October 3, 2003

Three scholars to be endowed in ceremony

The university once again prepares to recognize acclaimed scholars and merited teachers with an investiture ceremony. University President Bernard P. Knoth, S.J., and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Walter Harris, Jr. Ph.D., will preside over the investiture of Alfred Lawrence Lorenz, Ph.D., as the A. Louis Read Distinguished Professor in Communications; David M. Myers, Ph.D., as the Rev. Aloysius B. Goodspeed, S.J., BEGGARS Distinguished Professor in Communications; and Miguel P. Caldas, Ph.D., as the Gerald N. Gaston Eminent Scholar Chair in International Business. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Frank E. Scully, Jr., Ph.D., and Dean of College of Business Administration Patrick O' Brien, Ph.D., will join in the celebration.

The ceremony will be held Friday, October 17, at 3 p.m., in the Audubon Room of the Danna Center. O'Brien will host a business reception immediately following the ceremony in the third floor atrium in Miller Hall, and Scully will host an Arts and Sciences reception in the Diboll Gallery on the fourth floor in the Monroe Library.

Larry Lorenz, a professor in the Department of Communications, holds a bachelor's of science degree in English from Marquette University and master's and doctorate degrees in journalism from Southern Illinois University. Lorenz was chair of the Department of Communications from 1981 until 1993. He also was director of the Jesuit Communications Conference, associate director of Loyola's study abroad program in Mexico City, and a visiting professor at the Universidad Iberomericana in Mexico City. His publications include two books, a number of academic articles, encyclopedia entries, research papers, and articles in newspapers. A former United Press International newsman, Lorenz is host of the WYES-TV program "Informed Sources." He is a member of the American Journalism Historians Association and of the honor societies Phi Kappa Phi, Kappa Tau Alpha, Sigma Delta Chi, and Sigma Delta Pi. He is a former president of the Press Club of New Orleans and, in 2001, was presented with the organization's Lifetime Achievement Award. Lorenz's teaching specialties are journalism history and communications ethics.

The family and friends of the late A. Louis Read, a 1937 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, committed in 1999 to establish an endowed professorship in his memory. Principal contributions came from his widow Nathalie O. Read, his brother Henry Read, his friends Lester Kabacoff, Edgar Stern, and Douglas Johnson. His son, Michael O. Read, graduated from Loyola's School of Law in 1968.

David Myers received a bachelor of arts degree in English from Yale University, a master in arts degree in English (creative writing) from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, a master in fine arts degree in theatre (playwriting) from Florida State University, and a doctorate in radio-television-film from the University of Texas at Austin. He has been a member of the Loyola University faculty since 1984. Since 1987, he has been director of graduate studies within the Department of Communications. Myers has been active with various departmental, college, and university committees, including the Faculty Senate, the Standing Council for Academic Planning, the University Graduate Council, the Arts and Sciences Dean's Planning Council, and the Loyola Visiting Professors in High Schools Program. Myers has won awards for his short fiction and had his plays produced by college and regional theater companies. He has published a number of scholarly studies on computer-mediated communications behavior and play in national and international journals. His most recent publication is The Nature of Computer Games: Play as Semiosis.

Before joining the business faculty this fall, Miguel Caldas served for five years as an assistant and associate professor in management at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV-EAESP), Brazil's most prestigious business school. Prior to joining academia full time, Caldas had a successful 15-year career in organizational transformation and human resource consulting, reaching partner status at prominent international firms such as Coopers & Lybrand, Andersen Business Consulting, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. During his time as a practitioner, he was also an adjunct faculty for 10 years at the business school of ESPM, another university in Sáo Paulo, before joining FGV. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Universidade de Brasília (UnB), and his master's and doctorate degrees from the Getulio Vargas Foundation, in Brazil. Caldas is the author of three books, more than 70 refereed articles in English and Portuguese (including six awarded papers, two of which won divisional Best Paper Awards from the Academy of Management), and co-editor of two anthologies. His research interests focus on international business, cross-cultural management (particularly Latin American culture), and organizational change.

The Gaston Chair was established in 1998 by Gerald N. Gaston, a 1965 graduate of the College of Business Administration. Gaston, who served on the university's Board of Trustees, is the father of Matt Gaston, also an alumnus of the university and a current member of the Board of Trustees. Matt received his bachelor of business administration from Loyola in 1992 and an MBA in 1993.