Four LSU graduates were inducted into the Hall of Honor for LSU

Distinguished Military Alumni during LSU Salutes 2018. The event is co-sponsored by the University and Cadets of the Ole War Skule. Honored were the late U.S. Army 1st Lt. Christopher W. Barnett, of Baton Rouge; Benjamin R. Franklin, III, of Baton Rouge; retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Robert L. Freshley, Sr., of Jeanerette, La.; and retired U.S. Air Force Col. Albert W. Perez, of Baton Rouge. The ceremony, which included a military flyover and 21-gun salute, was held at the LSU War Memorial on the Parade Ground. The group was also recognized during pre-game activities at the LSU vs. Alabama football game at Tiger Stadium.

Photos by Ray Dry

Peachtree Tents & Events CEO Joe Freedman, left, receives the LSU100 top award from E.J. Ourso College of Business Dean Richard White.

2018 LSU100 – Peachtree Tents & Events ranked No. 1 in the 2018 LSU100: Fastest Growing Tiger Businesses. Joe Freedman (1988 BACH BUS) is the company’s CEO. The LSU100 Summit Award, recognizing the company generating the highest revenue amount for the award period, was given to Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers.

Brad Sanders (1996 BACH A&D) is the company’s co-CEO, fry cook, and cashier.

36 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

Don’t just view the landscape,

LEAVE YOUR MARK ON IT.

Universitopia u• ni•ver•si•to•pi•a

noun a community of excellence at LSU

LSU’s landscape architecture program has been consistently ranked #1 in the nation for more than a decade. For more than 70 years, the program has produced landscape architects who practice all over the world and in every area of the discipline.

lsu.edu

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

37

In Focus

Around Campus

Presenting the colors.

Thirty-one LSU Army, Air Force, and Navy cadets took part in the Memorial Oak Grove rededication ceremony.

Rededication – The University marked the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I on Veterans Day with the rededication of Memorial Oak Grove. The grove was dedicated on March 12, 1926, to honor the thirty LSU men who lost their lives in the war. Thirty-one live oak trees were planted, one for each of the fallen and one for an unknown soldier, as a living reminder of their sacrifice and service to the country. Visit www.youtube.com/ watch?v=EscwdulZZkw Photos by Eddy Perez/LSU Strategic Communications

Vincent Sciama, Consul General of France, was guest speaker at the ceremony.

38 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

TIGER TRIVIA 1. When was the formal dedication ceremony held for the opening of the School of Veterinary Medicine?

1962 1974 1978 1989

2. Before the School of Veterinary Medicine building was completed, in what building were classes held?

Himes Hall Audubon Hall

Gym-Armory Graham Hall

Roger Hinson, Judy Lithgoe, President F. King Alexander, Donna Day, and Gail Cramer.

3. Who was the first LSU female student athlete to be awarded AllAmerican honors?

Jeanie Beadle Lolo Jones Seimone Augustus Ashley Gnat

4. In what sport did the athlete above compete?

Basketball Track and field Softball Gymnastics

5. According to the 1903 Cadet Regulations, what happened to cadets who received 100 demerits or more in one term (semester)?

They were placed under arrest They were dismissed from the

university They were placed in confinement They were forced to work in the

kitchen

Bill Daly, Jerry Exner, Karl Roider, Ken Koonce, and Roland McDermott.

6. According to the regulations above, thirty minutes were allowed for each meal.

True False 7. What was an early feature of the LSU Union available when it opened in 1964?

A music listening room A book and periodical browsing

room A TV lounge All of the above

8. When did Robert Penn Warren begin teaching at LSU?

1860 1926

1934 1942

LSU Retirees – President F. King Alexander was guest

speaker at the October meeting of the LSU Faculty and Staff Retirees Club. His “state of the campus” remarks addressed funding, faculty retention, capital outlay projects, and enrollment goals. Karl Roider, professor emeritus of history, shared insights about World War I at the November meeting, and in January WBRZ-TV investigative reporter Chris Nakamoto spoke to the group in January. Retirees meet monthly for talks, tours, and social activities. Contact lsu.faculty.staff.ret.club@ gmail.com.

Photos by Mark Claesgens

10. When was the Faculty Club (organization, not the building) established?

1938 1945 1958 1970

11. What class were women students in the 1920s required to take?

Physical education Veterinary science

Physics Home economics 12. Before becoming Dodson Auditorium, which former governor was the building named for?

Huey P. Long John M. Parker

Oscar K. Allen Earl K. Long Tiger Trivia is compiled by Barry Cowan, assistant archivist, Hill Memorial Library.

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

Daryl Dietrich, Robin Montgomery, Chris Nakamoto, and Martha and Faron Cedotal.

9. Where was the first book barn for the Friends of the LSU Libraries located?

In the basement of Middleton In the basement of Hill Memorial Library Library

In the basement of Allen Hall In the Graphic Services Building

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

39

Around Campus

Eighty-three-year-old U.S. Marine veteran Johnnie Jones received a Ph.D. in human ecology, becoming the oldest student to receive a graduate degree in the fall semester and the oldest African American to ever receive a degree from LSU.

In Focus

New alumni celebrate at LSU’s 297th commencement exercise.

Fall Graduation – LSU recognized 1,950 graduates at the University’s 297th commencement exercises in December, a new record for fall graduation. The University awarded the most degrees to Asian and Hispanic students ever during a fall semester and awarded the second most degrees to African American students during any fall commencement. The graduates included 1,386 bachelor’s degrees; 477 master’s and professional degrees or certificates; and 87 doctoral degrees. The youngest graduate was twenty, the oldest eighty-three.

Photos by Eddy Perez/LSU Strategic Communications

Student Veterans of LSU was selected as Student Veterans of America Chapter of the Year. Photo: Student Veterans of America

Top Honors – Student Veterans of LSU was selected as Student Veterans of America (SVA) Chapter of the Year from among 1,500 student veteran chapters across the country. Twelve members attended the national conference in January in Orlando, Fla., to engage and learn from more than 2,000 of their peers and bringing home a plaque that highlights their recognition and accomplishments. In addition, LSU Military & Veterans Program Director Sachiko Cleveland was among the five finalists for the SVA’s Advisor of the Year award.

40 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

Project Phantom At just one year old, she is five foot one and weighs fifteen pounds. She can hold thirty-six gallons of water for up to eight hours. She has a detachable head but remains faceless. Her name is Marie, and no, this is not her online profile.

By Libby Haydel Photo: College of Engineering

For the past year, biological and agricultural engineering senior Meagan Moore has been working to 3D print the first actual-size “human body” for radiation therapy research. The Phantom Project, also known as Marie, will help test radiation exposure on a real-size human to figure out the best angle for dose distribution. “Phantoms have been used in medical and health physics for decades as surrogates for human tissue,” Moore said. “The issue is that most dosimetric models are currently made from a standard when people of all body types get cancer. No personalized full-body phantoms currently exist.”

While current phantoms cost $40,000, have no limbs, and don’t represent every body type, Marie represents an entire human body that is more realistic and costs only $500 to create. Using 3D scans of five real women that were procured from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Moore developed a lifelike female phantom made of bioplastic that can be filled with water to establish varying densities similar to a patient.

“I specifically wanted to work with a woman because, in science, women typically aren’t studied Biological and agricultural engineering senior Meagan Moore 3D printed the first full human for radiation therapy research. because they’re considered complex due to a variety of reasons,” Moore said. “I want a person with the most complex geometry.”

“This project started from It took 136 hours to print Marie in four sections on the BigRep printer in Atkinson the art perspective, then Hall. To connect the sections, Moore used a combination of soldering, friction stir welding, and sandblasting. She even used a hammer and chisel at times to take off became science.” chunks of plastic without damaging Marie. The main trouble was figuring out where to put the pipe for dose measurements. It ended up going down the midline from her head to her pelvic floor.

To test the phantom on multi-million-dollar equipment, multiple water tests had to be conducted. During each test, thirty-six gallons of water were poured into Marie to see if she could hold that weight for eight hours. Prior to the water testing, Marie was coated with liquid latex and purple roofing sealant for protection.

“The initial idea for the whole project wasn’t completely my idea,” Moore said.

“Becky Carmichael [LSU Communication Across the Curriculum science coordinator and TEDxLSU speaker coach] told Dr. Newhauser that he should talk to me. I met him at his TED Talk, where he did a presentation on 3D printing and how it’s interfacing with science. This project took off from his work with breast cancer and computational modeling.

“This project started from the art perspective, then became science,” said Moore, who initially wanted to double major in art and science before discovering BAE. “I love talking about the interface between art and engineering because I think it’s really important for how I exist in the realm of science in a lot of ways.”

As for Marie, whose name is a combination of Marie Curie (radiation researcher), Marie Antoinette (detachable head), and Marie Laveau (purple symbolism), Moore hopes personalized replicas of her will be created and used in the medical field to more precisely treat cancer patients. “What I’d like to see for this project is the research to be used as foundational work to personalize cancer treatments for people with more complex treatments,” Moore said.

Libby Haydel is a communications specialist in the College of Engineering.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

41

Focus on

Anne Grove: Researching Stress

FACULTY

By Kaylee Poche

Anne Grove, the Gregory Canaday Burns Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded Ouachita Parish Alumni Professorship in 2018.

“To me, it’s not just textbook stuff – I do these things in real life.”

42 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

Most of us are well-acquainted with stress, whether it stems from seemingly endless to-do lists or sitting in rush-hour traffic. Our cells also undergo stress, and biological sciences professor Anne Grove studies their responses to it.

“Stress could be all sorts of different things, from nutrient limitation to weird chemicals in the environment,” said Grove, who holds both the Gregory Canaday Burns Professorship and the Ouachita Parish Alumni Professorship.

“Anything that’s unpleasant would cause stress.”

One aspect of Grove’s research is studying the kind of stress a bacterial pathogen finds when it infects a host like the human body. The body attempts to fight off the bacteria but sometimes this just signals the bacteria to ramp up their attack.

“It kind of backfires,” Grove said. “It’s really like a tug of war. The host is trying to kill the bacteria. If it doesn’t die, the bacteria use those signals to kick it into high gear in order to survive.”

Understanding this interaction is key to developing new antibiotics because “if you can understand what makes a good pathogen, you might be able to interfere with that process,” according to Grove.

Originally from Denmark, Grove earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Copenhagen and attended graduate school in San Diego.

She has called LSU home for nearly twenty years and directs research by undergraduate and graduate students in the Grove Research Lab. She teaches biochemistry to College of Science students who are not biochemistry majors as well as an advanced course in biochemistry of nucleic acids. After receiving their undergraduate degrees, many of her students go on to medical school or graduate school. Some follow in Grove’s footsteps and become educators themselves.

Grove said she finds the areas of teaching and researching complement each other well. Preparing to teach a lecture helps her make sure she understands the material backward and forward and often gives her ideas for new research projects.

“I realize things that I may have not thought about,” Grove said.

“When you’re focusing on research, you sometimes tend to be a little too narrowly focused.”

On the other hand, actively conducting research prevents the material she teaches from becoming purely theoretical, she said.

“To me, it’s not just textbook stuff – I do these things in real life. That makes it a lot easier for me to relate to the material and therefore hopefully present it to the students in a way that’s a little less just textbook oriented.”

Even though Grove passionately refers to biochemistry as “the coolest thing ever,” she said she would never specifically talk a student into pursuing it.

