Jerry Shaw receives honorary doctorate

Jerome "Jerry" Shaw, '49, of La Jolla, Calif., who started a company with his brother in 1950 and built it into a corporation with more than 37,000 employees, received an honorary doctorate at NMSU's spring commencement ceremony. Shaw was honored for his entrepreneurial accomplishments and for his service and commitment to excellence in education at NMSU. He and his brother, William, started Volt Information Sciences Inc., a technical publications company, in 1950 in the kitchen of their mother's home. The brothers had $13, boundless enthusiasm and a vision for the future. Today the Volt family of divisions and subsidiaries spanning the globe is a Fortune 1000 company with sales exceeding $1.4 billion. As chief operations officer, Jerry Shaw is a driving force in the day-to-day operations of Volt's enterprises in areas such as skilled staffing services, computer systems, telecommunications engineering and construction, and automation of photocomposition services for Yellow Page telephone directories. He also has his own company, Environmental Dwellings, where he is active in land management, converting wholesale real estate into retail and construction of new homes. Shaw holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from NMSU. He is a member of the Dean's Advisory Board for the College of Engineering and a member of the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering's Academy. He and his wife, Joyce Cutler Shaw, are supporters of the Goddard Hall Renovation Project and members of the College of Engineering Goddard Society. In 1995 he was selected to give the College's annual Bromilow Lecture and that same year he was named Distinguished Alumnus by the college.

Beem is back

Still an Aggie at heart, Larry Beem, '64, returned to NMSU in the spring to head the men's golf program in which he participated 34 years ago.

Beem, who earned a degree in business administration at NMSU, was selected Feb. 19 to replace Ross Nettles. Beem played for NMSU from 1962 to 1964 and was selected NMSU's first All-American in 1964 after advancing into the quarter-final round of the NCAA championships. In 1990, Beem was inducted into the NMSU Athletic Hall of Fame.

He has served as a golf professional and course manager for several courses while working with the Department of the Army since 1974. Most recently, he was the general manager and head golf professional at White Sands Missile Range since 1987. Beem first was employed at White Sands from 1974 to 1981.Beem has three children: Tina, Susie and Richard. Richard, a 1994 graduate of NMSU, is a former Aggie golfer as well.

Beem will coach a team that won the Red Raider Invitational last fall at Texas Tech by shooting an 842 team score, the second-lowest score in NMSU history. The Aggies also finished third at the Pacific Invitational and fifth on their home course in the Herb Wimberly-Coca Cola Classic.

Lena Parsons

Henson signs four-year contract

After four months of interim coaching, Lou Henson, '55, in February was offered and accepted the position of men's basketball coach on a full-time basis.

Aggie basketball also gained a new assistant coach in March. Thomas Trotter, '84, was an assistant coach at Northeastern Illinois University for the past 10 seasons before he accepted the NMSU position.

Continuing on the Aggie basketball coaching staff is Rus Bradburd, associate head coach.

Henson signed a four-year contract with NMSU that will keep him as the Aggies' head coach through the 2001-2002 season.

Henson previously coached the Aggies for nine seasons from 1966-75. He left NMSU in 1975 to become the head coach at Illinois.

Henson has amassed an all-time record of 679-341. He is the seventh-winningest active coach in Division I basketball and ranks 17th in victories all-time.

Trotter was the primary recruiter in Chicago with the NEIU Golden Eagles and developed a reputation as one of the top recruiters in the Midwest. He made a cameo appearance in the highly-acclaimed basketball documentary Hoop Dreams.

Jean Renfroe

College inducts two into Hall of Fame

Tarasoff

Bowen

NMSU's College of Business Administration and Economics inducted businessmen A.D. Bowen, '53, of Abilene, Texas, and Thomas Tarasoff, '71, of Phoenix, Ariz., into its Hall of Fame in April.

Bowen received his bachelor's degree in business administration. He recently retired as chairman and CEO of American Eagle Airlines.

Bowen began his career as a petroleum geologist with the General Western Petroleum Co. He is one of the founders of Chaparral Airlines, a regional airline formed to provide air service to and from Abilene. He also has served as an Abilene city councilor and for three years as mayor pro tem of Abilene.

Tarasoff received his bachelor's degree in accounting. He is general manager for national accounts with the Hewlett-Packard Corp. in Phoenix. He joined the corporation in 1972. He is recognized as one of the corporation's leaders in hiring and promoting women and minorities.

The NMSU Business Hall of Fame was established in 1997 to honor outstanding alumni of the college.

Warren Woodson, 1903-1998

Woodson coached the Aggie football team for 10 years from 1958-67, posting a 63-36-2 record, the most wins ever by an Aggie football coach. He led the Aggies to victories in the 1959 Sun Bowl over North Texas and the 1960 Sun Bowl over Utah State. He was named Border Conference Coach of the year five times and national coach of the year in 1960. He remains the only coach to ever have the nation's top individual rusher four years in a row, from 1959 through 1962 at NMSU.

WHALE OF A JOB

NMSU biology professor Peter Houde assembles the skeleton of a 25-foot adult female minke whale donated to NMSU's vertebrate museum by Portland State University. The whale's corpse washed up on the Oregon shore in 1986. The 10-ton whale was about 15 years old when she died. The large bone next to the skeleton is the jawbone of a blue whale, earth's largest-ever animal.
Photo by Michael Kiernan