Lamar University honored a long-time beloved professor Tuesday by dedicating the 250-seat auditorium at the John Gray Center as the Dr. Richard L. Price Auditorium.
Price served as an associate professor of mathematics at Lamar University from 1970 until his retirement in 2006. He continues to teach part time at Beaumont’s Ozen High School and as a volunteer preparing young students in Southeast Texas for academic competitions.
During his tenure at LU, Price became a mentor to hundreds of students who remember him as a devoted but challenging teacher. Price’s influence on Lamar University went beyond the classroom, President James Simmons noted during the dedication ceremony. Price served for many years as director of minority recruiting and retention for the College of Engineering.
“He worked hard to attract and keep students from under-represented groups. Thanks to contributions like his, Lamar now has a wonderfully diverse educational community,” Simmons said.
Price also was advisor to the campus chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and was a member of the society’s national advisory board. The group honored him in 2004 with the Golden Torch Award for lifetime achievement in academia.
During the dedication ceremony, Price heard tributes from long-time friend Annie Carter and former student Dr. Tamerla Chavis, a Beaumont neurosurgeon and 1983 Lamar alumna.
“The university gave me the stage upon which I’ve done a great, significant part of my life’s work, and I have been enriched,” Price said prior to the dedication. “It is an humbling feeling to think that the university has thought as well about me in terms of what I have done for the students that I have taught there.”
When people see his name on the auditorium, Price said he would like them to think of him as someone who was committed, was dedicated, had a focus on excellence and did the best he could every day with what he had.
“Through that university I was given the opportunity to realize as well as to fulfill a lot of the things that I had ever hoped or dreamed about. I tried to be a good steward of their having the faith to employ me, and I tried to uphold the standards of that university as well as of my profession as well as of myself,” Price said.
A Beaumont native, Price was one of six sons and six daughters reared by a father who served as a high school principal and church pastor. After graduating from Hebert High School in 1949, Price enrolled at Morehouse College in Atlanta until being drafted into the U.S. Army. He served 13 months of combat duty in Korea, and then returned to his education, earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Prairie View A&M University. Price earned his master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Texas and his doctorate from Ohio State University.
Price joined the Lamar faculty at the invitation of Lloyd Cherry, then dean of the LU College of Engineering, soon after completing his doctorate. Early in his Lamar career, Price requested and received a one-year leave of absence for additional studies. He earned a master’s degree in religion at the Yale Divinity School at the age of 40, his self-imposed deadline for formal education. He continues to learn on his own, reading a minimum of three hours a day on varied topics and working on mathematical problems.
Price previously was honored with the creation of the Richard L. Price Endowed Scholarship for Engineering Students at Lamar University to mark his 70th birthday. The scholarship was made possible by donations from friends and former students. For more information on contributing to the scholarship, please call (409) 880-2117.
