We tend to think that our club’s history started with our chartering on August 31, 1976. Actually, it started several months earlier when Bert Daigle, a staff member in the former Men’s Housing Department at LSU and then president of the Kiwanis Club of Capital City, decided the campus was fertile ground for a new club and personally talked with everyone he knew in the faculty and staff to recruit the initial members. So the Capital City club thus became our sponsor but unfortunately is no longer in existence.
The charter members were mostly novices, except for four who transferred from other clubs (Julian Martin and Lynn Pesson from the Downtown Club, William McDermott from Red Stick, and Ralph Schmidt from Capital City). The rest were new to Kiwanis and most were new to civic clubs. Ralph, a past president of the Capital City club and Dean of the General College, played an especially pivotal role in the early days of the club. The first president was Kingston Eversull who was in charge of the married student apartments, but he resigned in middle of the year, and Ralph was elected to serve the rest of his term. The next year’s president was Robert Kleinpeter from Residence Food Services. But he retired and was so heavily involved in business interests that he resigned, so Ralph once again stepped up. In the process, Ralph set much of the operational structure and provided much of the inspiration that got us started on the right track. Ralph also taught us that there is no comma and should therefore be no pause in the middle of “one nation under God” when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Charter members included Phillip L. Amorello, Larrie H. Butler, John J. Capdevielle, Daniel Lee Cassens, William E. Crawford, Fred R. DeFrancesch, Arno J. Easterly, Jr., Robert C. Evans, Kingston E. Eversull, Ollie B. Fuglaar, Jr., Robert B. Hamilton, Austin T. Harrell, Ernest L. Hill, Bruce Johnson, J. H. Jones, Jr., David J. Keyser, Robert L. Kleinpeter, Julian A. (Skipper) Martin, William L. McDermott, Graham O. Peavy, Lynn L. Pesson, Arthur L. (Art) Roberts, Evans L. Roberts, Jr., Arthur L. Rosenkrantz, Ralph L. W. Schmidt, David K. Terry, Michael P. Topousis, W. Morris Welch, and Bernard J. Wiest. Art Roberts remained active until 2006, Ralph Schmidt was still active until his death in 2009, and Morris Welch is still active as of 2024. There were some additional charter members which we still trying to identify.
History #01 – Beginning
Kiwanis Club of Louisiana State University
We tend to think that our club’s history started with our chartering on August 31, 1976. Actually, it started several months earlier when Bert Daigle, a staff member in the former Men’s Housing Department at LSU and then president of the Kiwanis Club of Capital City, decided the campus was fertile ground for a new club and personally talked with everyone he knew in the faculty and staff to recruit the initial members. So the Capital City club thus became our sponsor but unfortunately is no longer in existence.
The charter members were mostly novices, except for four who transferred from other clubs (Julian Martin and Lynn Pesson from the Downtown Club, William McDermott from Red Stick, and Ralph Schmidt from Capital City). The rest were new to Kiwanis and most were new to civic clubs. Ralph, a past president of the Capital City club and Dean of the General College, played an especially pivotal role in the early days of the club. The first president was Kingston Eversull who was in charge of the married student apartments, but he resigned in middle of the year, and Ralph was elected to serve the rest of his term. The next year’s president was Robert Kleinpeter from Residence Food Services. But he retired and was so heavily involved in business interests that he resigned, so Ralph once again stepped up. In the process, Ralph set much of the operational structure and provided much of the inspiration that got us started on the right track. Ralph also taught us that there is no comma and should therefore be no pause in the middle of “one nation under God” when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Charter members included Phillip L. Amorello, Larrie H. Butler, John J. Capdevielle, Daniel Lee Cassens, William E. Crawford, Fred R. DeFrancesch, Arno J. Easterly, Jr., Robert C. Evans, Kingston E. Eversull, Ollie B. Fuglaar, Jr., Robert B. Hamilton, Austin T. Harrell, Ernest L. Hill, Bruce Johnson, J. H. Jones, Jr., David J. Keyser, Robert L. Kleinpeter, Julian A. (Skipper) Martin, William L. McDermott, Graham O. Peavy, Lynn L. Pesson, Arthur L. (Art) Roberts, Evans L. Roberts, Jr., Arthur L. Rosenkrantz, Ralph L. W. Schmidt, David K. Terry, Michael P. Topousis, W. Morris Welch, and Bernard J. Wiest. Art Roberts remained active until 2006, Ralph Schmidt was still active until his death in 2009, and Morris Welch is still active as of 2024. There were some additional charter members which we still trying to identify.
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