LSU Alumni Magazine_Winter 2017 Issue

Winter 2017, Volume 93, Number 4

A NEW VISION FOR LSU LEADING LOUISIANA IMPACTING THE WORLD

From the

PRESIDENT

Promise and Potential – A New Day for LSU Over the past several years, LSU has been in a position of playing defense, struggling against budget cuts and state reductions for nearly a decade. We have fought to stabilize our funding, to recruit top faculty and talented students, and to remain nationally competitive. We have been innovative in finding solutions, collaborated with other Louisiana colleges and universities, and maintained our position of leadership within the state and beyond its borders.

And while we were actively engaged in warding off dramatic cuts, we were also actively engaged in developing plans that would lead us out of a position of defense and back into offense.

I am proud to tell you that we have succeeded. That success is due not only to the hard work of our students, faculty and staff at LSU, but also in large part due to people like you – LSU alumni who understand the value our university delivers to our students.

Moving forward, LSU will be guided by our newly released strategic plan.

You’ll read more about this exciting and expansive vision in this magazine, but know that this document aligns our university’s strengths with the challenges faced by our state and our nation. It represents a recommitment to LSU’s land-grant mission of excellence in research, outreach, and education. And as a member of the elite 1% of universities in the nation able to claim the triple-designation of land-, sea-, and space-grant, we have the ability to be transformative as we develop the next generation of state, national and world leaders.

With this plan in place, we are able to leverage our existing long-term strengths toward six critical challenges for Louisiana and the world beyond: Advancing Arts and Culture, Bridging the Coast, Energy and Environment, Fostering Research and Catalyzing Economic Development, Improving Health and Wellbeing, Transforming Education, and Developing Leaders.

It’s a brand new day for LSU, one filled with promise and potential. We are going to leverage that potential into even more exceptional accolades that show everyone, whether they’re in Louisiana, Los Angeles, London, or Laos, that LSU is a world-class university that is truly changing the world – starting right here at home.

Thank you for your continued dedication to your alma mater. I promise you that great things are just over the horizon for LSU, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Sincerely,

F. King Alexander LSU President @lsuprez

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Publisher LSU Alumni Association

Contents

Editor Jackie Bartkiewicz Advertising Mignon Kastanos Art Director Chuck Sanchez STUN Design & Interactive

Features

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22 LSU 2025: Leading Louisiana.

Impacting the World.

A new vision for Louisiana State University was unveiled in August 2017. Over the past two years, LSU leadership sought input from an estimated 3,500 stakeholders to develop LSU Strategic Plan 2025: Leading Louisiana. Impacting the World. The plan will serve as a framework for the University to drive LSU forward over the next decade and will provide a platform for more aggressive philanthropic efforts, helping potential donors better understand LSU’s direction, vision and goals. LSU Alumni Magazine offers readers an overview of LSU’s exciting new strategic plan while diving deeper into one of the plan’s six strategic challenges: Transforming Education.

In Each Issue 1 4 6 32 44 52

From the President President/CEO Message LSU Alumni Association News Around Campus Locker Room Tiger Nation

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Editorial Assistants Patti Garner, Karla Lemoine, Brenda Macon Contributors Mark Claesgens, Blake Couch, Barry Cowan, Ed Cullen, Jeff English, Rachel Emanuel, Rick Hellman, Bud Johnson, Diana Kwon, Rachel Spangenthal, Paul West Photography Emily Berniard, Pamela Blackwell, Mark Claesgens, Ray Dry, Johnny Gordon, Rick Hellman, Mignon Kastanos, LSU Athletics, ORAU, Chris Parent, Eddy Perez, Elizabeth Shaw, Cody Willhite Printing Baton Rouge Printing NATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS Leo C. Hamilton Chair, Baton Rouge, La.

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Susan K. Whitelaw Chair-Elect, Shreveport, La. Jack A. Andonie Director Emeritus, Metairie, La. Lodwrick M. Cook Director Emeritus, Sherman Oaks, Calif.

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Jon D. “Jay” Babb, Baton Rouge, La. Ted A. Martin, Baton Rouge, La. Karen G. Brack, San Diego, Calif.

Louis R. Minsky, Baton Rouge, La. David B. Braddock, Dallas, Texas Jeffrey M. “Jeff” Mohr, Baton Rouge, La. Stephen T. “Steve” Brown, Sherman Oaks, Calif. A.J.M. “Butch” Oustalet, III, Gulfport, Miss.

Randy L. Ewing, Quitman, La. Fred G. “Gil” Rew, Mansfield, La. Kathryn “Kathy” Fives, New Orleans, La. Oliver G. “Rick” Richard, III, Lake Charles, La. Mario J. Garner, Pearland, Texas Bart B. Schmolke, Alexandria, La. Matthew K. “Matt” Juneau, Baton Rouge, La. Beverly G. Shea, New Iberia, La. Kevin F. Knobloch, Baton Rouge, La. Van P. Whitfield, Houston, Texas Brandon P. Landry, Baton Rouge, La. Stanley L. “Stan” Williams, Fort Worth, Texas

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 © 2017 by LSU ALUMNI MAGAZINE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to LSU ALUMNI MAGAZINE, 3838 West Lakeshore Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70808-4686

Cover photo by Cody Willhite/ LSU Strategic Communications.

Design by STUN Design & Interactive

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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.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

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President and CEO

MESSAGE

LSU 2025: For Louisiana, the Region, the Nation, the World LSU Strategic Plan 2025, launched in September, provides an ambitious, detailed blueprint for achieving new heights for our alma mater: Leading Louisiana. Impacting the World.

Faculty, staff, and future alumni will play an integral role in its success. And you – our supporters, advocates, donors, ambassadors, and mentors – are key stakeholders in helping LSU to achieve its vision. You’ll find specific details about the plan in this issue, beginning on page 22.

We are excited to be a part of this major undertaking. The knowledge, experience, and loyalty of generations of LSU graduates will be invaluable in its undertaking. Your heritage helped to create the LSU of today, and I invite you to be an ambassador for what will be.

The LSU Alumni Association will unveil its own long-range plan in early 2018, engaging LSU Tiger Nation in a sophisticated, targeted means to grow the number of active and engaged supporters across the globe. Many of you were part of creating our ambitious new strategy for the future. Now, with your increased financial support, we will together create a robust organization that will inform, engage, network, and inspire.

There is no doubt the LSU Alumni Association will play a critical role assisting LSU in leading Louisiana and impacting the world. Thank you for your leadership, involvement, and ambassadorship. You are, indeed, the University’s most enduring asset.

During the LSU-Syracuse game, we paid surprise visits to Art Favre, president of Baton Rouge-based Performance Contractors, Inc., and Walt Leger, speaker pro tempore of the Louisiana House of Representatives, to inform them they were selected for induction into the 2018 LSU Hall of Distinction. Share the excitement of the moment in this video https://youtu.be/O3wwHTMcI4w.

Favre, Alumnus of the Year, and Leger, Young Alumnus of the Year, will be inducted on April 13, 2018, along with four other outstanding alumni – broadcast executive Jim Engster, entrepreneur Kelly Spears, and sports greats Jerry Stovall and the late Mel Didier.

Mark your calendars and make your reservations now to join us for what promises to be the ultimate celebration of alumni excellence. For information and to reserve your seat, visit hubs.ly/H0923L-0.

On behalf of all of us at the Lod Cook Alumni Center and The Cook Hotel – Happy Holidays and all the best to you and yours in the coming year

Cliff Vannoy President/CEO @LSUAlumniPrez

LSU Alumni Association

AlumniLSU

P.S. A very special thank you to 2017 Honorary National Fund Chairman Alex Bregman for his role in expanding support from LSU Tiger Nation.

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LSU Alumni Association

NEWS

Chapter Events

Newly elected Greater Baton Rouge chapter officers, from left, Jean Pierre Chaze, vice president; Jim Parr, president; and Sarah Clayton, secretary-treasurer.

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Texas Tigers Send-Off

Stacia Haynie, Tiffany Monett, Paige Bahnsen, Julie Klibert, Lisa Bunch, Cheryl Fasullo, Chrystal Cantrell, and Krista Allen.

New Texas Tigers were welcomed to the LSU family by University administrators and Houston-area alums at the Fifth Annual Houston Area Send-Off.

The Greater Houston Chapter hosted its Fifth Annual Houston Area SendOff in August at the home of Cheryl and Peter Fasullo. Thirty-five new Tigers, along with their parents and friends, were welcomed into the LSU family by University representatives, volunteers, and Houston-area alumni.

On hand for the event were Stacia Haynie, dean of the College of Humanities & Social Sciences; Krista Allen, senior director of development for Humanities & Social Sciences, Music & Dramatic Arts, and LSU Press; Rhonda Armor, Houston regional director of development; DeShanna Brown, director of development in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs; Paige Bahnsen and Chrystal Cantrell, regional admissions counselors; and Tiffany Monett, president of the Greater Houston Alumni Chapter.

“The event was sponsored by H.E.B., and we would like to give special thanks to Patrick Evans, a member of the chapter advisory board, for his contribution and continued support,” writes Cheryl Fasullo. “The event was a great opportunity for LSU administrators, staff, and alumni to help students build new peer networks and provide tips for success and to show our future Texas Tigers what the LSU spirit is all about!”

Memphis Tigers – Sarah Clayton

(1967 BACH H&SS) shares news about two future alums from Memphis. “New Tigers Caroline Danziger and Taylor da Ponte each received a Shot and Kay Gueymard/Sarah Clayton Scholarship.

We all hail from Memphis, Tenn., and are graduates of White Station High School. We were all once Spartans and now we are TIGERS. Caroline is in Honors College, majoring in sports administration, and Taylor is considering pre-med.”

Sarah Clayton, center, with scholarship recipients Caroline Danziger, left, and Taylor da Ponte.

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LSU Alumni Association News

Chapter Events

Steve Johnson, Ralph Daniel, and Mike Simon.

Fans of all ages turned out for the Austin SEC Tailgate.

Austin SEC Tailgate – Several hundred alumni, family, and friends of Southeastern Conference schools – decked out in their school colors – attended LSU Austin’s annual SEC Tailgate in September. Fans of all ages enjoyed the beautiful weather and the great food, provided courtesy of Stuffed Cajun Meat Market, Shoal Creek Saloon, and Hook'd Restaurant, and cheering on their teams in the corn hole tournament.

The Mondebello family, from left, Phillip, Maddie, Evan, Nick, and DeAnne Hennessey Mondebello.

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Full Fall Calendar for Central Florida

By Paul West

Golfers Jordan West and Paul West.

Paul and Debi West, Justin Morgan, Kaylee Alaniz, Christy Crawford, Jacob Fuller, Michael Feland, Jon and Shawn Bianca, and Mike and Melissa Fountain at the Freshman Send-Off.

The Central Florida Alumni Chapter hosted a Freshman Send-Off in August at the home of Babs Gross.

Attendees included Jacob Fuller, of Polk City, Fla., who received the chapter’s scholarship award.

Refreshments were prepared and served by Executive Chef Katie Gross, who recently relocated from Baton Rouge to Orlando, Fla. The new freshmen played corn hole with alums, who shared stories about the times at LSU. The annual golf tournament took place at Champions Gate Golf Club where All-American LSU golfer Ben Taylor, who holed the final putt to win the 2016 NCAA national Championship, is golf pro when not on the PGA Tour. Fountain Auto Mall of Orlando was the Gold Sponsor, and contributions were received from many other business donors in the area. The successful tournament netted more than $7,000 for scholarship endeavors.

LSU E.J. Ourso School of Business Dean Richard White hosted a Professional Meet & Greet in October

Lindsey Miller and Emily Bowers at the tailgate party before the LSU-Florida game.

Von Johnson, E.J. Ourso College Business Development Director; Paul West, vice president of the Central Florida Chapter; Debi West, chapter president, Chris Gearity, host of the Professional Meet & Greet event.

in Orlando. Von Johnson, director of development for the college, represented the college as White gave his presentation via Skype. The event was held at The Women's Center in Hunters Creek, which is owned by local alumni Dr. Doug Gearity and his wife, Chris.

The chapter hosted a tailgate in Gainesville, Fla., for the LSU- Florida game. Some 150 alums and friends – including some from Pennsylvania and Baton Rouge – attended the event, which featured a DJ for music as well as downhome food and libations. Plans are already under way for next year’s tailgate at The Swamp.

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LSU Alumni Association News

Tureaud Chapter Honors Clarence Barney

By Rachel Emanuel Photos by Pamela Blackwell

Susan Johnston, Gary Huntley, 2017 A. P. Tureaud Milestone Award recipient Kryslyn S. Johnston, LaWanda Daniels, 2017 A. P. Tureaud Sr. Scholarship recipient Kennedy Daniels, Darryl Shorts, 2017 Tureaud Chapter 1964 Scholarship recipient Darian A. Shorts, Jeffernier Shorts, LSU President F. King Alexander, and Chapter 2017 Chapter Scholarships Committee Chair Carolyn Collins.

Chapter president Gary Huntley, chapter event co-chair Shaun Mena, Shawn Barney, chapter event co-chair Katrina Dunn, and Keith Barney.

The late Clarence Barney, the first African American chairman of the LSU Board of Supervisors, was honored as the 2017 LSU Legend at the annual Homecoming Friday forum hosted by the LSU A.P. Tureaud, Sr. Black Alumni Chapter.

The LSU Legends Forum presented a unique opportunity for the chapter to partner with the LSU African American Cultural Center (AACC) to celebrate only the second building on the LSU campus to be named after an African American, according to Gary Huntley, chapter president. The first was the academic building named after the chapter’s namesake, A.P. Tureaud, Sr. Barney was president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans for more than thirty years and played a pivotal role in efforts to desegregate parochial schools of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. He served on the Board of Supervisors from 1988-2000 and was chairman in 1992.

More than 160 family members, friends, colleagues, and alumni gathered for the September event at the Club at LSU Union Square following the rededication/ renaming ceremony and to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the AACC. Chapter members Leo C. Hamilton, president of the LSU Alumni Association Board of Directors, and James Williams, chair-elect of the LSU Board of Supervisors, addressed the audience, citing the significance of Barney’s relationship with African American students. Hamilton recalled that when he was a student in the 1970s, Barney supported efforts to secure a center for black students. Williams, who spearheaded the naming of the AACC in Barney’s honor, lauded the former board chair’s role in making that decades-long effort a reality in the 1990s.

In addition to the Legend award, chapter members presented $3,500 in scholarships and a special award to current LSU students. Kennedy N. Daniels, a pre-med/ kinesiology major, received the 2017 A. P. Tureaud, Sr., Endowed Scholarship and Darian A. Shorts, a pre-med/chemistry major, received the LSU A.P. Tureaud, Sr. Chapter 1964 Scholarship. Kryslyn Johnson, a pre-med/kinesiology major and the 2017 A.P. Tureaud Milestone Award recipient, was also introduced.

Sponsors were 7th Sign, Nu Phi Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, J. Ofori and El’freda Aghoka, Drs. Aiyanna and Keon Anderson, Cravins Family, Dr. James and Katrina Dunn, Rachel Emanuel, Franklin Associates/Perry and Monique Franklin, Gary and Valerie Huntley, In Memory of Charles and Betty Odom, Donald M. Remy, Jyric and Maisha Sims, James M. Williams, Donald and Yvette Cravins, LSU Office of Diversity, and Ken and Erica West.

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Webster-Claiborne Golf Tourney

Sarah and Gary Haynes, center, with guest speakers Craig Steltz, left, and Jacob Hester.

Service award winners Fred and Kay Elzen with Gary Haynes.

Former LSU football greats Craig Steltz and Jacob Hester visited with more than 200 friends and supporters at the banquet following the Webster-Claiborne Chapter Golf Tournament & Fish Fry at Pine Hills Country Club in Minden.

Taking top honors at the golf tourney were Marcus Gipson and Gunnar Burnham, winners of the first flight; Robert Carnahan and Steve Wilson, second flight; and Dean Barr and Carl Teer, third flight.

Gary Haynes and scholarship winner L. Brianna Murry.

Fred and Kay Elzen received the 2017 Annie Laura and J.C. Johnson Lifetime of Dedication and Support Award for their work with the chapter, and future alumni Brianna Murry and Hayden Corbell, students at North Webster High School, were each awarded chapter-sponsored scholarships to LSU. Elm Street Dental was the tournament sponsor. Other sponsors were Citizens National Bank, Gibsland Bank & Trust, Minden’s Finest Storage, Hebert’s Town & Country, Sheriff Gary Sexton, Mike’s Hometown Spirits, Walkmar Resources, Anytime Vending, R&V Works, and Easley Studios.

LSU Alumni Association President Cliff Vannoy, center, flanked by Sarah and Gary Haynes, accepts the Webster-Claiborne check for the chapter’s scholarship fund. Also on hand for the presentation were Tracy Jones, assistant vice president of advancement, left, and Amy Parrino, senior vice president.

Photo by Emily Berniard

Gary Haynes and scholarship winner Hayden Corbell.