“If you pursue any topic because you think you ought to, not because you want to, you’re not going to enjoy it,” Grove said. “My advice to anybody would be to just follow your heart and do what interests you, rather than what maybe somebody else thinks you should do. You have to figure it out for yourself.”

Sometimes that journey may look a little messy.

“You may not realize until you’re actually in the midst of it that “Oh yeah, I made the right choice” or “Oh, goodness, what have I gotten myself into?” Grove said.

But scientists are no strangers to a little bit of trial and error.

Kaylee Poche earned a bachelor’s degree from Manship School of Mass Communication in December 2018 and is currently working as a freelance journalist.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

43

The Box Should Be Jumping Again

Locker

ROOM

By Bud Johnson Photos courtesy LSU Athletics

Eric Walker, RHP.

Coach Paul Mainieri, center, is excited about the 2019 recruiting class, which ranks No. 1. Pictured are some of the Tigers’ top newcomers, from left, pitcher Jaden Hill, pitcher Chase Costello, first baseman/outfielder CJ Willis, pitcher Cole Henry, and pitchers Will Ripoll, Aaron George, and Easton McMurray.

Josh Smith, SS.

Todd Peterson, RHP.

Landon Marceaux, RHP.

“To have such a tremendously talented new class of guys gives me a lot of confidence in this group.”

44 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

Antoine Duplantis, RF.

Alex Box Stadium should be jumping again this spring. A preseason No. 1 national ranking by Collegiate Baseball raised expectations for Paul Mainieri’s Tigers. “The way I look at it is that being ranked No. 1 at any point of the season is better than not being ranked No. 1,” Mainieri said.

The early optimism is well-founded.

Josh Smith is playing shortstop pain free. Pitcher Eric Walker, an experienced weekend starter in 2017, has recovered from Tommy John surgery.

Zack Hess, the Tigers’ No. 1 starting pitcher last season, and 2018 closer Todd Peterson are back.

The outfield of Antoine Duplantis, Zach Watson, and Daniel Cabrera Daniel Cabrera, LF. Zach Watson, CF. may be as good as any at the college level. They are three of the Tigers’ top returning hitters. Smith is another experienced run producer.

This team’s leadership reminds Mainieri of the Fab Four in 2017. LSU’s recruiting class was ranked No. 1 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball. “To have such a tremendously talented new class of guys gives me a lot of confidence in this group,” he said. “Being around them Ma’Khail Hilliard, RHP. Zack Hess, RHP. also makes you aware that they carry themselves with a significant level of maturity and belief in themselves.”

Freshman pitchers Landon Marceaux, Jaden Hill, Cole Henry, and Chase Costello are expected to make early contributions. That’s the good news. However, LSU will start the season leading the Southeastern Conference in scar tissue.

Pitchers Eric Walker, Caleb Gilbert, Nick Storz, and AJ Labas and catcher Saul Garza are recovering from surgery. Walker and Garza are expected to be major assets for the Tigers this year.

Staying healthy will be the key for a team with a history of injury problems.

A number of players who were unavailable for fall practice appear ready now.

Lettermen Gilbert and Matthew Beck and freshman Henry are pitching again after being shut down in the fall.

The bad news is that right handers AJ Labas, Ma’Khail Hilliard, and Storz, three of last season’s top recruits, and freshman left-hander Easton McMurray are not available for the early season. Letterman Devin Fontenot, and newcomers Riggs Threadgill, Will Rippoll, and Aaron George, a JC closer, are among the pitchers competing for innings.

The catching corps has been hit hard by injuries. JC transfer Garza has a torn meniscus and will not be available to catch until late March. He’ll be a designated hitter until then. Freshman CJ Willis will start the campaign as a first baseman while recovering from a shoulder injury. Brock Mathis, a sophomore transfer, will begin the campaign behind the plate. If Garza and Willis recover fully and the others remain injury free, LSU could be as deep at catcher as any team in the SEC. Sorting out pitching assignments for weekend starters, midweek starters and late inning relievers will probably not be finalized until conference play begins in March.

Hess and Walker are favorites to claim weekend starting jobs. One of the promising freshmen – Landon Marceaux is a good possibility – could claim one of those

U S E YOU R LO U D E ST ROAR

starting assignments. Peterson, Beck, Gilbert, and Fontenot are veterans with significant innings as relief pitchers.

Who’s on first, second, and third are questions Mainieri expects to answer by late March. Freshmen contend at all three spots, but the coach leans toward excellence on defense, which favors returnees Hal Hughes at third and Brandt Broussard at second, especially if they hit well in the early going. Newcomers contending for playing time in the infield are Gavin Dugas, Cade Beloso, and Drew Bianco.

Freshman Giovanni DiGiacomo is an impressive backup in the outfield.

Join Tiger Advocates Get involved now to protect LSU and higher education in Louisiana. We want LSU TIGER NATION – alumni, friends, fans, future alumni, faculty, and staff – to be well informed on legislation that might impact YOUR University.

Pre-Season Pitching and Lineup Predictions By the time you read this, LSU will be well into its 2019 baseball schedule. These guesstimates will be outdated. According to theTigers’ Hall of Fame coach, Paul Mainieri, the opening-day lineup and the Omaha lineup are never the same anyway. But it is customary for all baseball fans to make some pre-season predictions about their team. Here goes:

Weekend Starting Pitchers 1. Zack Hess (RHP, 6-6, 218, Jr.) 2. Landon Marceaux (RHP, 6-0, 185, Fr.) 3. Eric Walker (RHP, 6-0, 183, Jr.)

Mid-Week Starting Pitchers 1. Jaden Hill (RHP, 6-4, 215, Fr.) 2. Cole Henry (RHP, 6-4, 205, Fr.)

Projected Lineup: Antoine Duplantis, RF Josh Smith, SS Saul Garza, DH Daniel Cabrera, LF Zach Watson, CF Cade Beloso, 1B Brock Mathis, C Brandt Broussard, 2B Hal Hughes, 3B

Locker Room is compiled and edited by Bud Johnson, retired director of the Andonie Sports Museum and a former LSU Sports Information director. He is the author of The Perfect Season: LSU's Magic Year – 1958.

WHY SHOULD YOU BECOME A TIGER ADVOCATE: Help support the future of our state’s most gifted future alumni.

Keep vital research going to address our state’s most pressing problems.

Support University parish extension offices throughout the state that spread the wealth of LSU research.

Help LSU continue to produce alumni community leaders across the state.

WHAT DOES BECOMING A TIGER ADVOCATE MEAN? You will receive email notifications at critical times when your voice needs to be heard in the Louisiana Legislature.

With just a click or call, your legislators will know LSU TIGER NATION is closely monitoring legislative decisions that impact LSU. Your legislators represent YOU. Show them you are for LSU.

Signing up is easy, free, and taking part requires a minimal investment of your time.

Show your Love for LSU by signing up at lsualumni.org/tiger-advocates

LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

45

Duplantis Named Male Rising Star of the Year

Locker Room

By Aaron Hyder

Armand “Mondo” Duplantis was named the 2018 IAAF Male Rising Star of the Year on Dec. 4, 2018, in Monaco as the best track and field athletes from across the globe came together for the annual awards ceremony.

Also a finalist for the IAAF Male Athlete of the Year Award, Duplantis earned his stripes as one of the best pole vaulters in world history with the secondbest outdoor pole vault ever when he cleared 6.05 meters (19-10.25 feet) at the European Championships in August to claim gold while representing his home country of Sweden. Duplantis has dual citizenships to the United States and Sweden and competes internationally for Sweden, his mother’s home country.

The clearance of 6.05 meters ended up as the best in the world in 2018 and it also set a meet record at the Armand “Mondo” Duplantis, the 2018 IAAF Male Rising Star of the Year. Photo: IAAF Athletics Federation European Championships.

Only nineteen years of age, Duplantis cemented himself as the greatest U20 pole vaulter in world history as he set eight U20 world records indoors and outdoors in 2018. He claimed the junior world title at the IAAF U20 World Championships in July with a championship record clearance of 5.82 meters (19-1.00 feet).

This award adds to the long list of accomplishments for Duplantis in 2018 – IAAF Male Rising Star of the Year; Corbett Award; European Co-Rising Star of the Year; Diamond League Winner (Stockholm); World U20 Champion; European Champion; World U20 Record Holder; and LHSAA State Champion.

Duplantis was born into an athletic family; his American father, Greg Duplantis, is a former pole vaulter for LSU. He had a personal best of 5.80 m (19 ft 1⁄4 in) in the event. Mondo’s Swedish mother Helena (née Hedlund) is a former heptathlete and was a volleyball player at LSU. His two older brothers, Andreas and Antoine, also took up sports. Andreas represented Sweden as a pole vaulter at the 2009 World Youth Championships and the 2012 World Junior Championships. Antoine dropped pole vault for baseball in high school, and is the starting right fielder for the LSU baseball team.

Aaron Hyder is assistant communications director for LSU Athletics.

46 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

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47

Locker Room

An LSU Legend Bob Pettit’s Greatest Game Bob Pettit (1954 BACH BUS) may have played better games in his eleven All-Star seasons in the National Basketball Association – but not when there was so much riding on the outcome. His magical performance against the celebrated Celtics came with the world championship at stake.

Bob Pettie is considered the greatest forward of his era.

“Bob made 'second effort' a part of the sports vocabulary.”

Pettit scored 50 points, then a league playoff record, on that April night more than sixty years ago. The St. Louis Hawks needed his prolific effort to beat Boston in Game 6 for the 1958 NBA championship. It was especially satisfying for the Hawks. Red Auerbach’s Celtics had edged St. Louis in Game 7 of the 1957 playoffs.

Pettit’s offensive gem included a dramatic finish. He scored 19 of the Hawks final 21 points, and he made a goal with 15 seconds remaining for the 110-109 victory.

The former LSU All-America hit on 19 of 34 field goal attempts, connected on 12 of 15 free throws, and led St. Louis with 19 rebounds. Only one other member of the Hawks – Cliff Hagan – was in double figures with 15 points.

Boston had five players in double figures led by Bill Sharman with 26, Tom Heinsohn with 23, and Bob Cousy with 15. But Pettit was a relentless scoring machine.

Two basketball games stand out in Pettit’s memory. One was Game 6 of the 1958 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics, a game that made St. Louis the world champions of basketball. It also included Pettit’s impressive scoring effort against a competitive rival. The other game was the 1950 Louisiana high school state championship game in which Baton Rouge High defeated St. Aloysius of New Orleans.

“You can't really compare the games,’ Pettit told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “But at the time, winning the state title meant so much.”

The Celtics began a remarkable winning sequence in 1957, edging St. Louis 125-123 in a legendary final that lasted two overtimes. From 1957 through 1966, Boston won nine of 10 NBA championships. Pettit and the St. Louis Hawks could not be stopped in 1958. For years, Auerbach, the Celtics’ coach, would needle Heinsohn about the 1958 Final – the one that got away: “We could have won 10 in a row if you had held Bob Pettit to 48 points.”

With Pettit’s scoring, rebounding, and leadership, St. Louis rivaled Boston in the NBA finals for four seasons – 1956-57, 1957-58, 1959-60 and 1960-61.

In the first game of the 1957 Finals at the Boston Garden, Pettit scored 37 points as the Hawks upset the Celtics and their emerging star Bill Russell in double overtime.

