Elsie Carr accepts a 2004 Branding Iron Award from NMSU Foundation President Tom Mobley and NMSU President Mike Martin.

The first recipient was Elsie Raye Rigney Carr ’36. Carr comes from a family with deep roots at NMSU. She earned a degree in English and taught briefly at Las Cruces High School. From there she became an administrative assistant in several federal agencies based in Washington, D.C. She moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, with the Ford Foundation after WWII. It was there that she met her husband, the late Dr. Jesse Carr. She has been a generous donor to New Mexico State, including the sundial on the Horseshoe, an endowed scholarship and a major gift to the renovation of the Conroy Honors Center.

Mary Henson

Lou and Mary Henson personify “team” at New Mexico State University. They have been together since Lou’s student days in the 1950s. During Lou Henson’s two stints as head coach of the men’s basketball team, Mary has been his strongest cheerleader; usually on the sidelines with children or grandchildren. They have experienced many NCAA tournaments and two Final Four appearances. Coach Henson is closing in on 800 career wins. In 2003, the basketball court in the Pan Am Center was named for him, and the Hensons celebrated the event by establishing an endowment for athletic scholarships at NMSU.

Barbara Hubbard

The fourth Branding Iron honoree was Barbara Hubbard. Hubbard retired in 1996 after nearly 30 years as director of special events for New Mexico State. But she is still an active player in the event planning business.

From the beginning, Hubbard has involved students in the business and trained them to take a variety of roles in the entertainment industry. She used her contacts to create six endowed scholarship funds at NMSU. Her friends repaid her efforts by creating the Peirce and Barbara Hubbard Scholarship endowment when she retired.