Birmingham Send-Off – Four future Tiger alumni and their parents were given a true purple-and-gold welcome at the annual Greater Birmingham Alumni Association New Student Send-Off Reception in August. Guests were treated to jambalaya and chicken fingers from Cajun Seafood House in Vestavia, Ala., and LSU-themed desserts. Students had the opportunity to meet each other and get insider info from local LSU senior Future alums Erin McCraw, Elizabeth Saab, Maddy Courtney Murr, and parents got firstAndras, and Noah Smith. hand tips from moms and dads of current students and learned more about the Birmingham alumni chapter. Chapter scholarships in the amount of $1,000 were awarded to Noah Smith and Elizabeth Saab.

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LSU Alumni Association News

Chapter Events Never Forgotten – The Southern California Alumni Chapter lost two of its original members in July – Bill Kidd (1953 BACH ENGR) and Dorothy Coats (1945 BACH HS&E).

“Both of them attended our 2017 crawfish boil,” writes Cathy Mueller, chapter secretary. “Bill was eightyseven, and Dorothy was a grand onehundred. They will be dearly missed.”

Connie and Bill Kidd.

Dorothy Coats.

For Scholarship Coffers – San Diego Chapter President Kevin Hellman and Karen Brack, center, presented a check for $105,000 to the LSU Alumni Association to benefit the chapter’s scholarship fund and the Alumni Fund in October. Also present were, from left, Steve Helmke, chief operating officer; Susan Whitelaw, chair-elect of the Association Board of Directors; Emily Berniard, chapter director; and Rhett Butler, vice president of advancement.

Photo by Mignon Kastanos

To find a chapter near you visit www.lsualumni.org/chapters.

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LSU Alumni Association News

LSU 2018 Hall of Distinction Alumnus of the Year, Young Alumnus of the Year Revealed Art Favre, owner and president of Baton Rouge-based Performance Contractors, Inc., is the 2018 LSU Alumnus of the Year. The announcement was made on Sept. 23, in Favre’s suite in Tiger Stadium during the LSU-Syracuse football game.

Alumnus of the Year Art Favre, center, with LSU President F. King Alexander and LSU Alumni Association President and CEO Cliff Vannoy.

Photo by Johnny Gordon

Young Alumnus of the Year Walt Leger, center, with LSU Alumni Association President and CEO Cliff Vannoy and LSU President F. King Alexander.

Photo by Johnny Gordon

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Making the announcement were LSU President F. King Alexander and LSU Alumni Association President and CEO Cliff Vannoy “This is quite a surprise,” Favre said. “LSU is a great place. I loved my experience as an undergraduate, and it’s been a lot of fun watching the University reach greater heights every year. We’ve been following especially the College of Engineering and the Department of Construction Management within the college, helping them become bigger, better, and stronger and produce quality graduates.”

“We thank Art for all he’s done for our students and our university,” said Alexander. “He’s a great alum, and he’s always been there for LSU. It shows what you can do for the next generation of students. It’s well deserved, and we’re very appreciative.”

Favre will be inducted into the LSU Alumni Association Hall of Distinction on April 13, 2018, along with Young Alumnus of the Year Walt Leger, speaker pro tempore of the Louisiana House of Representatives, who learned of his honor on Sept. 26, at the LSU Band Hall.

“You got me,” said Leger. “It was a little shocking. I was invited to speak to the Tiger Band . . . nothing like this ever crossed my mind. It’s a highlight of my life, and I couldn’t be more honored. LSU is such a central point of who I am.”

“Young alumni help us in so many ways, in the public and in the private sectors,” Alexander said. “Walt has been there for us each and every day in the state legislature. We couldn’t have a bigger supporter or fan. He is a great role model for our students.”

Also tapped for induction are the late Mel Didier, longtime high school and

college baseball coach and major league baseball executive and scout; Jim Engster, president of Louisiana Radio Network and Tiger Rag; Kelly Spears, a speech language pathologist and board-certified behavior analyst; and Jerry Stovall, long-time president and chief executive officer of the Baton Rouge Area Sports Foundation, now SportsBR. “The LSU Alumni Association annually recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves and the University through their careers, their personal and civic accomplishments, their volunteer activities, and their loyalty to their alma mater,” Vannoy said. “These individuals have excelled in all of these areas and exemplify the essence of a true Tiger.”

Favre graduated from LSU in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in construction and today heads up a billion dollar, 9,000-employee general industrial services company. An active supporter of LSU and the College of Engineering, Favre is heavily involved in the expansion and realignment of Patrick Taylor Hall.

He is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council, the Board of Directors of the Construction Industry Advisory Council for the Bert S. Turner Department of Construction Management, and a past president of the LSU Construction Industry Advisory Council. A member of the LSU Alumni Association, the LSU Foundation, and Tiger Athletic Foundation, Favre was inducted into the LSU Alumni Association Hall of Distinction in 2011. He was inducted into the College of Engineering Hall of Distinction and was recognized as a Distinguished Patron of the Bert S. Turner Department of Construction Management.

Leger earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from LSU in 2000 and a J.D. from Tulane University in 2003.

He was elected speaker by acclamation in 2012 and again in 2016 and is the youngest member to ever serve in the position. Leger is an attorney at the law firm of Leger & Shaw in New Orleans.

He was elected to represent District 91 in 2007 and re-elected without

opposition in 2011 and 2015. He has served on the Appropriations, Criminal Justice, Education, Judiciary, and House Executive committees; Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget; Juvenile Justice Implementation Commission; House Committee on Homeland Security; and Technology Sub-Committee of the House Executive Committee.

He has received numerous honors recognizing his commitment to people of his district, most recently the 2016 Tax Foundation Award for Excellence in state Tax Reform. In 2015 he was named Outstanding Legislator by the LSU Health Sciences Center Foundation and received a 2015 LSU Greek Excellence Award. He also serves on the Louisiana Judicial College Board of Directors.

Didier, longtime high school and college baseball coach and major league baseball executive and scout, earned a master’s degree in education from LSU in 1967. He was an LSU football AllAmerican in 1945 and a star pitcher for LSU’s 1946 SEC championship baseball team. He was a successful high school coach in football and baseball. He was widely respected as an assistant football coach at LSU and head baseball coach the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

He is best known for a major league baseball career of nearly sixty years.

He had administrative responsibility with three expansion teams – the Montreal Expos, Seattle Mariners, and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Engster graduated from LSU in 1981 with a degree in broadcast journalism.

Best known for his broadcast work, Engster has hosted daily radio programs since 1998, interviewing luminaries from the worlds of politics, sports, business, entertainment, and the arts. He was named Communicator of the Year in 2008 by the Louisiana Public Relations Association and received the YWCA Racial Justice Award in 2011 and the Atlas Media Award 2014. He has served as president and vice president of the Press Club of Baton Rouge several times and as president of the National Association of State Radio Networks. He was inducted

into the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication Hall of Fame in 2012.

Spears earned a bachelor’s degree in communication sciences and disorders from LSU in 1994 and a master’s degree from Southeastern Louisiana University.

Spears and her family support LSU student-athletes through donations to the Tiger Athletic Foundation.

The Jones-Spears Family Scholarship represents the fifth endowment committed to the gymnastics program.

She also generously supports academic programs through the LSU Alumni Association and the LSU Foundation and made a major gift to support the renovation of Mike the Tiger’s Habitat.

Stovall attended LSU from 1959 to 1962, where he was an All-American running back and runner-up for the 1962 Heisman Trophy. He earned his undergraduate degree from Missouri Baptist College while playing in the National Football League for the St. Louis Cardinals. His coaching career included stints with Paul Dietzel at the University of South Carolina and Charles McClendon at LSU before he was promoted head coach of the LSU Tigers in 1980. Stovall was inducted into the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame in 2010 and enshrined in 2011. He is a member of the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He was named the 1990 Volunteer Activist of the Year and in 1993 was named to the LSU Modern Day Team of the Century. He was honored in 2007 with the Brotherhood/Sisterhood Award for his work in the community.

The first LSU Alumnus of the Year award was conferred in 1966; the Young Alumnus of the Year Award was established in 1999 to recognize alumni under the age of forty who have attained professional prominence early in their careers. Including the 2017 inductees, the LSU Alumni Association has recognized 296 individuals representing a crosssection of LSU graduates.

Mel Didier.

Jim Engster.

Kelly Spears.

ON THE WEB https://youtu.be/ O3wwHTMcI4w Jerry Stovall.

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LSU Alumni Association News

Snapshots

Leo Hamilton, chair of the LSU Alumni Association Board of Directors and wife Gwen throw beads to the Homecoming parade crowd.

Photo by Johnny Gordon

Newly crowned Homecoming Queen Camille Faircloth and King Matthew Boudreaux with, from left, 2016 Queen Natalie Burges, King Jacques Petit, and LSU Alumni Association Board of Directors Chair Leo Hamilton.

Photo by Eddy Perez

Homecoming 2017 – Returning alumni celebrated Homecoming on Sept.

30, following a fun-filled week of events on campus for future alums. President F. King Alexander, LSU Alumni Association Board of Directors Leo Hamilton, and other dignitaries took part in the Homecoming Parade, which passed in front of the Lod Cook Alumni Center, and crowds at The Cook Hotel sought autographs from players and coaches. At halftime, the Homecoming crown and scepter were handed over to new royalty – King Matthew Boudreaux, human resources major from Lafayette, La., and Queen Camille Faircloth, a kinesiology senior from Pineville, La.

LSU Alumni Association President Cliff Vannoy and event director Brandli Roberts, center, welcome fiftyyear alums Bill Arbour, Becky Heard Fike, and Joan Vincent Arbour to the Lod Cook Alumni Center for the Homecoming Parade.

Photo by Johnny Gordon

Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise, center, and wife Jennifer, who returned to campus for Homecoming, joined President F. King Alexander for the national anthem.

Photo by Ray Dry

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LSU Sports Legends Are Back

By Bud Johnson Photos by Ray Dry

Jim Engster, Coach Will Wade, and Bud Johnson.

Representatives of the 1969 football Tigers football team presented former All-America linebacker George Bevan, far right, with a team picture at the LSU Sports Legends event. From left are Arthur Davis, Robert “Red” Ryder, former assistant coach Dave McCarty, and Mark Lumpkin.

Personal appearances by LSU sports figures are back on football home game Saturdays, and The Cook Hotel has got ’em.

Ashleigh Gnat, last season’s all-everything gymnast, was in the same lineup at the hotel with former football greats Billy Cannon and Jerry Stovall is an event tagged LSU Sports Legends.

What does she have in common with Cannon and Stovall? She was ranked at the pinnacle of her sport. Her excellence in gymnastics helped make her Tigers one of the best teams in the country during her stellar career. Gnat appeared in October, part of a 2017 lineup that included Stovall and Cannon in November.

Jim Engster, local talk show host and publisher of Tiger Rag, continued in his role of moderator of the program. George Bevan, an All-America linebacker in 1969, was the first to appear at the Cook Hotel event on Sept. 23, and basketball coach and recruiting whiz Will Wade followed on Sept. 30.

Cannon won the 1959 Heisman Trophy. Stovall was the 1962 runner-up for that award. Both were two-time consensus All-America selections and have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Gnat was a seventeen-time All-America selection, the 2017 NCAA floor exercise champion, and winner of the 2017 AAI award as the top senior gymnast in the NCAA – the equivalent of the Heisman Award in her sport.

Gymnastics 2, Football 1 – Susan Jackson (left) in 2010 and Ashleigh Gnat in 2016 were named outstanding performer in their sport – gymnastics – just like Billy Cannon was named the Heisman Trophy winner, the outstanding player in college football in 1959.

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LSU Alumni Association News

Snapshots

Unique Cuisine General Manager Ryan Diez, server Seth Gros, Chef Jackie Solomon, and supervisor Patrick Berry.

Showcase Winner – Jackie Solomon, executive chef at Unique Cuisine Catering, walked away with the Best Appetizer award at the 2017 Capital Chefs Showcase in September. Her winning dish – Duck Confit Nachos with Mango and Pineapple Relish – beat the entries of thirty-six other chefs. Proceeds from the annual event, which features cuisine from some of the community’s finest restaurants, chefs, and caterers, support the mission of Cancer Services. Unique Cuisine is the LSU Alumni Association’s exclusive caterer.

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Tigers Tee Up Photos by Johnny Gordon

First place gross winners, from left, David Funes, Tessa Teachman, Hamp Crump, and Connor Johnson.

Sixty-four golfers gathered at University Club in October – perfect golfing weather! – for the annual LSU Alumni Association Golf Tournament.

Prizes were awarded in first, second, and third place gross and net categories, with David Funes, Tessa Teachman, Hamp Crump, and Connor Johnson taking home the first place gross prize – The Suite Experience at The Cook Hotel. Team members received a stay at The Cook Hotel and tickets to the Texas A&M game as guests in the Association’s Tiger Stadium Suite.

Other winning teams were Matt Deville, Brian Hinson, Brad Watts, and Jimmy Robbins, second place gross; Kevin Gausman, Mason Katz, Jacoby Jones, and Mikie Mahtook, third place gross; Hudson Lemoine, Sean Cangelosi, Lawrence Alwood, and Greg Stringfellow, first place net; Scott Holt, Doug Thompson, Buzzy Haydel, and Billy Dressler, second place net; and Jim Parr, Randy Raudabaugh, J.P. Chaze, and Steve Tope, third place net. Tope and Jay Suits tied for the putting contest competition.

A New Governor – The National Association of

Nonprofit Organizations and Executives (NANOE) announced in August the appointment of LSU Alumni Association Vice President for Advancement Rhett Butler to its 2018 Board of Governors. He will be honored along with fellow governors from all fifty states at the organization’s annual convention in Charleston, S.C. A Certified Fundraising Executive, Butler has worked in advancement for nearly a decade. Before joining the Association, he was assistant director of development for the Tiger Athletic Foundation. He served previously as Rhett Butler. director of development for the College of Humanities & Social Sciences and as associate director of development in the E.J. Ourso College of Business.

Taking first place net were, from left, Hudson Lemoine, Sean Cangelosi, Lawrence Alwood, and Greg Stringfellow.

SPONSORS • Triad - Presenting • Unique Cuisine - Lunch • Phil’s Oyster Bar, Roberto’s, Walk-On’s – On-Course Food • CocaCola and Mockler – Beverage • Gerry Lane – Hole-in-One • Jerry Shea – Putting Contest • Lester Lee – Golf Cart • Patrick Coogan, Lance Mayeux, Chad Durbin – Golf Cart HOLE SPONSORS • Triad • Lee Wealth Management • Performance Contractors • LSU Alumni Gift Shop • Practical Promotions • Lewis Mohr Real Estate & Insurance Agency • Repcon • Hargrove & Associates, Inc. • Champion Wealth Strategies • The Cook Hotel • The Alumni Insurance Program • Stan Williams

LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

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ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT IN TIGER STADIUM TIGER BAND ALUMS RETURNED TO CAMPUS IN SEPTEMBER FOR the Tiger Band Reunion, highlighted this year by a new event – a chance for the Alumni Band to play in the stands during the LSU-Syracuse game. Friday events included a Golden Girls reunion luncheon and a night rehearsal and social for band members at the Band Hall. Saturday morning rehearsal with the Tiger Band was followed by a “Grab and Geaux” lunch and a walk down Victory Hall to the Pre-Game Tailgate Party at the Maravich Assembly Center. At halftime, musicians, Golden Girls, Flag Corps, and Tigerettes joined the Golden Band from Tigerland – a group nearly 700 strong – for another “Saturday Night in Tiger Stadium.”

Photos by Johnny Gordon

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LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

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L SU STRAT E GIC PLA N 2025 LEADING LOUISIANA. IMPACTING THE WORLD.

LSU Alumni Magazine offers readers an overview of LSU’s exciting new strategic plan while diving deeper into one of the plan’s six strategic challenges: Transforming Education.

By Jeff English

22 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

A new vision for Louisiana State University was unveiled in August 2017. Over the past two years, LSU leadership sought input from an estimated 3,500 stakeholders to develop LSU Strategic Plan 2025: Leading Louisiana. Impacting the World. Faculty, staff, students, alumni, and business leaders participated in events ranging from focus groups and planning committees to online surveys and town hall meetings. The plan will serve as a framework for the university to drive LSU forward over the next decade and will provide a platform for more aggressive philanthropic efforts, helping potential donors better understand LSU’s direction, vision and goals.

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A closer look at the plan and LSU alumni will recognize the document’s respect for the University’s history and appreciate the forward-thinking approach to take bold steps in establishing LSU as one of the nation’s leading institutions of higher education. The core of the strategic plan reflects LSU’s serviceoriented role as the state’s flagship university, focusing its efforts on six areas: arts and culture; the coast, energy and environment; research and economic development; health and well-being; education; and developing leaders.

“As the document began to come together, we realized that if the state of Louisiana created a strategic plan, these themes would be at the top of the list,” explained LSU Provost Rick Koubek. “Through collaboration across the University on these six challenges, we are uniquely positioned to make a difference on a state, national and global level.”

Since its official launch in August, faculty and staff have rallied to advance the plan’s key initiatives. Coinciding with these efforts is the completion of a fundraising strategy to support the plan’s goals and initiatives.

TRANSFORMING EDUCATION To give readers a better idea as to how the leadership of the plan’s six strategic challenges will move forward in executing the strategies, we took a closer look at one: Transforming Education. We also interviewed two of the University leaders who will play key roles in executing this strategic challenge: Damon Andrew, Dean and E.B. "Ted" Robert Endowed Professor College of Human Sciences and Education, and Frank Neubrander, Demarcus D. Smith Alumni Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Gordon A. Cain Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Literacy.

