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Nicholls State will name buildings for its first Black athlete and acclaimed scientist

Colin Campo
Daily Comet
Dr. Obie Cleveland Hill, Dean of the College of Education. 
Hill was Nicholls State University's first Black athlete, and first Black administrator. Photo was taken 4/24/06.

Nicholls State University is set to name two of its buildings in honor of prestigious alumni who served as department heads. One is the school's first Black athlete, the other a nationally renowned microbiologist.

The College of Education and Behavioral Sciences Building will be named for Dr. Obie Cleveland Hill, and the College of Sciences and Technology Building will be named for Dr. Marilyn B. Kilgen. The names were decided Aug. 25, and the ceremony will happen later this semester.

"I never dreamed, never had a remote dream, that anything like this would ever transpire in my career," Hill said. "So on the one hand I'm deeply honored, and on the other hand I am more deeply humbled. I'm still trying to get used to it."

Hill is a Mississippi native and was recruited to Nicholls in 1968 on a basketball scholarship when he was 18. He later served as the Dean of the College of Education from 1999 through 2006, when he retired. He was both the school's first Black athlete and later its first Black administrator.

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The Civil Rights Act of 1964 abolished legal segregation just four years prior to Hill's signing on. Nicholls State University is named for Francis T. Nicholls, a Louisiana Governor of two terms, Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice, and Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. 

Hill said Nicholls began opening its doors to Black students in 1963. When he was weighing his options, he said his High School coach discussed it with him and stressed the importance of him attending the school.

"He said 'This needs to be done. It's time for this to be done,'" Hill said. "I didn't think much about it at the time, but then when I came to visit Nicholls, Dr. [Vernon Galliano] was president at the time. I overheard him talking to somebody else, and he said basically the same thing, 'It's time for this to be done.'"

"And that kind of solidified my, 'Yes, you need to be the one to do this.'"

Hill said he knew he was joining the school as part of an integration effort. He was receiving a scholarship for $500 a semester. Tuition was about $64 a semester, and to be housed in a dorm was a little less than $200 a semester.

In his sophomore year, he was voted team captain of the basketball team, becoming the first non-senior to serve in the role in the school's history. His senior year, the team qualified for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics playoffs, the first time Colonel's basketball made it to postseason competition in school history.

Hill was the school's all-time leading scorer and all-time rebound leader when he finished as a college athlete in 1972, with 1,606 points and had 1,174 rebounds. When he graduated, he was drafted by the Seattle Supersonics of the National Basketball Association and by the Kentucky Colonels of the now-defunct American Basketball Association.

He received a Bachelor of Arts in 1973, and two months later joined the U.S. Army. In the Army, he continued to play his favorite sport. He was chosen for the All-Army team in 1974 and 1975, the Armed Forces Basketball Team in 1975, and assisted with basketball clinics for the State Department in Amman, Jordan, in 1975 as well.

In 1975 Hill returned to Nicholls, worked as the student assistant basketball coach, and worked toward completing his Master's of Education degree. He received the degree in 1979 and became the head basketball coach and assistant football coach at East Thibodaux Junior High School.

Dr. Marilyn Kilgen, a nationally renowned microbiologist and seafood safety scientist  who served as Nicholls Department Head of Biological Sciences for 12 years, and taught a total of 41 years at the school.

Dr. Marilyn B. Kilgen taught Biology at Nicholls for 41 years, 12 of which as the Department Head of Biological Sciences. She is microbiologist and seafood safety scientist who has received more than $7.5 million in research funding. Her research has been reported in more than 80 presentations and more than 90 scientific publications. 

She's worked for committees for the U.S. Department of Education and collaborated with Motivatit Seafoods in Houma on oyster research. She researched methods for reducing bacteria levels in oysters to make raw oysters safer for human consumption.

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She led a three-year push to develop the Master of Science in Marine and Environmental Biology degree. During this time she taught, invented, or renovated more than 16 different undergraduate and graduate courses. 

"Not only was Dr. Kilgen one of the foremost scientists and accomplished faculty members in the 75-year history of Nicholls, she is also the architect of the modern biology department, having renovated the undergraduate curriculum and created the graduate curriculum from scratch, both of which we still use today,” said Nicholls Dean of Sciences and Technology, Alcee Fortier.

The department won one of only 17 Departmental Excellence Through Faculty Enhancement awards, making the Department of Biological Sciences at Nicholls the only undergraduate program in the entire state to win this coveted award.