Pettit’s shot won the third game at St. Louis. He sank two free throws with six seconds remaining in Game 7, forcing overtime. However, his 39 points and 19 rebounds in 56 minutes of play were not enough to win in double overtime of one of the most exciting games in NBA playoff history.

After Pettit’s playing days had ended, Russell offered this tribute: “Bob made ‘second effort’ a part of the sports vocabulary. He kept coming at you more than any man in the game. He was always battling for position, fighting you off the boards.”

Alex Hannum, who took over as the Hawks coach with 31 games left in the 1957 season, said Pettit’s attitude was the reason for the club’s success. “I was an old-timer when he was a rookie, and I saw him mature into a great player,” Hannum told the Houston Chronicle. “He’s a winner, whether it was in playing cards or on the court. I always said it was no fun to play poker against Bob Pettit, because he always played to win, not just to have fun.”

He is considered the greatest forward of his era.

• Pettit was an All-Star in each of his 11 seasons, an All-NBA First Team selection 10 times, and an All-NBA Second Team pick once.

• He never finished below seventh in the NBA scoring race. He left the sport with two Most Valuable Player Awards and an NBA championship ring.

• He, along with Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry Lucas, are the only three players who averaged more than 20 points and 20 rebounds in an NBA season.

48 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

• His 12,849 rebounds were second most in league history at the time he retired.

• His 16.2 rebounds per game career average remains third in all-time NBA standings only to Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell.

• He was an immediate hit, winning Rookie of the Year honors in 1955.

• Pettit was the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 1956 – his second season, leading the league in scoring (25.7) and rebounding (16.2).

• He led the Hawks to the NBA championship finals against the Celtics in 1957, his third season in the league.

• He was the first NBA player ever to reach the 20,000-point mark.

• No other retired player in NBA history other than Pettit and Alex Groza (who played only two seasons) has averaged more than 20 points per game in every season they’ve played (note: Michael Jordan averaged exactly 20 points per game in his final season).

• He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970 and named to the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996.

After retiring from pro basketball at thirty-two, this LSU graduate put his business degree to work. Pettit worked in the banking industry in Baton Rouge and Metairie for twenty-three years before becoming a financial consultant in 1988. He was inducted into the LSU Alumni Association Hall of Distinction in 1989. He retired from Equities Capital Investors, the company that he co-founded, in 2006.

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NATION

1950s

Robert L. Atkinson (1952 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers in the area of Health Care.

Frank L. Maraist (1958 JD), a retired professor of law at LSU, was named a 2019 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year by the Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Maraist also taught at the law schools of Mississippi, Texas, North Carolina, Tulane, and Washington in St. Louis. He delivered his last lecture at LSU on July 14, 2011, to a standing ovation from faculty colleagues, staff, and students in attendance. He was Degrees BACH Bachelor’s Degree MAST Master’s Degree PHD Doctorate SPEC Specialist DVM Doctor of Veterinary Medicine JD Juris Doctorate

(LSU Law School) LLM Master of Laws MD Medical Doctor

(LSU School of Medicine) DDS Doctor of Dental Science

(LSU School of Dentistry) Colleges/Schools AGR Agriculture A&D Art & Design C&E Coast & Environment H&SS Humanities & Social Sciences SCI Science BUS Business HS&E Human Sciences & Education ENGR Engineering M&DA Music & Dramatic Arts MCOM Mass Communication SCE School of the Coast

& Environment SVM School of Veterinary Medicine SW Social Work

50 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

David R. Cassidy (1972 BACH H&SS, 1975 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers in the area

the longest-serving executive director of the Louisiana Judicial College and the first executive director of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel.

1960s

Lee M. Faucette, Jr. (1962 BACH HS&E, 1966 MAST HS&E) was elected commander of the LSU Boyd-Ewing American Legion Post 58. After graduating from Warren Easton High School in New Orleans, Faucette enlisted in the U.S. Army. Upon honorable discharge, he attended LSU on the Korean G.I. Bill, and he served with distinction as a teacher and school administrator in East Baton Rouge Parish. While teaching at Baker High School he was chosen Louisiana Teacher of the Year, and thenLSU President John Hunter, presented the award on behalf of the Louisiana Junior Chamber of Commerce. He was the first principal of Baton Rouge Magnet High School. For his achievements in education, Faucette was inducted into both the Baton Rouge High School Hall of Fame and the Warren Easton High School Hall of Fame.

1970s

Richard Arsenault (1977 BACH H&SS, 1980 JD) of Neblett, Beard & Arsenault in Alexandria, La., chaired a complex litigation conference in New York: Current Mass Torts from E-Discovery Through Exit Strategies - Navigating "Game-Changing" Dynamics. He was recently named one of Louisiana’s Top 10 Attorneys by Attorney and Practice Magazine.

of Tax. Charles D’Agostino (1970 BACH H&SS, 1972 MBA) was honored by the International Association of University Research Parks with the Career Achievement Award for his thirty-year career in developing business incubators and research parks. D’Agostino, who retired in January, was founding executive director of the Louisiana Business and Technology Center since 1988 and the LSU Innovation Park since 2005. Both entities have supported hundreds of start-up companies, innovations, and entrepreneurs across the state.

V.L. “Lani” Elliott (1971 MAST BUS), a faculty member at the National Intelligence University (NIU) in Washington, D.C., from 2003 to 2016, was awarded professor emeritus status. Elliott completed LSU classes in 1966 and wrote his thesis during five years of civilian service in Vietnam while working on economic warfare and stabilization for the U.S. Mission’s Joint Economic Office. He earned the Postgraduate Intelligence Program Certificate (PGIP) and a master’s degree in strategic intelligence from an NIU predecessor, the Joint Military Intelligence College.

Since the 1960s Elliott has applied economics to the problems of instability and internal war, co-authoring “The Economics of Insurgency,” an early contribution to modern conflict economics, and an often cited book, Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and Development Policy. He has worked in various parts of the national security and

foreign policy communities, including the executive offices of the president and has consulted for the Institute for Defense Analyses, the Political Instability Task Force, and the World Bank.

Larry Feldman, Jr. (1972 BACH H&SS, 1974 JD), an attorney with McGlinchey Stafford in New Orleans, La., was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers in the area of Business Litigation.

S. Gene Fendler (1973 JD), a trial and appellate lawyer and former president and managing partner of Liskow and Lewis in New Orleans, La., was named a 2019 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year by the Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Fendler was appointed to the LSU Law Alumni Board of Trustees in 2005 and named president in 2010.

Donald E. “Don” Hood (1979 BACH H&SS, 1982 BACH HS&E, 1991 MAST HS&E) was inducted into the Catholic High School (CHS) Grizzly Greats Athletic Hall of Fame in January. Hood began coaching at CHS in 1982. As an assistant football coach, his teams won sixteen district titles, made six semifinals appearances, and were state runners-up in 1990. As the field coach for the CHS track and field team, his teams won fifteen outdoor state titles, thirteen indoor state titles, five outdoor state runners-up, five indoor state runners-up, and thirty-five district titles. Hood coached sixteen individual state champions in outdoor track, seven individual state champions in indoor track in the javelin, shot put, and discus, and swept all three individual titles at the district championships eleven times.

William J. “Joe” Laughlin (1972 BACH SCI, 1975 MD-NO) was inducted into the Catholic High School Grizzly Greats (CHS) Athletic Hall of Fame in January. Since 1981, Laughlin has cared for, treated, and rehabilitated CHS athletes, and he was instrumental in starting the Friday night orthopedic clinic for all area football players. Under his leadership and guidance, Catholic High School’s athletic training program blossomed into an institution boasting two full-time professional trainers, numerous college interns, and an academic curriculum training the next generation’s athletic medical professionals.

Christine Lipsey (1974 BACH H&SS, 1982 JD), a member of the commercial litigation team at McGlinchey Stafford in Baton Rouge, received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Lipsey, recognized throughout the state and region as a leader in commercial litigation, presents in the area of legal ethics and has taught for many years as an adjunct professor at the Law Center. She was also named to Louisiana Super Lawyers in the areas of Business Litigation and Insurance Coverage.

Marilyn Maloney (1972 BACH H&SS, 1975 JD), an attorney with Liskow & Lewis in Houston, Texas, is president-elect of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

Maloney is listed in Best Lawyers in America and is a Top-Rated Real Estate Attorney in Texas Super Lawyers. She is a member of Houston Commercial Real Estate Women and a Fellow of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers. In 2013, she received a

Distinguished Achievement Award from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, and in 2004 was recognized by the Louisiana Bar Foundation with its President’s Award and selected by New Orleans CityBusiness as one of the Women of the Year.

Kathleen A. Manning (1974 BACH HS&E, 1977 JD), an attorney with McGlinchey Stafford in New Orleans, La., was named to Louisiana Super Lawyer in the area of Personal Injury-Products: Defense.

John T. Nesser III (1970 BACH BUS, 1973 JD), retired executive vice president and chief operating officer of McDermott International, Inc., received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Nesser joined McDermott as associate general counsel in 1998 and spent more than ten years in various senior management roles, including general counsel, chief administrative officer, and chief legal officer.

Eve B. Masinter (1979 BACH H&SS, 1982 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in New Orleans, La., was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers in the area of Employment & Labor.

Stephen P. Strohschein (1978 BACH BUS, 1981 JD), an attorney with McGlinchey Stafford in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers, in the area of Bankruptcy: Business and Banking.

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Tiger Nation

1980s

Ricardo A. “Richard” Aguilar (1983 BACH BUS, 1986 JD), attorney with McGlinchey Stafford in New Orleans, La., was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers in the area of area of Business Litigation.

Michael D. Ferachi (1986 BACH BUS, 1989 JD), an attorney with McGlinchey Stafford in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers in the areas of Business Litigation, Class Action/Mass Torts: Defense, and Appellate Law.

Jude C. Bursavich (1983 BACH H&SS, 1988 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers in the area of Business Litigation.

Matt Jones (1986 BACH H&SS, 1989 JD), an attorney with Liskow & Lewis, was named manager of the firm’s new Baton Rouge office. Jones previously practiced in the firm’s Lafayette, La., office.

Jeanne C. Comeaux (1980 BACH H&SS, 1994 JD), a partner in Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, was appointed the Baton Rouge Bar Association delegate to the American Bar Association House of Delegates, the association’s ultimate governing and policy-making body. As delegate, she earned a seat on the Louisiana State Law Institute. Comeaux was president of the Baton Rouge Bar in 2016.

Barrye Miyagi (1989 BACH H&SS, 1992 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter in Baton Rouge, since 2017, was named partner in January.

Miyagi has more than twenty-five years of experience representing petrochemical, energy, and manufacturing companies in the fields of general litigation, toxic tort defense, Medicare compliance, and alternative dispute resolution.

Timothy F. Daniels (1982 BACH H&SS, 1985 JD), a member of the Irwin Fritchie law firm in New Orleans, La., received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center.

Daniels has served on the school’s Board of Trustees for many years, provided leadership for the Annual Fund, and is a longtime member of the Chancellor’s/ Dean’s Council.

Tara Kenyon (1985 MBA), founder and CEO of Kentara Analytics, a Dallas-based strategic analytics services firm serving banks and credit unions, was featured on the cover of Banking CIO Outlook magazine’s Banking Analytics special issue in November 2018. Her company was named a Top 10 Banking Analytics Solution Provider for 2018 in its second year of operation. Prior to founding Kentara, Kenyon was the Global Banking

Practice Leader for IBM Risk Analytics.