In regard to its focus on education, the strategic plan states: as a lifelong educational partner, LSU will be a global leader in the positive transformation of education from cradle to career and beyond.

“Clearly, better education is a ticket to a better quality of life,” said Andrew. “The Transforming Education strategic challenge in the plan expands upon the significant roles LSU plays in Pre-K-12 education, higher education, and continuing education in Louisiana and beyond. This strategic challenge is a vivid reminder that supporters of LSU are advocates of transformative education across the lifespan, not just higher education.”

Andrew explained that the initial efforts of Transforming Education will build upon the significant work LSU has completed over the last few years, which will better position the University for future success. One of these areas is the LSU Early Childhood Education Laboratory Preschool (ECELP), which launched in fall 2016. The Reggio Emilia-inspired program builds a curriculum around each child’s specific interests.

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Our Strategic Challenges ADVANCING ARTS AND CULTURE BRIDGING THE COAST, ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT FOSTERING RESEARCH AND CATALYZING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IMPROVING HEALTH AND WELL-BEING TRANSFORMING EDUCATION DEVELOPING LEADERS

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The ECELP not only provides cutting-edge research in the areas of child development and education but also serves as a training site for undergraduate and graduate students in Early Childhood Education. In addition, the ECELP exists as a model school for the entire state and a resource for continuing education as teachers from across Louisiana attend to study best practices and new teaching methods.

“Research has shown that children who begin their education earlier in life are more socially aware and adept, are less likely to engage in negative social behavior and are more likely to succeed academically and become positive contributors to society, just to name a few of the early education advantages,” said Andrew. “With the ECELP, we want to provide a model experience that produces high-impact outcomes for children and create a model that is exportable to other cities across the state.”

Andrew points to other successes that the strategic plan will expand upon. University Laboratory School (ULS) has a 101-year history of serving as a model school for the state. Recently, Mayfair Elementary in East Baton Rouge Parish modified its operation model to follow the ULS blueprint. This replication of best practices and installation of a new framework had a significant impact on Mayfair’s school performance and provided sizeable gains in test scores. Plans are to replicate this process at additional schools across the state.

The College of Human Sciences and Education is also in the process of conceptualizing a K-12 Education Outreach Center on the southwest corner of the ULS campus where pupils, LSU students and teachers from across the state will converge.

Featuring modern science laboratories, the center will stand as a beacon of discovery for STEM students and teachers and will increase the pool of STEM-focused students seeking to matriculate to state universities and ultimately fulfill workforce opportunities of the future. An additional initiative born out of the strategic plan is the Project for Promoting Achievement and Wellness in Schools and Communities (PAWS). The goal of Project PAWS is to create schools that are sensitive to the needs of their students who may have experienced trauma within Louisiana communities, to heal the harm that results from living in chronic stress so that children can learn, be healthy, and grow into productive adults. This goal will be achieved by working with schools and community anchors such as libraries, industry, community centers, and churches to foster restorative environments for children to learn and for educators to teach.

The University is currently pursuing grant opportunities to secure funding for this project and has multiple local organizations and companies willing to provide matching funds.

THE CAIN CENTER One of the primary initiatives featured in the plan is the expansion of the Gordon A. Cain Center for STEM Literacy into

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a world-class institute that advances both educator and student knowledge. The Cain Center’s expanded role would offer traditional continuing education and professional development programs for K-12 educators, expand college readiness and dual enrollment programs for students, and offer new programs for emerging educator needs based on current research, development, and scholarship.

While the Cain Center has been successfully operating numerous college readiness programs and STEM training for the teachers and professionals, support through the strategic plan will assist in significantly expanding these programs.

The LSU College Readiness and Dual Enrollment Program (CRP) serves more than 8,000 students from over forty partnering Louisiana high schools. The program provides access to over fifty university-based, pre-college, and collegelevel courses spread over fourteen disciplines. Included in the CRP offerings are Dual Enrollment LSU courses that pair with high school courses, which students take either at no charge in order to be “college ready” when they officially enroll in the course after matriculation or at a reduced tuition rate in order to earn college credit while still attending high school.

High school teachers play a vital role in the facilitation of the LSU CRP and often receive additional graduate-level training at LSU through professional graduate degree programs for teachers like the Masters of Natural Sciences (MNS) program.

As of the summer of 2017, more than 250 high school teachers have been certified by LSU to facilitate its Dual Enrollment (DE) courses. The CRP program also has pre-college and/or projectbased non-Dual Enrollment courses available to participating high schools. Non-DE teachers are offered the opportunity to attend the same workshops as the DE teachers or other, more appropriate training programs. These professional development opportunities are available at no charge for all other high school faculty at schools participating in Dual Enrollment within the LSU College Readiness and Dual Enrollment Program.

“With the support of the strategic plan, our goal is to expand the reach of our CRP statewide and ultimately create a nationally operating program,” said Frank Neubrander, director of the Gordon A. Cain Center for STEM Literacy. “Expansion would make LSU a more competitive institution, help with recruitment, and improve our graduation and retention rates.”

Two other innovative programs from the Cain Center include LSU Early College Academies and Career Tech Pathways.

The Academies provide enrichment in traditional core STEM courses, while the LSU Pathways are programs that feature STEM curricula to expose high school students in areas such as pre-engineering, digital media and arts, computer science and computational thinking, and biomedical sciences. Initiated at Lee Magnet High School in Baton Rouge, the pre-engineering program gained support from BESE in 2017 and has already

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expanded to eight additional schools. Plans over the next five years include statewide expansion of all LSU Pathway programs.

The Cain Center also works to provide high-level, open source curricula for the LSU Pathways since there are very few comprehensive “off-the-shelf” teacher and student materials available for state-of-the-art STEM courses outside of the traditional academic core areas. In addition, there are often no instructors trained to teach these courses, so the Cain Center trains the teachers in collaboration with LSU’s Colleges of Engineering, Sciences, and Human Sciences and Education, as well as the School of Music and the Center for Computation and Technology.

All of these programs, along with others at the Cain Center, take aim at transforming education by better preparing students for the rigors of college – especially in STEMrelated fields.

“We prepare students with an eye on the future workforce development needs across the state and the nation,” said Neubrander. “Coding is a great example. Today, no matter what they study, people have to learn about making sense of data and how to talk to machines, which is the foundation of coding and data analysis. Every employer – in healthcare, energy, manufacturing, business, and across IT fields – will appreciate an employee who possesses skills in this area.”

Transforming Education is just one of six strategic challenges, each with its own unique strategies and initiatives. As evidenced by the exciting plans shared in this article, it is a monumental point in LSU’s history as the University embarks on a journey to solve challenges that will make an impact on Louisiana and the world.

Long-term LSU supporter and current LSU Foundation board member Roger Ogden notes the key role that LSU plays in the future of Louisiana and that it has never been more important to bring in private financial support to ensure the success of this strategic plan. “Public education has the ability to transform a state, which is why I’ve invested so much in LSU,” he said. “Now that the public sees the University has defined and refined its goals to address our most important challenges and utilize our strongest advantages, I think that calls up ever greater opportunity for those inclined to support its achievement.”

To learn more, visit www.strategicplan.lsu.edu.

Jeff English, a 1990 graduate of the Manship School of Mass Communication, is a freelance writer in Baton Rouge.

28 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

29

LSU ALUMNI GIFT SHOP

Geau

IS YOUR

x-To Holida

! p o y Sh

VISIT OUR ON-CAMPUS STORE

LOCATED IN THE LOBBY OF THE COOK HOTEL AT LSU

3848 West Lakeshore Drive Baton Rouge, LA 70808 • 225.383.0241 LSU Alumni Association Members receive 20% Discount.

Noteworthy

Around

CAMPUS

Alan Black

Erin Casey

Stephanie Eberts

Suzanne Marchand

Ann Marie Stanley

Kristine Thompson

Jeff Carney

Kristina Launey

32 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

Ten LSU faculty members are among the more than 100 individuals selected from the fourteen Southeastern Conference universities to take part in the 20172018 SEC Faculty Travel Program. The program provides financial assistance for faculty members to travel to other SEC universities to exchange ideas, develop grant proposals, conduct research, Alex Cohen Jennifer Curry and deliver lectures or performances.

This year’s participants are Alan Black, assistant professor of geography; Erin Casey, assistant professor of education; Alex Cohen, associate professor of psychology; Jennifer Curry, associate professor of education; Stephanie Eberts, assistant professor of education; Suzanne Marchand, professor of John Protevi Kathleen Searles history; John Protevi, Phyllis M. Taylor Professor of French Studies; Kathleen Searles, assistant professor of political science; Ann Marie Stanley, associate professor of music; and Kristine Thompson, assistant professor of art.

Jeff Carney, associate professor of architecture and director of the Coastal Sustainability Studio, and a multidisciplinary LSU research team lead two of the four projects awarded funding from the National Academies of Sciences Gulf Research Program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The project aims to enhance the science and practice of resilience in coastal communities located in the Gulf of Mexico region. The project includes faculty from ten departments at Louisiana Sea Grant, University of New Orleans, and LSU, including the Coastal Sustainability Studio, the Center for Coastal Resiliency, the Life Course and Aging Center, and the Center for River Studies.

Kristina Launey, assistant professor of physics, is one of thirty non-tenured researchers to receive a National Science Foundation Research Fellowship through the organization’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCor). Launey, whose research focus is theoretical nuclear physics and astrophysics, will conduct her research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory working on Ab initio modeling of nuclear reactions for studies of nucleosynthesis and fundamental symmetries in nature.

Bryan McCann, assistant professor of communication studies, received the Karl R. Wallace Memorial Award presented annually by the National Communication Association to a scholar and educator who fosters and promotes philosophical, historical, and critical work and research in rhetoric and public discourse.

McCann’s work encompasses pop and social culture, political influence, and how communication, adapted and changed through these lenses, broadens the research and fundamentals of rhetorical theory that he established throughout his career.

J. Cameron Thrash, assistant professor of biological sciences, received one of ten National Academies of Sciences Early Career Research Fellowships in the Gulf Research Program. The fellowship supports emerging scientists as they take risks on research ideas not yet tested, pursue unique collaborations, and build a network of colleagues who share their interest in the well-being of coastal communities and ecosystems. Thrash, a microbiologist, studies the roles of microorganisms in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River.

Recently released rankings put LSU as best in Louisiana and a leader in the SEC in one of the most important outcomes to today's students – return on investment.

According to PayScale’s 2017-2018 College Salary Report, LSU graduates have early career earnings of $52,700 and mid-career earnings of $100,400.

Bryan McCann

J. Cameron Thrash

• LSU ranks highest in Louisiana among public universities for both early career and mid-career earnings.

• When looking at public SEC peers, LSU ranks third for early career earnings, and fourth in mid-career earnings.

• Among the fifty public flagship universities in the nation, LSU ranks in the top half in both early career and mid-career earnings – twenty-first in early career earnings and eighteenth in mid-career earnings.

In Washington Monthly’s recently released 2017 College Guide and Rankings: • LSU ranks seventieth among public universities and 108th overall – as the highest ranked university in Louisiana.

• Among public SEC peers, LSU is ranked fifth.

In U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 edition of Best Colleges, LSU is ranked in the top tier for “Best National Universities” for the tenth straight year and has moved up to sixty-third among public universities. LSU remains the highest ranked public university in Louisiana. LSU’s ranking moved up to 133 overall and is tied with six other schools: Mercer University, New School, Rutgers University-Newark, University of Arkansas, University of Cincinnati, and University of Kentucky.

The undergraduate and graduate programs at the LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture have once again received top rankings from DesignIntelligence magazine, the leading journal of design professionals. The 2017-2018 issue of “America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools” ranked the undergraduate program as number one in the nation and the graduate program as number three in the nation, up three spots from last year.

LSU received the 2017 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education. This is the sixth year LSU has been named as a HEED Award recipient.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

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Around Campus

In Focus

Manship School of Mass Communication Dean Jerry Ceppos, right, with 2017 inductees Marie Constantin, Lou Gehrig Burnett, and Alex Martin.

Manship School Hall of Fame – Manship School of Mass Communication inducted three alumni into its Hall of Fame in September. Honored were Lou Gehrig Burnett (1963 BACH MCOM, 1965 MAST MCOM), veteran Capitol Hill communications chief, political pundit, and independent publisher; Marie Bissell Constantin (1980 BACH H&SS, 1986 BACH MCOM) internationally known still photographer and author; and Alex Martin (1981 BACH MCOM), Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and editor at the Wall Street Journal.

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LSU Welcomes Mike VII

Crowds gathered at Mike VII’s habitat to celebrate his first birthday on Sept. 13.

Photo by Cody Willhite

Mike VII arrived on campus in August.

Photo by Eddy Perez

Students weren’t the only ones getting a start at LSU on the first day of classes in August. Bright and early that Monday morning, attending veterinarian Dr. David Baker and student caretakers opened the door of the tiger habitat and officially welcomed Mike VII to campus.

LSU announced in mid-August that an eleven-month-old rescue tiger, Harvey, was being housed in the habitat’s night house for observation. He acclimated well to his new surroundings and was deemed ready to become Mike VII. The new Mike is in his yard by 8 a.m. and brought back into the night house by 8 p.m. each day. Follow Mike on Facebook (www.facebook.com/mikethetiger), Twitter (@mikethetiger), and Instagram (@mikethetiger_lsu).

Mike VII, who has both Siberian and Bengal characteristics, was donated to LSU from a sanctuary in Okeechobee, Fla., called Wild at Heart Wildlife Center. Mikes IV, V, and VI were also donated to LSU from rescue facilities.

LSU has not purchased a tiger since Mike III in 1958, and LSU does not support the for-profit breeding of tigers. By providing a home for a tiger that needs one, LSU hopes to raise awareness about the problem of irresponsible breeding and the plight of tigers kept illegally and/or inappropriately in captivity in the U.S. A new fundraising campaign supports efforts to save tigers in the wild. The campaign is part of LSU’s involvement in the U.S. Tiger University Consortium.

Through the consortium, LSU has teamed up with three other universities that have “Tigers” as mascots – Auburn University, Clemson University, and the University of Missouri – to help save wild tigers from extinction. Tiger fans – or anyone who loves and appreciates these majestic animals – can contribute to the fund through the LSU Foundation at www.lsufoundation.org/tigerconservation.

See related article on page 77.

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Around Campus

In Focus

Gabriela González, second from left, and National Science Foundation Director France Cordova, center, with LSU gravitational wave scientists at the LIGO Livingston observatory.

LIGO Wins Nobel – The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the pioneering leaders of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (or LIGO) for the first detection of gravitational waves, confirming a major prediction of Albert Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity. LSU Adjunct Professor and MIT Professor Emeritus Rainer Weiss and California Institute of Technology Professors Emeriti Kip Thorne and Barry Barish share this year’s prize. Waves from two black holes colliding over a billion light years away were detected in 2015 by twin LIGO detectors located in Livingston, La., and Hanford, Wash. The LIGO Livingston observatory is located on LSU property, and LSU faculty, students, and research staff are major contributors to the international LIGO Science Collaboration (LSC). Gabriela González, LSU professor of physics and astronomy led the LSC during the initial detection.

Photo by Eddy Perez

Rededication – LSU rededicated the Clarence L. Barney Jr. African American Cultural Center in September, honoring the man whose leadership and commitment made the African American Cultural Center a reality. Barney was the first African American to serve as chair of the LSU Board of Supervisors, in 1992. A man of impeccable character, Barney was also a member of several other boards, including the Superdome Commission and the Board of Dryades Savings Bank. A tireless advocate for human rights, he was president of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans for more than thirty years, retiring in 1996. He passed away in 2005.

Photo by Eddy Perez

President F. King Alexander; LSU Board of Supervisors Chair-elect James Williams, Keith Barney, Lucille “Lulu” Barney, Shawn Barney, Ivy Barney, and Marie Barney at the African American Cultural Center rededication/renaming ceremony.

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TIGER TRIVIA 1. When were portraits of George Mason Graham and William Tecumseh Sherman stolen from campus?

1860 1959

1980 1997 2. Who created the paintings of Mason and Sherman?

Samuel Lockett Charles Coates

James Nicholson Arthur Prescott 3. The paintings above were recovered a few days after they were stolen.

True False

New officers of the LSU Faculty/Staff Retirees Club, from left, Ken Koonce, president; Roger Hinson, vice president; Judy Lithgoe, treasurer; Donna Day, recording secretary; Mark Claesgens, historian; and Denver Loupe, parliamentarian.

4. Which member of the 1958 national championship football team was known as “Scooter?”

Don Purvis J.W. Brodnax

Billy Cannon Johnny Robinson 5. When were the first dormitory rooms added to Tiger Stadium?

1924 1932

1936 1953 6. When were the stadium dormitories air conditioned?

1953 1966

1979 Never 7. Where did female students live until the first dormitory for women opened in 1931?

In sorority houses In the stadium dormitories

In the pentagon barracks In the gym-armory downtown

LSU Retirees – Members of the LSU Faculty/Staff

Retirees Club hear from fellow retiree Jerry Baudin at the September meeting. Baudin, chairman of the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana Board of Trustees, gave members an update on how their retirement funds are being managed. The group also elected officers for 2017-2018.

