Tulsa president makes retirement plans

Bob Lawless has announced plans to retire as president at Tulsa, effective June 1.

Lawless, who served as chair of the NCAA Executive Committee from 2001 to 2003, has been president at Tulsa since May 1, 1996. In addition to serving on the Executive Committee, Lawless also was a member of the NCAA Board of Directors and formerly was chair of the NCAA Presidents Commission.

Before accepting the position at Tulsa, he was president and chief executive officer at Texas Tech and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center from 1989 to 1996. From 1969 to 1982, Lawless held several positions at Houston, including senior vice-chancellor, associate chancellor and associate dean of faculties before moving to Southwest Airlines, where he spent seven years as an executive.

Lawless earned an associate of science in chemistry at Lee College, a bachelor of science in mathematics at Houston and a doctor of philosophy in operations research and statistics at Texas A&M.

Saint Rose announces head softball coach

Saint Rose has hired Jessica Ross as head softball coach. Ross takes over for Mike Dinova, who resigned after seven seasons as head coach.

From 1997 to 2000, Ross competed on the softball squad at Binghamton. During her four-year career there, she compiled a record of 35-19 as a pitcher, with a 1.73 earned-run average in 356 innings. She also had a career batting average of .257 and hit 25 home runs.

Ross earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Binghamton in 2000 and a master's degree in electrical engineering at Rensselaer this past year.

Ross had been working as an electrical engineer at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna, New York.

GENERAL

Chief executive officers

Margaret Feldner was named as president at Quincy, effective January 1. Feldner has been vice-president for academic affairs and academic dean at Clarke ... Milam Joseph announced plans to retire as president at Dallas, effective May 31 ... Florida selected James Bernard Machen as president, effective in January. Machen has been president at Utah ... Cheyney President W. Clinton Pettus announced his retirement, effective at the end of the year ... Carolynn Rein-Wallace, president at Fisk, resigned ... David M. Gring announced plans to retire as president at Roanoke at the end of the academic year ... Marshall Lind announced plans to retire as president at Alaska Fairbanks, effective July 1 ... Western Connecticut State's James R. Roach announced retirement plans, effective in July ... DePaul President John Minogue resigned, effective upon the selection of a successor. Minogue will continue with the school as a professor of religious studies ... Buffalo (New York) named John B. Simpson, campus provost and executive vice-chancellor at UC Santa Cruz, as president, effective January 1.

Directors of athletics

Randy Spetman retired as director of athletics at Air Force, effective at the end of the semester. Spetman has held the post since 1996 ... Spelman announced Germaine McAuley as director of athletics. McAuley has been compliance officer at Norfolk State.

Associate director of athletics

Framingham State promoted Carey L. Williams to associate athletics director. Williams has been an assistant athletics director.

Assistant director of athletics

Tim Wise was chosen as assistant athletics director for facilities at Eastern Michigan to replace Hiawatha Francisco. Wise has been director of events at Denver since 2000.

Coaches

Baseball assistants -- Rick Blanc was hired as an assistant coach at Longwood. Since April 2002, Blanc has been pitching coach for the Chillicothe Paints of the Independent Frontier League ... Shawn Stiffler was elevated to top assistant coach at George Mason, replacing Joe Raccuia, who resigned after four seasons to become head coach at Marist. Stiffler has been with the program since 2002 ... Greensboro selected Matt Aker and Brian McGree as assistant coaches. Aker most recently has been a baseball coach at the high-school level. McGee most recently was head baseball coach at Amherst Marion L. Steele (Ohio) High School.

Men's basketball -- Waynesburg's Rudy Marisa retired as head coach after 34 years. Marisa will continue with the school as director of athletics, a post he has held for 21 years. The school chose assistant coach Frank Ferraro as interim head coach for the 2003-04 season.

Men's basketball assistants -- Wentworth Institute added Chris Cullinan, Peter Mugar and Bill Curley as assistant coaches. Cullinan has been with Brandeis for four seasons and has served as associate head coach for the past two seasons. Mugar served as basketball assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Cambridge Rindge and Latin (Massachusetts) High School from 1997 to 2002. Curley competed professionally in the NBA for five years ... San Diego State chose Gary Grant as an assistant. Grant was an assistant coach with the NBA's Portland Trailblazers last season ... Sebastian Singletary accepted duties as an assistant coach at Stetson. Since graduating from the school in 2001, Singletary has played professional basketball in Spain, Chile and Switzerland ... Longwood named Doug Thibault as a volunteer assistant coach. Thibault was head men's basketball coach at Jamestown (New York) Community College in 2001-02 ... Scott Bollwage and Jerry "J.W." Willoughby assumed responsibilities at Greensboro as assistant coaches. Bollwage, who formerly was an assistant at Chowan for two years, most recently has been an assistant at Nottingham (New Jersey) High School. Willoughby, who currently attends Guilford, was an assistant coach at Millersburg Military Academy in Kentucky from 1996 to 1999 ... Guilford hired Will Fickes as an assistant coach. Fickes was a volunteer assistant at Methodist during the 2003 season.

