Beaumont is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the seat of government of Jefferson County,within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan statistical area,located in Southeast Texas on the Neches River about 85 miles (137 km) east of Houston. With a population of 115,282 at the 2020 census,Beaumont is the largest municipality by population near the Louisiana border. Its metropolitan area was the 10th largest in Texas in 2020,and 130th in the United States.
Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar was an American attorney,politician,poet,and leading political figure during the Texas Republic era. He was elected as the second president of the Republic of Texas after Sam Houston. He was known for waging war against bands of Cherokee and Comanche peoples to push them out of Texas,and for establishing a fund to support public education.
Lamar University is a public university in Beaumont,Texas,United States. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the fall of 2024,the university enrollment was 17,850 students. Lamar University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and named for Mirabeau B. Lamar,the second president of the Republic of Texas.
Jonathan Kimble Simmons is an American actor. His career spans over five decades of screen and stage. Simmons is the recipient of various accolades,including an Academy Award,a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role in Damien Chazelle's independent film Whiplash (2014).
James Carter Pankow is an American trombone player,songwriter,and brass instrument arranger who is a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for his brass arrangements,and for being one-third of Chicago's brass/woodwind section alongside Lee Loughnane and Walter Parazaider.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity,Inc. (ΑΦΑ) is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved into a fraternity with a founding date of December 4,1906. It employs an icon from Ancient Egypt,the Great Sphinx of Giza,as its symbol. Its aims or pillars are "Manly Deeds,Scholarship,and Love For All Mankind," and its motto is "First of All,Servants of All,We Shall Transcend All." Its archives are preserved at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.
William Francis McBeth was an American composer,whose wind band works are highly respected. His primary musical influences included Clifton Williams,Bernard Rogers,and Howard Hanson. The popularity of his works in the United States during the last half of the twentieth century led to many invitations and appearances as a guest conductor,where he often conducted the premiere performances of some of his compositions,the majority of which were commissioned. His conducting activities took him to forty-eight states,three Canadian provinces,Japan,and Australia;and for a number of years he was principal conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in the capital of Little Rock. At one time,his "Double Pyramid Balance System" was a widely used pedagogical tool in the concert band world.
Neches Federal Credit Union Arena at theMontagne Center,built in 1984,is a mixed-use event center that houses a 10,746-seat a multi-purpose arena and a variety of event spaces in Beaumont,Texas. The Montagne Center was designed especially for the basketball program with a wing designated for instructional purposes. The Montagne Center is currently home to the Lamar University Cardinals,the Lady Cardinals basketball teams,and the Lamar University Pathway Program,Lamar University's language program. The arena was previously the home of the Lady Cardinals volleyball team until renovations to McDonald Gym were completed in 2006–07. The Montagne's instructional area has been home to Lamar's language program since 2010 when the Lamar Language Institute (LLI) first moved there,then transitioned to TIEP at Lamar in 2011,and became the Lamar University Language Program (LUPP) in 2017.
[James] Clifton Williams,Jr. was an American composer,pianist,French hornist,mellophonist,music theorist,conductor,and teacher. Williams was known by symphony patrons as a virtuoso French hornist with the symphony orchestras of Baton Rouge,New Orleans,Houston,Oklahoma City,Austin,and San Antonio. The young composer was honored with performances of Peace,A Tone Poem and A Southwestern Overture by the Houston and Oklahoma City symphony orchestras,respectively. He remains widely known as one of America's accomplished composers for the wind ensemble and band repertory.
Harry E. Johnson is a career lawyer,entrepreneur,public servant and partner at the Law Office of Glenn and Johnson in Houston,Texas. He served as City Attorney for Kendelton,Texas from 1996 to 1999,and taught at Texas Southern University in both the Thurgood Marshall School of Law and School of Public Affairs from 1994 to 1999. Johnson is a former National President of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity,and is the President and CEO of the Washington,D.C. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation,Inc.
Billy Duane Tubbs was an American men's college basketball coach. The Tulsa,Oklahoma native was the head coach of his alma mater Lamar University,the University of Oklahoma (1980–1994) and Texas Christian University (1994–2002). His first head coaching job —from 1971-72 through 1972-73 —was at Southwestern University,Georgetown,Texas,where his teams were 12–16 and 19–8. From there he went to the University of North Texas to serve as assistant coach under Gene Robbins and for one year under Bill Blakeley.
Beaumont Independent School District is a U.S. public school district serving Beaumont in Southeast Texas. The district originated in the annexation of the former Beaumont ISD by the South Park Independent School District after its trustees voted in 1983 to dissolve it as the culmination of a struggle over desegregation of both districts. The original Beaumont ISD had previously absorbed the smaller French ISD.
Kappa Sigma (ΚΣ),commonly known as Kappa Sig or KSig,is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international fraternities with currently 318 active chapters and colonies in North America. Its endowment fund,founded in 1919,has donated more than $5 million to undergrads since 1948. In 2012 alone,the Fraternity's endowment fund raised over $1 million in donations.
James R. Bennett was an American Republican politician from Alabama. From 1978 to 1983,he served as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives and as a member of the Alabama Senate between 1982 and 1992. He went on to serve as Secretary of State of Alabama,from 1993 to 2003 and from 2013 to 2015.
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (ΦΜΑ) is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music. The fraternity is open to men "who,through a love for music,can assist in the fulfillment of [its] object and ideals either by adopting music as a profession or by working to advance the cause of music in America." Phi Mu Alpha has initiated more than 260,000 members,known as Sinfonians,and the fraternity currently has over 7,000 active collegiate members in 249 collegiate chapters throughout the United States.
Jack Tracy Martin was an American basketball coach. Martin coached the Lamar Cardinals for 25 seasons in both the Lone Star Conference and the Southland Conference. Jack was a brigadier general in the Texas Air National Guard,and held a top security defense rating. He served in the Pacific throughout World War II,and was a veteran of more than 35 years in the Air Force.
John Ellis Gray was an educational administrator,businessman and university president at Lamar University. In 1972,Gray,along with Otho Plummer,H. C. Galloway,and Dr. Charles P. Turco founded the Lamar University Foundation to fund raise,manage,and administer private gifts in support of Lamar University programs.
Jimmy G. Cheek is Chancellor Emeritus and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Higher Education in Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at The University of Tennessee,Knoxville (UTK) and Former Director of the Postsecondary Education Research Center. He is also Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida. As the state's flagship research campus,UT Knoxville is currently ranked as a Top 50 public institution.
Beaumont High School was a public,co-educational secondary school in the Beaumont Independent School District in Beaumont,Texas from 1898 to 1975.