Local feature writer Annabelle Armstrong, whose work has spanned six decades, shared some of her stories with members in October.

Photos by Mark Claesgens

9. Who was the first Australian to be a member of the Tiger basketball team?

Joe Dean Pet Maravich

Nikita Wilson Ed Palubinskas 10. Which former Tiger center did the person above coach in the NBA?

Brandon Bass Shaquille O’Neal

Stanley Roberts Kobe Bryant 11. What item was included in the 1964 Gumbo?

A phonograph record An 8-track tape

A cassette tape A floppy disc 12. How was enrollment in various classes affected by World War I?

More students were taking French More students were

taking engineering classes

Fewer students were All of the above taking German Tiger Trivia is compiled by Barry Cowan, assistant archivist, Hill Memorial Library.

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

Annrose Guarino, Jerry Exner, Annabelle Armstrong, Patti Exner, and Pat Lee.

8. What event did LSU celebrate in 1969-1970?

Its 100th year in Baton Rouge A national championship in

football

Its centennial year The 10th anniversary of the

opening of Middleton Library

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Around Campus

Summer Grads Treated to BBQ

LSU alumnus and culinary entrepreneur Jay Ducote delivered the keynote address at summer commencement.

LSU alumnus and culinary entrepreneur Jay Ducote (2004 BACH BUS, 2007 MAST H&SS) delivered the keynote address at summer commencement on Aug. 4 and hosted a barbecue luncheon for graduates and their families in Tiger Stadium after the ceremony.

The University awarded 674 degrees during LSU’s 293rd commencement ceremony.

LSU is where Ducote got his start as a chef, when he was handed his grandfather’s barbecue utensils at his first tailgate party during his freshman year. Ducote had found his passion.

“Find the thing that you don’t want to stop learning about,” he said. “Find something you can always be inquisitive about, something that always keeps your mind curious.”

He told the graduates that their education is something that no one can take away from them, so they need to use it.

“Now, people can’t take away being a Tiger from you either,” he said. “Chase your dreams, pursue your passions, and find your tailgate party!”

Photo by Eddy Perez

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IÂ AM COLLABORATIVE. I AM CREATIVE. I AM CULTURALLY ADEPT. I AM GLOBALLY ENGAGED. I AM INNOVATIVE. I AM TRANSFORMATIVE.

LSU fosters six competitive values in our graduates that equip them with the skills necessary to change the world.

LS U S TRATE GIC P L AN 2 0 2 5 L E A D I N G L O U I S I A N A . I M PA C T I N G T H E W O R L D . strategicplan.lsu.edu

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Around Campus

2016 LSU 100 Fastest Growing Tiger Businesses Named Franklin Associates was announced as the number one fastest growing company in the 2017 LSU 100: Fastest Growing Tiger Businesses. Perry Franklin (1992 BACH BUS, 1998 MBA) serves as the company’s president.

The 2017 recipient of the LSU 100 Summit Award is Performance Contractors, whose president is Art Favre (1972 BACH ENGR).

Perry Franklin, president of Franklin Associates, winner of the 2017 LSU 100: Fastest Growing Tiger Businesses.

Photo by Bret Lovetro

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• •

Anedot Inc. ES Squared LLC Facilities Maintenance Management Elite Fulfillment Solutions ThreeSixtyEight (Previously Big Fish Presentations) Faulk & Meek General Contractors Pinot's Palette Legacy Title LLC CompuFlow Solutions LLC M2 Studio H. Davis Cole & Associates LLC Western Institute for Biomedical Research Patriot Industries LLC BlinkJar Media USA Technologies Inc. E-Claim.com LLC Distinctive Art Source DonahueFavret Contractors Inc. Gauthier Amedee Lipsey’s LLC Automated Solutions Raising Cane's Honey Island Enterprises Ltd. (operating as Maritime Veterinary Imaging and Radterra) Joubert Law Firm APLC VGraham LLC

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• • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Pearl Events Austin Mela & Roam Marucci Sports Quality Testing Inc. Plus One Design and Construction The Bridal Boutique by MaeMe Carter & Hatcher Consulting, LLC Pontchartrain Partners LLC Argent Financial Group Inc. Aydell Investments LLC DBA Sport Clips Alexander Contractor Services LLC Quality Engineering & Surveying LLC Information Management Solutions LLC d/b/a Secure Shredding and Recycling Core Health Networks Southeastern Janitorial Smith+Baker Landscapes Hickory Small Animal Hospital Image-Industry Photo & Design Studio LLC Horizon Wealth Management Staines & Eppling APLC IWD Agency Red Six Media Carmouche Insurance Inc. Walk-On's Enterprises Window World of Baton Rouge A Dog's Day Out, LLC (ADDO) Remson|Haley|Herpin Architects APAC AOS Interior Environments The Political Firm PJ’s Coffee PURYEAR IT Arkel Constructors LLC Ritter Maher Architects Stuart & Company General Contractors LLC Investar Bank Skyhawk The Royal Treatment LLC: The Canine Salon & Spa

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Republic Finance LLC Reputation Capital Media Services Geocent LLC Southern Marsh Collection Fontenelle & Goodreau Insurance LLC Performance Contractors Inc. Answering Bureau Inc. DBA Dexcomm Landon Companies Pod Pack International LTD Tin Roof Brewing Company Cornerstone Data Systems INC Vivid Ink Graphics BMI Audit Services LLC Perry, Balhoff, Mengis & Burns LLC The Anderson Group Real Estate Services Global Data Vault McInnis Brothers Construction Inc. Henry Insurance Services Inc. B&G Food Enterprises LLC eQHealth Solutions Red River Bank Perry Dampf Dispute Solutions Lyons Specialty Company Mestizo Restaurant Vintage Realty Co. ROSA Enterprises Corporation d/b/a The UPS Store 2305 ISC Constructors LLC LaBorde Therapy Center LLC Studio Outside LLC Coastal Bridge LLC Manasseh, Gill, Knipe & Belanger PLC Sigma Marble and Granite Inc. SGS Petroleum Service Corporation Ryan Gootee General Contractors L.L.C. Guaranty Media Xdesign Inc. Losey Insurance and Financial Services

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Grad Student Replicates ‘Atomic Man’ Incident

Around Campus

By Pam Bonee

LSU graduate student Daniel DiMarco conducts research on radiation exposure.

Photo by ORAU

“We like our students to be involved in cutting edge research.”

42 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

A pilot project this summer at Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) hearkens back to the organization’s roots. ORAU’s new Visiting Faculty Research Program (VFRP), which creates teams to tackle research projects of interest to the organization, lets faculty from a member institution, a student intern, and an ORAU subject matter expert team up to complete a project. LSU was one of two universities selected for this pilot program.

“We used to be much more engaged in research,” said Eric Abelquist, ORAU executive vice president and chief research officer. “That engagement goes back to ORAU’s founding when, after the Manhattan Project, there was an opportunity for universities in the Southeast to take a lead role in atomic energy research.”

The VRFP pilot program demonstrates the feasibility of expanding ORAU’s research enterprise.

Two research universities – LSU and the University of Tennessee – were selected for the pilot.

At the heart of the program is a tenweek internship for one student at each of the universities. Each student is supervised by a faculty adviser, who received a $5,000 award for his or her participation in the project. The student and faculty member work closely with an ORAU subject matter expert, who helps develop and oversees the project.

VFRP projects this summer focused on health physics, and Abelquist said there is a practical reason for that. “As a company that hires health physicists, we want to build a strong pipeline of future health physicists,” he said.

Building relationships with faculty and strengthening relationships with ORAU’s member institutions will help ensure a strong pipeline. “We hope health physics becomes a long-term interest for these interns. One possible outcome is that we make a hire at some point,” Abelquist said.

A near-certain outcome is that the students will finish their internships with a head start on a project that could become their master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation.

Such was the case for Daniel DiMarco, of Marrero, La., who’s LSU adviser Wayne Newhauser, the Dr. Charles M. Smith Chair of Medical Physics and

professor and director of Medical & Health Physics.

DiMarco, who earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from LSU, is pursuing his health physics master’s degree. He worked with Jason Davis, ORAU health physicist, on a project to replicate exposure rates similar to the 1976 “McCluskey Room Incident.”

During that event, Harold R. McCluskey, a chemical operations technician at the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant in Washington state who became known as the “Atomic Man,” survived exposure to the highest dose of radiation from americium ever recorded.

To replicate the effect, DiMarco took blood samples from the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education’s Cytogenetic Biodosimetry Lab and exposed them to different radiation dose rates in an attempt to replicate the single-incident acute intake of radiation that occurred at Hanford and also potentially measure the physiological effects of chronic low-dose radiation.

“From a purely scientific perspective, we don’t know a lot about chronic low-dose radiation,” DiMarco said. “We know much more about what happens from accidents. We need a bigger data set.”

DiMarco’s research may be helpful in that regard, and his work in the Cytogenetic Biodosimetry Lab will definitely add to his experience.

“This project will give Daniel an introduction into how research is conducted in a laboratory setting,” Davis said. “And he will have to work out his own methodologies and design his own research questions.”

Newhauser is enthusiastic about DiMarco’s project and the larger implications of the VFRP. “This is one of those internships that is valuable to building the pipeline of future radiation workers,” he said. “It’s exciting for students and they get to interact with organizations in the real world who could be future employers.”

Newhauser adds that the VFRP is beneficial for his institution as a whole. “LSU is our state’s flagship research university, and a big part of our graduate program involves research. We like our students to be involved in cutting edge research,” he said.

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LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

43

Locker

ROOM

Ashleigh Gnat Vaults Into Coaching Ashleigh Gnat has been called LSU’s all-time best gymnast. Her four years in purple and gold paralleled the most successful period in the history of the sport in Tigertown. Her next move is into the coaching ranks, joining D-D Breaux’s staff as a graduate assistant for the 2017-2018 season.

Ashleigh tied the LSU record for the most perfect 10s by a Tiger gymnast.

Her career achievements include:

• 17-time All-America selection • 2017 NCAA Floor Exercise Champion • Four-time SEC Event Champion • 2017 AAI Award as the top senior gymnast in the nation, the Heisman equivalent in her sport • 2017 Honda Award finalist • 2017 Corbett Award, one of two gymnasts to ever win the award • 2017 SEC event titles in vault, floor, and beam • LSU’s nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award Ashleigh Gnat joins D-D Breaux’s gymnastic staff.

Photo by Chris Parent /LSU Athletics

44 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

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.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

45

Locker Room

A Road Less Travelled

From Student Manager to Head Coach It was the most humble of beginnings. When Will Wade was the student manager for Clemson’s basketball team from 2002 to 2005, he could not have envisioned himself matching wits with some of the great coaches of the game.

There was little to suggest that the student manager’s job was a path to his present megabucks contract at LSU.

Coach Will Wade speaking to alumni and friends at The Cook Hotel.

Photo by Ray Dry

“It is Wade’s declared goal to take the Tigers to the Final Four.”

46 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

His journey went from pumping air into basketballs to recruiting five-star athletes. That was an unimaginable leap for Wade — at the time. He did the grunt work associated with his job … making sure the dirty towels were laundered, for example – but he kept asking for more responsibility. He hung around the coaches’ office, doing more than was asked, surprising the Clemson coaches, Larry Shyatt and Oliver Purnell, with his grasp of the game, and asking probing questions about the sport. This eager college student hadn’t even played basketball in high school.

By the 2005-2006 season, he was promoted to graduate assistant. A year later, 2006-2007, he was made director of basketball operations, a full-time job with a small office of his own, a phone, and a business card. By then he could see himself as a college coach. He understood what was going on around him. He knew he could succeed in this line of work. He was just unsure about how to move up the ladder.

Wade’s trademark was energy. He was bright, engaging, personable, and a tireless, self-directed worker. Every coach needed someone like Will on the staff as long as he didn’t require a big salary.

Prior to the 2007-2008 season, Tommy Amaker, a former Duke star, was hired as the Harvard basketball coach. He needed a staff. Will Wade was his first hire as an assistant coach. This was a major step for Wade. He had a hand in recruiting and in coaching. During his time at

Harvard, the Crimson achieved a Top 25 recruiting class. He also assisted with the development of Jeremy Lin, a future NBA player.

That was enough to get the attention of Shaka Smart who had just taken over at Virginia Commonwealth in 2009.

Wade was Smart’s first hire at VCU. He distinguished himself on a staff that compiled a 113-37 record from 2009 to 2013 and made it to the Final Four in 2011.

Wade became Chattanooga’s head coach in 2013, and he compiled a 40-25 record in two seasons with the Mocs.

VCU made him their head coach in 2015-2016. He had a 51-20 record in two seasons with the Rams and made two NCAA tournament appearances.

LSU beckoned last March.

Wade’s basketball philosophy depends heavily on pressure defenses, which mirrors his work style. He has been a blur on the recruiting trail at every coaching stop.

No coach in LSU basketball history has made such a rapid roster transition — with quality players — as Wade. His first recruiting class was ranked fourteenth nationally by ESPN. Since his hiring in March, Wade has added seven new players to the roster, among them eighthranked point guard Tremont Waters, junior college transfer Daryl Edwards (63), graduate transfers Jeremy Combs (6-7) and Randy Onwuasor (6-3), and freshman forward Mayan Kiir (6-9). An eighth signee – Oregon transfers Kale BigbyWilliams (6-11) — will have to sit out this season. He will be eligible for 2018-19.

Only three LSU coaches have led the Tigers to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament – Harry Rabenhorst in 1953, Dale Brown in 1981, and 1986 and John Brady in 2006. Rabenhorst was LSU’s coach in 1935 when the Tigers defeated Pittsburgh 41-37 in the American Legion Bowl for the mythical national championship.

It is Wade’s declared goal to take the Tigers to the Final Four.

Basketball Recruiting

Wade Rebuilds LSU Roster in Five Months In five months – from March 20 until the beginning of the fall semester – Will Wade’s recruiting transformed the 2017-2018 Tiger men’s basketball team and got commitments from three of the top players in the 2018 class. But his relentless effort in attracting new talent earned immediate respect from Tiger fans … and his employer.

Wade made some speeches to the alumni, bought a house in Baton Rouge, welcomed a new baby daughter, hired three top-notch assistant coaches, worked regularly with his returning players, and signed a contract with LSU that will pay him $2.5 million a year for six years. Mostly, he focused on recruiting. Simultaneously, he and his staff had several recruiting objectives: • Retain the two freshmen signed by former coach Johnny Jones – forward Galen Alexander (6-7) and guard Brandon Rachal (6-5), who could have obtained a release from their letters of intent because of the coaching change.

• Upgrade the roster for the approaching 2017-18 season.

• See as many top-ranked prospects for the next class – 2018 – as possible.

Wade got three prize commitments for the 2018 class: Louisiana’s best basketball player of the past two seasons – Javonte Smart, the nation’s fifth-ranked point guard; 6-foot, 10-inch, 240-pound Naz Reid, the nation’s sixth-ranked power forward; and 6-7, 218-pound Darius Days, the nation’s seventeenth-ranked power forward.

But he never lost sight of upgrading the current LSU roster, signing two graduate transfers, a junior college transfer, a transfer from Oregon, plus top high school graduates. Eight new basketball players entered LSU at the beginning of the fall semester. No basketball coach in LSU history has ever signed this many new players – not in the first year on campus. He basically retooled this year’s Tiger roster in five months.

Here’s how Wade’s recruiting efforts are likely to impact the 2017-2018 team: Freshman Tremont Waters will probably start at point guard. He was ESPN’s eighthranked point guard in the 2017 recruiting class.

Two graduate transfers – Jeremy Combs, a 6-7 forward, and Randy Onwuasor, a 6-3 guard – bring badly needed skills to the lineup. Combs excels as a shot blocker and rebounder. Onwuasor was the nation’s No. 5 scorer last season, averaging 23.6 at Southern Utah. Combs played at North Texas a year ago.

What is a graduate transfer, you ask? A graduate transfer has completed degree requirements at a previous institution, has a year of eligibility remaining, and is allowed to transfer and participate at another institution immediately upon graduation.

Only two of the five scholarship players available from the Johnny Jones era are expected to claim starting positions – guard Brandon Sampson (6-5) and forward Duop Reath (6-11). The other returnees – guard Skylar Mays (6-4) and forwards Aaron Epps (6-10) and Wayde Sims (6-6) are expected to provide depth for Wade’s first team along with highly valued recruits Daryl Edwards, a 6-3 junior college transfer, and 6-9 freshman Mayan Kiir.

Here is Will Wade’s first recruiting class at LSU: Galen Alexander F 6-6 210 Fr. HS Breaux Bridge, La. (Lafayette Christian) *Kavell Bigby-Williams F 6-11 230 Sr. TR London, England (Oregon) Jeremy Combs F 6-7 215 Gr TR Dallas, Texas (North Texas) (Carter HS) Daryl Edwards G 6-3 165 Jr. JC Fresno, Calif. (Northwest Florida St.) (Fresno Central HS) Mayan Kiir F 6-9 201 Fr. HS Bradenton, Fla. (Victory Rock Prep) Randy Onwuasor G 6-3 210 Gr. TR Inglewood, Calif. (Southern Utah) Brandon Rachal G 6-5 215 Fr. HS Natchitoches, La. (Natchitoches-Central HS) Tremont Waters G 5-11 167 Fr. HS New Haven, Conn. (Notre Dame HS) *Kavell Bigby-Williams is a transfer from Oregon. He will sit out this season and will be eligible for competition in the 2018-2019 campaign.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

47

Locker Room

Fall Ball LSU Newcomers Showcase Talent

NEW FACES MUST REPLACE DEPARTED STARS

Daniel Cabrera Left Field

Nick Webre OF/DH/1B

Baseball? Yes, baseball. It’s called Fall Ball. It got underway Oct. 1 and ended with a three-game Purple-Gold World Series at Alex Box Stadium on Nov. 7-10.