Women's basketball assistants -- Jessica Viertlboeck was appointed as an assistant coach at Brown ... Gardner-Webb selected Melinda Goodson and Krystal Reeves as assistant coaches ... Amy Daniels was hired as an assistant coach at Wentworth Institute. Daniels will graduate in December with a bachelor's degree from Lock Haven, where she competed on the women's basketball squad for three seasons ... Brian O'Neill resigned as an assistant coach at New Mexico ... New Jersey City hired Jonathan Greene as an assistant coach.

Field hockey -- Robert Morris chose Lisa Bray as head coach. The program is scheduled to begin competition during the 2004-05 season. Bray is a May 2002 graduate of Mansfield, where she was a four-year starter on the field hockey team and was captain of the 2001 squad.

Football -- Delaware State released Benjamin Blacknall as head coach and announced defensive coordinator Butch Posey as interim head coach. Blacknall has guided the program since December 1999 and Posey has been with the school since the 2000 season ... Jason DesJarlais was named as interim head coach at San Diego. DesJarlais, who has been defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator, takes over for Kevin McGarry ... Duke released head coach Carl Franks after four and a half seasons. The school appointed Ted Roof, who currently serves as defensive coordinator, as interim head coach ... Jackie Sherrill, head coach at Mississippi State for the past 13 years, announced plans to retire at the end of the season.

Men's and women's gymnastics assistants -- Tracy Gannon was chosen as assistant women's coach at Rhode Island College. From 1995-99, Gannon worked as head women's gymnastics coach at North Kingstown (Rhode Island) High School ... Eastern Michigan appointed Andrea Price as an assistant women's coach to succeed Megan Fenton. Price has been head gymnastics coach and diving coach at Plymouth Salem (Michigan) High School since 2002.

Men's and women's lacrosse -- Philadelphia U. promoted Christy Malone to head women's coach to replace Nick Vattiato. Malone spent last season as an assistant with the program.

Men's and women's lacrosse assistants -- Andrew Nadler was selected as assistant men's lacrosse coach and assistant to the director of intramurals at Moravian. The lacrosse program is set to begin varsity competition in the spring of 2004. Nadler is a 2003 graduate of Susquehanna, where he was a three-time captain of the lacrosse squad and also was defensive back and kicker for the football team ... Guilford appointed Andy Rowe as an assistant men's coach and Katie Rice as an assistant women's coach. Rowe is a May 2003 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan, where he was a member of three North Coast Athletic Conference championship teams. Rice is a May 2003 graduate of Guilford, where she served as captain of the women's lacrosse team for two years.

Men's and women's swimming and diving -- Juniata tapped Brian McGrath as head women's coach.

Men's and women's tennis -- Michaela Quinn was named as head women's coach at Charlotte.

Staff

Academic services -- Jessica Hammond was named as coordinator of student support services for athletics at UMBC. Hammond has been an academic advisor at LSU for five years.

Sports information -- Kathleen Lynch was hired as sports information director at Framingham State. Lynch replaces Peter Desmarais, who resigned.

Sports information assistant -- Mount St. Mary chose David Musil Jr. as an assistant director of sports information. For the past two years, Musil has worked as a sports information intern at Gettysburg.

DEATHS

Harold "Hal" Lahar, a former football coach and athletics administrator at Colgate, died October 20 at the age of 84. Lahar spent 16 seasons as head coach in two different tenures at Colgate and also served as athletics director at the school. In addition, he was an assistant football coach at Arkansas, a head coach at Houston and an assistant commissioner of the now defunct Southwest Conference before retiring in 1983.

Rutgers-Newark director of athletics John K. Adams died recently. He had been director of athletics since 1985 and also formerly was head men's basketball coach at William Paterson for 11 seasons.

Ernie Calverley, former basketball student-athlete at Rhode Island, died October 20. He was 79. Calverley led the nation in scoring in 1943-44 and earned MVP honors in the 1946 NIT. He went on to coach the team from 1958-68 before retiring as an associate athletics director at the school.

Former UC Irvine basketball student-athlete Kevin Magee died in an automobile accident October 23. He was 44. A member of the school's basketball squad in 1980-81 and 1981-82, Magee was the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (now Big West Conference) player of the year for both seasons and is the school's current single-game record-holder for points scored and rebounds.

Jeff Boss, athletics equipment manager at LSU for 24 seasons, died of brain cancer October 27. He was 54.

Joel Edwin Segall, former president at Bernard Baruch, died October 9. Segall was 80.

--Compiled by Leilana McKindra