NATCHITOCHES – The family of the late Bob W. McLamore are honoring an individual with a life-long love of teaching and learning by establishing the Bob W. McLamore Memorial Scholarship for a Northwestern State University student. Friends can contribute to the scholarship here: https://northwesternstatealumni.com/mclamore-scholarship/.
The McLamore Memorial Scholarship will be presented to an entering freshman majoring in education, biology or chemistry. Candidates must have a 3.0 or better grade point average and a composite ACT score of 21 or better. Preference will be given to seniors at DeRidder High School.
McLamore grew up in Natchitoches and attended Natchitoches High School where he lettered in football, basketball and track and obtained the rank of Eagle Scout. He earned a B.S. in chemistry and biology at NSU in 1970 and later earned a master’s degree in educational supervision and instruction with +30 from McNeese State University.
McLamore served the Louisiana public school system for 42 years. He began his teaching career in 1970 teaching science classes at Westlake High School, and while there earned the State Science Teacher of the Year Award presented by the Louisiana Academy of Science.
After two years at Westlake, he then moved to DeRidder to begin a long education career. He began teaching Chemistry at DeRidder High School in 1972, the year that the new high school was opened. He later became assistant principal and principal at DeRidder High School. During his principalship, DeRidder High School was named a Top Ten School by the Louisiana State Department of Education. McLamore earned distinctions as State Outstanding High School Principal for Beauregard Parish, Region V Principal of the Year for the State of Louisiana and was named to an advisory council for the State Board of Secondary and Elementary Education.
McLamore later moved to the Beauregard Parish School Board Central Office as Purchasing Agent, Child Welfare and Attendance Supervisor and Director of Auxiliary Services. He retired as superintendent of the Grant Parish School Board in 2005. During his tenure in Grant Parish, he helped bring up performance scores and ACT scores, introduced the teaming concept to middle schools and established a program to reduce the drop-out rate.
McLamore was a certified teacher assessor/mentor and a certified Louisiana school business official. He was also a chemistry/biology adjunct instructor at Northwestern State University and an ad hoc professor and mentor for the “Teach” Program at Louisiana College, now Louisiana Christian University. He was most recently inducted into the Northwestern State University’s Hall of Distinguished Educators in 2007.
After retiring as superintendent of Grant Parish Schools, McLamore returned to DeRidder High School to fill a semester-long position as a longterm substitute. This substitute position turned into five years of his life-long love. He returned to the same chemistry lab at DeRidder High where he began in 1972. Teaching high school science again “rekindled a passion for the classroom and teaching students that he thought was long gone.”
McLamore was an avid hunter and gardener and loved sharing produce from his garden. He was also a member of numerous organizations and held a variety of leadership positions in Sigma Tau Gamma Fraternity, the DeRidder Lions Club, Delta Waterfowl, Whitetails Unlimited, Louisiana Principals Association, Red Arrow Hunting Club, Heard Land Cooperation, Water District #3 and the Krewe de la Famille in Lake Charles. He was also a former boys Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church and summer deputy/photographer for the Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Department.
McLamore passed away March 25, 2022.