You know who we have to replace, right? Greg Deichmann, Alex Lange, Jared Poche, Kramer Robertson, Cole Freeman, Michael Papierski, Hunter Newman, and, sadly, Eric Walker, as well as a few others. But you probably don’t know who will replace the departed stars. You’ve heard that Josh Smith is moving over from third to short, right?

Who will replace Smith at third?

Coach Paul Mainieri and his staff use Fall Ball to assess the talent of the most recent recruiting class and to check on returnees from last season.

Tiger baseball fans were eager to see this Bunyanesque boy from Brooklyn, N.Y. – Nick Storz – who is 6-foot, 6-inches tall and weighs 255 pounds. Shoulder surgery will postpone his candidacy for the starting rotation, however. Mainieri says Storz will miss five to six months for surgery to remove a small bone spur plus the subsequent time for rehab. The big freshman will miss Fall Ball, pre-season practice and the non-conference schedule. His future as a pitcher this season may be in question but he could still contribute as a designated hitter after he returns in March.

Mainieri has holes to fill in pitching, catching, infield, and hitting. Here’s a brief update of the areas that need to be addressed:

Pitching

Starting pitching is problem number one for the Tiger staff. Poche and Lange are now professional pitchers. And Walker is recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Mainieri must find three new weekend starters.

Zach Hess, last season’s star closer, plans to become a Friday night starter in the spring. There are a number of young pitching prospects – some returning from last season and some newcomers – vying for a chance at a starting job or a role as a relief pitcher. That may well be the most important development of Fall Ball in Tigertown.

Caleb Gilbert, Nick Bush and Todd Peterson – three lettermen from last season – hope to make headway in the race for a weekend starter’s job. Junior college transfers Cameron Sanders, Brandon Nowak, and Taylor Peterson bring more maturity and competitive experience at a higher level. Their work bears watching.

Several freshmen pitchers have been recruited – AJ Labas (6-3, 220, RHP), of Middleburg, Fla.; Daniel Cabrera (6-1, 185, LHP), of Baton Rouge; Trent Vietmeier (63, 210, RHP), of Pittsburgh; Devin Fontenot (6-2, 178, RHP), of The Woodlands, Texas; Ma’Kahil Hilliard (6-0, 160, RHP), of Baton Rouge Central; and Matt Schorer (6-4, 195, RHP) of Phoenix.

Catching

Papierski is a pro now. Mainieri is working with junior college transfer Hunter Feduccia and freshman Mason Doolittle. He is confident about their development.

Infield

The infield must be reshuffled with Kramer Robertson and Cole Freeman gone and Jake Slaughter trying out at second and third. Smith is a solid replacement for Robertson at shortstop, but his move leaves a void at third.

Freeman’s departure could be filled by Slaughter or another second baseman from Delgado Community College – Brandt Broussard. Bryce Jordan, a solid hitter, returns after knee surgery, and will compete for the job at first with Nick Coomes. Several returning lettermen – Chris Reid, Rankin Woley, Mason Templet, and Slaughter – could solve the vacancies at second and third.

Devin Fontenot RHP

48 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

Outfield

Two holdovers – centerfielder Zach Watson and right fielder Antoine Duplanti – will be difficult to dislodge. Senior Beau Jordan and freshman Nick Webre give Mainieri talented depth in left field and reliable pinch-hit options. Cabrera could play left field, but his left-handed pitching may be more important for a team that needs depth on the mound.

Designated Hitter

Daniel Cabrera and Nick Storz are possibilities at DH. Other likely candidates are two erstwhile outfielders, Webre and Beau Jordan, who had the job last year.

Major Departures

Mainieri has holes to fill offensively and defensively. He hopes to find hitters like Freeman (.315, 109 RBI), Deichmann (.308, 154 RBI, 19 HR), and Robertson (.307, 137 RBI, 8 HR). And don’t forget Papierski with his eleven home runs and steady work behind the plate. Three weekend starters must be found to replace Lange (10-5. 2.97 ERA), Poche (12-4, 3.17 ERA), and Walker (8-2, 3.48 ERA).

Mainieri Named Coach of 2018 USA Collegiate Team USA Baseball has named LSU head coach Paul Mainieri manager for the 2018 Collegiate National Team on. An American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Hall of Famer, Mainieri led LSU to a national championship in 2009 and five NCAA College World Series appearances overall, including a runner-up finish in 2017. It will be Mainieri’s second coaching stint for Team USA after serving as an assistant coach on the Collegiate National Team in 2015.

Hey Look, We’re America’s Team Paul Mainieri’s most recent recruiting class for LSU baseball includes pitchers from Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Phoenix, Florida, Texas, and Thibodaux. We’re going to be America’s team.

NO. NAME

POS.

B-T

HT.

WT.

CL.

EXP.

HOMETOWN (High School/Previous School)

16

Brandt Broussard

INF

R-R

5-10

160

Jr.

JC

Baton Rouge, La. (U-High/Delgado CC)

2

Daniel Cabrera

OF/LHP

L-L

6-1

185

Fr.

HS

Baton Rouge, La. (Parkview Baptist HS)

11

Mason Doolittle

C

R-R

6-4

220

Fr.

HS

Jupiter, Fla. (Jupiter HS)

20

Braden Doughty

C

R-R

6-1

175

Fr.

HS

Denham Springs, La. (Denham Springs HS)

7

Hunter Feduccia

C

L-R

6-2

200

Jr.

JC

Lake Charles, La. (Barbe HS/LSU-Eunice)

28

Devin Fontenot

RHP

R-R

6-1

175

Fr.

HS

The Woodlands, Texas (The Woodlands HS)

46

Ma’Khail Hilliard

RHP

R-R

6-0

150

Fr.

HS

Central, La. (Central HS)

3

Hal Hughes

INF

R-R

-11

165

Fr.

HS

Norman, Okla. (Norman North HS)

40

John Kodros

LHP

L-L

6-4

170

Fr.

HS

Coppell, Texas (Coppell HS)

26

AJ Labas

RHP

R-R

6-3

215

Fr.

HS

Fleming Island, Fla. (Trinity Christian HS)

35

Clay Moffitt

RHP

R-R

6-4

240

Jr.

JC

Baton Rouge, La. (Catholic HS/LSU-Eunice)

47

Brandon Nowak

LHP

L-L

6-4

190

Jr.

JC

Chicago, Ill. (Notre Dame Prep/Oakton CC)

32

Taylor Petersen

LHP

L-L

6-1

185

Jr.

JC

Gilbert, Ariz. (Highland HS/Chandler-Gilbert CC)

49

Cameron Sanders RHP

R-R

6-2

170

Jr.

JC

Thibodaux, La. (E.D. White HS/NW Florida St.)

44

Matt Schroer

RHP

R-R

6-4

200

Fr.

HS

Phoenix, Ariz. (Arcadia HS)

21

Nick Storz

RHP/DH

R-R

6-6

255

Fr.

HS

Brooklyn, N.Y. (Poly Prep Country Day HS)

30

Trent Vietmeier

RHP

R-R

6-3

210

Fr.

HS

Pittsburgh, Pa. (Montour HS)

14

Nick Webre

OF

L-R

5-10

190

Fr.

HS

Youngsville, La. (Teurlings Catholic HS)

LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

49

Locker Room

Still Coaching at 76 Forget the bingo and shuffleboard.

Pete Jenkins is back in the game.

Defensive line coach Pete Jenkins walks down Victory Hill with the Tigers.

Photo by Ray Dry

“Jenkins’ knowledge of defensive line play continues to be in demand.”

Offensive schemes come and go.

Defenses must adjust to offensive changes. But Jenkins’ knowledge of defensive line play continues to be in demand. Someone keeps hiring the seventy-six-year-old coach out of retirement.

Ed Orgeron has done so on two occasions – once at Southern Cal in 2013 and once at LSU in 2016.

Jenkins has coached at ten different colleges, plus the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL. No other Tiger assistant has served under more head coaches at LSU than Jenkins. In fifteen seasons in Tigertown, Jenkins has worked for five head coaches – Jerry Stovall, Bill Arnsparger, Mike Archer, Nick Saban, and Ed Orgeron.

Jenkins had a close relationship with these coaches. Few people were in as good a position to evaluate them. This is what Coach Pete remembers about these Tiger head coaches:

Jerry Stovall – “Absolutely one of the best people I've ever known! He loved LSU and was a great recruiter for the Tigers. He always had the players’ best interest foremost in his mind.”

Bill Arnsparger – “Xs and Os were his strong suit. He was one of the most knowledgeable coaches about football probably to ever coach the game at any level.”

Mike Archer – “A good person and a good secondary coach. Probably could have been successful as head coach later in his career.”

Nick Saban – “The best at doing the many duties that fall on a head coach at this level. The most committed person I've ever been associated with. Simply a great football coach.”

Ed Orgeron – “Off to a great start toward becoming an outstanding head coach for the Tigers. He is a tireless worker, smart football coach, great recruiter, and totally committed to the job of head coach at his beloved LSU and state of Louisiana.”

SEC Basketball Isn’t What It Used To Be Don’t look now, Will Wade, but SEC basketball is not what it used to be.

Last season, South Carolina made its first ever Final Four. Kentucky was eliminated in the NCAA tournament by eventual champion North Carolina 75-73. Currently, four SEC teams are ranked in ESPN’s recruiting elite. Kentucky ranks No. 2 in the 2017 recruiting derby, Missouri No. 4, Alabama No. 8, and Florida No. 11.

In the past six years, eleven new coaches have entered the fourteen-member league, bringing a new intensity to recruiting in the SEC , which has had a well-deserved reputation as a football conference.

50 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

COACH

SCHOOL

DATE HIRED

PREVIOUS JOB

Will Wade

LSU

March 20, 2017

VCU

Cuonzo Martin

Missouri

March 20, 2017

California

Bryce Drew

Vanderbilt

April 6, 2016

Valparaiso

Ben Howland

Miss. State

March 24, 2015

UCLA

Rick Barnes

Tennessee

March 31, 2015

Texas

Avery Johnson

Alabama

April 5, 2015

NBA

Mike White

Florida

May 7, 2015

Louisiana Tech

Bruce Pearl

Auburn

March 18, 2014

Tennessee

Frank Martin

South Carolina

March 27, 2012

Kansas State

Mike Anderson

Arkansas

March 23, 2011

Missouri

Billy Kennedy

Texas A&M

May, 2011

Murray State

EXPERIENCE

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LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

51

Tiger

NATION

1960s

Ezra A. “Bud” Brown (1967 MAST H&SS, 1969 PHD H&SS), Alumni Distinguished Professor of Mathematics in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, was conferred the title of Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus in September. A member of the university community since 1969, Brown made significant contributions to number theory and related areas of mathematics. He has received six national writing awards from the Mathematical Association of America, and his extensive professional service was recognized with the first Sister Helen Christensen Service Award from the Mathematical Association of America. Brown’s passion for teaching

Degrees BACH Bachelor’s Degree MAST Master’s Degree PHD Doctorate SPEC Specialist DVM Doctor of Veterinary Medicine JD Juris Doctorate

(LSU Law School) 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

52 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

was recognized with the university’s Omicron Delta Kappa G. Burke Johnston Award, an Edward S. Diggs Teaching Scholar Award, a William E. Wine Award, and a Mathematical Association of America MD-DC-VA Section John M. Smith Award.

Brown earned a bachelor’s degree from Rice University.

Eugene R. Groves (1967 BACH H&SS, 1970 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Commercial Litigation, Litigation-Construction, Litigation-Real Estate, and LitigationTrusts and Estates.

Roger Ogden (1968 BACH BUS), a New Orleans real estate developer, civic leader, and philanthropist, was chosen to receive the Times-Picayune Loving Cup, awarded annually to an individual who works unselfishly for the community in civic, social, cultural, or religious activities with no expectation of public recognition or material reward.

The award has been presented annually since 1901.

George “Bob” Richardson, III (1969 BACH A&D), chief executive officer and founding principal of RVi Planning in Austin, was elevated to fellowship in the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in August.

Fellowship is among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members.

1970s

Daniel Adams (1978 BACH M&DA), professor of music at Texas Southern University, introduced the world premiere of his composition Transitory Liaisons for four bass clarinets and percussion quintet as part of Clarinet Fest 2017, the annual conference of the International Clarinet Association. Transitory Liaisons was composed for the Four New Brothers (and Sister) Bass Clarinet Quartet and members of the University of Central Florida Percussion Ensemble. Adams also received a performance of Congruent Verses, his composition for English horn solo at the College Music Society International Conference held at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, Australia, in July.

Dana Nunez Brown (1979 BACH A&D), a principal in Dana Brown & Associates in New Orleans, was elevated to fellowship in the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in August.

Fellowship is among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members.

James Carville (1970 BACH H&SS, 1973 JD), a political adviser popularly known as the “Ragin’ Cajun,” will join the Manship School of Mass Communication faculty in January 2018, teaching in the school’s political communication concentration. He has taught at Tulane University in New Orleans for nine years. Carville, a member of the Manship School Hall of Fame, was the school’s commencement speaker in 2015.

Carville’s most famous campaign was for President Bill Clinton in 1992, when he was Clinton’s senior political adviser. He

has run campaigns in more than twentythree countries, including Afghanistan.

He is a best-selling author of books, including All’s Fair: Love, War and Running for President, which he wrote with his wife, Mary Matalin, a long-time Republican strategist.

David R. Cassidy (1972 BACH H&SS, 1975 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Litigation and Controversy-Tax.

Robert L. Coco (1979 BACH ENGR, 1982 MAST ENGR, 1988 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Environmental Law and Litigation–Environmental.

Vicki M. Crochet (1977 BACH H&SS, 1980 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Employment Law-Management and Labor Law-Management.

Nancy C. Dougherty (1974 BACH H&SS, 1979 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Education Law. James L. Ellis (1971 BACH H&SS), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Energy Law.

SHARE YOUR NEWS Share news of your new job or promotion, your wedding, honors, awards, new babies, and other

celebrations with fellow alumni. To submit an item and photos for publication, e-mail jackie@lsualumni.org or call 225-578-3370.

LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

53

Tiger Nation

Gregory D. Frost (1977 BACH H&SS, 1981 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Government Relations Practice.

Michael R. Hubbell (1978 BACH BUS, 1980 MAST BUS, 1987 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Commercial Transaction/UCCLaw. Eve B. Masinter (1979 BACH H&SS, 1982 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson in New Orleans, was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers In America in the area of LitigationLabor and Employment.

Joan McCullough (1979 BACH BUS), of Providence, N.J., received the Pi Beta Phi Fraternity for Women Evelyn Peters Kyle Angel Award for Club Service.

The Evelyn Peters Kyle Angel Award for Club Service is presented annually to an alumna who has performed duties that often go unrecognized but enhance the success of the club. McCullough, a twenty-seven-year member of the Northern New Jersey Alumnae Club of Pi Beta Phi, “has served her club in a minimum of one capacity – and sometimes two – every single year. Club members count on Joan for her experience, expertise, and generosity.”

54 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

J. Michael Parker (1974 BACH BUS, 1978 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions-Defendants.

Janice Harvey Pellar (1973 BACH M&DA) committed an endowed gift to establish the Janice Harvey Pellar Chair in Voice and Keyboard in the LSU College of Music & Dramatic Arts. Pellar and her husband, Gerald (1974 BACH H&SS), have invested in the college for nearly thirty years, with a focus on choral studies, creative arts entrepreneurship, and piano acquisition.

The Janice H. Pellar Creative Arts Entrepreneurship Project brought TEDx to LSU in 2013. Pellar was inducted into the Baton Rouge Business Report Hall of Fame in 2016, named an Emerge Volunteer Activist in 2014, named to the Baton Rouge High School Hall of Fame in 2015, and inducted into the LSU Alumni Association Hall of Distinction 2005.

Harry J. “Skip” Philips (1972 BACH BUS, 1983 JD), managing partner with Taylor Porter, was recognized as Lawyer of the Year in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Bet-theCompany Litigation, Commercial Litigation, and Litigation-Banking and Finance.

E. Fredrick Preis, Jr. (1971 BACH BUS, 1974 JD) was installed as the chairman of the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce and was selected to become a member of the Jefferson Business Council. He was also elected to continue as a member of the Executive Committee of the Louisiana Association

of Business & Industry of which he is a past chairman of the board and was named to the LeadingAge Nursing Home Advisory Group and the LeadingAge Compliance and Business Ethics Advisory Group. Preis, a senior partner at Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in New Orleans, represents management in labor/employment matters.

Claude F. Reynaud, Jr. (1974 BACH BUS), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Commercial Litigation.

