Shelby County Today

April 24, 2017 Nacogdoches – The bands at Stephen F. Austin State University will present the annual “Concert in the Park” Sunday, April 30, in the wooded area along Vista Drive and in front of the Wright Music Building on the SFA campus. The concert begins at 2 p.m. and is free to the public.

SFA alumnus Doice Grant, owner of Tatum Music Company in Longview, will be honored with an induction into the SFA Band Directors’ Hall of Fame. Grant earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from SFA where he was a member of Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band fraternity and was selected “Outstanding Bandsman” of the Lumberjack Marching Band. Grant taught at Carthage and Center ISDs before joining the leadership of Tatum Music in 1994.

All four SFA concert bands will perform. Opening the concert will be University Band, under the direction of David Campo, associate director of bands, and graduate assistant Teresa Powell. The University Band will perform “Coast Guards March” by Karl King and “Autobahn” by Ryan George.

The Symphonic Band, under the direction of Tamey Anglley, assistant director of bands at SFA, will perform “Cajun Folks Songs” by Texas composer Frank Ticheli. Graduate assistant Brandon Beavers will conduct “Sea Songs” by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

The Wind Symphony, also directed by Campo, will perform three selections, including “Inglesina,” a march by Davide Delle Cese.

The Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Fred J. Allen, director of bands, will close the concert and will perform four pieces, including music from the movie “Star Wars” and a march by John Philip Sousa, “The Globe and Eagle.” Guest conductor and honoree Grant will conduct “Procession of the Nobles” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

KKY and Tau Beta Sigma, honorary band service fraternity and sorority, will sell hamburger plates beginning at 1 p.m. Plates are $5 each and will include a burger, chips and beverage.

For more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

April 20, 2017 Nacogdoches – The SFA Friends of Music will accept reservations through noon Monday, April 24, for Extravaganza 30, Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music’s annual gala banquet. The event, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 28, in the Grand Ballroom of SFA’s Baker Pattillo Student Center, will honor Dr. Peggy Wright of Nacogdoches as Outstanding Music Alumna.

This year’s Extravaganza, “Golden Stars of SFA,” celebrates the 30th anniversary of the gala and fundraiser, which features gourmet dining, performances by student soloists and ensembles, and the presentation of student awards in an exciting evening of music, according to Dr. Gary Wurtz, director of the SFA School of Music.

“There is no better way to experience a cross section of what the SFA School of Music has to offer than at our annual Extravaganza,” Wurtz said. “While enjoying a good meal, those in attendance hear performances by the top choir, band, orchestra, jazz band, student recitalists, opera performers, and more. Our fantastic students provide both dinner music and a dance to end the evening. It is really a lot of fun!”

Part music student awards ceremony, part formal dinner, and part musical potpourri, Extravaganza will feature jazz, wind ensemble, choir, opera, string quartet and orchestra. Additional highlights include awarding Outstanding Music Alumni and Outstanding Recitalists of the year.

As is tradition with Extravaganza, the music faculty has selected an outstanding music graduate to honor, and this year’s recipient is Dr. Peggy Wright.

“Mrs. Wright is a stalwart of the Nacogdoches community and an avid supporter of all things SFA,” Wurtz said, “but many people may not realize that she has a bachelor’s degree in music from SFA, as well. This year, the committee voted unanimously that Mrs. Wright must be our honoree, and, in fact, they all agreed that it has been an oversight to not award this to her much sooner! Mrs. Wright’s support of the School of Music over the years has been overwhelming, and we are excited to have this opportunity to honor her in this way.”

Wright’s work on behalf of SFA includes her service as president of the SFA Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1974-75; member of the SFA Board of Regents from 1973-83 and 1987-93, serving as chairman of the board for four years; member of the SFASU Foundation Board of Trustees, serving as secretary/treasurer from 1987-2006 and chairman from 1985-87; and member of Friends of Music and the Dean’s Circle. She was named the SFA Distinguished Alumna in 1985 and Nacogdoches Woman of the Year in 1989. In 1997, the SFA Board of Regents selected her as the second recipient of an honorary university doctorate.

