Ray Paul Authement Sr. (November 19, 1928 – April 5, 2020)[1] was an American academic administrator and the longest-serving university president in the United States.
[4] Authement and his wife, the former Barbara Braud (born c. 1932), had two daughters, Kathleen A. Prouet, who died in 1999 of leukemia and Julie A. Johnson of Lafayette.
Prior to his UL Lafayette presidency, Authement taught mathematics[3] and was thereafter the academic vice-president of Southwestern Louisiana from 1966 until 1970.
[2] Under Authement, UL Lafayette launched a $130 million construction program, moved from open enrollment in the manner of a community college to selective admissions, and joined NCAA Division 1, the highest level of collegiate athletic competition.
[2] In 1990, he hired the lawyer and former state legislator Carl W. Bauer as the chief lobbyist, or "Coordinator of Governmental Relations," for UL Lafayette, and the two worked together to expand the campus and modernize the institution.
[4] During the Authement years the Cajundome, the popular basketball complex which seats 12,800, was constructed along with Oliver Hall, a $10 million computer science building.
[3][4] UL Lafayette under Authement became an economic force within Acadiana and gained national attention in the fields of computer science, environmental and biological research, and French studies.
[3]Raymond "Coach" Blanco, a former ULL dean of students and the husband of former Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said that Authement, who was in competition with presidents from other state institutions, such as F. Jay Taylor and Dan Reneau of Louisiana Tech University and Rene J. Bienvenu of Northwestern State University, for limited available funds, "never believed in going down and playing the [lobbying] game in Baton Rouge.
He developed close ties to the local political elite, having met on occasion with the late Lafayette Mayor J. Rayburn Bertrand and Sheriff Carlo Listi.
Authement also established a close friendship with the clothing merchants, the brothers Edward and Herbert Abdalla, all of these interactions even before he became ULL president.