Everything Nac

Natalie Clem of Memphis, Tennessee, is the first recipient of the Christopher J. Snyder Memorial Scholarship. Kim Luna, right, and Michael Munro, left, director of the visual impairment and orientation and mobility program at Stephen F. Austin State University, presented the award to Clem during a scholarship reception last week. Snyder, a two-time graduate of SFA’s orientation and mobility program, was an assistive technology teacher and orientation and mobility specialist for Nacogdoches ISD, working with special-needs students throughout the district.

“Orientation and mobility is my passion,” Clem told the crowd gathered in the Human Services Building third-floor conference room, her voice cracking slightly with emotion. “Christopher J. Snyder is an inspiration to me because he made it from Chicago to Nacogdoches in 1997 to do something that I love and I’m passionate about as well. To be able to follow in his passion and love for orientation and mobility is an honor.”

Snyder was a two-time SFA graduate and a certified orientation and mobility specialist.

Snyder moved to Nacogdoches from Chicago in 1997 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in orientation and mobility, and he graduated in 1999. He returned to Illinois to work with visually impaired students, teaching them how to travel safely in different environments. In 2001, Snyder and Nacogdoches native Kim Luna were married, and they lived in the Chicago area until 2004.

“He arranged a trip for his seniors to Wrigley Field, and their assignment was to be able to plan the route, get on the bus, get on the train and get to their seat in the stadium,” Luna said during the scholarship ceremony. “I met them at the train station, and it was very touching and gave me a real admiration for those of you who are helping and working with others, especially the blind. Your profession does make a difference in the world. It impacts students every day.”

Snyder served each summer as an instructor for a six-week SFA course teaching other teachers orientation and mobility skills to better assist their visually impaired students.

In 2005, he earned his Master of Education in special education with an emphasis in serious emotional disorders and autism. He began working for Nacogdoches ISD that year as an assistive technology teacher and orientation and mobility specialist, working with special-needs students and their teachers throughout the district.

Snyder passed away in January after being diagnosed with cancer in August 2016. To honor his memory, Snyder’s family worked to create a scholarship for orientation and mobility students. Enough donations were received from family, students and friends to establish the permanently endowed Christopher J. Snyder Memorial Scholarship.

“The field of orientation and mobility changed Chris’ life,” said Michael Munro, director of the visual impairment and orientation and mobility program at SFA. “We currently have the only undergraduate orientation and mobility program in the country. I hope that the Christopher J. Snyder Memorial Scholarship will facilitate others to move to Texas to study and fall in love with this great field.”

The scholarship’s endowment will allow “the memory of Chris to continue through each and every scholarship recipient,” Luna said. “I think it takes very special people to be in this field, and Chris was very passionate about his profession. Until his very last day, he was very much a part of education and the orientation and mobility community.”

By Christine Broussard, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

The Calliope Concert Series at Stephen F. Austin State University will present guest artist Jacquelyn Adams performing a horn recital at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Adams, who is assistant professor of horn at The University of Southern Mississippi, will perform with her husband, award-winning fiddler Thomas Jenkins, accompanied by SFA School of Music faculty member James Pitts, piano.

“Jacquelyn Adams is a rising star in the horn world as a pedagogue and performer,” said Dr. Charles Gavin, professor of horn at SFA. “It will be great for our students and the students of East Texas to experience her.”

Adams, who is also a faculty member at the Kendall Betts Horn Camp, plays principal horn with the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, Meridian Symphony Orchestra and Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra; she is also third horn with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra. Additional orchestral experience includes performances with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Albany Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Symphony of the Dominican Republic.

She has performed with renowned artists representing an array of genres from Kanye West to Luciano Pavarotti. A former New York City resident, her on-Broadway experience includes “Beauty and the Beast,” “South Pacific,” “West Side Story,” “Lion King” and “Legally Blonde.” Television and movie appearances include CBS’s “The Early Show,” Disney’s “Step Up 3D” and BET’s Music Awards 2007.

The SFA program will include standards of the horn repertoire, new works written for Adams and musical collaboration with her husband, who is an expert at improvisation, Gavin said.

“They will combine to present a unique genre of music for horn and fiddle,” he said. “This will be a unique and engaging performance!”

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

The Music Preparatory Division in the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music will host its annual fall Middle School Choir Camp from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, in the Wright Music Building on the SFA campus.

The choir camp is designed to help East Texas area middle school students learn their UIL all-region competition music, according to Pat Barnett, director of the Music Preparatory Division.

