Rene J. Bienvenu

Rene Joseph Bienvenu, Jr. (March 19, 1923 – January 27, 1983) was an American scientist and academic who wound up his career as the president of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, having served from 1977-1982.

Bienvenu was born in Colfax, (pronounced COLL FAX), the seat of rural Grant Parish, to Rene J. Bienvenu, Sr., and the former Corinne Wells. He was educated in the Grant Parish schools. He received his bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1944, his master's from LSU in 1949, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1957. He also studied at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and the Radioisotope Technological Program at the Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies in Tennessee. He married the former Catherine Nelken of Natchitoches on January 28, 1948. She was the daughter of Sylvan W. Nelken, dean of administration at NSU, and Lennie D. Nelken. The Bienvenus had three children: Patricia Renee Bienvenu Franklin (born in 1957), Elizabeth Bienvenu, and Steven Nelken Bienvenu (born 1950) of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. Patricia Renee Bienvenu Franklin and Clay O. Franklin have two children, Kimberly Renee and Jonas Clay. They have two grandchildren, Taylor Lee and Haley Renee.

Bienvenu joined the NSU faculty in 1950 and served the institution for 27 years before he assumed the presidency. As president, he named the historian Donald M. Rawson as the Dean of the Graduate School. He chaired the Department of Microbiology from 1960-1967 and was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Science and Technology from 1967-1977. He wrote numerous articles for scientific and scholarly journals.

He died in Shreveport and is interred in the Colfax Cemetery in Colfax.

References

"Rene Bienvenu," A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. 1 (1988), p. 72

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