Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
985-549-2341/fax 985-549-2061
Date: 5/18/01
Contact: Christina Chapple 108
Editors: Photo accompanies release
PRESIDENT'S AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE WINNERS ANNOUNCED
HAMMOND -- Three Southeastern Louisiana University professors and a staff member
have been awarded the university's most prestigious honor, the President's Award for Excellence,
in the areas of research, teaching and service.
The recipients, recognized at the university's May 12 commencement exercises, are
Samuel C. Hyde Jr., associate professor of history and director of the Center for Southeast
Louisiana Studies, for research; Richard Louth, professor of English and director of Freshman
English and the Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project, for teaching; Charles A. Dranguet Jr.,
professor of history and political science and coordinator of the International Studies Program,
for service; and Robert "Doc" Goodwin, head athletic trainer, for staff service.
"The historical community in America at large has recognized that Dr. Sam Hyde is one
of the nation's leading new scholars on Southern history," said Bill Robison, head of the history
and political sciences department. An Amite native and Denham Springs resident, Hyde recently
was named to Southeastern's second endowed chair, the Leon Ford Family Endowed Chair in
Regional Studies. A member of Southeastern's history faculty since 1992, he has headed the
Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies, which is also the university's archives, since 1997 and is
credited with transforming it into a nationally know repository of documents, photographs, and
other artifacts.
Hyde has coordinated the university's acclaimed Deep Delta Civil War Symposium since
1994 and last year organized "Louisiana's Florida Parishes: Continuity and Change, 1699-2000."
The two-day symposium highlighted the unique culture and history the Florida Parishes and
featured regional, national and international scholars, exhibits, folklife demonstrations, and
musical performances
Hyde received the American Association for State and Local History's Certificate of
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Commendation for "Pistols and Politics: The Dilemma of Democracy in Louisiana's Florida
Parishes, 1810-1899," his 1996 history of the Florida Parishes' legacy of violence and anarchy
and one of the best-selling volumes published by LSU Press. He also edited "Plain Folk of the
South Revisited," a collection of articles from Southeastern's 1996 Plain Folk of the South
Symposium, which explored the history of "common Southerners" in the 19th century.
Hyde also is the editor of "Sunbelt Revolution: The Civil Rights Struggle in the Gulf
South," which will be released by the University Press of Florida in 2002, and "Carnivals and
Conflicts: A Louisiana History Reader," which he co-edited with Southeastern colleagues C.
Howard Nichols and Charles Elliot. The book will be released in January 2002.
Hyde is heading the revival of the Southeast Louisiana Historical Association and
reorganization of the Gulf South Historical Association, which is now headquartered at the
center.
As president in 1993-94 of the Camp Moore Historical Association, he helped to reopen the
historic northern Tangipahoa Parish landmark. His research has been featured by both the local
and national media such as ABC's World News Tonight, the New York Times, the History
Channel and the Discovery Channel.
Hyde has a doctoral degree from Louisiana State University and bachelor's degree from
Tulane University. He also studied for four years as an exchange student at universities in
Germany, Austria, and London, England.
Richard Louth describes himself as a "teacher of teachers." "I'm constantly surprised," he
said, "that someone is willing to pay me for the very thing I love doing most teaching."
During 23 years at Southeastern, Louth has taught a wide range of undergraduate and
graduate courses from Southern novelists to Soviet history. In the community, he has taught
more
than a dozen adult humanities courses sponsored by the Louisiana Endowment for the
Humanities, creative writing courses for gifted children, writing across the curriculum for
Upward Bound students and technical writing for area professionals.
"As director of the on-going Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project (SLWP), Louth has
influenced the lives of thousands of students the teachers who participate in the writing project
and those whom they, in turn, go on to teach," said John Miller, dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences. In the ten years since Southeastern became a National Writing Project affiliate, more
than 150 teachers have attended the SLWP's summer institute and have gone on to share the
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SLWP's successful writing program in their own classrooms.
Louth also coordinated the SLWP's participating in "Rural Voices, Country School," a
program designed to improve the teaching of writing in the nation's rural schools. Through Rural
Voices, Country Schools, the SLWP produced the radio shows "Everyday Epiphanies: Listening
to the Rhythms of Louisiana Life," part of a National Public Radio series called "Rural Voices
Radio: Writing About the Places We Call Home" and published several anthologies of student
and teacher writing, including "A Sense of Place."
Louth, a graduate of the University of Virginia, has also served as one of the College of
Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Professors and was the first recipient of the college's
Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1991.
"Service is considered part of the job for any professor. However, Charles 'Al' Dranguet
has performed that task to a degree rarely reached by others, and he has done so with seemingly
endless energy, dogged determination, and consummate diplomacy," his colleagues said in
nominating Dranguet for the faculty service honor.
"During my 33 years at Southeastern, I have found it difficult to say 'no' when asked to
perform a service for the university or the community," Dranguet said.
"Years from now, if future students, faculty and administrators encounter a ghostly figure
flitting between the administration building and the Department of History and Political Science,
it will definitely be Al Dranguet, taking care of business," said his History and Political Science
Department colleagues Barbara Forrest and Andrew Traver in nominating him for the award.
Dranguet, professor of history and political science, has served on approximately 40
committees and councils and is saluted by his peers for taking on tough campus assignments
such
as chairing the Faculty Grievance Committee, which he has headed for almost 20 years, and
serving as the university's ombudsman. He has also served as president of the university's
chapter of the United Federation of College Teachers since 1990.
As director of Study Abroad Programs for the past six years, he has helped to establish an
International Studies minor, has been instrumental in developing a proposal for a baccalaureate
degree in International Students, and has built up the program from one that offered summer
travel to one destination (Mexico) to one that now sends 60-80 students each summer to Austria,
England, France, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Quebec, and Scotland.
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In nominating Goodwin, a 26-year Southeastern veteran, for the unclassified staff service
award, his colleagues called him "a true example of service. His commitment to Southeastern
and its students is what he lives for...He doesn't know the meaning of the word 'no,'" they said.
Goodwin has served as advisor to Southeastern's Student Athletic Trainers Association
and was instrumental in helping to create the university's Sports Medicine curriculum. He has
been a long-time active leader, in the Southeastern Alumni Association and its Tangi Chapter,
serving as president of both and playing a key role in events such as the construction of the
Alumni Center and Homecoming. The Association has honored him with its Distinguished
Service Award and the L.E. Chandler Award for service to students, an award he originally
created.
He has also been active in the Louisiana and International Special Olympic Games,
serving as medical director, site coordinator and volunteer. He was a charter and founding
member of the Louisiana Sports Medicine Society and was instrumental in creating the North
Oaks Sports Medicine Program to insure high school athletes receive athletic training coverage
in
Tangipahoa Parish. He worked to pass the state law that requires that athletic trainers be licensed.
Goodwin also has been active in the 1992 U.S. Track and Field Trials in New Orleans,
the 1993 NCAA Track and Field Trials in New Orleans, and the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta
and worked in New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons Football Training Camps.
His honors and awards include induction into the Louisiana Athletic Trainers Association
Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Sports Medicine Society Jim Finks Award, and the National Athletic
Trainers Association District IX Service Award.
Recipients of the President's Awards for Excellence receive a cash award and plaque and
will be recognized at the university's Faculty/Staff Convocation in August.
-SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu./NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp00.htm