George E Hearn

Background

Hearn was born to Thomas Watson Hearn, Sr. (1895–1962), and the former May Peters (1900–1990), who moved to Shreveport, where young George was active in the former Queensboro Baptist Church, located coincidentally on Hearne Avenue and now the African American Bright Star Baptist Church. Hearn attended public schools in Caddo Parish and served as a signalman in the United States Navy during World War II. Thereafter, he began work on numerous degrees and advanced studies at three institutions in Texas: East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, and Baylor University in Waco.

At Baylor, Hearn studied under Dr. E. O. Wood, a former chairman of the psychology department at Louisiana College. The U.S. government, according to Hearn's obituary, selected Baylor to direct research and experiments for the American space program, and Hearn was among those who worked in that endeavor Thereafter, Dr. G. Earl Guinn, as president of Louisiana College, hired Hearn to come to Pineville to develop the LC psychology department. Hearn used manpower and resources available through the Pineville-based Central Louisiana State Hospital for the mentally handicapped.

Hearn was a member of the Louisiana Psychological Association and held the designation of Psychologist Emeritus from that group. He was a former chairman of the State Board of Examiners for Psychologists and the first industrial psychologist in Louisiana. A student of history, He was a former president of the Historical Association of Central Louisiana and was involved in various Alexandria-Pineville preservation projects. He launched the annual Peggy Bolton Lecture Series, named for Elizabeth McClundie "Peggy" Bolton (1917–1987), a regional and state historical preservationist and the first wife of the Alexandria banker, Robert H. Bolton.

Political campaigns

Hearn served by appointment on the Rapides Area Planning Commission. On May 3, 1986, Hearn, a Democrat, won the first of his two terms on the Pineville City Council from District 3, having defeated Republican Robert A. Corley, Jr., by a 57-43 percent margin. On April 7, 1990, however, Hearn was unseated, 54-46 percent by the Republican Christian D. "Chris" Cunningham (born October 19, 1959). On March 26, 1994, Hearn won the District 3 council seat by a vote of 71-29 percent over fellow Democrat Arthur J. "Bud" Sweeney, Jr., to score a second nonconsecutive four-year term. In that same election, Cunningham was defeated in a race for mayor by Fred Baden, the last term that Baden would serve. In 1998, Hearn was unseated, 55-45 percent, by Republican Carol Jeukens Cunningham, the wife of Chris Cunningham. In 2000, Hearn unsuccessfully opposed, 66-32 percent, the Democrat Clarence R. Fields, a former city council member who became mayor in 1999 and ran for the remainder of the term vacated by Fields' predecessor, Republican Leo Deslatte. Fields, an African American who is still the Pineville mayor, expressed regret on former rival Hearn's death and said that Hearn had "served the city well."

Death and legacy

Hearn died at the age of eighty-three in Rapides Regional Medical Center in Alexandria. He was survived by his wife, Gloria Williams Hearn (born ca. 1934), and a daughter and son-in-law, Gail Hearn Smith and Andrew Smith of New York City. Gloria Hearn, a retired Pineville educator, was the Democratic candidate in Louisiana's 5th Congressional District in 2006, having been handily defeated by the incumbent Republican Rodney Alexander of Jackson Parish. George Hearn was predeceased by the couple's son, George Eugene "Gene" Hearn. Services were held on September 18, 2010, at First Baptist Church in Pineville, where Hearn had long been a long-term member. Hearn was also an ordained minister and served on an interim basis at numerous area churches. He is interred at Greenwood Memorial Park in Pineville.

At a ceremony in his honor upon retirement from the Louisiana College faculty, Hearn said that he encouraged students to work for the good of man and the glory of God and that he attempted to direct his students beyond the classroom but in their "overall Christian higher education."