Names and Faces

(Editor's note: There are three stories contained on this page)

By Kathryn Garcia
Skiff Staff

Peggy Watson, associate professor of Spanish and Latin American studies, said TCU is the ideal environment for students and faculty.

“I’m a walking advertisement for TCU,” Watson said. “I think TCU is a good place to be, a good place to teach and for students.”

Watson first worked at TCU as an adjunct professor while she worked on her dissertation. Then she was hired for her current position.

She said she is lucky to have a career that she enjoys, while some people find themselves restless in their jobs.

“I wake up every morning and feel so grateful that I made the decision I did,” Watson said.

A high school Spanish teacher inspired Watson to pursue Spanish studies.

Watson went to R. L. Paschal Senior High School where she had classes with her mentor Luisa Bomar.

“You’ve heard that good teachers can change your life,” she said. “She was one of those teachers.”

After graduating, Watson attended Tulane University in New Orleans.

Watson’s teaching philosophy is to teach students as individuals, she said.

“I consider it a privilege to teach,” she said. “I don’t know why people would teach if they didn’t want to interact with the students.”

She said she has a kind of verbal contract with students. She asks them to do their part through assignments and attendance and, in turn, she’ll make the hour worthwhile.

“I’ve never gone in with ideas that I’m the one that knows it all,” Watson said. “I see all of it as a learning process for me.”

During the summers, Watson takes a group of students to the TCU in Spain study abroad program in Seville. Watson said she and the 24 students enjoyed going to the symphony, bull fights and flamenco shows last year.

Brenda Gomez, a senior Spanish and fashion promotion major, went with Watson last summer. On their way to Seville, Gomez and a couple of other students’ baggage was not checked all the way through to Seville. They had to wait in Madrid for their baggage, which caused them to miss their original flight, Gomez said.

Watson, however, was more than helpful in this situation by staying with the group, Gomez said.

“Watson facilitated a lot of things for us,” Gomez said. “I felt like I had my mom with me, (so I was) safe and secure.”

Gomez said she has had Watson for two Spanish classes and considers her more like a friend than a professor.

Watson said the time she spends in Spain with her students brings them all closer together.

“There was a cooperative spirit about it that can’t be found in a bigger program,” she said. “I get real attached to (the group).”

While there, Watson lived in a small apartment provided by the Spanish center. She said her husband and three sons came to visit her there.

“It was the ultimate bonding experience,” she said. “The four of us in a tiny apartment with one bathroom and no air conditioning.”

Watson said her family has always played a large part in her life.

“My work is important to me and so is my family,” she said. “Between that, there isn’t much time leftover. I’ve let things go.”

Now that her sons are all in college, two at TCU and one at Tulane, Watson said she’s not sure what to do with her free time. But traveling is a definite, she said.

“I do like going out past my comfort zone,” she said. “I really have figured out who I am by putting myself in situations with people who are completely and totally different. I don’t know how people can understand the United States and who they are if they don’t see who everybody else is.”

Kathryn Garcia
a.k.garcia@student.tcu.edu

By Alisha Brown
Staff Reporter

Linda Moore’s awards aren’t crowding her wall — most of them are in a box — so if you ask her about the lives she’s affected or the progress she’s made toward diversity on campus, she might reluctantly admit she had something to do with it all.

But her students and colleagues say differently. They say she had everything to do with it.

Moore, chairwoman of the social work department, has been at TCU for 24 years. In that time, she received the Tarrant County Social Worker of Year award, the Libby Proffer Award from Student Developmental Services, the Outstanding Service Award, the Dean’s Award for outstanding teaching twice, nominated for the Chancellor’s Award three times and has been a Mortar Board professor eight times.

And although the wall decorations remain in their box, Moore proudly displays their significance.

“I’m always willing to challenge an issue to get something changed,” she said.

The first thing she changed when she came to TCU was the structure of the social work program. She said that with only two faculty members, it was not well recognized.

Moore said she put an emphasis on strengthening the program, and the faculty increased from two to four. Social work still was not listed in the official department title.

“We finally became our own department three years ago,” she said. “We just kept fighting for it. You have to have a reason and a charge for your cause.”

Making changes and motivation is what Moore loves. Her students also allow her to express that.

Darron Turner, director for intercultural education and services, said he met Moore when he was a freshman defensive linebacker for TCU and she was the academic coordinator for the athletic department. The two have known each other for 19 years.

“I used to be Darron’s academic adviser,” Moore said. “He went through a couple of majors like we all did before I nagged him to become a social work major.”

Turner said that along with all the nagging she did, Moore did even more listening.

“I had just come from third-world Houston to TCU,” he said. “I needed to sit down and talk to someone about all the adjustments. She didn’t take any offense to the language or fears and helped to work through it.”

Moore made time for all of her students and taught them life lessons that stayed with them. Turner received his degree in social work and continued to give back what he had learned.

“He’s gotten awards out the kazoo and doing what I always wanted him to do,” Moore said. “He was one of my charges.”

Cornell Thomas, special assistant to the chancellor for diversity and community, said this type of success in dealing with students is not uncommon for Moore.

“She typifies the part of our mission to work one-on-one with students,” he said.

Thomas has worked with Moore concerning issues of diversity, which is her biggest charge.

Growing up, Moore was a preacher’s daughter who moved around a lot and knew the feeling of being an outsider, she said.

“That feeling of exclusion is something I’ve always been sensitive to,” she said.

Since she has been here, she has pushed for more diversity on campus.

“It’s not just about race, but more about the experiences that make something diversified,” she said.

