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'''Robert A. Alost''' (born February 20, 1935)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylife.com/robert-alost/e9495953268|title=Robert Alost|publisher=Mylife.com|accessdate=February 20, 2018}}</ref> is the former 16th president of [[Northwestern State University ]] in [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], [[Louisiana]], with service for the decade from 1986 until his retirement in 1996.
As president, Alost worked with two [[Democratic Party|Democrats]], state Representative Jimmy Dale Long, Sr. (1931-2016) and state Senators Francis Coleman Thompson of Delhi in Richland Parish and Donald Gene Kelly of Natchitoches, and [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[Governor]] [[David C. Treen]], to open the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts in an older building on the NSU campus. Alost was director of LSMSA from its inception in 1982 until he was named president of the university four years later. Earlier, from 1975 to 1982, he was the dean of the College of Education.<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=https://traditions.nsula.edu/the-hall-of-distinguished-educators.html|title=The Hall of Distinguished Educators|publisher=Traditions.nsula.edu|accessdate=February 20, 2018}}</ref>