The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Pauline Colburn Hargrove has a new title for her name.

Just add “Dr.” This past Saturday, Hargrove, superintendent of the Little Cypress-Mauriceville School district, and a graduate of the old Stark High, was awarded a doctorate degree in educational leadership from Lamar University.

She’s not the only one Saturday from LC-M to earn the title.

LC-M High School assistant principal Terri Thompson Estes also received a similar degree.

And Wayne Thomas Guidry of Orangefield, who won the state pole-vaulting championship when he was a student at Orangefield High, earned his educational leadership doctorate.

During spring graduation ceremonies on Saturday at the Montagne Center, Lamar awarded a school record number of 22 doctorate degrees, with four of the 22 degrees going to Orange County residents.

Carol Ellen Schulte of Orange received her doctorate degree in engineering.

She earned the only one of the 22 doctorate degrees that was not awarded in educational leadership.

All together 635 students received bachelor’s degrees on Saturday and 73 received master’s degrees.

Texas Railroad Commissioners Elizabeth Ames Jones was the keynote speaker at the ceremonies.

Tiffany Smith, a graduate of Little Cypress-Mauriceville High, was the top female graduate among the 635 students earning bachelor’s degrees.

She had a perfect 4.0 grade point average while earning a degree in mechanical engineering and was graduated summa cum laude-with highest honors.

Her class ranking earned her a Plummer Award, named in honor of the late Otho Plummer, who was chairman emeritus of the Lamar board of regents and a board member from 1949 to 1990.

Smith is the daughter of Carolyn and David Smith of Mauriceville.

She is a Lamar Honors Program graduate and a member of Phi Kappa Phi national honor society, Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, Pi Tau Sigma mechanical engineering honor society and the Chinese Club.

Smith was the recipient of the Katherine E. and William C. Mundt Student Engineering Fund scholarship, the ENGlobal Engineering Inc. and Triple “S” Industrial Corp. Scholarship in Engineering and the Charles and Susan Gordon and Julia Gordon Gray Memorial Scholarship.

She plans to begin work in June at the Du Pont Sabine River Works in Orange .She lists her hobbies as paintball, martial arts, racquetball, theology and the Chinese language.