FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (6/96)
SHREVEPORT, LA -- Four new members have been elected to the Board of Trustees of Centenary College of Louisiana. They are Dr. Charles T. Beaird of Shreveport, William E. Bradford of Dallas, Robert L. Goodwin of New Orleans and Shreveport, and Dr. Charles B. Simmons of Baton Rouge.
Their election was announced by President Kenneth L. Schwab and Board Chairman Roy S. Hurley following confirmation by the Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church on June 6.
Dr. Charles T. Beaird
Dr. Beaird, publisher of the Shreveport Journal, returns to the Board of Trustees after having served a term from 1963-66. A native Shreveporter, he attended C.E. Byrd High School and Culver Military Academy, and earned the B.A. degree from Centenary College in 1966 and the Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1972. He is a former vice president and assistant general manager of J.B. Beaird Corp., president of Beaird-Poulan, chairman of the board of the Beaird-Poulan Division of Emerson Electric Co. and member of the philosophy faculty at Centenary.
A former chairman of the Caddo Parish Republican Executive Committee and former member of the Caddo Parish Police Jury, his civic activities have also included chairmanship of the United Fund Campaign and of the Citizens' Committee on Desegregation. He was formerly vice president of the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, a director and deputy chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, member of the Board of Supervisors for Southern University, and board member of the Community Foundation of Shreveport-Bossier. He also served as a member of the Louisiana Judicial Council and the Shreveport Bi-Racial Commission and as a trustee of the American Rose Foundation.
William E. "Bill" Bradford
William Bradford is this year's inductee into the Centenary Alumni Hall of Fame, the association's highest honor. He was elected president and chief executive officer of Dresser Industries, Inc. in November 1995.
He joined Dresser Industries in 1970 as product manager, D.A.T.A. systems, for the Swaco Division. He advanced to area manager, Mid-Continent area, for the Oilfield Products Group. In 1975, he was transferred to London, England, as operations manager, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, for the Oilfield Products Group. A year later, he was named vice president, U.S. & Canadian Operations, for the Security Division, and moved to Houston, Texas.
Two years later, he was named president of the Security Division. In 1979, he became president of the Oilfield Equipment Group where he remained until September, 1983, when he was promoted to vice president-operations, and in 1985 senior vice president, Dresser Industries, Inc. He was appointed president and chief executive officer of Dresser-Rand Co. in Olean, New York, in February, 1988. In March 1992 he became president and chief operating officer of Dresser Industries, Inc.
Bradford holds a B.S. degree in geology from Centenary, graduating in 1958, and attended the Executive MBA Program at the University of Houston.
He is a board member of the Manufacturers' Alliance for Productivity and Innovation and is a member of numerous organizations related to the oil and gas industry. He is a member of Centenary's President's Advisory Council, the University of Houston's College of Business Executive Advisory Board, and is a past member of the Business Council of New York State and Eximbank Advisory Committee. He serves on the board of directors of Diamond Shamrock and Oryx Energy.
Robert L. Goodwin
Robert Goodwin is the retired chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Great River Oil and Gas Corp. of New Orleans, having served in that position from 1986 to 1994. He was former chairman of the board and president of Exchange Oil and Gas Corp of New Orleans and former manager of the Land Department for Shoreline Exploration Inc. of New Orleans and district manager for Seaboard Oil Co. of New Orleans. He began his career in Shreveport as a landman for Mid-Continent Petroleum Corp.
A native of Dublin, Texas, he earned the B.S. degree in economics from Centenary in 1950. He is a former director of Hibernia National Bank, New Orleans, and Hibernia Corp., New Orleans; a trustee of the Booth-Bricker Fund, a charitable foundation in New Orleans, and is a former director of International House, New Orleans. He is a member of numerous organizations related to the oil and gas industry.
Dr. Charles B. "Chuck" Simmons
Dr. Charles Simmons is in his sixth year as senior minister of Broadmoor United Methodist Church, a congregation of 4,600 members in suburban Baton Rouge and the largest of the denomination's 600 churches in Louisiana. He is well known as a dynamic preacher, dedicated pastor and leader among Louisiana Methodists.
He is a native of Franklinton and a 1971 graduate of Centenary. He earned the master of divinity degree, magna cum laude, in 1974 from Emory University, after a year of study at the Institut Ecumenique at the University of Geneva, Switzerland as the selected representative of the United Methodist Church. He earned the doctor of ministry degree from Emory in 1978.
The Rev. Dr. Simmons has chaired the Annual Conference Council on Ministries, the Conference Worship and Vision 2000 Committees, and served on the Board of Ordained Ministry. Recently, as the first clergy elected, he was the chairperson of the Louisiana delegation to the 1996 General Conference held in Denver and will soon lead Louisiana representatives to the South Central Jurisdictional Conference in Kansas City. In prior years, he was a delegate to the 1988 and 1992 South Central Jurisdictional Conferences and the World Methodist Conference in Singapore.
A gifted and passionate speaker, Dr. Simmons has been the featured preacher and teacher in churches large and small across Louisiana, and well-received in a variety of lectureships, preaching series and Conference events held in Texas to as far away as Minnesota. He is also a regular inspirational writer for several newspapers, and has been a contributor to the 1993, 1995, and soon to be released 1997 edition of the Upper Room Disciplines, the annual devotional guide published worldwide.
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