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After graduation I attended LSU and received a B.S. in Arts & Science, graduating in 1959. Things got busy for me at this time. I started working on a Degree in Chemistry at Lamar University and married Linda Cagle. We lived in Beaumont, Texas at the time. The next year, I interrupted my education to enlist in the Air National Guard. After basic training in San Antonio, Texas and electronic tech school in Biloxi, Mississippi, I began work with Goodrich-Gulf Chemical Co. in Port Neches, Texas as a development chemist. While working there, I finished my degree in chemistry from Lamar (1961), developed some expertise in thermoplastic polymers, and had my first born (Melanee, 1963).
In 1965 I left Goodrich-Gulf to go to work for Dow Chemical in Plaquemine, Louisiana. Here, I continued to work with thermoplastic polymers, managing Dow's Polyolefin Development Laboratory in Plaquemine and acting as Product Standards Coordinator for High Density Polyethylene. The areas covered included the US, Canada and Belgium.
In 1966, Linda & I had our second daughter (Aimee).
In 1975, I was transferred to Belgium for a one year assignment to help fine-tune a new polyethylene plant so it could make polymers that suited the European market.
When I returned to the States, I accepted a position in Dow's Technical Service & Development Department, dealing with a new synthetic rubber. Over the next several years I increased my expertise in specialty rubbers and obtained several patents and research disclosures.
My first daughter (Melanee) graduated from LSU with a B.S. in early childhood education and obtained a MS from the University of Tennessee in early childhood development. She married Bob Horton from Baton Rouge and they reside in Nashville, Tennessee where he is practicing labor law and she is raising my two grandchildren - Lauren (10) and Logan (6) - while doing part time research at Vanderbilt University.
My second daughter (Aimee) graduated from LSU with a B.S. in Merchandising. She married Philip Glenn of Nashville, Tennessee and they reside in Nashville, Tennessee where he has his own moving company (Glenn Enterprises) and she is the benefits coordinator for Corrections Corporation of America, a privately owned company that builds and manages prison systems for local, state and federal governments. She will shortly have a full time job taking care of my third grandchild which is due any time.
I retired from Dow Chemical in 1992 after 27 years. My retirement lasted only a few weeks. I started doing contract consulting work for Uniroyal Chemical Company in Geismar, Louisiana. I consulted at Uniroyal for seven years before Linda & I decided to sell our home in Baton Rouge and move to North Carolina where we purchased a part of a mountain top just outside of Black Mountain, NC about five years ago. We are now in a Town House in Asheville working with builders to build our Mountain Home. Once the house is completed, I plan to concentrate on grandchildren and golf.
I have always felt that so much of my life was influenced in a positive way by my years at Merryville High School. I knew we had excellent teachers, but just didn't realize how good they really were. They were professionals with character & principles who set an excellent example for all of us.
Good teachers and friends & classmates that are indeed "Good People" are a combination that is hard to beat. If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.
Norman E. Warren