CSC to host math reunion

The guest of honor will be Dr. Gene Hughes, a 1956 Chadron State graduate who taught math at the college for several years before becoming an administrative assistant and then dean of administration at the college.

Hughes left CSC in 1970 and was a dean, provost and academic vice president at Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff before serving 14 years as its president. He also was president of Wichita State University in Kansas for five years before retiring in 1998.

He received Chadron State’s Distinguished Service Award in 1982 and an honorary doctorate from the college in 2003. He was chosen the Kansas Citizen of the Year in 1998 by the Kansas Society of Professional Engineers and has been national chairman of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

A native of Scottsbluff and a graduate of Scottsbluff Junior College before he transferred to Chadron State, Hughes and his wife Margaret Ann now live in Flagstaff.

One of the organizers of the reunion, Richard Rickenbach of Eden Prairie, Minn., said those planning to attend the reunion remember Hughes as an exceptional teacher and appreciate how his instruction and mentoring  helped them have rewarding careers.

Those careers involve many fields, including teaching, educational administration, science business and industry, engineering, government service, the health professions, the military and agriculture.

Rickenbach said a number of Hughes’ former students who cannot attend the reunion have sent letters of appreciation.

The visitors will have their first gathering in the CSC Student Center on Wednesday morning. They will have dinner at the Chadron American Legion Club that evening and lunch in the Chicoine Atrium of the Sandoz Center at noon Thursday. Tours of the campus are included on the itinerary.

Karen Pope, CSC director of alumni and annual giving, has helped with the arrangements for the reunion, which is coinciding with Chadron State’s centennial celebration.