POPLARVILLE – Pearl River Community College will honor five outstanding alumni with induction into the Lifetime Achievement Hall of Fame.
They are Lucien Bourgeois of Madison, Fred Henley of Picayune, Sonny Stuart of Jacksonville, Fla., Mike Waits of Hattiesburg and Bill Watts of Houston, Texas.
They will be inducted on Thursday, April 7, at Southern Oaks House and Gardens in Hattiesburg. A reception will begin at 6 p.m. with dinner at 6:30 p.m.
For ticket information, contact Ernie Lovell, PRCC Development Foundation director, at 601 403-1191 or elovell@prcc.edu. Gold sponsor for the event is Hattiesburg Coca-Cola Bottling Co.
Bourgeois is a partner in the Butler Snow LLP law firm in Jackson, specializing in public finance and economic development. He graduated in 1967 from Pearl River where he was sophomore class president.
A native of Picayune, Henley played football and was named Most Outstanding Athlete at Pearl River where he graduated in 1948. His long career in education included coaching and administration at Forrest County Agricultural High School and Picayune where he served as superintendent from 1976-86. He was named PRCC Alumnus of the Year in 1975 and inducted into the PRCC Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.
Stuart, a native of Poplarville, practiced law for 25 years and has been involved in real estate development for 37 years as president of Stuart Company and with O’Neal Stuart Investments LLC and Gulf Coast Wetlands Mitigation Answers LLC. He graduated from Pearl River in 1965.
Waits played football for the late Dobie Holden at Pearl River, graduating in 1964. He has served as city engineer for Hattiesburg and as engineer for the Pat Harrison Waterway District and the state of Mississippi. He is retired from Shows, Dearman and Waits Inc. in Hattiesburg.
Watts also played football at Pearl River in 1960 and 1961 and was vice president of the sophomore class. A chemical engineer, he worked for Exxon Production Research Company and as a consultant, focusing on development of complex computer programs used to forecast oil recovery.
Lucien Bourgeois
Fred Henley
Sonny Stuart
Mike Waits
Bill Watts