Along with her late husband Tom, Wright’s philanthropy to SFA has been extensive, including the creation of the Wedgeworth-Wright Endowment for the Arts. In recognition of the Wrights’ longstanding commitment and love for SFA, the music building was named the Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building in 1999. She also has been highly involved in the Nacogdoches community, serving in numerous leadership roles, including president of the Cum Concilio Club, regent for the Nacogdoches Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, and member of the Texas Council of Economic Education Board of Directors, Citizens 1st Bank Board of Directors, Heritage Club, Dallas Woman’s Club and National Society of Colonial Dames of America. In 2004, the Wrights shared the Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce’s Citizens of the Year award. The Wrights are longtime members of Westminster Presbyterian Church, and they have two daughters, Kitty Dippel of Brenham and Peggy Pollock of Dallas, six grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren.

The Extravaganza 30 committee includes John and Melinda Rohrer, co-chairs, Carolyn King, Caryl and Harold Hall, MaryAnn and Farrar Bentley, Kimberly LaGraff, Gloria and Cecil Settle, Barb Stump, Shirley Watterston and Gloria Williams.

“We want to invite everyone to come and celebrate this 30th Extravaganza with us,” Melinda Rohrer said.

This year’s Friends of Music officers include Caryl Hall, president; Marinell Booth, president-elect; Missy DeVine, secretary/treasurer; and Jackie Warthan, past president.

Tickets are $40 for adults and $10 for SFA students. Patron level tickets range in prices from $65 to $140, and donations will be accepted for the Friends of Music scholarship fund. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

April 18, 2017 Nacogdoches - The Garden Capital of Texas will showcase some of its most beautifully landscaped gardens during the Tour of Home Gardens, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 20 and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday May 21. Tickets are $20 and will be on sale beginning Wednesday, April 5 at the Charles Bright Visitor Center, 200 E. Main St., The Blue Horse Bakery, 112 N. Church St., The Liberty Bell, 422 E. Main St. and International Tours, 3208 N. University Dr.

This exclusive tour is thoughtfully curated by the Garden Capital of Texas Committee and includes four stunning private home gardens, including two at Lake Nacogdoches, and public gardens in the downtown area. Details for each garden destination are on the ticket.

“This year's garden tour offers something for everyone," said Diana Walker, Garden Capital of Texas Committee member. "We have some wonderful home gardens out at Lake Nacogdoches, so folks can enjoy a little drive in the country. They can stop at other gardens on the way back into town, and then they can park downtown and enjoy a walking tour and maybe take a break at The Liberty Bell or Blue Horse Bakery."

Sponsors of the Home Garden Tours are StretchER, BancorpSouth, The Liberty Bell and Blue Horse Bakery.

The money raised by the tour will help fund the Garden Capital committee's planting efforts. The Arbor Day Foundation officially designated Nacogdoches as a Tree City in 2015, after the city partnered with the Garden Capital committee and Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful to meet four core standards of urban forestry management. The Garden Capital Committee planted more than 300 trees last year in honor of Nacogdoches' 300th anniversary, and recently planted flowering shrubs and other plants around the chapel at Millard's Crossing.

Gardens featured on this year’s tour include:

Kim and Gary Bass, 161 Shoreline Dr., Lake Nacogdoches

The Bass home is a beautiful, heavily wooded 2.5 acre lot with a private walking trail and three bridges built by the homeowners. The trail is lined with informative tree markers, birdhouses, and feeders. The landscape includes fences, decking, stonework and vegetable garden.

Judy and Jim Buckingham, 541 Country Road 755, Lake Nacogdoches

Dr. Jim Buckingham planned his garden around the stone house that he and his wife Judy built in 2012 on The Bluffs at Mill Branch at Lake Nacogdoches. Initially designed and landscaped by Kimberly Wright from Dragonfly Nursery, the garden has further evolved with the advice and assistance of Jeff Abt. Winding stone paths, terraces, and seating areas within the garden all help achieve the goal of having a house that “looks like it belongs at the lake.” Dr. Buckingham has chosen shade-loving plants for the wooded site — hydrangeas, azaleas, ferns, Japanese maples, and loropetalum. Roses, daisies and palmetto palms are also repeated throughout the garden. Varieties of maple trees have been added for fall color. A unique potting shed/greenhouse made of vintage materials was designed and built by Mark Gaynor.

Greg Patterson Studio & Gallery, 122 N. Mound St.

This garden is part of Greg Patterson Studio & Gallery and is located behind the main building. It is used for photographing clients in natural settings. It features a pond and gazebo at its center, surrounded by several flower beds and walking paths. Outside the white picket fence are other photography “props,” such as an old red truck, a plane, trees, walls and fences. The garden was designed by Texas Gardens. It is now lovingly cared for by the owner’s father-in-law.

