Louisiana College professor C. J. “Prof” Cavanaugh, a longtime
biology teacher at the Louisiana Baptist college whom the central Louisiana
media called “an icon” died last week in Alexandria. He was 93.
Louisiana College professor C. J. “Prof” Cavanaugh, a longtime
biology teacher at the Louisiana Baptist college whom the central Louisiana
media called “an icon” died last week in Alexandria. He was 93.
The Cavanaugh Hall of Science on the schools campus was named in his
honor as was the Charles J. Cavanaugh Endowed Professorship. Cavanaugh influenced
countless students, many of whom became teachers and physicians. He developed
and directed an outstanding pre-med program in which ninety-percent of his students
who applied to medical, dental and veterinarian schools were accepted.
He taught a Bible study class at First Baptist Church, Pineville, for four
decades.
He and his late wife, Eloise Wise Gill Cavanaugh, where married 62 years before
her death. They are survived by five sons: Robert, chancellor of Louisiana State
University Alexandria; David, a neurosurgeon in Shreveport; William, a dentist
in Pineville; Lynn, an executive for a North Carolina textile company; and C.J.,
a fine-arts faculty member at Tyler Junior College in Texas.
He had the reputation of a teacher who lectured without notes and was known
for keeping in his office in Cavanaugh Hall a pet rattlesnake, Croati, that
was featured in the Baptist Message and other publications.
The family requests that memorials be sent to The C.J. and Eloise Cavanaugh
Scholarship, LSU at Alexandria Foundation, P.O. Box 100, Lecompte, LA 71346,
or to the Cavanaugh Endowed Scholarship at Louisiana College, P.O. Box 587,
Pineville, LA 71359