Fredrick R. Tulley (1970 BACH H&SS), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Commercial Litigation, Litigation-Banking & Finance, and Litigation-Bankruptcy.

Michael S. Walsh (1979 BACH H&SS), 1983 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Criminal Defense-General Practice.

T. MacDougall “Mac” Womack (1976 BACH H&SS, 1979 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Commercial Litigation.

1980s

Robert L. Atkinson (1980 BACH H&SS, 1983 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Banking & Finance Law. Connie Ledoux Book (1986 BACH MCOM), provost of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, was named president of Elon University, Elon, N.C., in October. She will assume office in March 2018. Book is the university’s ninth president and first woman president. Prior to joining The Citadel,

she served Elon with distinction for sixteen years. She began her Elon career in 1999 as a communications faculty member, served as department chair and associate dean of the School of Communications, presidential faculty fellow for strategic planning, and associate provost for academic affairs. In March 2015, Book was named the first female provost and dean in The Citadel’s 175-year history. She began her career as a producer and reporter at WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge. Prior to joining Elon, she served three years as assistant professor at Georgia College & State University, one year as visiting professor at North Carolina State University, and two years as assistant professor at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C.

Jude C. Bursavich (1983 BACH H&SS, 1988 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Commercial Litigation.

David Charlton (1980 BACH BUS, 1983 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers In America in the area of Closely Held Companies and Family Businesses Law.

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Michael A. Crawford (1984 BACH BUS, 1993 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law. Anne J. Crochet (1980 MCOM, 1983 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Environmental Law and Litigation-Environmental.

Kurt D. Engelhardt (1982 BACH H&SS, 1985 JD), chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, was nominated to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He joined the New Orleansbased court in 2001 on the nomination of President George W. Bush and became chief judge two years ago. He was previously partner at the insurance company defense firm of Hailey, McNamara, Hall, Larmann & Papale in Metairie, La. George D. Ernest, III (1982 BACH BUS, 1985 JD), a partner in Hurlburt, Monrose & Ernest in Lafayette, La., will serve on the Louisiana Bar Foundation Board of Directors.

Brett Furr (1983 BACH H&SS, 1986 JD), a partner with Taylor Porter, was recognized as Lawyer of the Year in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Real Estate Litigation.

Ann Halphen (1983 BACH HS&E, 1986 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Health Care Law. David J. Hildebrandt (1984 DDS), a dentist in private practice in Slidell, La., for thirtythree years, was installed as president of the Louisiana Dental Association. He has also served as Chairman of the New Orleans Dental Conference and president of the New Orleans Dental Association.

Kamel O. Mahadin (1984 MAST A&D), founder and chairman of the board of MK Associates and a Jordanian senator, educator, and consultant in Amman, Jordan, was elevated to fellowship in the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in August. Fellowship is among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members.

John F. McDermott (1980 BACH BUS, 1978 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Tax Law, Trusts, and Estates.

Trenton J. Oubre (1987 BACH BUS, 1991 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Litigation-Insurance.

Gina M. Rossi (1980 BACH H&SS, 1983 MAST HS&E), a program manager

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with the Louisiana Office of Aging and Adult Services, was named Alumna of Distinction by the School of Social Work. A mental health, rehabilitation and behavioral health expert and educator, Rossi was recognized for her “life in service, to make this world a better place for a whole life.”

1990s

John T. Andrishok (1993 BACH BUS, 1997 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Construction Law. Robert W. Barton (1990 BACH H&SS), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Commercial Litigation.

Ben Broussard (1999 BACH HS&E, 2001 MAST HS&E), vice president for development at the Tiger Athletic Foundation (TAF) for the last seven years, was named assistant vice chancellor of advancement and associate athletic director of the Buff Club, the University of Colorado’s fundraising arm for athletics, in October.

Broussard joined TAF as a development officer in 2004, named director of development in 2006, and named vice president in 2010.

Bunnie Cannon (1992 BACH H&SS, 1998 MAST HS&E), executive director of planned giving and stewardship at the Tiger Athletic Foundation,

was appointed to the National Association of Nonprofit Organizations and Executives 2018 Board of Directors.

Emily Black Grey (1997 BACH H&SS, 2002 JD), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Health Care Law. Scott N. Hensgens (1994 BACH H&SS), an attorney with Breazeale, Sachse and Wilson in Baton Rouge, was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of LitigationIntellectual Property.

Amy C. Lambert (1992 BACH H&SS, 1996 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Commercial Litigation.

Martin Loicano (1999 BACH H&SS) was named executive director of the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. He was previously chief historian for the Office of the Supreme Commander of Allied Powers Europe in Belgium, leading NATO historical programming with responsibility for oral history, operational history, and other heritage

programs. In addition to serving on the Strategic Planning Core Group of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers (SHAPE), he supervised all NATO historical personnel and directed archiving programs for SHAPE and its subordinate commands. He served as associate professor of strategy at the Air War College in Alabama, as historian and political military analyst for the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan, and taught history and directed the Vietnam Studies Program at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Loicano holds a master’s degree in history from the University of Southern Mississippi and a master’s and doctoral degrees in history from Cornell University. He participated in the NATO Executive Management Development Program in 2016.

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Amy Groves Lowe (1992 BACH H&SS, 1994 MAST H&SS 1997 JD), an attorney with Taylor Porter, was named in the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Education Law and Litigation-Insurance.

Cherie Many (1991 BACH SCI, 1995 MDNO), a cardiac anesthesiologist at Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas, was part of the medical response team caring for victims of the mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip in October. Many is president of the Sin City Tigers.

Evan Mather (1993 BACH A&D), an independent filmmaker and principal of AHBE Landscape Architects in Los Angeles, was elevated to fellowship in the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in August. Fellowship is among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members.

Rick Thompson (1990 BACH BUS), a partner in Hankinson LLP, Dallas,

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was named to the 2018 edition of Best Lawyers in America in recognition of his appellate work.

2000s

Donnie Jones (2003 BACH BUS), a punter for the Philadelphia Eagles, was ranked #12 among National Football League “greatest punters of all time� by NFL media senior analyst Gil Brandt. Jones, a four-year starter for Tiger football, one of the nation's top punters, and in his senior year the most prolific punter in LSU history, has averaged 45.5 yards per punt throughout his career with the Seattle Seahawks, Miami Dolphins, St. Louis Rams, Houston Texans, and the Eagles. Visit http://www.nfl.com/ photoessays/0ap3000000817839 Jennifer Mitchell (2006 BACH A&D) was promoted from director of interior design to associate with Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects in New Orleans. Mitchell joined the firm in 2007 and, after a brief hiatus in 2013 spent activating the VA Hospital in New Orleans, returned to the firm. She is a member of the Urban Land Institute and

the Louisiana Coalition for Interior Design. She serves on the board of the International Interior Design Association Delta Regional chapter and is a Next Gen Council member for GNO, Inc. Ashley Ross (2006 MAST H&SS), an assistant professor of political science at Texas A&M UniversityGalveston, received an Early Career Research Fellowship in Political Science from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The award recognizes professionals at the critical pre-tenure phase of their careers for exceptional leadership, past performance, and potential for future contributions.

Jennifer D. Sims (2004 BACH BUS, 2007 JD) joined Kullman Firm in June. Sims focuses on litigation and has experience handling EEOC charges and other employment-related matters. She previously practiced law in Baton Rouge and was an adjunct instructor of sports law in the E.J. Ourso College of Business.

A G R E A T “ G E A U X-T O ” C O R P O R A T E G I F T F O R T H E H O L I D AY S !

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

AVAILABLE TODAY AT THESE LOCATIONS: BATON ROUGE AREA Albertsons, The Cook Hotel, Bet R, Calandro’s, Bergeron’s City Market, City Pork, Discount Cigarette & Beverage, Drakes Catering, Hi Nabor, LSU Faculty Club, Oak Point Fresh Market, Robert Fresh Market, T&T Lounge, Harvest Supermarket, Hampton Inn & Suites, Martin Wine Cellar, Matherne’s Supermarket, Pay-Less Supermarket, Theatre Baton Rouge, Tiger Den Suites, TimeOut Lounge, Tramonte's Meat and Seafood, Tureau’s Grocery, Unique Cuisine Catering, Country Corner, Lod Cook Alumni Center, Ralph’s ROUSES MARKETS/ LEBLANC’S FOOD STORES All Locations LAKE CHARLES AREA 1910 Restaurant & Wine Bar, City Market & Deli, Crave Gourmet Basket & Gifts, Lake Street Liquor, The Pioneer Club, The Wine Store, Cousins Lebanese Cuisine, Que Pasa Taqueria, Kroger, Kelly Cajun Café Catering SHREVEPORT AREA The Cellar Fine Wine & Spirits, Kroger, Tony’s Discount Beverages, Wine Country Bistro and Bottle Shop, East Ridge Country Club, Petroleum Club, Vineria Fine Wine & Spirits DENHAM SPRINGS Stop N Geaux Express

NORTH LOUISIANA Bud’s Mini Mart, Rayville U-Pak-It NEW ORLEANS AREA The Boot Bar and Grill, Martin Wine Cellar, Dorignac’s Food Center, Habanos & the Wine Seller LAFAYETTE AREA Champagne’s Grocery & Deli, Crawfish Town USA, The Kitchenary, Bi-Lo Supermarket - New Iberia HAMMOND AREA LeBlanc’s, Rouse’s DONALDSONVILLE: The Grapevine Café LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

Distributed by Republic National Distributing Company

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Gary Tessero, Jr. (2009 BACH AGR), chief executive officer of Knits R Us, launched Jersey Sweaters shortly after graduation, making it his “goal to knit together the college experience in one piece of clothing.” The LSU sweater, now available, is “the ultimate celebration of our favorite pastime,” he writes. Visit www. shopjerseysweater.com.

2010s

Danielle “Dani” Borel (2011 BACH BUS, 2014 JD), an associate in the Baton Rouge office of Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, received the Star of the Quarter award at the American Bar Association (ABA) Young Lawyers Division (YLD) Fall Conference. The award is given to YLD leaders for service and accomplishments in the prior quarter.

Borel was recognized for her service as the chair of the Health Law Committee and her planning of a networking event in New York City.

Jordan Emmerson (2017 BACH H&SS) has joined BBR, a Lafayette, La.-based advertising agency as account manager in the agency’s Baton Rouge office.

Blair Redfield Lancaster (2011 BACH A&(D) joined Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects in New Orleans as the firm’s marketing manager.

Lancaster was previously in the marketing department at Mullin Landscape Associates in St. Rose, La.

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Wanyun Shao (2012 PHD H&SS), an assistant professor of geography at Auburn University at Montgomery, received an Early Career Research Fellowship in Geography from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The award recognizes professionals at the critical pre-tenure phase of their careers for exceptional leadership, past performance, and potential for future contributions.

Anthony Tan (2015 BACH H&SS), a student at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, was named the Robert Half Legal Scholar and a member of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) Lloyd M. Johnson, Jr. Scholarship Program, Class of 2019. He was awarded $10,000 to use toward law school tuition expenses in addition to the opportunity to work with MCCA leaders and mentors as he prepares for a legal career. A summa cum laude graduate of the Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College, Tan volunteered while a student as an ESL mentor; held officer positions with Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest Latino fraternity in the United States; and worked as an intern supporting New Orleans City Council member James A. Gray II.

BABY

BENGALS Eric Eskew (1999 BACH HS&E, 2000 MAST HS&E) and Shellie Shetler Eskew (2006 BACH HS&E) proudly announce the birth of their third son, Eli Shetler, at 7:52 a.m. on July 5, 2017. Eli weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and was 20 inches long. He was welcomed home by future Tigers and big brothers five-year-old Ellis and two-year-old Emmett. Eric is an account manager with BBP, Inc., and Shellie is a teacher with the Calcasieu Parish School Board. The family resides in Lake Charles, La. Russell Fielding (2010 PHD H&SS) and Diane Cooper Fielding (2007 BACH BUS) welcomed their daughter, Margaux Mae Fielding, on Feb. 13, 2017. She weighed 8 lbs. and was 20 inches long. She was welcomed home by big brother Conrad.

Her maternal grandparents are Robert Cooper (1972 BACH ENGR) and Debra Cooper of Baton Rouge. The family resides in Sewanee, Tenn.

Thomas and Lisa Rogillio Ramsey (2012 BACH HS&E) welcomed their daughter, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Marie, at 10:28 a.m. on Aug. 7, 2017. She weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz. and was 19.5 inches long. Thomas, a Southeastern Louisiana University and University of Arkansas graduate, is a software developer with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, and Lisa is a prekindergarten teacher with the Livingston Parish School Board. The family resides in Walker, La.

A Family of Tigers

Eugene Leblanc, Sr., seated at right, and his LSU family.

Eugene LeBlanc, Sr. (1955 BACH H&SS) of Sunshine, La., boasts a family legacy of forty-seven LSU alumni holding fifty-six degrees – and he has seven currently enrolled future alumni. He shares the family’s LSU history with readers.

Renee Catherine Hill Jacques Rene Comeaux Emma Caroline LeBlanc

Children

Bert J. Dorgant [Anne] (1975 BACH HS&E) Robert A. Causey [Helen] (1976 BACH ENGR) Julie Mehrtens LeBlanc [Philip] (1985 BACH BUS) Timothy W. Hill [Estelle] (1988 BACH H&SS] Ellen Plaisance LeBlanc (Mark] (1993 BACH H&SS)

Catherine Anne LeBlanc Dorgant (1975 BACH HS&E, 1982 MAST HS&E) Helen Marie LeBlanc Causey (1976 BACH ENGR) Jeanne Marie LeBlanc Harris (1977 BACH NURS-NO) Lydia Alice LeBlanc Haydel (1979 BACH MEDT-NO) Mary Claire LeBlanc Elmassian (1980 BACH HS&E, 1998 MAST HS&E) Eugene Joseph LeBlanc, Jr. (1983 BACH AGR) Philip Etienne LeBlanc (1984 BACH ENGR) Rachael Anne LeBlanc Schexnayder (1986 BACH HS&E, 2009 MAST HS&E) Estelle Frances LeBlanc Hill (1988 BACH HS&E) Laura Elizabeth LeBlanc Comeaux (1991 BACH ENGR) Mark Rene LeBlanc (1992 BACH AGR, 1996 MAST AGR, 2006 PHD AGR)

Grandchildren Robert Andrew Causey (2002 BACH SCI, 2006 MD-NO) Carrie Eileen Causey (2006 BACH H&SS) Lauren Marie Dorgant Granger (2004 BACH AGR) Adele Claire Dorgant Nichols (2009 BACH AGR) Claire Amalie Ohlsen (2010 BACH

MCOM) Amanda Kaye LeBlanc Granier (2009 BACH HS&E) Zachary Roy LeBlanc (2011 BACH HS&E) Joseph Francois LeBlanc (2015 BACH H&SS) Jeffery Paul Schexnayder (2010 BACH H&SS) Geralyn Anne Schexnayder Roussel (2013 BACH HS&E) Christine Alice Schexnayder Aymond (2015 BACH HS&E) Rebecca Grace Hill Nguyen (2013 BACH SCI) Sarah Elizabeth Hill (2015 BACH HS&E) David Fowler Schexnayder (2012 BACH SCI, 2016 MD-NO) Dylan Nicholas Ohlsen (2015 BACH ENGR) Olivia Juliette Ohlsen (2016 BACH HS&E) Rose Camille Haydel (2016 BACH H&SS) Scott Joseph Causey (2016 BACH SCE) Elizabeth Anne LeBlanc (2017 BACH HS&E) Grandchildren Currently Enrolled – Future Alumni Philip Etienne LeBlanc, Jr. Julia Helen Comeaux Madeline Rose LeBlanc Marie Suzette Comeaux

Spouses of Children

Spouses of Grandchildren Jonathan Roberts [Leslie Haydel] (2000 BACH AGR) Dustin Granger [Lauren Dorgant] (2002 BACH BUS) P. Danielle Goodman Causey [R. Andrew Causey] (2012 DDS-NO) Jordan Roussel [Geralyn Schexnayder]( 2012 BACH SCI, 2016 MD-NO) Joshua Nguyen [Rebecca Hill] (2013 BACH ENGR) Kaitlen Sicard Schexnayder (Jeffery Schexnayder) 2002 BACH SCI, 2014 MD-NO) Carolyn A. Wintz LeBlanc [Zachary LeBlanc] (attended 2008-2009, 2012 NURS-NO) John Aymond [Christine Schexnayder] (2016 BACH ENGR) Kline Moore [Curtis Haydel] (2012 BACH BUS-S’Port), 2014 MBA) Matt Blaize [Carrie Causey] (attended 2003)

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Tigers in Print Charles R. Embry (1967 MAST H&SS) The Eric Voegelin Reader: Politics, History, Consciousness (University of Missouri Press) Eric Voegelin was one of the most original philosophers of our time, working throughout his life to account for the endemic political violence of the twentieth century in an effort variously referred to as a philosophy of politics, history, or consciousness. Drawing from the University of Missouri Press’s thirtyfour-volume edition of his collected works, Charles Embry and Glenn Hughes have assembled a selection of Voegelin’s representative writings, satisfying the need for a single volume that can serve as a general introduction to his philosophy.