A former bank chief risk officer, her financial industry experience spans twenty years. Kenyon is a distinguished graduate of the American Bankers Association’s Stonier Graduate School of Banking.

Eric J. Simonson (1986 BACH BUS), an attorney with McGlinchey Stafford in New Orleans, La., was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers in the areas of Business Litigation and Class Action/ Mass Torts: Defense.

1990s

Allison Russell Crump (1994 BACH H&SS), director of sales and marketing for Renaissance Baton Rouge and Watermark Baton Rouge, received an SME Excellence in Sales & Marketing Award at the Sales and Marketing Executives of Greater Baton Rouge 2018 Excellence Banquet.

Emily Black Grey (1994 BACH H&SS, 2000 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers in the area of Health Care.

Danielle Gueho (1992 BACH H&SS), sales manager at The Cook Hotel and Conference Center at LSU, was named Ambassador of the Year by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and Volunteer of

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52 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

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the year by the West Baton Rouge Chamber this spring.

Scott N. Hensgens (1993 BACH H&SS), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers in the area of Business Litigation.

Ryan D. “Jume�

Jumonville (1996 BACH H&SS) was inducted into the Catholic High School (CHS) Grizzly Greats Hall of Fame in January.

Jumonville earned varsity letters in football and track as a CHS sophomore and in his junior year was the starting running back for the Bears, and the track team finished the season as district and regional champions. He led the field events earning the district, regional, and state individual championships in the javelin. As a senior, he again won the district and regional championship in the javelin and played a significant role for the 1991 outdoor state champion track and field team by placing second in the state meet. Jumonville was offered and accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of Tennessee for track and field.

Amy Lambert (1992 BACH MCOM, 1996 JD), a partner in Taylor Porter, was sworn in as the 2019 president of the Baton Rouge Bar Association in January.

Lambert is a member of the LSU Law Center Hall of Fame, was recognized in 2005 as one of Baton Rouge Business Report's Top Forty Under 40, and was selected for The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Commercial Litigation. She is a past chair of the LSU Law Annual Fund, a member of Theatre Baton Rouge board of governors, past president of Playmakers of Baton Rouge board of

54 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

directors, an active member of St. Aloysius Church Parish, and a past member of the Executive Committee of the Wex Malone American Inns of Court.

Christopher McFarlane (1993 MAST A&D), a master gunnery sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, played bassoon as a member of "The President's Own" United States Marine Chamber Orchestra for President George H.W. Bush's funeral service at Washington National Cathedral on Dec. 5, 2018.

Benton Toups (1997 BACH H&SS, 2000 JD), an attorney with Cranfill Sumner & Harzog in Wilmington, N.C., was listed in Business North Carolina magazine as a 2019 Legal Elite in the area of Employment Law.

2000s

Camille Batiste (2000 MBA), vice president of global procurement for Archer Daniels Midland Company was recognized

by Profiles in Diversity Journal as a winner of a 17th Annual Women Worth Watching Award. Archer Daniels Midland was incorrectly identified in the winter issue. The magazine regrets the error.

Timothy M. Brinks (2008 BACH BUS, 2012 JD), an attorney with Adams and Reese in New Orleans, La., was elected to partnership in January.

He represents clients in commercial litigation, tort and insurance defense, maritime litigation, liability defense, commercial disputes, professional liability lawsuits, and tort litigation.

L. Cole Callihan (2002 BACH BUS), an attorney with Adams and Reese in New Orleans, La., was elected to partnership in January. Callihan represents clients in maritime/transportation and customs matters, including tariffs and global trade. He received his Juris Doctor from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in 2011.

Joseph J. Cefalu, III (2009 BACH BUS, 2012 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers Rising Stars in the area of Civil Litigation: Defense.

Hunter Chauvin (2008 BACH BUS, 2011 JD), an attorney with Liskow & Lewis in Lafayette, La., was named a shareholder in January. Chauvin assists major oil and gas companies in environmental litigation, with a concentration on legacy lawsuits and coastal land loss issues. He teaches trial advocacy at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center; is on the board of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel; and is an active member of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), Louisiana Oil and Gas Association (LOGA), and the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association (LMOGA).

Ryan Christiansen (2007 BACH BUS), an attorney with Liskow & Lewis in New Orleans, La., was named a shareholder in January. Christiansen, a business lawyer helping companies in real estate matters, is vicechair of the Title Insurance and Surveys of the American Bar Association Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section and a member of the New Orleans Bar

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Tiger Nation

Association’s Real Property Committee.

He received his Juris Doctor from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law in 2011.

Trey Dunbar (2007 MBA) was named president of Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health in January. His duties include overseeing the strategic and operational leadership of the children’s hospital and the regional strategy for Children’s Health across the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System.

A 1994 graduate of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Dunbar is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in general pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine. He completed his pediatrics residency at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center in 1997 and his neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in 2000.

Jason Feirman (2000 BACH MCOM), executive director for creative services at LSU Athletics, received an SME Excellence in Sales & Marketing Award at the Sales and Marketing Executives of Greater Baton Rouge 2018 Excellence Banquet.

Tracy Brown Gati (2004 DVM) was certified as a Diplomat by the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners (ABVP) specializing in canine and feline practice. Gati has practiced at Emergency Pet Clinic in San Antonio, Texas, for more than eight years.

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Melissa M. Grand (2005 BACH H&SS, 2009 JD) was promoted to membership in McGlinchey Stafford in January. Grand focuses her practice on education, consumer finance, and commercial litigation. She was named to the Louisiana Super Lawyers Rising Star 2018 and 2019 lists and was selected for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber Leadership Class of 2018. She volunteers with various community organizations and currently serves on the board of THRIVE Foundation in Baton Rouge.

Druit Gremillion (2007 BACH H&SS, 2011 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers Rising Stars in the area of Personal Injury General: Defense.

Rob Hebert (2002 BACH BUS, 2008 MBA) joined First Tennessee Bank’s private client services division as a relationship manager based in Franklin, Tenn. Hebert’s professional experience includes twelve years in asset and wealth management.

He serves on the board of directors for the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Nashville Sports Council, and Watkins College of Art. Rachael Jeanfreau (2007 BACH H&SS), attorney with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in in New Orleans, La., was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers Rising Stars Employment & Labor.

Kurt Krolikowski (2005 BACH BUS), an attorney with Locke Lord in Houston, Texas, was promoted to partnership.

Krolikowski represents clients in consumer finance, energy, and construction-related disputes. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has represented clients before the American Arbitration Association and the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

Eric B. Landry (2002 BACH BUS, 2006 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers Rising Stars in the area of Health Care.

Kate Lundin (2004 BACH MCOM) was promoted to media director at Zehnder Communications in New Orleans, La. She was previously associate media director.

Christopher A. Mason (2001 BACH H&SS, 2004 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers Rising Stars in the area of Civil Litigation: Defense.

Sunny Mayhall (2008 BACH MCOM), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers Rising Stars in the area of Employment Litigation.

Jonathan Moore (2005 BACH H&SS, 2012 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter in Baton Rouge since 2012, was elected partner in January. Moore joined Taylor Porter in 2012, and practices in a wide array of areas in commercial transactions, banking, bankruptcy, real estate, and commercial litigation.

Chris Nichols (2002 BACH ENGR, 2007 JD), an attorney with McGlinchey Stafford in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers Rising Stars in the area of Intellectual Property.

C. Kieffer Petree (2004 BACH H&SS, 2007 JD) was promoted to membership in McGlinchey Stafford in January. Petree defends clients in general and commercial litigation matters, focusing on casualty litigation, toxic torts, contractual disputes, products liability, and insurance-related matters. She volunteers with St. Aloysius Catholic Church and School and serves on the board of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.

Kristi W. Richard (2004 BACH BUS, 2009 JD), an attorney with McGlinchey Stafford in Baton Rouge, was named to Louisiana Super

Lawyers Rising Stars in the area of Business/Corporate Law. Jacob Roussel (2008 BACH ENGR, 2012 JD) was named a partner in Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge in January. Roussel practices in the areas of construction and labor/management and represents employers in a broad variety of labor and employment matters.

Jacob Simpson (2000 BACH SCI, 2006 JD) was named a partner in Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge in January. Simpson focuses his practice on healthcare and life sciences. He is a

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Lieutenant Colonel and Judge Advocate General in the U.S. Air Force.

Nick Speyrer (2004 BACH BUS), president of Emergent Method, received an SME Excellence in Sales & Marketing Award at the Sales and Marketing Executives of Greater Baton Rouge 2018 Excellence Banquet.

Kelli Bondy Troutman (2005 BACH H&SS), director of communications and community relations at LUBA Workers’ Comp, was named to Baton Rouge Business Report’s 2018 Forty Under 40 honorees in the capital region.

Sarah Wallace (2009 BACH H&SS), a firstyear student at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, was named to the 2018 class of Ignatian Law Scholar Awardees, the college’s highest honor for new law students. The award recognizes promising members of the entering class whose records reflect the Jesuit values of commitment to academic excellence and service to others.

2010s

Chris Barnett (2013 BACH BUS, 2015 MAST BUS) has joined Ericksen Krentel CPAs and Consultants in New Orleans, La., as a senior accountant in the firm’s accounting and audit services section.

58 LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

Sarah Edwards (2011 BACH AGR), attorney with McGlinchey Stafford in New Orleans, La., was named to Louisiana Super Lawyers Rising Stars in the areas of Banking, Bankruptcy: Business, and Business Litigation.

Kevin Naccari (2010 BACH BUS), a first-year student at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, was named to the 2018 class of Ignatian Law Scholar Awardees, the college’s highest honor for new law students. The award recognizes promising members of the entering class whose records reflect the Jesuit values of commitment to academic excellence and service to others.

Ryan Orgera (2012 PHD H&SS) was named chief executive officer of Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation in January.

Previously, he was an officer with Pew Charitable Trusts, legislative director of the Coastal States Organization, taught environmental geography courses at George Washington University, and served as the Knauss Marine Policy Fellow in the Office of U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. Orgera holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of South Florida.

Sima Sobhiyeh (2018 PHD ENGR), a postdoctoral researcher at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, is one of the developers of SIMA (Scanning in Medical Analysis) software.

The team received an LSU LIFT² Grant to develop the health-screening software, which uses information from 3D body scans to generate health assessment in

less than five minutes and could reduce the need for some of the biometric screenings, which include blood pressure and blood tests for total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and blood sugar levels.

Monica Tran (2018 BACH BUS), a first-year student at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, was named to the 2018 class of Ignatian Law Scholar Awardees, the college’s highest honor for new law students. The award recognizes promising members of the entering class whose records reflect the Jesuit values of commitment to academic excellence and service to others.

Roben West (2012 BACH H&SS) joined Carlton Fields law firm’s office in Atlanta, Ga., as an associate in the property and casualty insurance practice group. West was previously a law clerk for the Hon. Charles R. Wilson, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Tampa, Fla. She graduated as salutatorian of her class at Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

Robert Pitre, left, with son Stephen Pitre.

Stephen A. Pitre (1994 BACH H&SS) was installed as circuit court judge of the First Judicial Court of the State of Florida in October at the M.C. Blanchard Judicial Building in Pensacola, Fla. His father, retired Judge Robert A. Pitre, Jr. (1964 BACH H&SS), led the new judge through the Oath of Office. Stephen Pitre was appointed

by Gov. Rick Scott after working for more than twenty years in the Pensacola area as a prosecutor, a criminal defense lawyer, and in private practice. Both father and son graduated from Loyola School of Law.

