SHREVEPORT, LA -- Three new members have been elected to the Board of Trustees of Centenary College of Louisiana: J. Ronald Atchley of Belle Chasse, La., Eugene W. Bryson Jr. of Shreveport, La., and James Joseph Hardt of Dallas, Texas.
Their election was announced by President Kenneth L. Schwab and Board Chairman William G. Anderson following confirmation by the Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church on June 5 at its annual meeting. In addition, William H. Jackson, a long-time trustee, was elected to life membership. He began service on the Board of Trustees in 1974.
J. Ronald Atchley
John Ronald "Ron" Atchley, 46, has been vice president of Morgan Keegan and Co., Inc. in his native New Orleans since 1990. Prior to that he was employed at Scharff & Jones Inc. from 1975 to 1990, including serving as vice president from 1981 to 1990.
A 1975 graduate of Centenary, he earned the B.S. degree in business. He also attended the Investment Broker Program of the New York Institute of Finance in 1975. His memberships include the Centenary President's Advisory Council and Planned Giving Council, the International Game Fishing Association and the Billfish Foundation. An avid hunter and big game fisherman, he is past president and board member of the Greater New Orleans Tarpon Club, board member and corresponding secretary of the New Orleans BIG Game Fishing Club and a volunteer with the Husbandry Department of the Aquarium of the Americas.
He and his wife, Paula Louise, are the parents to two children, Courtney Elizabeth, 9, and John Zachary, 5 months.
Eugene W. Bryson Jr.
Eugene W. "Gene" Bryson Jr. was first elected to the First Judicial District Court of Caddo Parish in 1979 and has been unopposed since then. He has served as Chief Judge since his election in 1991.
Born in 1941 and raised in Greenwood, La., he graduated from Centenary with a B.S. in business in 1963. He was graduated from the LSU Law School in 1969 and was associated with the firm of Mayer & Smith. He worked with the Caddo District Attorney's office from 1970-78, including service as assistant district attorney from 1972-78 and chief of the felony trial division in 1978.
Judge Bryson is a member of Centenary President's Advisory Council, Gents Club and Choir Alumni Association. An active member of the First United Methodist Church in Shreveport, he is a member of the Church Council, the Executive Committee and the Finance Committee and is chairman of the Staff/Parish Relations Committee.
He is a member of numerous civic and professional organizations, including the American Inns of Court, the Board of Governors of the Louisiana Judicial College and the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct as well as the Rotary Club of Shreveport, Shreveport Symphony Board, Tarshar Society, Ambassadors Club and Boy Scouts of America.
He is married to Centenary alumna Charlotte Stodghill Bryson, also a member of the Class of 1963, and they have two sons, Douglas, 19, a sophomore at Centenary, and Gene III, an assistant district attorney for Caddo Parish.
James Joseph Hardt
James Joseph "Joe" Hardt joined Panja (then AMX Corp.) in 1993 as the chief operating officer. He earned the title of president in 1996 and also currently serves as chief executive officer.
He was instrumental in taking AMX from a privately owned corporation to its present position on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Under his guidance, company sales have grown from about $16 million in 1993 to over $78 million in 2000. The company has also acquired three wholly owned subsidiaries, established sales offices in several foreign countries, and become firmly established as a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of control systems and products which extend Internet information and entertainment content to non-PC devices.
Before joining Panja, Hardt was an attorney and then president of Munsch, Hardt, Kopf, Harr & Dinan in Dallas for eight years.
Active in his community, he currently serves as president of the Rotary Club of Dallas, is a member of the Board of Directors of the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Dallas and is treasurer of the Educational Communications Foundation of Fairfax, Va. He has previously served as chairman of the Executive Committee of MIT Enterprise Forum, an Executive Council member of the Texas Chapter of the American Electronics Association, and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the First United Methodist Church of Dallas.
Born in 1955 in Atlanta, Texas, Hardt grew up in Beaumont. In 1977, he earned the B.A. in English from Centenary and in 1980 the J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He now resides in Dallas with his wife, Marie Park, and two children: Alexander, born in 1989, and Sadie, born in 1993.
The new trustees will attend their first meeting of the Centenary Board at its next quarterly meeting, which is scheduled for Oct. 9.
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