Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 8/20/99
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   1

Editors: Photo accompanies release
SOUTHEASTERN RECEIVES $480,000 FOR ENDOWED CHAIR, PROFESSORSHIPS
     HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University today (Aug. 20) received $480,000 from
the Board of Regents to finance the university's second $1 million endowed chair for eminent
scholars and two new $100,000 endowed professorships. 
     Board of Regents chair Mary Ella Sanders and board member Herschel Abbott presented the
Regents' check to President Sally Clausen at the university's annual faculty/staff convocation.
The funds include $400,000 for the Leon Ford Family Chair in Regional Studies and $40,000
each for the Dr. Lucius D. McGehee Endowed Professorship in Nursing and the Claude Bernard
Pennington Jr. Endowed Professorship in Special Education.
     To establish the new academic positions, Southeastern has matched the Regent's award with
a $600,000 gift from retired 21st Judicial District Judge Leon Ford III of Hammond and his
children, Leon Ford IV and Helen Ford Dufreche, and $60,000 contributions from decedents of
Southeastern's founder, Dr. Lucius D. McGehee, and the C.B. Pennington Foundation of Baton
Rouge.
     Southeastern now has two endowed chairs and 14 endowed professorships. Private
donations have been received or are pending for an additional eight endowed professorships. 
     Ford, who is a 1951 Southeastern graduate, told the convocation audience that his 60-
year-association with Southeastern began in grade school when he attended the university's
fledgling "training school" -- the forerunner of the Southeastern Lab School. 
     "I have a deep and abiding love for Southeastern and it won't stop with this gift," Ford
said.
     John Miller, dean of Southeastern's College of Arts and Sciences, said the university will
initiate a national search to select a prominent scholar for the Ford Chair. 
     "The Leon Ford Family Endowed Chair will be Southeastern's and the College of Arts and 
               Sciences' second endowed chair," Miller said. "We are very grateful for the generosity
of Judge  Ford and his family, who have a demonstrated commitment of support for the study
and preservation of Florida Parishes history and culture. I expect the holder of the Ford Chair to
work closely with the Center for Regional Studies and the Department of History and Political
Science and to be actively engaged in research and teaching focusing on the Florida Parishes."
                             -SLU-
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       www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsm99.htm