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BABY

BENGALS

WEDDING

BELLS

Jennifer Haase Gonzales (2007 BACH H&SS) and Ross Gonzales, Jr., announce the birth of future Tiger Piper Ryan Gonzales on Sept. 20, 2018. Piper weighed in at 7 lbs., 3 oz. and was 20 inches long.

She is the granddaughter of Renee Poche Haase (1979 BACH HS&E) and Edmond C. Haase, III (1989 BACH BUS) and the great-granddaughter of the late Joseph Raymond Poche (1951 BACH ENGR).

Erica Martin Brown (2007 BACH BUS, 2012 MBA) and Michael Brown proudly announce the birth of their son, William Pahl Brown, at 3:32 p.m. on Jan. 4, 2019.

The new William weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz and was 18.9 inches long. The family resides in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Claude J. Pirtle (2007 BACH SCI, 2014 MD-NO) and Jessica Thompson (2010 BACH SCI, 2013 MPH-LSUHSC) exchanged wedding vows on Nov. 3, 2018, at Chateau Golf and Country Club in New Orleans, La. They honeymooned in Venice, Italy, and are now living in Nashville, Tenn. Claude is Chief Clinical Informatics Fellow and clinical instructor of internal medicine at Vanderbilt University, and Jessica is an epic analyst at Ardent Health Services.

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Tigers in Print

Marti Buckley (2006 BACH H&SS) Basque Country (Artisan) Tucked away in the northwest corner of Spain, Basque Country not only boasts more Michelin-starred restaurants per capita than any other region in the world, but its unique confluence of mountain and sea, values and tradition, informs every bite of its soulful cuisine, from pintxos to accompany a glass of wine to the elbows-on-the-table meals served in its legendary eating clubs.

Marti Buckley, an American chef, journalist, and passionate Basque transplant, unlocks the mysteries of this culinary world by bringing together its intensely ingredient-driven recipes with stories of Basque customs and the Basque kitchen and vivid photographs of both food and place.

Alyson Curro (2010 BACH MCOM) Girl Power in Myanmar Myanmar has a rich history of women who refused to play by the rules – journalists who kept writing, artists who kept painting, and female soldiers who kept serving their country even when they were attacked, bullied, and told to go home. Meet Ketu Mala. She is a Myanmar nun who challenges the idea that only women who are poor, sick, or hopeless become nuns in her country. Her story is one of fourteen profiled in this in-progress bilingual children’s book about women who have rocked Myanmar. Some, like Aung San Suu Kyi, are well known;

others’ stories – like that of Zarchi Win, who led a successful eight-month strike at her factory in Mandalay – are rarely told. What unites them is that they were not afraid to be bold, and they used whatever platform they had to make change.

Sara Eskridge (2013 PHD H&SS) Rube Tube: CBS and Rural Comedy in the Sixties (University of Missouri Press) Historian Sara Eskridge examines television’s rural comedy boom in the 1960s and the political, social, and economic factors that made these shows a perfect fit for CBS. The network, nicknamed the Communist Broadcasting System during the Red Scare of the 1940s, saw its image hurt again in the 1950s with the quiz show scandals and a campaign against violence in westerns. When a rival network introduced rural-themed programs to cater to the growing southern market, CBS latched onto the trend and soon re-established itself as the Country Broadcasting System. Its rural comedies dominated the ratings throughout the decade, attracting viewers from all parts of the country. With fascinating discussions of The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and other shows, Eskridge reveals how the southern image was used to both entertain and reassure Americans in the turbulent 1960s.

Tony Graphia (1963 JD) The Eagle & The Hawk (Lisburn Press) Baton Rouge is in a state of siege by violent criminals. Murders, rapes, child molestation, illegal drug sales, armed robberies, human trafficking, and extortions occur daily. Police officers are handcuffed by laws and court decisions, which seem to favor the criminal element; they are angry and frustrated. Chris Ribes was a combat soldier assigned to a special operations unit during the Vietnam War. His unit hunted down and eliminated Viet Cong who ambushed, killed, tortured, and mutilated captured Marines.

After his tours of duty, he returns to Baton Rouge. An undercover state police officer approaches him with an intriguing proposition, drawing him into a dark enterprise formed by the mayor, chief of police, district attorney, and state police commander. The enterprise is operating successfully, but Chris begins to wonder if he is being used by it for purposes other than law enforcement.

Glynn Young (1973 BACH MCOM) Dancing Prophet (Dunrobin Publishing) In this fourth novel in the Dancing Priest series, Michael Kent-Hughes confronts a collapsing, scandalwracked church and a collapsing city government. A trusted advisor finally confronts his own troubled past. Three teenagers ignite a reformation. And Sarah Kent-Hughes finds her longdisappeared mother and ministers to a dying soldier.

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Tiger Nation

In Memoriam Margaret Stones, one of the most celebrated botanical artists of the twentieth century, passed away on Dec. 26, 2018, in Melbourne, Australia, at the age of ninety-eight. In 1975, in commemoration of the country’s bicentennial and LSU’s fiftieth anniversary of its present campus, Chancellor Paul W. Murrill commissioned Stones to create a series of drawings of native Louisiana plants. The illustrations eventually totaled 224 exquisite watercolors, completed in 1989 and inspiring the 1991 release by LSU Press of Flora of Louisiana: Watercolor Drawings by Margaret Stones. A traveling exhibition of select drawings was hosted by numerous venues, including the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans; the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.; the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England; and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. Apart from their aesthetic value, Stones’s drawings provide an accurate scientific record of the state’s lush, varied flora and constitute a unique resource in the LSU Libraries’ Special Collections. Housed at Hill Memorial Library the drawings in the Native Flora of Louisiana Collection are treasured by gardeners, art collectors, and botanists in and out of Louisiana. Photo by Jim Zietz.

1940s James Arthur Allen, attended 1940-1942 and 1946-1947, Aug. 26, 2018, Opelousas, La. Elaine Hill Brandao, 1945 BACH BUS, Dec. 6, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Lois Vicknair Brumfield, 1944 BACH HS&E, Dec. 15, 2018, Arcadia, Okla.

Ethel Tison Chaffin, 1940 BACH H&SS, Dec. 15, 2018, Athens, Ga. Robert Thomas Denbo, Sr., 1948 BACH SCI, Dec. 9, 2018, Hot Springs, Ark. Louis C. Kuttruff, 1943 BACH ENGR, Dec. 27, 2018, Austin, Texas Sadie Jarreau Olinde, 1945 BACH HS&E, Dec. 12, 2018, Jarreau , La. Jere K. Price, Sr. 1948 BACH ENGR, Nov. 29, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Dorothy Duncan Romero, 1944 BACH HS&E, 1947 MLS, Dec. 30, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Mary Simpson, 1947 BACH H&SS, 1949 CERT SW, Sept. 30, 2018, Alexandria, La.

1950s Joseph “Sing” Bonin, 1958 BACH BUS, Dec. 10, 2018, St. Martinville, La. Julius “Gov” Israel Braud, 1956 BACH BUS, Oct. 17, 2018, Robert, La. Gladys Collins Reynolds Brown, 1952 BACH HS&E, Nov. 2, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Benjamin A. Byland, 1955 BACH H&SS, Nov. 25, 2018, Zachary, La. Donald William Clayton, 1959 BACH ENGR, Oct. 31, 2018, Montgomery, Texas Robert Vaughan Montague “Bob” Cordell, II, 1951 BACH SCI, 1966 JD, Dec. 1, 2018, Lafayette, La. Norman Richard Ellis, 1957 PHD H&SS, Sept. 17, 2018, Tuscaloosa, Ala. Cynthia Elinor Stout Gordon, 1951 BACH M&DA, Oct. 17, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Rosemarie Lewis Hall, 1951 BACH H&SS, Nov. 9, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Catherine Elizabeth “Betty” Kleinpeter Kershaw, 1952 BACH HS&E, Baton Rouge, La. William Jefferson “W.J.” McLaughlin, 1958 BACH BUS, Dec. 19, 2018, Union City, Tenn.

Robert Lee “Bob” Raborn, Sr., 1957 BACH ENGR, 1961 MAST ENGR, 1971 JD, Dec. 14, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Anne Gueymard Shirley, 1959 BACH MCOM, 1971 MLS, Nov. 9, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Lawrence James “Larry” Tylock, Sr., 1953 BACH AGR, Nov. 27, 2018, Broussard, La.

1960s Rea N. Boothby, 1967 BACH AGR, 1969 MAST AGR, May 18, 2018, Orange Park, Fla. Amelia Mumford Leake Bornman, 1965 BACH HS&E, Octo. 22, 2018, Natchez, Miss.

Earlene Patin Brown, 1961 MAST HS&E, Nov. 23, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Eloise DeRouen Brown, 1969 BACH H&SE, 1975 MAST HS&E, 1986 MAST HS&E, Jan. 11, 2019, Baton Rouge, La. J. Reginald “Reggie” Coco, Jr., 1969 JD, Jan. 11, 2019, Baton Rouge, La. Stewart “Guy” Dietrich, 1965 BACH ENGR, Nov. 21, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Karen Lynn Whittington Farr, 1963 BACH HS&E, Nov. 2, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Charles E. Grenier, Jr., 1960 MAST BUS, 1972 PHD H&SS, Professor Emeritus of Social Work, Nov. 29, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Frances Anne Donnes Higdon, 1969 BACH MCOM, Oct. 29, 2018, Shreveport, La. Zelma “Z” Teer Hogan, 1967 BACH AGR, Dec. 15, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Hervey William “Bill” Huxen, 1964 BACH AGR, Oct. 19, 2018, Geismar, La. O. Fred Loy, Jr., 1962 BACH H&SS, Oct. 20, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Paul O’Donnell Martin, 1962 BACH AGR, Nov. 25, 2018, Baton Rouge, La.

Margaret Grier Beste Retired Administrative Assistant, Foreign Languages Nov. 27, 2018 Baton Rouge, La.

John Earl “Cajun” Fedric Alumnus by Choice Nov. 23, 2018 Texarkana, Texas

Patsy Ruth Patton Charles Anthony McDermott Garbush Librarian, LSU Libraries Retired, LSU Student Union and Dean of Dec. 2, 2018 Women’s Office Baton Rouge, La. Nov. 10, 2018 Baton Rouge, La.

Roy H. Maughan, Sr., 1960 BACH BUS, Dec. 12, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. James Milton McQueen, III, 1965 BACH BUS, Jan. 2, 2019, Baton Rouge, La. William J. “Bill” Mollere, 1968 BACH H&SS, Nov. 9, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Joy Gautreaux Mulloy, 1960 BACH MCOM, Nov. 29, 2018, New Canaan, Conn.

