Renovation plans becoming reality

The YMCA Building is moving closer to becoming the permanent home of the University Honors Program. This past summer the university received the historic structures report jointly prepared by Van Critters Historic Preservationists and BPLW Architects and Engineers. The report details the status of the buildingÕs structure and problems that need to be corrected. It also identifies the building's most significant architectural features and its original decor.

According the Bill Eamon, Honors Program director, the goal is to restore at least a portion of the Trost-designed YMCA to its original state to provide a link to NMSU's past within its oldest building. Wiring and plumbing will be replaced, and the building must be brought up to ADA standards. The hope is that the original layout of the first floor can be preserved.

Because the YMCA is listed on both state and federal historic registers, documentation also is being submitted for the Historic American Buildings Survey. This information will be archived in the state and federal registries. Plans for the remodeling and use of the building must be submitted to the state historic preservation office for approval.

"We hope to have these in place by early 2000," Eamon said. "Then the bid-letting process can begin, and by spring we may see construction under way." At their May meeting, the NMSU Board of Regents selected BPLW Architects and Engineers of Albuquerque to oversee the renovation.

Several recent gifts and pledges to the Cornerstone Campaign for Excellence support the renovation. The estate of Eugene Sundt earmarked $200,000 for the YMCA building project. Elsie Carr, '36, gave $150,000 to name the Rigney-Hines Commons. Joyce Jaynes pledged $100,000 through a retained life estate. Barbara Myers is contributing $25,000 to name the kitchen area in honor of her daughter Elvira Hammond, and Norwest Bank New Mexico, N.A. is giving the same amount to name the student display area.

In all, about half the funds needed for the project have been raised through private contributions. Persons interested in making a gift should call or write the NMSU Office of Development, P.O. Box 3590, Las Cruces, N.M. 88003-3590, (505) 646-1611.

Ann Palormo

Creed tapped to lead Advancement Office

Joe Creed, '59, '86, put on a new administrative hat at NMSU in July. President William Conroy appointed him to serve as interim vice president for University Advancement. He succeeds Marcia Muller, who moved on to a similar position at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Creed brings to the job 11 years of experience in corporate and alumni relations as NMSU's assistant engineering dean. "I believe the Office of University Advancement should serve as a resource for the colleges' development activities," Creed said. "We need to coordinate these activities for the maximum benefit to the colleges and university."

Creed

Creed came to campus in 1954 as a freshman in chemical engineering. "I was attracted to NMSU by the co-op program at White Sands," he said. He tried out for football after that first year and earned a scholarship as a walk-on for the next season.

During his undergraduate years, he met and married his wife, Priscilla. "She gave me stability and kept me focused on my goal of attaining a degree in chemical engineering," he said.

Creed spent 17 years as president and co-owner of PMC Inc., a design, fabrication and sales company that produced process equipment for the petroleum industry. He returned to NMSU to teach chemical engineering in the early 1980s and earned a multidisciplinary M.B.A./M.S. in chemical engineering in 1986.

He will continue to wear another hat as the NCAA faculty athletic representative and adviser to the president on athletics. He serves on the committee that insures academic integrity and compliance at NMSU.

"Other than my family, NMSU has been the biggest influence on my life," Creed said. "I have a vested interest in its continued growth. Besides, I'm still having fun and look forward to coming to work each day."

Ann Palormo

Endowment honors business professor

After 35 years at NMSU, management professor John Loveland figures that's just about enough teaching. The business college's senior faculty member plans to retire "in the next year or two."

Loveland

In anticipation of that moment, the college has created the Dr. John Loveland Management Excellence Fund. Half the income from the endowment will provide student scholarships. The rest will support programs promoting management department excellence. The first scholarship will be awarded upon Loveland's retirement. Loveland joined NMSU in 1965 to teach in the new College of Business Administration and Economics. His office and classrooms were in a World War II barracks before Guthrie Hall's construction in 1968.

He was the faculty senate's first elected chairman in 1978 and management department head from 1983-1994. He has received several teaching and service awards in his tenure, during which he has taught 21 different classes in many disciplines.

Loveland now is teaching children of his former students. Recently, he said, a student "told me she was excited to meet me. I thought she was going to say I taught one of her parents, but it turned out it was her grandmother. That's when I decided it was probably time to retire."

To learn more or contribute to the fund, contact Beatriz Delgadillo at (505) 646-3587.

Rachel Kendall

Neligan gifts earmarked for chemistry students

Robert Neligan, '53, credits his professional success to the education he received at NMSU. A retired Environmental Protection Agency official, Neligan is a World War II veteran whose education was made possible by the G.I. Bill.

Now he is building two endowed funds for students in NMSU's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. One fund, named in memory of his first wife, Betty, will provide a full-tuition scholarship for an undergraduate chemistry student from El Paso, Texas, Neligan's childhood hometown. Through a series of stock gifts, he is creating a fund that will have a principal value of $40,000 before the first scholarship is awarded.

Neligan

Then he will fund a second endowment for a graduate chemistry student. Neligan was one of the first three students in the chemistry graduate program and the first to earn a master's, in 1953.

After World War II, Neligan was working two jobs but soon realized that he needed more education. He enrolled in NMSU's chemical engineering program but switched to chemistry because he enjoyed the lab work. Department head Latimer Evans, an early mentor and founder of the master's program, encouraged Neligan to continue his studies until he earned an advanced degree.

Following graduation, Neligan went to work for Phillips Petroleum's chemical fertilizer division. His interest in air quality took him to the newly-formed Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control district in California. There he studied the components of automobile exhaust and was involved in developing and implementing smog control standards.

Neligan then joined the Environmental Protection Agency and became the national director of the air monitoring and quality control division. The division is located in North Carolina, where Neligan lives. He retired from the EPA in 1987.

"I can thank New Mexico State and Dr. Evans for opening so many doors for me. I am glad I can do something to open doors for others," Neligan said.

Ann Palormo