The selection demonstrates the range and creativity of Voegelin’s thought, including writings that show his thinking as it developed historically in his long search for order in human society.

Bob Fuselier (1982 DVM) Tip and Blue (Garcia Publishing Company) Bob Fuselier’s books find their roots in his experiences as a husband, father, grandfather, and veterinarian. He credits his grandchildren with waking up his poetic abilities and offering him the experiences that eventually became a series of children’s books. The series begins with Tip and Blue, a story about a young boy reflecting upon his life with his two dogs as one nears the end of its life. Tip and Blue blends Dr. Bob’s childhood experiences with his dogs in rural south Louisiana with his experiences with young children dealing with the loss of their beloved pets in his veterinary practice. The result is a book that tugs at the nostalgic heartstrings of adults while it prepares young children for the loss of loved ones.

Mary Manhein (1981 BACH H&SS, 1985 MAST H&SS) Fragile Grounds, Louisiana’s Endangered Cemeteries (University Press of Mississippi) Cemeteries associated with the culturally rich communities of Louisiana reflect the

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history and global settlement patterns of the state. Yet many are endangered due to recurring natural and man-made events.

Coastal erosion, sinking land, flooding, storm surge, and sea-level rise have led to an inland migration that threatens to unravel the fabric of Louisiana and, by association, hastens the demise of its burial places. In Fragile Grounds, Mary H. Manhein and Jessica H. Schexnayder compile stories and photographs of endangered cemeteries throughout Louisiana's coastal zone and beyond.

These burial places link the fragile land to the frailty of the state's threatened community structures. The book highlights the state's vibrant diversity by showing its unique burial customs and traditions, while it also identifies the urgent need for ongoing documentation of cultural elements at risk.

Darlyne Nemeth (1971 MAST H&SS, 1973 PHD H&SS) Innovative Approaches to Individual and Community Resilience: From Theory to Practice (Elsevier Publishing) The purpose of this book is to define, highlight, and explore the various aspects of resilience in the everyday lives of “ordinary people.” It is not meant to be a scholarly work for scientists but rather a mainstream anthology for all. It is the intention of the authors to gather pertinent information and life experiences to help us to better understand how resilience affects our everyday lives. For example, in Chapter 4, Community Resilience: Baton Rouge – A Community in Crisis – Grieving and Moving Forward, the focus is on a community in crisis and how the process of grieving and moving forward united its people (the Great Flood of 2016). Its intention is to offer an understanding of how resilience, hope, connectedness, and commitment propel people to move forward to address the many challenges that lie ahead. Armed with the tools and experiences discussed, the reader will be better prepared to face them.

Dan E. Stigall (1996 BACH H&SS, 2000 JD) The Santillana Codes: The Civil Codes of Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania (Lexington Books) Dan Stigall’s book examines the Santillana Codes, legal instruments which form a distinct class of uniquely African civil codes and which are still in force today in a legal arc that extends from the Maghreb to the Sahel.

The author presents the history of Santillana’s seminal legislative effort and provides a comparative analysis of the substance of those codes, illuminating commonalities between Islamic law and European legal systems. The book also explores the history of their “intellectual father” – a Jewish man from Tunisia named David Santillana (18551931) who was a masterful comparativist and an expert in both Islamic law and European legal systems. It also touches on the importance of civil codes in facilitating stability in volatile regions.

Mike Thorne (1964 BACH H&SS, 1967 MAST H&SS, 1969 PHD H&SS) Murder in Memory (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform) He can’t get rid of the excruciating headaches – or the horrible fantasies that accompany them. Tortured by violent obsessions, he hopes that acting them out will silence them. It doesn’t. He knows they will be looking for him. In their small college town, everyone has heard about the killing. What he needs is an insurance policy.

Hating himself, he pins his crimes on a hapless soul: the impressionable Dr. Jon Evans. Using hypnosis, he plants false memories of committing the murders in Evans’s head.

A second murder goes awry when his victim nearly escapes.

Feeling worse than ever, he leaves for the Christmas break to see his wife and daughter. Finding no relief, he returns to Harper to complete his indoctrination of Jon. In Harper, the police chief has followed the leads to Evans. But things don’t quite add up, and he begins to suspect someone else.

The killer, meanwhile, sets his final plan in action. This time he has more than one victim in his sights – and even if the truth comes out, it may be too late.

Investing in Tigers, Transforming Lives During my first semester at LSU I have had incredible opportunities thanks to the generous President’s Alumni Scholarship. I am currently conducting research under Mechanical Engineering Professor Marcio de Querioz, in which I am developing a testbed arena for miniature robots to conduct testing of multi-agent system control algorithms. I am also an initiate in the Phi Sigma Pi Honors fraternity and a member of the Freshman Leadership Council for Student Government at LSU. The generosity of the President’s Alumni Scholarship has allowed me to take full advantage of all the great opportunities LSU provides while focusing on my education and development. Geaux Tigers and Forever LSU. Because of your contributions to the LSU Alumni Association, LSU is able to attract students more students like Adam every year.

This doesn’t just make a difference now; it makes a difference for the future, for students like Adam will be tomorrow’s top scientists, educators, and business leaders. And you make that possible.

ADAM BOBBS President’s Alumni Scholar

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

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In Memoriam 1930s Mary Virginia Wheadon deGravelles, 1936 BACH HS&E, Aug. 31, 2017, Lafayette, La.

1940s Elizabeth Goode Baker, 1940 BACH HS&E, Sept. 15, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Truman Alexander “Alex” Bourgeois, 1949 BACH ENGR, July 26, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Oliver Price “Casey’” Brannon, III, 1948 BACH SCI, Sept. 20, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Dorothy Coats, 1945 BACH HS&E, a founder of the Southern California Alumni Chapter, July 28, 2017, San Pedro, Calif.

Helen Jeanette Lieux Gwin, 1946 BACH BUS, Aug. 25, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Jefferson Davis Hughes, Jr., 1949 BACH AGR, June 29, 2017, Bogalusa, La. William C. McCorkle, 1949 BACH SCI, Aug. 8, 2017, Houston, Texas George Tidwell Semmes, attended 1942, July 19, 2017, Memphis, Tenn.

1950s Ralph “Wayne” Amos, Jr., 1958 BACH ENGR, Sept. 14, 2017, Prairieville, La. Nicholas E. Benedetto, 1959 BACH BUS, July 7, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Frances Dutsch Brandt, 1952 BACH HS&E 1982 MAST, July 24, 2017, Oxford, Miss.

Edwin Phillip Champagne, Jr., 1950 BACH AGR, July 9, 2017, Brookhaven, Ga. Thomas H. Fields, Jr., 1956 BACH SCI, 1959 MD-N.O. Sept. 26, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Patricia “Pat” McCoy Harrison, 1950 BACH A&D, Aug. 24, 2017, Lafayette, La. Lynwood J. Hebert, Jr., attended 1956-1958, Sept. 17, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. William E. Kidd, 1953 BACH ENGR, July 5, 2017, Indio, Calif.

Clifton Cyril Lasseigne, Jr., 1952 BACH A&D, Oct. 6, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. William “Bill” Chevis McCorkle, 1950 BACH SCI, Aug. 8, 2017, Missouri City, Texas.

Ernest George Miller, Jr., 1958 BACH AGR, Sept. 27, 2017, Lafayette, La. James S. “Buddy” Olinde, 1952 BACH BUS, Aug. 13, 2017, Jarreau, La. T.O. Perry, Jr., 1950 BACH BUS, Aug. 26, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. William Pierce Raborn, 1957 BACH ENGR, Oct. 4, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Julian P. Rish, 1959 BACH HS&E, April 25, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. William David Sword, 1955 BACH BUS, July 30, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Y.A. Tittle, 1950 BACH HS&E, Oct. 8, 2017, Atherton, Calif.

Wilbur Weaver “Bilbo” Williams, 1950 BACH ENGR, Aug. 18, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Wilson “Bill” “Pops” Stevens, 1959 BACH ENGR, Sept. 1, 2017, Baton Rouge, La.

Ronald “Ronnie” Cardinal, Sr., 1966 BACH ENGR, July 11, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Melvin J. “Mel” Didier, Sr., 1967 MAST HS&E, Sept. 10, 2017, Phoenix, Ariz.

Patrick Lowery Flanagan, 1961 BACH BUS, Sept. 9, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Bobby Lee Forrest, 1961 JD, July 9, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. John Dale Givens, 1966 BACH H&SS, Sept. 9, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Karen Perkins Hall, 1967 BACH HS&E, Oct. 8, 2017, Metairie, La. John Mire “Jack” Jolissaint, Jr., 1969 BACH H&SS, Aug. 2, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Louis Carl “Dr. Carl” Kuttruff, 1965 BACH H&SS, July 23, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Darrell Joseph Marquette, 1986 BACH HS&E, Sept. 26, 2017, Donaldsonville, La. Brenda Jean Mollere, 1962 BACH BUS, July 25, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Adam Nugent, Jr., 1962 BACH ENGR, July 8, 2017, Chapin, S.C. Kathleen Cascio Wink, 1966 BACH H&SS, July 12, 2017, Baton Rouge, La.

1970s Susan Supple Afeman, 1972 BACH HS&E, July 9, 2017, Lafayette, La. Donald G. Austin, 1970 BACH HS&E, Aug. 10, 2017, Alexandria, La. Daniel Bland, 1971 BACH H&SS, 1974 MAST H&SS, Aug. 12, 2017, Columbus, Ohio Richard Walter Bond, 1973 BACH H&SS, Aug. 6, 2017, New Orleans, La. Elsie Cooper Brown, 1971 MAST Aug. 27, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Wayne Douglas Clement, 1973 BACH HS&E, Oct. 1, 2017, Northlake, Texas John Louis Constantine, 1973 BACH SCI, July 17, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Laura Gatz Deavers, 1970 BACH MCOM, Sept. 13, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Derrell V. Hill, 1975 BACH HS&E, Sept. 24, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. James Hughes, 1970 BACH H&SS, Sept. 13, 2017, French Settlement, La. Moira Horan Lagarde, 1974 BACH BUS, Aug. 11, 2017, Thibodaux, La. Virginia Morris Masterson, 1971 BACH BUS, 1976 MAST HS&E, Sept. 8, 2017, Zachary, La. Lester Nelson May, Jr., 1977 MAST SCI, 1979 MAST AGRI, July 2017, Baton Rouge, La. James Sheldon Osterberger, Jr., 1974 BACH H&SS, 1977 MD-NO., Sept. 20, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Annette Guidroz “Susan” Perault, 1974 BACH HS&E, July 23, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. David Price, 1979 JD, July 27, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. John Lea Pugh, 1972 BACH H&SS, August 31, 2017, Boerne, Texas Kittye Leah Kiper Rouse, 1977 BACH A&D, July 20, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Lee Cyril Scheffy, 1974 BACH BUS, Aug. 13, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Curtis Robert “Catfish” Stephens, 1977 BACH A&D, June 25, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. John Edward Whitenact, Jr., 1975 BACH H&SS, July 26, 2017, Georgetown, Texas

1980s

1960s William Doughty “Bill” Beck, Jr., 1964 JD, Sept. 18, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Charles H. Brewer, 1968 BACH BUS, Sept. 1, 2017, Baton Rouge, La.

James Barrett, 1984 BACH BUS, 1990 JD, Aug. 26, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Roberta Anne Barrow, 1980 BACH H&SS, 1982 MAST HS&E, Sept. 23, 2017, St. Francisville, 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.

64 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

Laurence John “Larry” Conkerton, 1988 BACH H&SS, July 21, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Kathleen Kraemer Hebert, 1981 BACH BUS, July 29, 2017, Prairieville, La. Jeffrey Allen Lyons, Attended 1989-1990, July 17, 2017, Gonzales, La. Clifford Lynn Madsen, 1980 BACH H&SS, Aug. 24, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Martin “Marty” Massey, 1980 BACH ENGR, July 24, 2017, The Woodlands, Texas.

Jeanne Marie Blanchard McManus, 1986 MAST HS&E, Oct. 4, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. Fatemeh Ghorbanof Zarei, 1983 BACH ENGR, Oct. 2, 2017, Baton Rouge, La.

WEDDING

BELLS

1990s Joshua David Kent, 1994 BACH HS&S, June 6, 2017, Baton Rouge, La. James Lackett, 1990 BACH H&SS, Sept. 16, 2017, Austin, Texas Paul Joseph Gremillion, 1990 BACH AGRI, July 9, 2017, New Roads, La. Charles Geron “Chad” Hargon, Jr., 1992 BACH H&SS, July 13, 2017, Shreveport, La. Juliet Pope, 1993 MAST H&SE, Sept. 21, 2017, Baton Rouge, La.

Dewey K. Carpenter Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Oct. 9, 2017 Baton Rouge, La. Gary Thomas Durham Retired Chief of Police and Executive Director of Public Safety and Risk Management Oct. 9, 2017 Baton Rouge, La.

Newlyweds Jack and Jamie Sharp with sons, Tyler Kinnison, Shelby Kinnison, and Ace Sharp.

Sharp-Kinnison – “Team Sharp” tied the knot in true Tiger style – during a tailgate at LSU’s home opener against Chattanooga on Sept. 9. Jamie Kinnison (1999 BACH H&SS) donned a purple dress and Henry “Jack” Sharp sported a purple sweater vest, tiger-striped pants, and a purple and gold bow tie to exchange vows under an oak tree at the corner of Tower and South Stadium drives. The wedding party included the couple’s sons, Ace Sharp, Tyler Kinnison, and Shelby Kinnison – also decked out in LSUthemed outfits, down to their purple and gold tennis shoes. The newlyweds had not made plans for a honeymoon but did plan to tailgate at every game.

Dee Louis Glueck Former University Architect, Assistant Vice Chancellor, and Associate Athletic Director July 10, 2017 Mill Creek, Wash.

Luther L. Seals Alumnus by Choice April 29, 2017 Slidell, La. Don D. Moore Retired Professor of English July 18, 2017 Baton Rouge, La. To book your special event visit www.thecookhotel.com/event-spaces.

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Profile

Tiger Nation

From Track & Field to Fiber Optics to Movies & TV

By Ed Cullen

Kirk Bovill.

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To hear Kirk Bovill (1987 MAST MCOM) tell it, he fell into LSU’s golden years of women’s track and field, a career in promoting fiber optics and, then, movies and television. He wouldn’t mind falling into movie making and teaching at LSU, a place the Nebraska native remembers fondly and visits every chance he gets. “My first acting job was a total fluke,” said Bovill.

That was in 2006. Three years later, Bovill was getting steady work in feature films and television. “I was the new older guy” at auditions, he laughed.

In 2006, when Bovill was forty-six, he answered the door of his Los Angeles home to find a movie producer standing outside. “They were filming a Hallmark movie with Dick Van Dyke across the street,” Bovill said. “The producer asked if they could set up a camera in our driveway.”

Sure, Bovill said, adding that the movie company was welcome to shoot at his house, too. “A week later, they took me up on the offer,” he said. He told the producer, “Don’t pay me. Put me in the movie. They put Joni and me in the movie at our house.”

Bovill met Joni Green of McComb, Miss., in Silicon Valley where each was working in high tech fields. He found similarities in marketing fiber optics and collegiate athletics. “In high tech, I worked with guys who were designing stuff, but it was like collegiate athletics.

Both are acting. You’ve got cameras and people staring at you. You have to perform.”

The son of a coach in small town Nebraska, Bovill was a sprinter who played football in high school. At the University of Nebraska, he got involved with women’s track as an undergraduate assistant. “That opened the door for me,” he said.

The Nebraska track coach introduced Bovill to LSU track coaches Billy Maxwell and Loren Seagrave. Bovill’s

time at LSU as a graduate assistant coach on the women’s team, 1985 to 1987, was the start of championship years for LSU in NCAA track and field.

He loved the work and LSU, but he had student loans, and his assistant coach’s salary wasn’t great. He headed to California where he had family and a cousin in surfboard manufacturing.

When he applied for a job marketing fiber optics for an East Coast company, Bovill’s LSU background helped him land the position. Like his fortuitous arrival at LSU, he hit fiber optics at a “hot time.” “I got really well known.

They’d fly me to Barcelona for a fiveminute talk.”

After working with an improv company in Los Angeles, Bovill decided to “give acting a shot. I was making good money, but it was like watching paint dry.”

Bovill had creative genes from his mother, Judy, a teacher and artist, and his dad, Ron. In 1999, Kirk and Joni had created their own indie record label, releasing two well-received CDs of songs Kirk wrote and performed with his wife.

His father, the late Ron Bovill, had done a one-man, Mark Twain show that was good enough to attract the attention of Wells Fargo for a national commercial. Ron Bovill had one question when his son told him he was thinking about giving acting a try in 2007: Did Kirk think he was good enough to make a living at it?

In 2009 at the Sundance Film Festival, Bovill made his premiere as “the new older guy” in a movie called White Lightning. He appeared with Annette Benning, Elle Fanning, and Greta Gerwig in the critically acclaimed 20th Century Woman. Other film work includes Texas Killing Fields, Contraband, Get on Up, Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story and Free State of Jones.

Bovill’s worked steadily in television, too, since that Dick Van Dyke made-

for-television movie. “I’m not an A-lister,” Bovill said. “I don’t get movie offers with points.”

