NATCHITOCHES – The daughters of Annie E. and Hoyt J. Reed have endowed a scholarship honoring their parents to be awarded to a Louisiana native junior or senior level or graduate students majoring in teacher education or educational leadership at Northwestern State University. Applicants for the Annie E. and Hoyt J. Reed Scholarship must have a minimum of a 3.0 GPA and work in a public school or institution of higher education in Louisiana.
Applicants should complete an online application form and attach a 250-word essay indicating teaching and personal goals in the field of education. Applications will be reviewed by the family-named scholarship committee and will be awarded for a maximum of two semesters at $500 per semester.
After graduating from Pleasant Hill High School and serving in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War II, Dr. Hoyt Reed earned a baccalaureate degree in health and physical education in 1948. As a student, he was a member of the varsity baseball and basketball teams. He began his career as a basketball coach at Pleasant Hill High School, and then became the youngest principal in Natchitoches Parish at Marthaville High School. He later worked for the Louisiana Department of Education before returning to Northwestern State as an administrator and faculty member.
With then NSU President Arnold Kilpatrick, Vice President Charles Thomas and Commanding General F.H. Reed, Dr. Reed, as director of Continuing Education at NSU, is credited with establishing NSU’s Leesville/Ft. Polk campus, the first extended campus outside of Natchitoches. He was also responsible for initiating the first of many course offerings at the graduate and undergraduate level at a myriad of sites throughout the region. He later became superintendent of Natchitoches Parish Schools before retiring from education and serving as the director of the Louisiana Council on Aging.
Dr. Reed earned a Master’s in Educational Administration from Stephen F. Austin University, and the Ed. D. from McNeese State University. He was a member of the Graduate N Club at Northwestern, and numerous community organizations throughout the city, state and region
A graduate of Boyce High School, Mrs. Reed continued her education at Northwestern State College, graduating in 1949. She earned a master’s and a master’s plus 30 hours in home economics education. She was a consummate educator for more than 40 years, teaching home economics, science and social studies at the secondary level. She began her teaching career at Pleasant Hill High School, later moving to Ajax High School and then to Marthaville High School when her husband came principal there. After moving to Baton Rouge, she taught at Glen Oaks High School. Upon the family’s return to Natchitoches, she again taught at Marthaville, Allen, and completed her secondary career at Natchitoches Central High School. After the death of her husband in 1990, she taught culinary arts to inmates at the Winn Correctional Institute and early childhood education at the Louisiana Technical College.
The Reeds are parents to Dr. Cathleen Reed Seymour, who holds three degrees from Northwestern and retired from NSU as the associate dean in the College of Education, and Jacqueline Reed Horton, who holds two degrees from NSU and is an instructor in the Gallaspy College of Education and Human Development in child and family studies. Their son-in-law, Dr. Dan Seymour, also hold two degrees from NSU, served in various administrative roles including vice president of Student Affairs, and now teaches as an associate professor in community mental health counseling and student affairs in higher education in the Gallaspy Family College of Education and Human Development.
To contribute to the Annie E. and Hoyt J. Reed Scholarship or to learn more about the NSU Foundation, visit northwesternalumni.com or call (318) 357-4414.
