Randall Webb

Randall Joseph Webb, known as Randy Webb (March 20, 1943 – November 18, 2015), was the longest-serving president of Northwestern State University in his native Natchitoches, Louisiana, a position which he filled from July 1, 1996 to December 31, 2014. During his tenure, 40 percent of NSU graduates received their degrees.

Background

Webb was a son of the late Joseph Wilburn Webb and the former Narvis Almand. He graduated from Northwestern, which began as a teacher's college in 1894, with bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics in 1965 and 1966. Over the years, more than fifty Webb family members attended the institution. In 1971, he obtained a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. From 1966 to 1974, Webb was a faculty member at Longwood College in Farmville, Virginia. From 1974 to 1976, he was director of higher education and teacher certification for the Louisiana Department of Education under Superintendent Louis J. Michot. He moved to Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond in 1976. Over a 13-year-period there, he was director of institutional research, equal employment opportunity officer, registrar, and a member of the mathematics faculty.

Webb was a member of the Natchitoches Chamber of Commerce, Rotary International, the Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches, the Natchitoches Historic Foundation, the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Society, the Committee of One Hundred in Shrevport, and the Baptist Church.

NSU years

In 1989, Webb was appointed the dean of instruction and graduate studies as well as mathematics professor at Northwestern. In this position, he conducted a review of graduate and undergraduate university programs. He chaired the Self-Study steering committee required as part of the accreditation process by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

During his tenure, all NSU programs were fully accredited, and the institution had its largest graduating classes in its history. He established an electronic education network and oversaw $65 million in fundraising. Early in 2015, he was named to the Southland Conference Hall of Honor.

Shortly after retirement, Webb learned that he had contracted cancer, which claimed his life eleven months later at the age of seventy-two. He was succeeded as NSU president by James "Jim" Henderson, a protégé who was at the time the chancellor of Bossier Parish Community College in Bossier City, Louisiana. In the spring of 2014, Webb was named president emeritus.

On Webb's passing, Henderson said:

No president served Northwestern longer or with greater distinction than Randy Webb. In his eighteen years as head of the university, he expanded and enhanced academic and athletic programs, spearheaded the most successful fundraising campaigns in the history of the school and was at the forefront of dramatic growth in enrollment and expansion and improvement of physical facilities. ... Dr. Webb's legacy will be as a giant in the history of the university that he loved and as a prominent figure over two decades in state and national higher education circles.

Jerry Pierce, an NSU vice-president who in the 1960s played football for the Northwestern Demons, said that many persons "just identified the university with him ... One thing that impressed me the most about Randy is he always represented the university with respect and dignity."

Gerald Long, a Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate, said that he and Webb had a 50-year friendship: "If I had to chose an adjective to describe Randy, certainly I could talk about his integrity, his love for his family and for the Lord, but loyalty would be the word I would choose." He called Webb "a giant of a man" who had embarked on a course of marketing the assets at NSU as part of student recruitment drives.

A 2009 NSU graduate, Kera Brossette, said that Webb even kept in contact with students after their graduations: He "is responsible for the success of so many NSU graduates because of the way he uplifted students. ... He was the friendly face on the campus extending his support of your academic goals, a gentle handshake with furrowed brows as he listens to your concerns or a letter of recommendation to help you obtain your ideal future. He was a friend and colleague to so many, and he will be greatly missed."

At the time of his death, the Webb was listed by the Louisiana Secretary of State as registered Independent voters.

In 1971, Webb wed the former Brenda Williams (born December 1950). The couple relocated to Shreveport upon his retirement from NSU. The couple has two daughters, Tamara Gatewood and husband Reggie of McKinney, near Dallas, Texas, and Lauren Simokaitis and husband Nick of Crestwood, Missouri, and four grandchildren.

Webb's services were held at 10 a.m. November 23 in Prather Coliseum on the NSU campus. Coincidentally, Webb had been the student body president in 1964 when the coliseum was dedicated. Officiating were State Senator Gerald Long, a Baptist minister, and the Reverend Thomas Rush. Burial was private at the American Cemetery in Natchitoches.

Webb's son-in-law, Reggie L. Gatewood (born 1971), said that "sometimes it was hard for the family to share Randy with his other true love — Northwestern. ... But we all shared someone very special — all of us. ... he was always just Randy Webb, someone who loved his family, someone who loved Northwestern and someone who loved his neighbor as himself."

The Randall and Brenda Webb Scholarship at NSU is named in the couple's honor. Then Governor Bobby Jindal ordered all state flags at half staff during the day of Webb's funeral.