Texas State Stars
Five distinguished graduates
At Homecoming last month, we recognized five of our outstanding graduates with our Distinguished Alumnus Awards. We have presented only 159 of these awards since Lyndon Johnson received the first one in 1959. Recipients include leaders in an amazing range of fields, which is proof of excellence in every corner of campus.
This year’s honorees are, from left, Darren Casey, Ross King, Shawn McCormick, John Moreau, Wayne Oquin.
Darren Casey ’81, San Antonio, has built one of the most successful commercial real estate businesses in the state. He began his real estate career in Midland but quickly returned to Central Texas, joining the Henry S. Miller Company in San Antonio in 1983. His success in several major downtown redevelopment projects led to the formation of Baxter Southwest Corporate Realty Services and Darren Casey Interests in 1992. Since his student days, Casey has been an enthusiastic supporter of Bobcat sports and was the first $1 million donor to athletics. The Darren B. Casey Athletics Administration Complex is named for him.
Ross King ’58, San Marcos, took the lead in building the economies of the Soviet Union’s central Asian territories after the USSR crumbled in the 1980s. King, who established the first cattle feed lot in Hays County and operated successful local businesses, first visited Kazakhstan in 1991 as part of a Baptist missionary group. He established flourmills, poultry production and meat and vegetable processing plants, while teaching a business course in the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economic and Strategic Research. He founded Crown Worldwide, now the leading distributor of agricultural equipment in the central Asian republics of the former USSR.
Shawn McCormick ’85, San Antonio, is a pioneer in asthma education. She is now CEO of Zoey LP, developing creative and educational tools to assist children and families in controlling asthma, one of the nation’s leading pediatric problems. She is also the owner/president of Summit, a home medical equipment provider, as well as president of Pulmonary Therapies, a respiratory disease management company. She was among the first students in respiratory therapy classes at Texas State and was a registered therapist by the age of 19. Before founding her businesses, she was director of patient care services at Santa Rosa Health Care Corporation in San Antonio.
John Moreau ’84, San Marcos, was attending Binghamton University in New York when the fencing coach coaxed him into joining his team. Following graduation, Moreau enlisted in the Army and was assigned to the Olympic Training Center in San Antonio. He won the silver medal in the pentathlon at the 1979 Olympics Sports Festival and the gold in 1981, then returned to graduate school at Texas State. He has taught fencing as a faculty member since 1984. He was on the 1984 and 1988 Olympic fencing teams, a judge at the 2008 Olympics and was recently selected to judge for the World Championship Competition in London.
Wayne Oquin ’99, New York City, graduated in three and a half years with a double major in piano and composition and double minor in voice and philosophy – all with a 4.0 grade point average. He was one of three students (from 230 applicants) accepted into graduate school at Juilliard, one of the most prestigious performing arts conservatories in the world. After earning two degrees there, he joined the Juilliard faculty. He says composition is his real passion, and his work has premiered in London, Paris, Moscow, Toronto, Tokyo, Vienna and Warsaw, as well as throughout the United States. A gifted pianist, he has performed on three continents.