Xavier’s Tregre a campus fixture since the 1960s

    When Calvin Tregre attended Xavier University in the late 1960s, the student body of less than 1,000 completed the bulk of their coursework inside former wooden army barracks on a campus encompassing a little more than one square block.
   Yet while most everyone at Xavier knew each other by name in those days, rarely was one able to see a fellow student’s legs, Tregre recalled with a smile.
   “You couldn’t wear shorts; you couldn’t wear a short skirt; you couldn’t wear any kind of ‘short’ on campus, whether you were man or a woman,” Tregre said. “Even when you were playing sports like tennis, you had to wear long pants over your tennis shorts.”
   Tregre, who retired in June as Xavier’s senior vice president for administration, has been able to view changes like these from a unique perspective. The graduate of Xavier’s class of 1969 worked at his alma mater for nearly all of his adult life – some 41 years – serving in a succession of roles, including accountant, controller, director of fiscal services, vice president for fiscal services and vice president for finance and administration. He was named to his final post – senior vice president for administration – in 1997.

Institutional distinction

   “It’s an institution that is very much recognized and respected by people who are long-term residents of New Orleans – they probably have a good idea of the purpose we have served over the years,” said Tregre of Xavier, the nation’s only historically black Catholic university, founded in 1925 by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. “To be able to continue to do that in today’s times is a challenge every year because it takes a lot of resources,” Tregre said, noting that his main focus in his years as chief financial officer has been to help Xavier’s low to middle-income student families “bridge the gap” between what they receive from federal and state sources and what must come from out of pocket.
   Expanding Xavier’s physical footprint over the decades – with a number of state-of-the-art buildings that share the same green roofs, soaring windows and blonde brick – also has been guided by fiscal prudence, notes Tregre, 66.
   “The changes on campus have evolved, I think, relatively slowly – we haven’t had a master campus plan to do five or 10 things at one time,” he said. “It’s been recognizing a priority, working on that, completing that, and then going to the next (building project).”
   Although his position did not include fund-raising for the campus enhancements, Tregre worked behind the scenes in the pre-construction phase, meeting with teams of architects, engineers and contractors to determine priorities and create “something that was affordable, yet something that would carry us into the long-term future.”
 
Sisters a major influence

   Modeling that pursuit for excellence throughout were the university’s founders – the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament – who also taught Tregre from first through fourth grade at Corpus Christi Elementary School and later at Xavier Prep, then a co-ed high school.
   “I was right at home with the sisters both at the elementary school, at the high school and then coming here to the university,” he said, noting that his transition to college was made even easier by the fact that six of his teachers from Xavier Prep – all religious sisters – were transferred to Xavier University during his freshman year, and Xavier’s then-president, Sister Maris Stella Ross, had been Tregre’s principal at Corpus Christi.
   When one of those sisters offered the entering college freshman a summer job in the library, Tregre went in thinking he would be sorting and checking out books. The job – cleaning out Xavier’s original bookstore – turned out to be slightly less glamorous, he said.
   “It was an old wooden building the sisters had next to the central plant. It was packed almost to the ceiling with old books and materials. My job was to carry that out and put it in the dumpster,” said Tregre, who went on to renovate the three-floored library – refurbishing desks and chairs, painting, moving bookcases and making window screens.
   “It was a good, humbling and educational experience for me, in terms of having an opportunity to work with the maintenance men,” he said. “They showed me some skills that I probably would not have ever acquired.”
   Tregre’s persistence paid off. At the end of his sophomore year he was transferred to the accounting office, the home of his major.
   “That’s when I really fell in love with the accounting work,” Tregre said. “It was in my junior year that I really started being given little, meaningful accounting assignments, like doing student payroll, which may not seem like much, but to a student it was a big responsibility.”
   By the time he became a senior, he was working nearly fulltime in the accounting office, and the rest is history, he said.
   “For me, it was a most enjoyable experience, being at an institution that had a lot of meaning, a lot of purpose, a lot of mission that I could relate to very well,” Tregre said. “It was a grass-roots entry into the profession that I had chosen for my career.”

Parishioner of St. Gabriel

   Tregre has also donated his expertise in accounting and business administration to numerous civic, educational and professional organizations. He currently serves on the finance councils of both the archdiocese and Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans, and heads the finance committee at his home parish of St. Gabriel the Archangel in New Orleans. His other hats at St. Gabriel include serving as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion and on the social committee.
   “He radiates positivity all around him,” said Msgr. Doug Doussan, St. Gabriel’s pastor, at Tregre’s June 21 retirement celebration at Xavier’s spacious new convocation center. Turning to Dr. Norman C. Francis, Xavier’s president, Msgr. Doussan said he was glad the retired Tregre now would have time to focus on his next volunteer project: reorganizing St. Gabriel’s financial accounts.
   “Thanks for all the training you’ve given Calvin at Xavier,” Msgr. Doussan said, winking at Dr. Francis. “Your loss is our gain!”
   At the retirement party, photos and congratulatory messages scrawled across the jumbo screen, and the attendees wore green, the guest of honor’s favorite color.
   Before a concluding second line, featuring handkerchiefs emblazoned with Tregre’s face, Tregre’s children paid tribute to the humble father who taught them that it is “better to understand than to be understood; better to listen than to be heard.” Widowed after the death of his wife of 39 years, Conception Costa Tregre, Tregre is married to Judy Ann Bergeron-Tregre. The couple has six children and 13 grandchildren.
   After accepting retirement gifts, including a fishing pole and a reclining chair, Tregre said he was looking forward to pursuing hobbies such as reading, tennis and outdoor sports. Said Tregre, a resident of Slidell: “I’m going to explore every waterway in St. Tammany!”
   Beth Donze can be reached at [email protected].