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Page 4 New Alumni e-newsletter on its way But first, Alumni Relations needs a couple of things from you . . . The Office of Alumni Relations is launching an e-newsletter for Alumni, and now they need two things from you, they say, to make it the best it can be. First, if you’re one with a knack for words, they’d like a suggestion for the name of the e-newsletter. Entries should be submitted to jane_martyn@tamu-commerce.edu. There’s a prize in it for you if yours is the one chosen. A panel of judges will choose the winning name. In the event of multiple submissions of the winning name, the first one received wins, so you may want to expedite those ideas. Deadline is May 1. Second, they need your updated email address. Dr. Kayla Price, director of Alumni Relations, notes : “Experts say that current patrons won’t go to the trouble to provide their e-mail addresses when they know an institution already has other contact information on file. We’re hoping our Alumni will prove them wrong. Giving us their e-mail address means the Alumni Association saves money, and we know how important it is to save their valuable contributions. ”She adds that the addresses absolutely will not be shared with anyone outside the University. “Plus, by sending us their e-mail address, they’ll be sure to get the newsletter!” The newsletter is expected to go out four times a year, and, said Kayla, “We welcome Alumni’s feedback. I hope they’ll let us know if they have any suggestions.” Peeking in on an old family friend
Another Buck tale Dr. A. C. Hughes, called “Buck” [“Buck’s Boys,” winter ’04 Pride] by a privileged few, was head of the agriculture department in 1963 when I entered East Texas State College as a freshman. Though not a “farm boy,” I was majoring in Agricultural Education on a partial scholarship. During the rodeo that fall, I was severely injured and taken to Commerce General Hospital. Being underage, I needed a parent or guardian to sign for me before I could be treated. Having incurred a punctured lung and various fractures, my situation became time-critical. The hospital was unable to reach my parents and was reluctant to treat me without their permission. Just as things were about to get rough, who should appear but Dr. A. C. Hughes. He quickly sized up the situation, signed on the dotted line, admonished several nurses and a doctor against making poor decisions, and made sure I was immediately taken into surgery. During my recovery, he made regular checks to make sure I was behaving myself. The fraternity of “Buck’s Boys” is legion, and we are dedicated to the memory of this great man. WWBD (What Would Buck Do?) has never failed to show me the correct path. Being one of his boys is an honor second to none. Lanny Joe Burnett , BS ’68 For Dr. Kavanaugh I am a semi-retired professor of mathematics education at Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi. In catching up on reading my mail after being out of the country for seven months, I just read the Summer 2003 issue of The Pride, which announced the death of Dr. Allen Kavanaugh. It reminded me of the fond memories I have of him and of the references I have made to him in my classes through the years. Dr. Kavanaugh was my major professor when I worked on my master’s degree in elementary education. Furthermore, he convinced me to stay at ETSU rather than go elsewhere for my doctorate and continued to mentor me and serve as my major professor through that degree, too. As the years have passed, the details I learned in classes at the University have become less and less relevant. But there is one idea I learned from Dr. Kavanaugh that has stayed with me and guided my teaching, my consulting, and my writings, and is as important for students and teachers to realize today as it was back in the 1960s. That is that there is a basis of understanding behind every rule of mathematics. Mathematics had always been an easy subject for me to learn, although my teachers had mostly taught by rote memorization and application of rules. Dr. Kavanaugh was the first teacher I had who encouraged me to think about why the rules that we were taught worked. That emphasis led me to realize that most students who struggle with mathematics do so because of a lack of understanding. I spent my entire career determining ways to use concrete manipulatives to represent each mathematics concept and process I taught and to provide coordinating explanations so that students could “see” the meaning behind the rules. It has been a highly rewarding path I have followed, and I have always credited Dr. Kavanaugh for it. In fact, I often tell my university students that I can remember the exact classroom, where I was seated in it, the direction I was facing, and what was being taught when I learned that lesson. It was in the second-floor classroom in the northeast corner of the Ferguson Social Sciences Building. I was seated in a center desk facing south in the second row. And the question posed by Dr. Kavanaugh was, “Why does inverting the divisor and multiplying the two fractions give us the answer to a mathematics problem involving the division of fractions?” I wasn’t aware that Dr. Kavanaugh was still living, or I would have written this two years ago when you first asked Alumni to write tributes related to their memories of faculty members at the University. I would have liked for him to know how much I appreciated him and how much my life has been influenced by him. I hope that other Alumni will not delay as I did.Those at the University who guided us in ways that have affected our entire lives should be remembered, and it is best if they are remembered when they are still alive to know about it. Randell L. Drum Recalling the Halls The writer of the article about Ford Hall [winter
’04 Pride] didn’t mention a couple of things. …Ford’s
father, C. V. Hall, was a professor of government for many years.
…Ford Hall was a member of the Friars Club (as was I). He
was about the smartest guy in the club, and I was among the dumbest.
He was a good man. You can see that we old guys do read A. Paul Williams
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