George Marvin O’Neal, Jr., 1963 BACH H&SS, Oct. 28, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Earl James Roy, 1960 BACH HS&E, Jan. 9, 2019, Baton Rouge, La. George "Bo" Sharpe, 1966 MBA, Sept. 5, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Edgar Ear “Butch” Spielman, Jr., 1966 BACH ENGR, 1970 JD, Dec. 5, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Judith Stahl, 1969 BACH H&SS, 1973 MAST H&SS, Retired Director, LSU Student Union Art Gallery, Baton Rouge, La. Don Hamilton Strobel, 1966 BACH BUS, Dec. 3, 2018, Watson, La. Eugene “Gene” Charles Sykes, Sr., 1968 BACH HS&E, Oct. 26, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. James Bailey Thompson, III, 1960 BACH SCI, 1963 JD, Nov. 17, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Robert Otis White, 1963 BACH A&D, 1986 BACH HS&E, 1993 MAST A&D, Oct. 30, 2018, Baton Rouge, La.

1970s John L. “Boodie” Boudreaux, Jr., 1972 BACH H&SS, Oct. 19, 2018, Collierville, Tenn.

Joseph Patton “Beaver” Brantley, IV, 1972 JD, Jan. 7, 2019, Baton Rouge, La. Gwen Roberson Bruton, 1971 BACH HS&E, Dec. 25, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Brenda Gail Jones Cloy, 1972 BACH AGR, Dec. 19, Baton Rouge, La. Rosa Mansur Dunn, 1975 BACH AGR, Nov. 18, 2018, Hammond, La. L. Mark Gremillion, 1977 BACH ENGR, Dec. 26, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Robert Lee “Hambone” Hamilton, 1975 BACH BUS, December 2018, Baton Rouge, La Linda Jacobs Hennigan, 1971 BACH HS&E, Dec. 5, 2018, Central, La. Joel Lindsey, 1973 MAST H&SS, Nov. 1, 2018, Zachary, La. Darrel Lee Mince, 1974 BACH H&SS, 1978 MAST H&SS, Nov. 1, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Charles Thomas Sands, 1974 BACH ENGR, 1976 MAST ENGR, Dec. 25, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Betty Topp Townsend, 1976 BACH HS&E, Nov. 23, 2018, New Orleans, La. Beverly Hazel Reeves Tully, 1972 BACH M&DA, Dec. 18, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Alma Reese Walker, 1972 MAST HS&E, Nov. 18, 2018, Plaquemine, La. Stephen J. Weilbacher, 1971 BACH H&SS, 1976 DDS, Dec. 8, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Irvin “Wil” Wilhite, 1973 MAST H&SS, 1999 PhD H&SS, Nov. 11, 2018, Baton Rouge, La.

1980s Robert Anthony “Robbie” Giroir, Sr., 1984 BACH H&SS, Nov. 23, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Judith Carol Rush Pennington, 1988 PHD SCI, Nov. 16, 2018, Vicksburg, Miss.

Barry Stephen Stafford, 1980 DVM, Dec. 13, 2018, Bogalusa, La. Beverly Dixon Wade, 1982 PHD SCI, Dec. 25, 2018, Baton Rouge, La.

1990s Janet Grouchy, 1993 MAST H&SS, Nov. 9, 2018, Covington, La. Harold T. “Hal” Landry, 1991 BACH ENGR, Dec. 2, 2018, Baton Rouge, La. David J. Shiroda, 1990 BACH BUS, Nov. 19, 2018, Gilbert, Ariz.

2010s Jeffrey Michael McAlpine, 2013 BACH MCOM, December 2018, Baton Rouge, La. Joseph V. Ricapito Professor Emeritus of Foreign Language & Literature Nov. 29, 2018 Baton Rouge, La.

Patticia “Patsy” Carol Perry Setzer James William Valenti Coordinator of Grants Robinson Coordinator, Business & Development Professor Emeritus of & Administrative Louisiana Sea Grant Chemistry Services Dec. 31, 2018 Nov. 4, 2018 Dec. 13, 2018 Baton Rouge, La. Baton Rouge, La. 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.

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LSU Degree Takes Alumna Around the World

By Rachel Holland

Tsira Kemularia has spent the majority of her career working around the world for Shell.

“I’m very grateful for my time at LSU. Had I not had that, the world would be a very different place for me.”

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Growing up in the Republic of Georgia, LSU alumna Tsira Kemularia (1999 BACH BUS) never pictured a life beyond. But her education and career have taken her around the world, from a small war-torn country in Eastern Europe, to Baton Rouge, Houston, London, Moscow, and beyond.

“I came to Baton Rouge in 1994, as part of an exchange program in high school sponsored by my hometown, Poti. It was right after the Soviet Union broke apart and all fifteen republics declared independence.

Georgia was one of the first few to become independent in 1991, followed by a decade of bloodshed. In the midst of it, there was a program put together by a brave and forward-thinking group of people to encourage children to get a Western education,” Kemularia said.

At seventeen, Kemularia left her family and moved to Louisiana. With a scholarship for a year to finish high school in the U.S., she lived with a family in Baker, La., and completed high school. But she wasn’t ready to return home to Georgia. “I wanted to continue to study, so with the help of my American host family, Dennis and Sandy Howards, I was able to take my Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) examination, submit all the documents, and was accepted to LSU.” At LSU, Kemularia was involved in the international student community. “I was the vice president of the International Cultural Center. I wanted to help the international students because I knew how challenging it was to come to a different country, especially for those who came from the former U.S.S.R.” She also worked a number of student jobs, starting at the Civil War Historical Center through the Middleton Library, then the Student Career Center. In addition, her voice helped the Department of Foreign Languages with various Russian translations works.

Kemularia said LSU became an extended family, thanks to her friends, professors and co-workers. “They were very supportive of me,” Kemularia said.

“At the time, internet connections to Georgia were rare and international

phone calls were very expensive. I had a difficult time not only because I was away from my family, but also because my country was in the middle of a civil war.

The challenges were both emotional and financial. The University was so amazing, helping me work through the situation and supporting me all throughout.”

LSU Hospitality Foundation Director Virginia Grenier helped her get an internship at the Louisiana State Department of Economic Development, and another professor encouraged her to apply for job with an energy firm that came to campus to interview seniors.

That interview turned into a job, and two months after graduation, Kemularia moved to Houston to work as an analyst in the power trading division for Dynegy, Inc. “It opened a door to opportunities for me and from there my career hasn’t stopped,” she said.

Since that first job, her career has taken her around the world. She moved to London to continue to work with Dynegy to help set up a risk-management division. “It was all going amazingly well until Enron, another large energy company, went bust. It was a total disaster for the industry and the people working in the sector.”

Concerned she would have difficulty securing her job back in Houston, and at the risk of going back to Georgia without reaching her full potential, she started interviewing for other jobs in Europe. In 2002, she accepted an offer from Royal Dutch Shell in London, working in the Risk Control department supporting oil and the oil products trading division.

After three years in that role, she moved to Shell’s treasury organization, on the mergers and acquisitions team.

Wanting to use the Russian language in a business context, her next stop was Moscow. “Initially I was asked to help in Shell’s Moscow office for six months, which turned into three years,” Kemularia said.

The journey continued. Her next assignment took her to Barbados, where Shell has been in business since the 1950s. This time she worked as a

finance manager and a country controller for Shell’s oil and oil products trading company. “The job was very hands-on and dynamic, and it lasted for five years, all while raising a young family with great support from my husband.”

After eight years of international assignments, it was time to go back to what Kemularia now calls home, London – as head of Shell’s pension strategy and standards, working for Shell’s group treasury. “It’s a great job and one that has a large scope as Shell is in the top five corporate companies with the largest pension schemes worldwide with $93 billion of assets to manage,” she said.

Her international experiences have been rewarding, but Kemularia still cares about the country she left twenty-four years ago.

“I always stay connected through different cultural, educational, and charitable works. And very recently, I was named to

the country’s top bank as an independent non-executive director,” she said. “This opportunity is unique and important to me, as it not only carries a significant responsibility but also has a great meaning.

I am the first Georgian female to serve on the board of a London Stock Exchangelisted Georgian bank’s board. And I hope to be an example for other professional females in my country.”

Kemularia said her experience at LSU was both important and long-lasting, and she credits the connections she made to LSU’s professors and staff. “In a nutshell, that’s where my LSU degree has taken me. The professors and staff played a defining role in my development. And I’m very grateful for my time at LSU. Had I not had that, the world would be a very different place for me.”

Rachel Holland is a content coordinator with LSU Strategic Communications.

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LSU Grad Donates Holiday Display to His Hometown

By Ed Cullen Photo: Romaire Studios

Emmy-award winning artist Lee Romaire, shown with two of his creations for the Cajun-themed Christmas display in Morgan City, La.

“I’m a positive person.

I always thought I’d amount to something.”

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Baton Rouge advertising legend Diane Allen has had more than 150 interns in her fifty years in the business. A few she’s followed closely over the years; Lee Romaire, for instance. Allen told Romaire (1989 BACH MCOM) his ads were ahead of their time – in a good way. Over the years, Romaire’s mentors found out the way to get the best out of the weird kid from Morgan City, La., was to give him free rein. Allen let him run a United Way campaign one year. “The campaign resulted in one of the biggest (money-raising) efforts they’d ever had,” Allen said. Romaire’s message was simple: Give money to United Way to help people. Romaire excelled in simple, Allen said.

She never saw him produce a finished piece of art, certainly nothing as complicated as drawings that would become monsters or dead people or fake animals so real that movie audiences flinched when the mechanical animals were “injured” in the story. “But he knew good art work from bad,” Allen said. “He could sketch out what he wanted” from an agency artist. “What he’s doing now is using that taxidermy.”

“That taxidermy” is something Romaire taught himself fishing and trapping in St. Mary Parish when he was six. He stuffed a crawfish – and not for eating. “I was a weird kid,” Romaire said, in Morgan City to oversee installation of his Christmas present to his hometown, a life-sized crew of custom-sculpted elves and Santa and white alligators pulling the symbol of the little city – a shrimp trawler – down Brashear Avenue, a.k.a. U.S. 90.

Before Morgan City was a base for offshore oil drilling, it was known as the capital of the jumbo shrimp industry. The trawler in the middle of U.S. 90 was as much a part of Romaire’s childhood as Santa Claus.

When the Emmy-winning entrepreneur artist put fifteen of his people to work on a Christmas display for Morgan City a year ago, he decided the Santa built at Romaire Studios in Los Angeles would wear white shrimper boots (Cajun Reeboks) and a suit trimmed not in white but brown muskrat-like fur. The alligators would be white, have ghastly, friendly smiles and crabs for antlers. The display was trucked to Morgan City after Thanksgiving and unveiled to print and television reporters and the town’s children.

The son of Marian Fields Romaire and Richard Romaire had come full circle. Romaire grew up surrounded by Morgan City machine shops large and small that built whatever the oil industry needed. In 1946, Magnolia Petroleum, now ExxonMobil, drilled a well in eighteen feet of water off the coast of St. Mary Parish. Romaire’s grandfather was ready.

In 1934, E.J. Fields had opened a machine works that specialized in propeller shafts for boats. Offshore crew boats, huge vessels that carry giant machines and heroic workers to the offshore wells, need propeller shafts. When the shafts are worn, they need repair.

“The machine shop is still in the family,” Romaire said.

Romaire had the DNA for animatronics and creating realistic characters, but he thought he wanted a career in advertising; his degree is in journalism with a minor in marketing. He remembers LSU as a “warm place” where teachers like Alan Fletcher in the journalism school took an interest in promising students. “His was my first creative writing class,” Romaire said. “I’m a positive person. I always thought I’d amount to something. Dr. Fletcher gave me a lot of encouragement.”