Bovill auditions for roles. He treats his movie career like a business. “I’m staying grounded,” he said. “I’m not doing stupid stuff.”

The afternoon he talked to the magazine, Bovill was reading for the biggest movie he’s gone after to date.

He was also daydreaming about returning to LSU to teach screen writing and acting with Joni. “We’ve got connections with TV and movie agents

and directors in the Southeast,” he said.

“I love LSU,” he said. “The campus reminds me of Stanford. Similar architecture. The Tower. The oaks.

The Parade Ground. Football season.

Tailgating. The food. The music.

Louisiana and New Orleans are like their own countries,” he said.

Bovill had that other-country feeling once in a Winn-Dixie in South Lafourche. He heard a wonderful voice and accent and turned to find the source was the 7-Up delivery guy.

“I’m staying grounded. I’m not doing stupid stuff.”

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Tiger Nation

Profile

Stained glass 'and Man Created the Universe.'

Turning Plots into Stained Glass

By Diana Kwon Reprinted with permission of Symmetry Magazine, a joint Fermilab/SLAC publication. The original article appeared on July 25, 2017.

Stained glass 'and Man Created the Universe.'

Particle physicist Hubert van Hecke.

68 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

Hubert van Hecke (1978 BACH SCI), a heavy-ion physicist, transforms particle physics plots into works of art. At first glance, particle physicist van Hecke’s stained glass windows simply look like unique pieces of art.

But there is much more to them than pretty shapes and colors. A closer look reveals that his creations are actually renditions of plots from particle physics experiments.

Van Hecke learned how to create stained glass during his undergraduate years at Louisiana State University. “I had an artistic background – my father was a painter, so I thought, if I need a humanities credit, I'll just sign up for this,” van Hecke recalls. “So in order to get my physics bachelors, I took stained glass.”

Over the course of two semesters, van Hecke learned how to cut pieces of glass from larger sheets, puzzle them together, then solder and caulk the joints. “There were various assignments that gave you an enormous amount of elbow room,” he says. “One of them was to do something with Fibonacci numbers, and one was pick your favorite philosopher and make a window related to their work.”

Van Hecke continued to create windows and mirrors throughout graduate school but stopped for many years while working as a full-time heavyion physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and raising a family. Only recently did he return to his studio – this time, to create pieces inspired by physics. “I had been thinking about designs for a long time – then it struck me that occasionally, you see plots that are interesting, beautiful shapes,” van Hecke says. “So I started collecting pictures as I saw them.”

His first plot-based window, a rectangleshaped piece with red, orange, and

yellow glass, was inspired by the results of a neutrino flavor oscillation study from the MiniBooNE experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

He created two pieces after that, one from a plot generated during the hunt for the Higgs boson at the Tevatron, also at Fermilab and the other based on an experiment with quarks and gluons.

According to van Hecke, what inspires him about these plots is “purely the shapes.”

“In terms of the physics, it's what I run across—for example, I see talks about heavy ion physics, elementary particle physics, and neutrinos, [but] I haven't really gone out and searched in other fields,” he says. “Maybe there are nice plots in biology or astronomy.”

Although van Hecke has not yet displayed his pieces publicly, if he does one day, he plans to include explanations for the phenomena the plots illustrate, such as neutrinos and the Standard Model, as a unique way to communicate science.

But before that, van Hecke plans to create more stained glass windows. As of two months ago, he is semiretired, and in between runs to Fermilab, where he is helping with the effort to use Argonne National Laboratory's SeaQuest experiment to search for dark photons, he hopes to spend more time in the studio creating the pieces left on the drawing board, which include plots found in experiments investigating the Standard Model, neutrinoless double decay and dark matter interactions.

“I hope to make a dozen or more,” he says. “As I bump into plots, I'll collect them and hopefully, turn them all into windows.”

ON THE WEB To view Hubert van Heck’s stained glass piece and collected plots, visit www. symmetrymagazine.org/article/ turning-plots-into-stained-glass.

Profile

A Star is Born Laura Hobson Herlihy (1990 MAST H&SS) is a big fish in a small pond. A lecturer in Latin American & Caribbean Studies at the University of Kansas (KU), Herlihy is one of a small number of North Americans who speak, and an even smaller number who teach, the language of the indigenous Central American Miskitu people. Through her work with the Miskitu in Nicaragua, Herlihy has become the star of a thrice-weekly radio show in the region and the writer and impresario of a Miskitu operetta that drew 5,000 people to a performance on the beach in Puerto Cabezas over Easter weekend.

The operetta, Green Man, Blue Woman involves themes of politics, romance, and voodoo. It’s a fictionalized version of Herlihy’s real-life working relationship with Brooklyn Rivera, political leader of Nicaragua’s Miskitu. It all started as an exercise in learning and teaching the Miskitu language.

Herlihy first learned Miskitu in the 1990s, while accompanying her husband, KU Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Science Peter Herlihy, as he did field work in Honduras. There are about 200,000 Miskitu in Honduras and Nicaragua. “It was necessary for me to learn, because I was staying behind in the villages, working with women who didn’t speak Spanish,” Herlihy said.

Herlihy lived in Nicaragua in 2004 and taught at a university for indigenous students there, meeting their political leader, Rivera. She says the Miskitu tend to have anti-Spanish-colonial feelings and are thus pro-Anglophone. That was partly why they, including Rivera, joined the U.S.-led anti-Sandinista Contra movement in the 1980s. With the end of armed conflict in 1987, Rivera became leader of YATAMA, an acronym for Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka – literally "Sons of Mother Earth.” YATAMA later became a political party. In 2006, Rivera was elected to Nicaragua’s National Assembly, where he remains today.

“I really tapped into something when I wrote about their leader. They are obsessed with him,” Herlihy said. “He’s like a god; like Elvis Presley. I interviewed him, and so we were texting back and forth about his schedule. ... The play started because I wanted to save my text messages, and our words back and forth turned into poems.

“The story line is like a cross between The King and I and Harry Potter,” Herlihy said. “There is an Indian leader and an anthropologist. He puts a potion on her and makes her a blind follower of the Miskitu people. Rivera is their gatekeeper. He represents the green party, so he’s the Green Man. “Then another faction doesn’t like the support she’s giving him, so they kidnap her and take her to a shaman to cut the spell Rivera’s put on her . . . The shaman bathes her in a counter-remedy potion, and it’s the color blue, making her the Blue Woman.

That’s how it sets up the rest of the story.”

The project has taken on a life of its own, spawning first a radio show on YATAMA’s station and then the pop-operetta. Herlihy said she arranged with top local musicians to set her writings to music. She calls in to the radio station to participate with local hosts. “It became really popular,” she said. “They’d never had this genre that tells a story before. We play a song, and I explain it. They love that a gringa speaks their language.”

Turning the staged reading into a full-blown musical play would be the next logical step, Herlihy said.

Story and photo by Rick Hellman

Laura Hobson Herlihy is a hit among indigenous Central Americans.

“. . . I wanted to save my text messages, and our words back and forth turned into poems.”

Rick Hellman is a public affairs officer at the University of Kansas.

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Tiger Nation

Tigers Around the World

Beach Party – Among a group of friends who gather each year in Destin, Fla., are LSU graduates Bill Magill (1978 BACH HS&E), Randy Daigle (1979 BACH BUS), Ellen Daigle (1981 BACH BUS), Katie Kreuz (2014 BACH AGR), and Brett Uzee (2016 BACH BUS). Also in the crowd are future alums Peyton Palermo, Sarah Uzee, and Cole Grieshaber.

Continuing the Legacy – Future

Codi Settoon, center, with her mom, Ronni Indovina Settoon, left, and her grandmother, Joann Hebert Neumann.

alum Codi Settoon (Class of 2021) is the newest Tiger in a long line of LSU Settoon graduates. Paving the way for her were grandfather Charles Settoon, Sr. (1959 BACH ENGR), grandfather Randall Indovina (1968 BACH ENGR), grandmother Joann Hebert Neumann (1970 BACH HS&E, 1971 MAST HS&E), great-uncle Robert Jansing (1968 BACH SCI, 1971 MAST SCI), uncle Dr. Charles Settoon, Jr. (1982 BACH SCI), mom Ronni Indovina Settoon (1988 BACH H&SS), uncle Cliff Settoon (1998 BACH H&SS), and aunt Christine Settoon (2017 MD-NO).

AUXTIGE – M.W. “Bill” Magill, Jr. (1978 BACH HS&E) recently updated his eight-year-old AUXTIGE license plate with the “GE” and “RS” portions of banner and added the alumni frame to show his true colors.

70 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

A Walk With the Band Avid Tiger fan Charles E. “Charlie” Settoon (1959 BACH ENGR) has had football season tickets for fifty-eight years. But he never had a game day experience like he did at the LSU-Auburn game in October – walking with the Golden Band from Tigerland down Victory Hill.

Wife Debbie Settoon writes: “His five children gave him a birthday gift from an LSU Medical School Camp Tiger charity auction - a chance to walk with the LSU band for the Auburn game.

“Charlie has had season tickets since 1959 and may be one of – or perhaps the longest living – LSU season ticket holders. His actual seventy-two years LSU fans at the Blue Room in the Roosevelt Hotel before an LSU-Tulane game in the late fifties. Larry of attendance began in 1945 as a Boy McKee, seated, with from left, J.W. Bennett, Ed Scout usher for five years at the home Dwyer, Ray Nolga, Duke Martin, Billy Honeycutt, and Charles Settoon. games. He continued his attendance through his enrollment in 1955 (except for 1951-1954 for four years in the Air Force). He attended LSU games from 19551959 – enjoying all the home games and some away games. As a senior he watched as LSU won its first national championship, and he has attended all the national championship games since.

“Charlie is such a devoted fan that we are never allowed to leave any game until the final clock ran out – even in downpours or freezing temps or eight months pregnant.

He now has some trouble walking to games, so we park in a handicapped lot.”

“Three of Charlie’s five children are LSU graduates – Dr. Charles E. Settoon, Jr. (1982 BACH SCI, 1987 MD-NO); Clifford E. Settoon (1998 BACH H&SS); and Dr. Christine L. Settoon (2017 MD-NO). Sons Clinton and Eugene graduated from Southeastern University and MIT, respectively. Granddaughter Codi Rae Settoon is a freshman at LSU.”

Charlie Settoon, second from right, with sons Cliff Settoon and Dr. Charles Settoon, Jr., and daughter Dr. Christine Settoon walk with the Tiger Band down Victory Hill.

All Aboard – Taking in the sights and sounds of London and Liverpool, England, and many cities in Ireland, Scotland, and France on a summer cruise were Gary (1975 BACH BUS) and Linda (1975 BACH HS&E, 1979 MAST HS&E) Taylor and Nolan (1972 BACH BUS, 1974 MAST BUS) and Andie (1972 BACH HS&E) Schexnayder.

Gary and Linda Taylor with Nolan and Andie Schexnayder.

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Tiger Nation

Tigers Around the World

From left, Louisiana Ducks Unlimited 2016 State Chairman Mark Calais, Tiger Chapter Ducks Unlimited alumnus Cody Wells (2013 BACH MCOM), chapter officers Emily Hartdegen, Amanda Benge, President Clint Pace, Catie Barry, Scott Graham (2017 BACH AGR), Ben Walters, Gunther Spore, Chapter Adviser Luke Laborde (1976 BACH AGR, 1978 MBA, 2014 PHD AGR), and Louisiana Ducks Unlimited 2017 State Chairman Ellis Guilbeau.

Hurricane Harvey volunteers, from left, Will Boler, Catie Barry, Colette Pansini, Luke Laborde, Lydia Pace, Clint Pace, and Gunther Spore.

Champions and Volunteers – The Tiger Chapter Ducks Unlimited (TCDU) was recognized as the No. 1 university chapter in the country, winning the Ducks Unlimited Sweet 16 competition at the Louisiana Ducks Unlimited State Convention.

The chapter competed against seventy-eight university chapters and raised more than $550,000 for wetland conservation, mostly spent locally for coastal restoration. In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, TCDU members coordinated the collection of food, clothing, tools, and cleaning supplies and delivered three trailer-loads of items to flood victims in Lumberton, Texas. The students also assisted in cleaning up at the home of flood victim Lydia Pace, mother of TCDU chapter President Clint Pace.

LSU construction management majors display the mock wall they designed as an instructional tool for gutting houses along with Recovery Houston volunteers.

Recovery Houston – Among the ranks of volunteers lending a hand after Hurricane Harvey is Bryan Wesley (2014 BACH ENGR), assistant project manager for D.E. Harvey Builders in Texas. His family was not directly impacted by the hurricane but when the call came from Recovery Houston, he jumped in head-first. Construction management future alums also joined the cause. Charles Farley, a senior from Metairie, La., traveled to Houston with four other students in the LSU Construction Student Association (CSA) to deliver nearly $1,000 worth of supplies provided by the LSU Construction Industry Advisory Council, Tiger People Clothiers, the CSA, and others. They also demonstrated a mock wall they designed as an instructional tool for volunteers who had no prior experience in gutting a house.

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LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

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Tiger Nation

Tigers Around the World

Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation

Proud Grad - MacKenzie Peltier (2015 MAST H&SS, 2017 PHD H&SS) poses with friends and family after commencement in May. Peltier, who earned a doctorate in clinical psychology, is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine.

Texas Tiger – Future alum Grant Hardin, of Fort Worth, Texas, proudly displays the LSU Bound sign he received during the summer. Grant is enrolled in the pre-law 3 + 3 program in the College Humanities & Social Sciences.

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LSU Alum to the Rescue In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Del Moon (1975 BACH MCOM) and his wife, Jackie, of Safety Harbor, Fla., shared their Tiger spirit with the Wild at Heart Wildlife Center in Okeechobee, Fla., the sanctuary that housed LSU’s Mike VII. Numerous news outlets carried the story, but here it is as can only be told by Del. “Long story short, right before Irma hit Florida I miraculously found a new generator. I needed it not for comfort but to power my CPAP so I could get quality sleep (LOL). Our power was restored quickly, and Jackie and I were Haley’s birthday card from Harvey, aka Mike VII. musing if there was a neighbor or a local charity that could use a loaner.

“Jackie saw a Facebook plea from Wild at Heart Wildlife Center, where LSU got our boy Harvey. They were messed up by the storm and would not get power for three more weeks. They needed electricity for freezers and to pump water from their well. We looked at each other and instantly agreed we should donate it to them. We made the 300-mile trip, and the visit was so heartwarming and humbling.

The two principals, Jeremy and Jaime Hargett, were as happy as any two people I've seen. They had been schlepping buckets of water twice a day for up to 100 yards to get water to all of the animal enclosures. We felt like some “Unseen Hand” was moving us through a surreal journey.

“Even though I'm a PR guy, I didn't think much past just telling my Facebook friends that the center needed a lot of help and to make a donation to the facility. It quickly got bigger than that.

“I slapped an LSU ALUMNI sticker on the gas tank and attached a “birthday present note” from Harvey to his sister, Haley, who is still at the refuge. And since they didn't have any LSU swag on the lot, I plopped my gold LSU hat on Jeremy's head and handed Jaime the LSU flag we've used for four years and that has flown in Atlanta, Pensacola, Gainesville, Tampa Bay, and Baton Rouge, among other towns.

Jaime gave me a mildly shocked look and said she had thought about ordering a flag to fly there. Perfect!

“We’ve had a lot of PR and atta boys, but’s that's not why Jackie and I did this or why I'm passing the story along. I want Tiger Nation to recognize that Wild at Heart is now part of our family. I did what I could do. A note on the center’s Facebook reads: "You guys personify Tiger Nation. Thank you can never be enough for this. Mr. Moon said happy birthday to Mike and Haley. I say these people are LSU superstars.”

“In sum, I now realize that this is a nice feel-good story that people are appreciating. We are most grateful that we have made a difference for Wild at Heart.

Jeremy and Jaime are the salt of the earth, and their work is their service. Now they are Forever LSU too!”

Del and Jackie Moon, left, with Jeremy and Jaime Hargett.

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Tiger Nation

Tigers Around the World Happy 70th Anniversary, SULC – Rachel Emanuel (1977 BACH MCOM, 1991 MAST MCOM) and her sister, the Hon. Ramona Emanuel (1981 BACH MCOM), were among the many guests celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the Southern University Law Center (SULC) in September. The event honored Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette J. Johnson (1969 JD) with the unveiling of her portrait, which will be added to the SULC Louisiana Supreme Court Judicial Wall of Fame. Johnson was inducted into the LSU Alumni Association Hall of Distinction in 2016. Also announced was the establishment of an endowed professorship in the name of Rachel Emanuel, who retired in December 2016 as SULC director of communications and development support. Ramona Emanuel is a First Judicial District judge in Caddo Parish.

Rachel Emanuel and Ramona Emanuel.

Kudos – Jenn Wilson, of Alberta, Canada, shares kudos with The Cook Hotel staff: “I wanted to reach out and say thank you again for a wonderful stay while down in Baton Rouge! I can't believe it's been practically a month since we were there. Your hospitality and kindness will always be remembered.

Mike has not left Breaux's side since our trip – so I think it's fair to say his heart was won over by our time there. If you're ever up in Alberta and looking for some snow-filled experiences, let us know.”

Breaux and buddy Mike wave goodbye to Baton Rouge.

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.

76 LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2017

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