TJR Elementary School Garden, 411 Mound Street

The TJR Elementary School Garden serves as an outdoor classroom for students and has various raised beds dedicated to growing fruits and vegetables. Each week elementary students enjoy an hour of fresh air and learn the art of growing their own food. Gardening strategies that foster resilience and nutrient- dense food are utilized to demonstrate an ecologically diverse and chemical-free garden. Some strategies include lasagna gardening, mulching, square-foot gardening and companion planting. This program runs entirely on volunteer support from Resilient Nacogdoches and a generous grant contribution from Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful.

City of Nacogdoches Downtown Planters

The city's gardener, Christy Wright, will discuss how the downtown planter program got started. Wright will discuss the plants and the watering program for the 40 planters in the downtown area.

Nacogdoches County Master Gardeners Association Demonstration Garden, corner of University Drive and Main Street
The Demonstration Garden was established in 2007 when then County Extension Agent Chad Gulley petitioned the city to turn an ugly piece of property into a beautification project and a demonstration garden to educate the public. The property, which is in the flood plain and had been the site of a chicken processing plant, was taken on by the Nacogdoches County Master Gardener Association and is half way into a 20-year beautification project. It is one of the largest of its type in the country, and like everything else in Nacogdoches is very historic.

The demonstration garden was once known as Aqua Vitae Park.  In 1909 it was the site of a medicinal water business and people came from great distances for the healing properties. Today the garden contains a rain water harvesting  model,  a sun dial where you can stand on a month marker and tell the time,  a butterfly garden, a memorial walk (a project of East Texas Hospice) and many beautiful plants and alternate gardening methods.

Downtown Pocket Garden, 111 N. Pecan Street.

Jana and Gary LaFour bought the building at 207 E Main in 2013. They primarily used the back entrance to access their loft and decided to transform the alley from an eyesore into a garden cottage. The couple planted flower beds and hanging baskets. In an effort to cover an ugly concrete hump, they built a small deck and a fountain, and then moved in lots of flower pots and planted some hydrangeas and roses. The next project they tackled was the corner of the alley on Pecan St. where the dumpster is located. They dug up that area, uncovering more of the brick street that had been hidden, and built another flower bed. 

The couple purchased the Cox Building on the corner of Pecan and Main in 2015. During the nine-month renovation, they went to work building flower beds around the trees and planning the flower boxes for their third-floor balcony.

For more information about the Garden Capital Tour of Home Gardens, contact the Garden Capital of Texas Committee at Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful, 936-560-5624 or by email at info@keepnacbeautiful.org. You can also friend them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gardencapital.  The Garden Capital of Texas Tour of Home Gardens, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 20 and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday May 21. Tickets are $20 on sale now at the Charles Bright Visitor Center, 200 E. Main St., The Blue Horse Bakery, 112 N. Church St., The Liberty Bell, 422 E. Main St. and International Tours, 3208 N. University Dr. 

The mission of the Nacogdoches Garden Capital of Texas Committee is to educate, engage and inspire Nacogdoches area citizens to become involved in beautifying their community green spaces. The Nacogdoches Garden Capital Committee is a part of Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful.

April 12, 2017 Nacogdoches — Seven Stephen F. Austin State University faculty members were recognized April 11 for their teaching abilities during the annual Teaching Excellence Convocation.

“At SFA, excellence in teaching is at the core of our mission. These honorees represent not only themselves but also many others who are the best in education,” said Dr. Steve Bullard, SFA provost and vice president for academic affairs. “Our mission at SFA is to engage students in a learner-centered environment. This year’s honorees are exemplars of this mission in action.”

The Teaching Excellence Awards were established in 1994 to honor outstanding classroom teachers at SFA. Each of the university's six colleges selects a faculty member to receive the annual award based on knowledge of subject matter, quality of lectures and assignments, enthusiasm for teaching, interest in and availability to students, commitment to continuous improvement, and contribution to the quality of teaching at SFA by assisting and encouraging other faculty members. The 2017 recipients are as follows:

Rusche College of Business

Dr. Kyle Jones, associate professor of finance, joined the Rusche College of Business faculty in 2000. He earned his doctoral degree in finance from the University of Mississippi, and his Master of Science in business administration and bachelor’s degree in computer science from Georgia Southwestern College.

