A fog rolled across North Louisiana this week. That reflected the uncertainties of the week that laid ahead for me. Early Monday, Kathy joined me for a trip to Bossier City for meetings with our Louisiana Tech Research Institute Board and our friends at Caddo Parish Schools. The staff of LTRI are making a lot of progress in developing and delivering contracted education and training programs for the Air Force, and our faculty are supporting more of the needs of the public schools across Shreveport and Bossier.

Kathy and I left Bossier City in time to make it to Houston for the birth of our fourth grandchild, Evangeline (Evie). Kyle and Ginger certainly made an “A” with her, and we are thrilled to have another beautiful girl in the family.

We returned back to Bossier for more meetings at the Cyber Innovation Center on Wednesday morning before heading back to Ruston to clear off the desk before Christmas break.

On Thursday, we welcomed Louisiana Secretary of Economic Development, Don Pierson, to Ruston for the “ribbon-cutting” for the new certified site in Ruston’s Industrial Park. Mayor Ronny Walker and his staff have done an outstanding job in making our community ready for business. We also hosted Don for a visit to Tech Pointe to meet with Martin Santora and Fenway Group, a company that has shown remarkable growth in our Enterprise Campus. Our day was brightened with some major gifts that came in for our “Forever Loyal” Capital Campaign.

By Friday, the fog had lifted, the clouds had passed us by, and the sun was shining bright on our campus. 

We returned to Houston with Kathy’s mother Peg on Saturday so we could get our family together for a short visit and to let everyone get to spend some time with Evie.

Evie and I stayed up late and enjoyed watching our Bulldogs defeat the University of Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl late Saturday night. I think we have a new Bulldog fan! And a big congrats to the Bulldogs for a 5th consecutive Bowl win….

Merry Christmas to all of our Tech Family and friends!