Romaire moved to New York in 1990. Single, talented but “not mature enough for New York City,” he moved to New Orleans, freelanced there and in Morgan City and Baton Rouge. As a boy, he liked things that were realistic. The child Romaire read magazines on film effects. When he knew he and advertising were breaking up, his inner child directed him to special effects. At a convention in Los Angeles, he met Dick Smith, an Academy Award-winning makeup artist. They talked. “A big part of makeup is sculpture,” Romaire said. To make a prosthetic, the artist applies material to the actor’s face to make a high-tech mask. Something clicked.

Back in New Orleans, Romaire offered himself as a Mardi Gras prop maker at Blaine Kern. He was hired and fired two weeks later. Not good enough. Romaire didn’t take

the firing to heart. He got on at another Mardi Gras company for more money. A third company hired him for even more money. Romaire declared himself ready for prime time and moved to Los Angeles. His first job was helping make an animatronic cougar for the Jodie Foster movie Secret Lives of Altar Boys. In 2002, he won a Primetime Emmy for work on the first season of HBO’s Six Feet Under. “We made dead people makeup,” Romaire said.

In 2003, he opened a studio in an old garage in downtown Los Angeles. The project that orbital launched Romaire Studios into movie-quality realism for theme park animatronics was Disneyland’s “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.” According to Mouseinfo, the successful reopening of the Lincoln attraction in December 2009 was due in no small way to the work of Romaire and company. According to The Mouse, “Romaire spent several weeks working on the completely new sculpt of Abraham Lincoln’s head and several more after that establishing the look and finish. . . . Part of the realism brought to the figure’s face is the attention detail which included hand placing every single facial hair and hand shaving it for a natural stubble appearance. Details layered upon details helped to create what is arguably the most convincing Animatronic version of Mr. Lincoln.”

His first boss nailed it. Romaire excels in simple, direct communication.

Visit romairestudios.com Ed Cullen, an LSU journalism graduate, is author of Letter in a Woodpile, a collection of his essays for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” He is retired from the Baton Rouge Advocate where he wrote the Sunday column “Attic Salt.”

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Rocky Mountain Meal Master Teaches All Ages

By Brian Hudgins Photo: The French Kitchen

Kristi Tutt had nearly solidified her status as a Colorado resident when she faced a final test. She had to navigate from Shreveport, La., to Denver through a snowstorm – in a rental car.

“I went home to Shreveport for Christmas a few years ago and storms shut down the Dallas airport,” said Tutt (2010 BACH AGR). “Lubbock, Texas, had a snowstorm, and I only had a rental car. The first flight I could get out was the next Thursday. I got really used to driving in icy conditions.”

The work environment in Colorado Springs is climate controlled. Tutt, whose degree is in nutrition science, is an assistant chef and director of the Kids Program at The French Kitchen, a four-prong facility that serves as a cooking school, a kitchen boutique, a café, and a French bakery. The business started with owner Blandine Brutel, who moved to Colorado Springs from France in 2008, operating The French Kitchen out of her home. Brutel later expanded the operation into a commercial space. Tutt’s responsibilities also evolved over time.

“It was going to be a part-time position teaching kids’ classes,” Tutt said. “But I have been able to see the business side of things.”

Tutt’s main duties include employee management, marketing, and coordinating kids’ classes for a variety of age levels. The youngest group is age five to eight years old. The next group is nine to twelve, and teens are twelve to sixteen. The common denominator among all three is making sure basic ingredients are used and all the kids have a plan. For the youngest group, Tutt does a lot of prep work in advance, and the lessons are condensed. The teens are given more space to do their own Kristi Tutt is an assistant chef and director of the Kids Program at The French Kitchen. prep. “Most of our recipes are tested before we teach it,” Tutt said. “We don’t use exotic ingredients because we don’t want to do anything that a customer can’t do at home.”

Her journey from undergraduate student at LSU to Colorado chef took shape “It was going to be a part-time during Tutt’s senior year. She attended the annual Food & Nutrition Conference & position teaching kids’ classes. Expo sponsored by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The 2009 event was But I have been able to see the in Denver, and Tutt later received a partial scholarship to become part of the Art business side of things.” Institute of Colorado’s culinary program. “Many of my friends (from LSU) are nurses or dieticians,” Tutt said. “There are a lot of communication skills people pick up quickly. My goal was to become a good manager.”

Coordinating classes and interacting with customers in Colorado Springs include Tutt’s efforts to educate the cadets in the U.S. Air Force Academy. For cadets who have operated under a regimented schedule at the academy, The French Kitchen serves up cooking classes. “I get to teach fifteen cadets cooking skills twice a month,” Tutt said. “Schools are losing some of their home ec programs. I love that (cadet class) program. It gets them out of the academy to have a little fun. We also do classes for military couples and families twice a year.”

There are roughly sixty-five various classes taught at The French Kitchen in class sizes of six to twelve students. Tutt’s own transition to being a teacher has included having to tailor her methods based on whether the audience is full of adults or kids.

Sometimes, students will add the wrong ingredient or add the correct ingredient at the wrong time. “If kids mess up, they usually mix up something like powdered sugar and regular sugar,” Tutt said. “The adults are more set in their ways, so I need to explain things to them, too.”

Brian Hudgins is a Houston native who enjoys SEC sports and covering a variety of subjects as a freelance writer.

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Dreams Come True at Walt Disney World

Tiger Nation

By Rachel Holland

Melissa Valiquette, vice president of Epcot.

“LSU has this really powerful spirit to it. . . similar to the passion and commitment we have at Disney.”

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Baton Rouge native Melissa Valiquette (1994 BACH AGR) has made a name for herself working for Walt Disney World. But it’s not where she imagined herself working while a student.

“I studied family, child and consumer science with a concentration in human services management. I believed that one day I would run nursing homes and retirement communities, and I completed two internships in that field during college,” Valiquette said. “I moved to Florida after graduating and followed my husband, who was already working for Disney. My first job was in a retirement community.

But seven weeks later, the company declared bankruptcy, and I was laid off. I thought, ‘Wow! The real world is tough!’”

She decided to give Disney a try.

“I thought, I’ll at least work there for the summer while I try to find the ‘real job’ that I went to school for.

Almost immediately, I saw interesting opportunities and realized this is a place where you can build a strong career. I decided pretty quickly that I was going to make a go of it and build a career with Disney.”

Valiquette’s first job with The Mouse was guest relations hostess and tour guide inside the Magic Kingdom.

“I was working in City Hall on Main Street, U.S.A. and I did V.I.P. tours throughout all four parks for my first year. I learned how to assist happy people and frustrated people, and I became more knowledgeable about the company and how to solve tough problems. It was a great experience for me.”

In 1997, as a Walt Disney World Ambassador, she traveled the world.

“I traveled with Mickey Mouse and represented the cast. It was the twenty-fifth anniversary of Walt Disney World that year and there were tours and hundreds of media interviews,” she said. “That was a strong career

launching point for me because I was able to network with senior leaders in our company and learn about the opportunities available in the future.”

When that experience ended, she moved to the costuming organization manager of cast image, responsible for the appearance guidelines and costumes worn by the theme park’s cast members.

“I worked in this field for almost ten years, including six months in Hong Kong opening the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. I was fortunate that the company took a chance on me, and I was promoted to general manager of entertainment at Epcot in 2007. I didn’t have a wealth of entertainment experience, but our company is one that is well-known for taking strong leaders and giving them a chance to try something new,” Valiquette said.

“Several years later, I moved into the same role at the Magic Kingdom, and I did that for about five years, then became the general manager of Park Operations at the Magic Kingdom,” she said, “I held that role for one year, then I was promoted to the role of vice president of Epcot – my dream job!”

Valiquette plays a large role in determining the attractions and entertainment at Epcot.

“I’m responsible for the future development of the park. We’re in a period of growth and investment right now at Epcot. We’ve announced that we’re building a Guardians of the Galaxythemed roller coaster and a ride in our France pavilion inspired by the movie Ratatouille. And we have a lot more in the works that we aren’t quite ready to share yet. That keeps me very busy and challenged, but it’s a nice balance between running the daily operation here in Florida – including our popular festivals – and working with our Walt Disney Imagineering team in California focused on the future.”

While the Imagineers are the creative brains behind the park’s development, Valiquette is the operational leader.

“It’s my job to share what the park’s needs are to inform the future development. I have to understand the business to determine we need an attraction that fits this demographic or that we have an area where we’re falling a little short and need more content.”

While Disney might not have been where she expected to work right after graduation, her LSU degree has been critical to her success as a Disney executive.

“I came to Disney five months after my college graduation and celebrated twenty-three years with the company

this year. There’s a common thread between my degree and my current role, and that is serving people,” Valiquette said. “There are also some similarities between LSU and Disney that made Disney such a good fit for me. LSU has this really powerful spirit to it – that ‘love purple, live gold’ mentality. It’s similar to the passion and commitment we have at Disney for our fans, our cast members, and for creating happiness for the guests who visit us.”

Rachel Holland is a content coordinator for LSU Strategic Communications.

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Tigers Around the World

Glen and Melinda Petersen on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Tailgating in Antarctica – While on a cruise, Glen Petersen (1973 BACH BUS, 1977 JD) and his wife, Melinda (1974 BACH H&SS) decided to tailgate on the Antarctic Peninsula on Jan. 1 before the Fiesta Bowl. “I would suspect that this is likely the southernmost location for any LSU tailgating or an ‘out of state’ alumni gathering,” Glen writes.

Team Blonde – Holley Caldwell

(2009 BACH SCI), tracking and evaluation coordinator for the Center for Translational Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, shares her volunteer experience with BvB Dallas: “For the past three years I have played on Team Blonde in a powderpuff football game to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer’s Disease as part of the organization BvB Dallas, which stands for Blondes vs. Brunettes. For two of those years, I served as an ambassador for the cause, bringing awareness to the organization in the DFW area. The 11th Annual Game was held on Aug. 11, 2018, at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, with Team Blonde winning and the organization raising $675,000 in the fight to ‘Tackle ALZ.’ This year I will be hanging up my cleats and joining the organization’s board of directors.” Caldwell also holds and a master’s degree in biology from Mississippi College. Congratulations, Holley!

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LSU at NASA

From left, David Young, Alexander Cagnola, Andrew Tykol, James Post, Charles Adams, Misty Nosal, and Wayne Bordelon. Not pictured, Courtney Ryals and Evan Anzalone.

LSU engineering graduates at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., are part of the team developing NASA's Space Launch System – the most powerful rocket ever built – to carry human explorers, their equipment, and science payloads back to the moon, to Mars, and deeper into space than ever before.

On board are David Young (1987 BACH ENGR, 1989 MAST ENGR, 1997 PHD ENGR), Alexander Cagnola (2014 BACH ENGR), Andrew Tykol (2013 BACH ENGR), James Post (2006 MAST ENGR), Charles Adams (1988 BACH ENGR), Misty Nosal (1987 BACH ENGR), Wayne Bordelon (1984 BACH ENGR), Courtney Ryals (2006 BACH ENGR), and Evan Anzalone (2006 BACH ENGR).

These mechanical, petroleum, biological, and electrical engineering

alums support the International Space Station and manage the astronauts' work on the growing number of science programs in orbit, thereby advancing technology and knowledge critical to living and working in space – and vital for deep-space missions and a journey to Mars. They are actively involved in the development of the Commercial Crew Program to launch astronauts from American soil for the first time in more than twenty years.