Her commitment to the issue has lead to many changes at the university. She teaches a class on diversity and serves on diversity committees. She said she tries to empower the community around her to make changes also.

In the early 1990s Moore was approached by a group of students who needed her help in convincing the university to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“It was a group of 31 white students,” Moore said.

The change was turned down by the Faculty Senate, so a commission was set up to try to gain support. The next step was to get the media involved.

“For two months a story ran nearly every day,” she said.

Other students became involved and a series of informational meetings were held. She said more than 150 people were in attendance at each meeting.

At the third meeting, some unexpected guests showed up.

“A group from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who had marched with Martin Luther King Jr. showed up bringing greetings from Coretta Scott King herself,” Moore said. “It was the most exciting experience.”

Moore said that as of the next year, TCU would be celebrating his birthday.

“It was so wonderful because it was one of those teaching experiences where it all comes together, and you watch it happen right there,” she said.

Moore said she provided the resources and knowledge for the change to happen, but it was the students who made it possible.

“It’s only in the peripheral that we’re involved,” Moore said. “That’s the way it is supposed to be. That’s the reward of the social worker.”

That explains why most of her awards remain tucked away in a box and not hung on the wall, although what they represent is clearly displayed.

Alisha Brown
a.k.brown@student.tcu.edu

By Mark Lewis
Skiff Staff

Instead of a cape and cowl, the Frogman dons a Physical Plant uniform. Instead of Robin by his side, he has a 3,000-pound horn-blowing companion. When he signs his name, the Frogman reveals his true identity — Kenny Vaughn.

Vaughn is the caretaker of the spirit accessories of TCU, including the Frog Horn and the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum indoor blimp. He is also employed by TCU as an electrician. To many, though, he is known as the biggest Horned Frog fan alive — the Frogman.

“He’s the biggest fan I’ve ever seen,” said Terra Nuss, sports marketing assistant. “He gives so much, and he’s at every game. He’d do anything for athletics.”

Vaughn’s history with the school began over eight years ago as an electrician. However, he found his niche in the athletics program when Burlington Northern Railroad donated the Frog Horn to TCU in 1994.

“They needed somebody (for the Frog Horn), a sponsor type,” he said. “I took care of it. I’ve been the caretaker since we got it, including maintenance and all the up-keep.”

Since then he has taken his massive horn companion all around the country. They have been to bowl games, parades, marathons and schools. The next destination scheduled is a reappearance in Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

However, he said he treasures his visits to athletic events the most. He wants people to be enthusiastic and to go games, and as the Frogman, he helps people to do just that, he said.

It was at one of his many football games that Vaughn received his unique second name.

“I got nicknamed the Frogman from the cheerleaders,” he said. “One game a (cheerleader) forgot my name and she said ‘Hey, Frogman.’ I liked that better than my first name, and it caught on.”

It’s caught on so much that Vaughn’s answering machine at home identifies the number as that of “the Frogman,” and his entry in Frog Calls lists his first name as “Frogman.” His business cards even say, “You have met the Frogman.”

Vaughn said he treasures both his roles as the east campus electrician and as Frogman.

Aside from encouraging Physical Plant employees to attend athletic events, Vaughn said he prides himself in doing his job well and seeing it manifest at the events.

“Whenever we have an event, I pride myself that we have no lights out,” he said.

His dual identity is easily seen in the awards he has received. Vaughn has won both teammate of the month for the athletics department and employee of the quarter for the Physical Plant.

“From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. I have my blue uniform on, but after that I have my TCU hat on and some kind of purple,” he said. “I never go anywhere without purple on me.”

When Jen Perry, a junior accounting and sociology major, met Vaughn as a part of Hyperfrogs, she said she was impressed.

“He has the true spirit of TCU and has the genuine love for the university,” Perry said. “He expresses it everywhere.”

Perry also said Vaughn has the talent of remembering everyone he meets, and he makes every effort to befriend the students.
Vaughn said he feels his student friendships reflect his attitude on life.

“I’m a youthful person,” he said. “I feel like I’m 25. I don’t hang with people my own age. I hang out with cheerleaders and football players. I hate the summertime because nobody’s here.”

Vaughn’s friendships with students even extend into fraternity life as an honorary member of Sigma Chi.

“I dedicate my life to the younger generation,” he said.

Vaughn has been connected with college athletics since he was in high school.

In Kansas, as a teen-ager, he frequently saw his brother playing football with Dennis Franchione, former TCU head football coach. Later, when Vaughn went to Louisiana State University he participated in the Tiger Club, a student spirit organization.

He was hired by LSU as an electrician before he came to TCU.

Despite his Alabama roots, his heart is purple, Vaughn said. He said when he went to the GMAC Mobile Alabama Bowl last year, someone recognized him from LSU.

“I’ve still got a little tiger in my tank, but I’m a true Horned Frog,” he said. “I bleed purple.”

In fact, last year his heart gave him trouble at a home football game. He suffered a heart attack and had to be taken to the hospital, although he now has recovered.

“He gives so much at every game,” Nuss said. “When he had the heart attack, I know that his biggest concern was that he’d be missing the rest of the game.”

Even though Vaughn’s two lives seem separate, they are both interconnected, he said. Be it in a fan-filled arena or in office cubicles, the unifying factor is people, and he said he wants to make people feel good.

“My motto is, ‘Leave a room brighter than when I entered it,’” Vaughn said. “This may be by making the lights work or making people smile.”

Mark Lewis
m.e.lewis@student.tcu.edu