Five recognized for meritorious service to Rice

Five recognized for meritorious service to Rice

BY SARAH WILLIAMS
Special to the Rice News

Five alumni have earned the Association of Rice Alumni’s Meritorious Service Award, recognizing their significant, sustained and voluntary contributions of energy, time and creativity toward the advancement of the university.

Martha Lou Musgrave Broussard ’57

BROUSSARD

From her student years to postretirement, Martha Lou Musgrave Broussard always has possessed a loyalty to Rice.

The first woman to graduate from the university’s geology department, Broussard went on to a successful career in the oil industry, working at the Shell Development Company and ERICO. She then returned to Rice to work as the Department of Earth Science department coordinator for six years until her retirement. However, retirement did not mark the end of Broussard’s relationship with Rice. Since 1989, she has volunteered as the department’s alumni coordinator, and many of her friends and colleagues feel she goes above and beyond that job description “The term ‘volunteer’ seems grossly inadequate in describing what Martha Lou Broussard is,” says Carmen Fraticelli ’04.

In her current role, Broussard hosts alumni gatherings across the country, maintains a Web site with alumni news, collects information for the department newsletter, raises funds to remodel the earth science building and organizes department events. She also assists students with their academics and job searches and for several years taught a class to help new graduate students prepare to craft their thesis. In short, “she is a constant fixture in the lives of the students, and she is a tireless champion of Rice students outside of the campus,” Fraticelli says.

Indeed, Broussard is dedicated to representing Rice throughout Houston as well, and according to Albert W. Bally, Harry Carothers Wiess Professor Emeritus, “nobody has done more to represent Rice with so much class.” She is an honored volunteer at Houston Geological Society, Geological Society of America and the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies. She also has been recognized by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. “With much grace, she represented our department, its students and the faculty in our professional organizations in Houston, in the United States and even at the World Geological Congress in Washington, D.C.,” says Bally. “Martha Lou is the best friend our department ever had.”

Cathryn Rodd Selman ’78

Cathryn Rodd Selman does so much for Rice that Eric Johnson, Rice’s vice president for resource development, sometimes suspects she is a superhero.

SELMAN

“She lives and breathes Rice to the point that I have circled to her back on more than one occasion to see if she was wearing a blue and gray cape with an “R” stitched in,” says Johnson.

Selman has worked closely with Johnson during her many years of volunteer fundraising. She served on the university’s major gifts committee in the early 1990s and was chairwoman of her class’ 25th reunion campaign in 2003. A former chairwoman of the Annual Fund, Selman also has been a part of the university standing committee for undergraduate curriculum and was active in planning the 2002 and 2005 Alumni Leadership Conference. She and her husband, Doug, are Rice Associates and have sponsored a scholarship in chemical engineering.

But even all that was not enough to keep Selman busy. She also served two terms on the board of the Friends of Fondren Library, where she did “everything from enthusiastically sorting dusty donated books to speaking publicly on behalf of Rice and the Friends of Fondren,” says Margaret Jordan ’77, Selman’s longtime friend.

“One of Cathryn’s characteristics that makes her such a worthy recipient of this award is that she neither shrinks from large challenges nor neglects the small details of volunteer work on behalf of Rice,” Jordan says. “As she works, she highly values the people she knows and meets along the way, and she conveys to everyone their special meaning to her and her enthusiasm for her beloved Rice.”

Whether it’s through attending athletic and arts events, volunteering her time or contributing financially, friends and colleagues agree that Selman stands at the ready to support Rice in any way. “Rice has few supporters more dedicated to the vitality of our university than Cathryn,” says Rice Board of Trustees member E. William Barnett ’55. “She is extremely effective in her support, has been for many years, and she always will be a leader in helping Rice achieve its aspirations. Cathryn is precisely the kind of person we hope a Rice education will produce.”

Richard ’52, ’56 and Mary Ellen Kinzbach Wilson ’54

Though Richard and Mary Ellen Kinzbach Wilson have made significant contributions to Rice individually, it is their enthusiasm for their alma mater as a couple that makes them truly dynamic supporters.

RICHARD AND MARY ELLEN WILSON

“Everyone who has had the privilege of being part of Rice University is both grateful and proud,” says Dorothy McGee ’53, who nominated the Wilsons for their award. “Not everyone, though, gives back. Mary Ellen and Richard have given back with enthusiasm and generosity.”

Indeed, you would be hard pressed to find another pair that gives more of their time to the university. Richard is director and president of the Rice Engineering Alumni, was chairman of the Class of 1952 45th and 50th reunion committees and chairman of the 1952 Annual Fund. Mary Ellen has served on her Class of 1954 Golden Anniversary Scholarship Committee in addition to working on multiple class reunions. She, too, was chairwoman of her class’ Annual Fund and is the current president of the Owen Wister Literary Society Alumnae.

As a couple, the Wilsons dedicated the Wilson Collection of Historical Cartography and Geography to Woodson Research Center in 1991, the same year they were honored at the Friends of Fondren Library Gala. They are active in many Rice organizations, including the Association of Rice Alumni, the Rice Historical Society, the Shepherd Society, Friends of Fondren and the William Marsh Rice Society. They regularly attend trips offered by the Rice Alumni Travel Program and each year donate a one-week stay at their London home to the Friends of Fondren Library Gala.

“I don’t know any partnership more effective, more generous in time and resources, more inspirational to others and more pleasant to work with than the duo of Dick and Mary Ellen Wilson,” says John B. Boles ’65, William P. Hobby Professor of History. “I remember a philosopher say, in a speech during the 1962