Jones serves as a faculty advisor for the nationally recognized and award-winning Mast Student Investment Roundtable and holds the Certified Financial Analyst designation. His teaching and research interests include international finance, corporate and managerial finance, and risk management.

James I. Perkins College of Education

Dr. Christina Sinclair, interim associate dean for assessment and accountability for the College of Education and associate professor, joined SFA’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Science moving from the University of Northern Colorado, where she worked for 12 years. Sinclair received tenure in 2006.

Sinclair graduated with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from the University of Texas at San Antonio, a master’s degree in education from Sul Ross State University and a doctoral degree in physical education with a minor in educational psychology from the University of New Mexico.

Sinclair’s areas of interest include participation in physical activity, especially through quality kindergarten through 12th grade physical education, and increasing children’s intrinsically motivated free-time physical activity. She helps teachers, as well as SFA students, learn about creating accessible climates in physical activity settings, alternative curriculum, instructional models and assessment.

College of Fine Arts

In 1995, Dr. David A. Lewis, professor of art history in SFA’s School of Art, joined the SFA faculty after previously teaching modern art at the University of Georgia and Hamilton College. He graduated cum laude from the University of Southern Indiana with a bachelor’s degree in art and philosophy. He earned his Master of Arts and doctoral degree in art history from Indiana University.

Lewis’ responsibilities on campus include mentoring students as art editor for the SFASU Press. He served as director of the School of Art. He also oversaw the development of an off-campus gallery, which is now the Ed and Gwen Cole Art Center, and co-founded LaNana Creek Press as editor.

Lewis’ contributions to the university include expanding the art and photographic history curriculum, promoting a course in professional practices and establishing a graduate certificate program in museum studies. Additionally, Lewis initiated SFA’s School of Art’s exchange program with Libera Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy, and he has organized more than 30 exhibitions.

Among his notable publications are studies of American artists Rico Lebrun, Corinne Michael West and John Heliker. Lewis is an authority on the work of photographer Frank Dituri. Some of Lewis’ articles have been translated into Italian, Russian and Spanish.

Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture

Dr. Joey Bray, chair of the Department of Agriculture and associate professor, joined SFA’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture in 2002. He also serves as director of poultry science, which includes SFA’s Broiler Research Center and Poultry Research Center.

Bray received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in agriculture from SFA and his doctoral degree in poultry management from Texas A&M University. He teaches numerous undergraduate and graduate poultry science courses and introductory livestock anatomy and physiology for the animal science curriculum at SFA.

His research focuses on poultry management practices such as nutritional feed additives, poultry health, poultry lighting, poultry husbandry and welfare, and the environmental impacts of commercial poultry production.

College of Liberal and Applied Arts

Dr. Jessie Sams, associate professor of linguistics in the Department of English and Creative Writing, joined the SFA faculty in 2009. She earned her Bachelor of Science in English from Truman State University and both her Master of Arts and doctoral degree in linguistics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Her primary teaching and research interests include English grammar, history of the English language and invented languages.

College of Sciences and Mathematics

In 2008, Dr. Joe Musser, associate professor, joined the faculty of SFA’s Department of Physics, Engineering and Astronomy. Musser received a Bachelor of Science in education from West Texas State University in 1988 and his doctoral degree in physics from Texas A&M University in 2006.

Prior to joining the SFA faculty, Musser taught calculus, physics and physical science at Caprock High School in Amarillo.

In 2011, the Optical Society honored Musser, and in 2012, he was awarded the Patent and Innovation Award from Texas A&M University System’s Office of Technology Commercialization. He was elected to serve on the executive board of the Texas Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers in 2010.

His research interests include environmental sensing, natural photonic structures, quantum optics and physics pedagogy.

Adjunct Teaching

Marie Kelly is a lecturer in the Schlief School of Accountancy in the Rusche College of Business. She received her Bachelor of Business Administration and master’s degree from SFA.

As a Texas teacher certified in mathematics and business, Kelly taught at Douglass ISD for 13 years. She also is a Certified Public Accountant and holds the Chartered Global Management Accountant certification. Prior to joining SFA in 1987, Kelly worked in public accounting and in private industry.

Her teaching and research interests include financial and managerial accounting, accounting ethics and learning techniques among undergraduate accounting students. She is active in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Texas Society of CPAs and the East Texas Chapter of CPAs. She also received TSCPA’s Outstanding Accounting Educator Award in 2015.