Ray A. Laird

Renovated (2015) Laird Hall at Laredo Community College

Ray A. Laird (January 12, 1907 – October 5, 1986) was from 1960 to 1974 the president of Laredo Community College in Laredo, Texas. Prior to 1960, he was the dean of LCC, then known until 1993 as Laredo Junior College. The two-year institution is located near the Rio Grande.^[1]

Biography

A native of rural Sugar Creek west of Milford in Iroquois County in northeastern Illinois, Laird was the oldest of eight children of James A. Laird (1880-1949) and the former Leona Highsmith (1887-1966).^[2] He and his siblings, all of whom are deceased, were born and reared on the family farm.^[3] Laird graduated in 1932 from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and in 1950 with the Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He served in the United States Army during World War II, along with his brothers Reed and Robert.^[4]

He came to Laredo Junior College as the dean-register in 1949,^[5] two years after its establishment by the Laredo Independent School District. In 1960, he succeeded the founding president, W. J. Adkins.^[6] During his 14-year presidential tenure, LJC acquired new buildings and federal grants. The nursing program was added, and enrollment expanded.^[7] In 1964, Laird authorized a master plan for the accommodation of a college for at least 1,500 students, but enrollment reached nearly four thousand by the time that Laird retired as president in 1974 at the age of sixty-seven,^[8] and the leadership passed to the third president, Domingo Arechiga.^[9] Campus buildings, all within close proximity to one another, are named for Adkins, Laird, and Arechiga.

An unusual personnel case dogged Laird during his last years as president. A tenured history professor, Lyndon L. Daly, began to argue that LJC, as it was then known, should grant greater governance by the faculty, rather than the administration.^[1] Daly headed the American Association of University Professors chapter on the LJC campus and was the vice-chairman of the Faculty Senate. After four years at the institution, Daly disappeared without giving notice that he was undergoing medical treatment in Houston, Texas. Laird terminated Daly's employment after several attempts to locate him failed. He had changed his Laredo address and disconnected his telephone. Two years later, Daly filed suit for $50,000 in damages on a claim of wrongful termination and infringement upon his right to free speech and the right of association. The jury awarded him $8,000 in punitive damages. LJC then appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, Louisiana, and obtained in 1974, as Laird was leaving the institution, the cancellation of the damages considering the circumstances of Daly's departure from the school. The court declared that "There is no indication in the record of any desire of the college to dismiss the plaintiff for any reason other than his failure to honor his contract commitment to them. There are no facts to support the conclusion that an abridgement of the plaintiff's First Amendment rights took place ...".^[10]

Laird retired to Kerrville in Kerr County in the Texas Hill Country with his wife, Helen S. Laird (1915-1977). The couple had a son, Charles William Laird of Wilmore in Jessamine County near Lexington, Kentucky. He also had two sisters, Ruth Margaret Carmin (1917-2012) of Wellington in Iroquois County, Illinois, and Rosemary L. Stone (1923-2010) of Williamsport in western Indiana, and three brothers, Reed Laird of Waukegan near Chicago, Illinois, and Robert C. "Bob" Laird (1927-1995) and Russell "Jack" Laird (1920-2002), both of Rolla in Phelps County in south central Missouri.^[5]

The Lairds are interred at Garden of Memories Cemetery in Kerrville. He was an Episcopalian.^[5]

Laird Hall, named in his honor houses the mathematics department with classrooms and state-of-the-art computer labs/^[7]

References