Dr. Tod Fish, associate director of choral activities at SFA, is the combined conductor for the camp. Clinicians are Charlotte Davis, adjunct faculty, soprano I; Amanda Sheriff, graduate student, soprano II; Evelyn Shaffer, graduate student, alto; Nita Hudson, lecturer of voice and opera, tenor; and Dr. Chris Turner, assistant professor of voice, bass.

Accompanists are Donna Dear, Nio Ajero, Kaden Harman, Alan Zamarron and Emma Terrell, piano, and Jonah Raychev, violin. The Music Preparatory Division’s Advisory Board is in charge of arrangements. Nicole Stewart, vice-president of the advisory board, is the overall camp director.

All participants should bring Region 21 All-Region music, pencil, water and a snack. Concessions will be available for purchase during scheduled breaks. The dining hall in the Baker Pattillo Student Center will be open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Cost per student is $20. Registration is accepted by calling (936) 468-1291 or by email at pbarnett@sfasu.edu.

Former SFA twirler Mary Jo Goodwin Morris performs for Lumberjack football fans during the pre-game show Saturday, Sept. 16, in Homer Bryce Stadium. Morris was among the Lumberjack Marching Band alumni who returned to campus for a reunion and meeting of the newly formed Lumberjack Band Alumni Association.

The 87-year-old former SFA twirler had been invited to attend the Lumberjack Marching Band and Twirl-O-Jacks Reunion and to perform with an SFA alumni band in Homer Bryce Stadium prior to the kickoff of the football game between the SFA Lumberjacks and the University of Incarnate Word.

A number of Morris’ family members, including some of the seven siblings in her family, two of her four sons and several of her nieces and nephews, either graduated from or attended SFA. Her baby brother, the late Judge Gerald A. Goodwin of Lufkin, was an SFA graduate. So the memories she carried with her back to campus for the reunion represented “some of the happiest times of my life,” she said.

Morris had returned to campus many times for events that celebrated the SFA Twirl-O-Jacks’ rich history. Most recently, she attended events last year that celebrated The Lumberjack Marching Band’s 90th anniversary and the Twirl-O-Jacks’ 60th anniversary.

After graduating from Lufkin High School, Morris was a freshman at SFA in the fall of 1948 and made the twirling line that year and the following. She recalls wearing the “freshman cap,” living in Gibbs Hall, “doing a lot of crazy things” and riding around in roommate Doris Smith’s convertible.

The rivalry between what was then Sam Houston State Teachers College was strong even in those days, she said, recalling when a group of guys from Sam Houston “painted up campus,” were caught and sentenced to serving meals in the dormitories and leading SFA cheers outside the dorms.

“One who had attended SFA before going to Huntsville was put in a wooden and screened box and put on the train to ride back to Huntsville,” she said. “It was unbelievable.”

She was a member of the Pine Burrs (now Chi Omega), whose initiation attire remains vivid in her mind.

“We wore these old tow sacks that had pine cones all around them,” she said. “We had a clock hanging around our necks, wore pigtails with purple bows in our hair and no makeup, and wore one high heel and one low heel shoe. There was a photo of us in the annual.

“I loved SFA and had a wonderful two years there,” she said. “SFA was real special.”

Her college and twirling career was sidelined when she met Ferrell Morris of Pasadena while she was working during summers in the Houston area. The two married in the fall of 1950, and Mary Jo had a large wedding party, including her roommate from college and many of her twirling colleagues. Mary Jo and Ferrell had a long and happy life together and were blessed with four sons and a lifetime of adventurous careers and extensive travel, including a few years in the Middle East. Throughout the years, Morris has enjoyed working with children, often as a teacher and now as a “reading buddy” for students in the New Braunfels area and as a kindergarten Sunday School class teacher.

She stays active by working out at area gyms, including participating in water aerobics. She still mows her own lawn, and not with a riding lawnmower, she points out.

“My kids fuss at me for that,” she said, “but all I have to do is turn the key and follow it. As long as I can keep doing what I’m doing, I want to keep going as long as I can.”

Morris enjoyed reconnecting with her past at Saturday’s reunion. She said event organizers and representatives of the SFA Alumni Association “have been so precious to me.”

“They have reached out to me, and I feel so flattered,” she said, adding that she enjoyed meeting SFA President Dr. Baker Pattillo and sitting with him and his wife, Dr. Janice Pattillo, during the game. Prior to the weekend, she said she was looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.

“It’s exciting at my age to get this attention,” she said. “It’s flattering. They treated me like I was special, when I’m just another human being, just passing through this world.”