The team at Marshall also develops safe, affordable space vehicles, telescopes, instruments, and other systems that use the unique vantage point of space to look back at Earth and out into the universe.

All these efforts increase understanding and create real benefits for life on Earth, while preparing the way for long-term, high-value research, and discovery missions in deep space.

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Why I Have Five Degrees Among the thousands of LSU graduates, only fifteen alumni hold five degrees.

LSU Alumni Magazine asked why the multiple academic credentials and how they’ve been put to use. Several alums share their stories here.

John Albert Freeman

Professor of Educational Leadership/Interim Head, Center for Leadership and Learning/Director of the Ed.D. Program – Arkansas Tech University • B.A. History 1976 • B.S. Secondary Education 1978 • M.Ed. Education Administration 1982 • Education Specialist Certificate 1995 • Ph.D. Education Administration 1997 I majored in history and after graduation attended law school for a year. Deciding that that was not my calling, I chose instead to become a history teacher, which prompted the need for a second undergraduate degree in education.

In education, degrees are required for advancement and further certification. My master’s degree gave me certification as a principal, the Ed.S. gave me certification as a superintendent, and the Ph.D. provided the credentials to move into higher education.

I’m entering my thirty-eighth year and have seen seven years as a classroom history teacher, six years as a principal, two years at the Louisiana Department of Education, and twenty years in higher education at the University of Alabama, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and Arkansas Tech University. Today, I am the department head for the Center for Leadership and Learning and director of the Ed.D. program in School Leadership at Arkansas Tech.

My years attending LSU are years that I will always look back upon with nostalgia and great pleasure. If I could do it all over again, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Sharon Pol

Retired Executive Director, Baton Rouge Children’s Advocacy Center • B.S. Elementary Education 1971 • M.Ed. Educational Media 1979 • Education Specialist Certificate 1981 • Masters of Library Science 1986 • Ph.D. Education Administration 1996 My story is pretty funny. I was not the greatest high school student – having too much fun and it followed me through undergraduate school. My father said he just "hoped I could get out of high school." I finished in three years because I was getting married and going to put my future husband through vet school, but that didn’t happen so I started teaching.

Louisiana had a Professional Improvement Program that paid for teachers to earn more degrees, which translated into more money. When I retired after a twenty-year career as a school librarian, I had four degrees and was only thirty hours away from a Ph.D. It took me seven years to get that last degree while doing contract work with the Department of Education and as a school/program evaluator.

In my career, I’ve been an elementary school teacher and librarian, program evaluator, pharmaceutical representative, and executive director of the Baton Rouge Children’s Advocacy Center. I’m now retired for the last time.

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Monica Santaella

Instructor and Honors Advisor, LSU Department of Marketing • B.S. Marketing 1994 • B.S. Management 1995 • M.S. Marketing 1998 • Master of Mass Communication 2001 • Ph.D. Human Ecology 2007 My career at LSU has been fruitful. I have served the University as a student worker, graduate assistant, and transient employee, and am now instructor and undergraduate faculty advisor in the Department of Marketing. Through my studies, I have worked for or collaborated with several academic programs, among them, International Programs, LSU Career Center, College of Agriculture, School of Art, E.J. Ourso College of Business, Law School, School of Social Work, Manship School of Mass Communication, Academic Affairs, and the LSU System.

I started out wanting to be in graphic design – and I almost qualify for an art degree.

The LSU Union Gallery showed my artwork last summer. The East Baton Rouge Bluebonnet Library displayed my artwork for Hispanic Month. I have participated in several juried art shows, and one of my pieces is in a show at the Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas, Texas. La Voz, the newsletter for the Esperanza Center in San Antonio, Texas, published my poetry and illustration for their Día de Los Muertos issue.

At LSU, I have the chance to touch the lives of many of our students. It was an honor to be invited by my baseball students to serve as guest coach for a game. I also get the chance to see many former students when they stop me to thank me for my class and how much they miss having me.

David Dillon Weaver Mathies

Consultant, Emergent Method/Battalion Communications Officer, LANG • B.A. History 2014 • B.A. in Political Science 2014 • B.A. Liberal Arts 2014 • Graduate Certificate in Analytics 2018 • M.B.A 2018 Although I started my undergraduate career in business administration, I wanted to pursue something closer to my interests so declared political science as my major, supplemented by a history minor. In my senior year, while chapter president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, I joined LSU Army ROTC, which required me to extend my school career. The history minor was quickly declared a major, and I added a liberal arts degree in disaster science for good measure. When my undergraduate career was finished, I held three B.A.’s and a commission in the Louisiana Army National Guard.

To progress my public and private sector careers, I decided to return to pursue an M.B.A. I started the professional program in 2016 and switched to the online program after my first year, as I was soon deploying overseas. With a specialization in analytics, I finished with my M.B.A. and graduate certificate only two weeks before returning to the States.

Currently, I use my education to chair a nonprofit for veterans, enhance my career in the National Guard, and conduct consulting services focused in disaster recovery for Emergent Method. I enjoy every minute of it. As a self-proclaimed “career student,” I have not ruled out pursuing a Ph.D. in the future. I love to read and write about ethics and political philosophy and hope to be published one day. None of my education, or success, could have been possible without the support of my parents, whom I cannot thank enough.

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Why I Have Five Degrees Cory John Hutchinson

Associate Professor for Research/Director of the Highway Safety Research Group, E.J. Ourso College of Business • B.S. Quantitative Business Analysis 1991 • M.S. Quantitative Business Analysis 1993 • M.B.A. 1998 • M.S. Human Resource Education 2014 • Ph.D. Human Resource Education 2014 Even before arriving at LSU, I knew I wanted to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business to prepare myself for entering the workforce. In 1994, shortly after completing my graduate degree, I started working at LSU Office of Computing Services (OCS) as a computer programmer. While there, I obtained my M.B.A. and worked my way up to a manager’s position.

I left OCS in 2007 to become the information technology manager at the Highway Safety Research Group (HSRG) in the LSU College of Business. The HSRG is grant funded by the Department of Transportation and Development to collect, analyze, and disseminate crash data in the state. Since I would be working on grants within an academic environment, I decided to once again attend graduate school at LSU and work toward a Ph.D. In 2014, I obtained master’s and doctoral degrees in Human Resource Education & Workforce Development. After obtaining my Ph.D., I was named director of the HSRG, and I also hold an associate professor of research position, teaching business intelligence courses.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at LSU and have truly benefited in my career with each additional degree.

Michael Joseph Dauzat

Assessment Specialist, Office of Accountability, East Baton Rouge Parish Schools • B.S. Math Education 1986 • M.Ed. Education Administration 1992 • M.A. Education 1992 • Education Specialist Certificate 1992 • Education Specialist Certificate 1994

By my first year at Marksville High School, I knew I wanted to be a math teacher and wanted to attend LSU. Being the first in my family to attend college, this was a big goal and along the way I developed several more: teach high school mathematics, teach math at LSU, become an administrator/supervisor, improve math instruction and learning, and pursue life-long learning.

My first degree enabled me to teach high school math. While teaching at Breaux Bridge High and Plaquemine High, I worked on advanced degrees to help me fulfill my other education career goals, which I did with my next three degrees.

I taught full time at LSU for four-and-a-half years, which was an incredible experience, but I still wanted to work with math education and instruction. I returned to teaching – in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System – and eventually became a district math content trainer/instructional specialist, and worked for four years with math teachers to improve instruction and learning.

My second education specialist certificate gave me the credentials to fulfill the goal of becoming district math supervisor, and I supervised elementary math coaches and district math coordinators in the parish for five years before assuming my current position as an assessment specialist.

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My degrees opened opportunities for me to achieve my goals. My only regret is not completing the Ph.D. program.

Marlon Alberetos Greensword

Faculty Member/Coach, Keene High School • B.S. General Studies 2005 • B.S. Industrial Engineering 2007 • M.S. Industrial Engineering 2010 • M.S. Civil Engineering 2015 • Ph.D. Engineering Science 2017 I pursued and earned these five degrees because although I tirelessly looked for jobs every time I earned a degree, the job market was quite unfavorable. Each time I earned an additional degree, I hoped it would help me find a good position, only to be disappointed. After earning a Ph.D., there was no higher program for me to pursue, so I am now teaching high school.

I have taught pre-calculus, algebra, and engineering at Scotlandville Magnet High, where I also coached track – I attended LSU on a track and field scholarship – and I owned a drywall and painting business until last year. Today, I teach pre-calculus and math models and coach track and field, cross-country, and soccer at Keene High School in Keene, Texas.

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LSU centenarian Florence Young Kellogg.

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Celebrating More than a Century Florence Young Kellogg (1940 BACH HS&E), of Bluffton, Ind., will celebrate her 101st birthday this spring. The LSU centenarian was born April 5, 1918, in Apollo, Pa. When she was eleven years old, her father took a job with the Mississippi River Fuel Company, and the family moved to Perryville, La. Kellogg, who majored in French and minored in English in the LSU School of Education, moved into the French House in her junior year. She recalls that “two of the most important rules to follow were the curfew and no boys in the rooms.” After graduating, she taught at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La. She met her future husband, a soldier at a nearby military base, while at LSU and after World War II, the couple moved to Indiana. Her husband's career as an agricultural extension agent took them to Indiana, and Kellogg taught French and English at schools around the state. She retired from teaching in the early sixties due to her husband's ill health. He passed away in 1978.

Kellogg has three children – twin daughters and a son; four grandchildren; nine great grandchildren; and two great-great grandchildren. She makes her home in an assisted living community and stays busy playing the piano, playing bingo, and visiting with other residents and her friends.

T H E G E AU X T O W I N E FOR LSU ALUMNI

All profits made by LSU alum’s Mach Flynt, Inc. from Geaux Vineyards sales will be donated to the LSU Alumni Association

BUY ONLINE AT STORE.MARTINWINE.COM

OR VISIT LSUALUMNI.ORG/GEAUX-VINEYARDS FOR A LIST OF RETAIL LOCATIONS Distributed by Republic National Distributing Company LSU Alumni Magazine | Spring 2019

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Kids Zone

The Rodgers Team – Future Tiger

GEAUX Tigers – Baby Penley James

Dominic Rodgers reaches for greatgrandad Sid Rodgers’ beard (1962 BACH BUS), of Deatsville, Ala., as dad Kyle Rodgers holds him at the family’s holiday celebration.

Flanagan born Aug. 26, 2018, celebrates the LSU Tigers win over UCF. Mom Marjorie Carter Flanagan (2003 BACH HS&E), of Austin, Texas, works for the City of Austin.

Felix, Ian, and Robin Duesler with their grandmother “Honey” Cooper Knecht.

Brennan R. Lemoine with Mickey Mouse.

A Christmas Gift – A. Cooper Langlois Knecht (1976 BACH HS&E) was on hand to join her grandsons, fiveyear-old Ian and two-year-old Felix in welcoming baby sister Robin – born on Christmas Eve – home for the holidays.

The children’s parents are Dr. Amanda Knecht and Brad Duesler of Berwyn, Pa.

Disney Visit – Karla “KK” Lemoine (1999 BACH H&SS, 2001 MAST H&SS) shares a photo of her grandson, future alum Brennan R. Lemoine, with “The Mouse” during a family holiday visit to Disneyland.

WHAT’S YOUR VOLUNTEER PASSION? Send a photo of yourself “in action” and tell Tigers Around the World how and why you share your time and talents with others.

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