SEMO ALUMS AMONG THE WELL-KNOWN

The world has Southeast Missouri State University graduates to thank for large-screen TV, egg-shaped hosiery containers, defense of the Free World, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and the governor of Missouri.

No, Cape Girardeau can't claim all Southeast Missouri State University graduates as native sons and daughters, but they have brought the city glory as well.

Among the luminaries Southeast has produced are an astronaut, an important historian, research scientists who study in realms most people can't pronounce, high-powered industrialists and an authority on hallucinogenic drugs.

The Southeast Hall of Fame (with apologies for any omissions):

J. David Margerum -- Class of 1950. The holder of 16 patents, he helped develop large-screen TV, large-screen color symbology displays and coherent optical data processing systems.

Paul Wessel -- Class of 1958. In 1992, he became director of the Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance for the U.S. Navy.

David W. Scott -- Class of 1967. Born in Sillong, India, he lived in England before relocating to the United States at 21, he became Ford Motor Co.'s public affairs chief.

Lenore K. Bierbaum -- Class of 1957, professor of elementary and special education at Southeast, acting chair of Department of Teacher Education, acting dean and dean of the College of Education. Under Bierbaum, Southeast has developed one of the best and most highly honored teacher education programs in the nation. It won Christa McAuliffe Showcase for Excellence Awards in 1989 and 1994.

Alonzo L. Hamby -- Class of 1960. A professor of history at Ohio University since 1965, Hamby has written the books "Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism," "The Imperial Years: The United States Since 1939" and "American Liberalism and Its Challengers: From FDR to Reagan."

Linda M. Godwin -- Class of 1974. The Jackson High School and graduate joined NASA in 1980 and became an astronaut in 1986. Her shuttle mission studied sources of gamma rays in the universe.

Nolan Porterfield -- The Southeast English professor is a novelist ("A Way of Knowing") whose biography of Jimmie Rodgers ("Jimmie Rodgers: The Life and Times of America's Blue Yodeler") has distinguished him as an authority on the country singer. Porterfield's liner notes for the album "Jimmie Rodgers on Record: America's Blue Yodeler," were nominated for a Grammy in 1988.

Velmer A Fassel -- Class of 1941. Frohna native became an international authority in the field of spectroscopy, the study of diffracted light waves. He has received major honors in recognition of research contributions in atomic emission, absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. Former director of Ames Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy and professor of chemistry at Iowa State.

F. Marion Rhodes -- Class of 1932. President emeritus of New York Cotton Exchange. Graduate of Gideon High School.

Marvin H. Wilkening -- Class of 1939. Born in Oak Ridge, he began his science career as a teacher in Jackson. Later became a physicist with the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II, and witnessed the first atomic bomb test.

Dr. F. Christine Brown -- Class of 1947. The Gideon High School graduate, a retired professor of biochemistry and psychiatry at the University of Tennessee College of Basic Medical Sciences at Memphis, wrote "Hallucinogenic Drugs" in 1972, and wrote sections on the subject in The Encyclopedia of Biochemistry and The Encyclopedia of Chemistry.

Dr. Andrew Conway Ivy -- Class of 1913. Both of his parents were associated with the Old Normal School. An M.D., he and his students were responsible for the revival of the mouth-to-mouth method of resuscitation. He also was a special consultant to the Secretary of War for war crimes of a medical nature at the post-WWII Nuremberg trials.

In 1965, Ivy was indicted for promoting the unproven anti-cancer drug Krebiozen. He was acquitted after a lengthy trial and died in 1978.

Robert E. Kelley -- Class of 1951. His work on weapons systems for the U.S. government included "Star Wars."

C. Virginia Eicholtz -- Class of 1929. She and her sister Hattie were daughters of Lulu Eicholtz, matron at Leming Hall. She retired as a Dow Chemical executive in 1972 holding more than 40 patents. She designed an array of products, from egg-shaped hosiery holders to decorative margarine containers.

Russell L. Dearmont -- Class of 1911. Son of Southeast Missouri State College President Washington Strother Dearmont, he practiced law in Cape Girardeau and was elected to the Missouri State Senate. In 1932, he unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He later became president of Missouri Pacific Railroad.

Jefferson Davis Bates -- Did not graduate. Ghostwriter of speeches for President Johnson, top NASA officials and astronauts while working for NASA during decade of Apollo moon landings and Project Skylab. Author of Writing with Precision.

A.S.J. Carnahan -- Class of 1926. Served seven two-year terms in U.S. House of Representatives. President Kennedy appointed him the first U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone in 1961. He died in 1968. His son, Mel, is the governor of Missouri.

Ann Hayes, director of the Southeast Missouri State University News Bureau, contributed information to this article.