Troy University will honor four alumni as Alumni of the Year during its Oct. 15 homecoming game at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Charles “Chuck” Ash, James Wiley Locklar, Dr. Imogene Mixson and Dr. Yves Sucaet will be honored during a halftime ceremony as the Trojans welcome Sun Belt Conference foe Georgia State for a 2:30 p.m. kick. The Alumni of the Year awards recognize outstanding professional accomplishments, civic involvement and loyalty and service to Troy University. Winners are selected by the Board of Directors of the TROY Alumni Association.
“We are pleased to have the opportunity to honor these four great alumni for their commitments to their professions, their communities and their University,” said Faith Ward, director of alumni affairs. “Homecoming is a special time in the life of Troy University, and we hope everyone will join us as we pay tribute to these worthy recipients.”
Ash, a 1978 and 1979 graduate of TROY who serves as director of sports medicine for the University, is in his 29th year with the TROY Athletics Department, working as the head athletic trainer for 25 of those years. He served as the school’s assistant athletic trainer from 1987-1991.
Ash coordinates all aspects of athletic training, including the supervision of students enrolled in the athletic training curriculum, in what has become one of the most respected programs in the country.
In 2002, Ash was named College and University Athletic Trainer of the Year by the Alabama Athletic Trainers Association. In 2001, he was also granted membership in the prestigious American Sports Medicine Fellowship Society. Ash was inducted into the Alabama Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame in 2008. A native of Lakeland, Fla., Ash and his wife, Marilyn, who is also a TROY graduate, have two sons – Bubba and Cody – and two granddaughters.
Locklar, a 1963 TROY graduate, retired from Henderson, Black and Greene, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of wood columns, after working for the company since 1957. Locklar also was one of the founding partners and former vice president of National Freezer. Among his professional achievements are the creation of two computerized lathes and the largest finger-joint machine in the world.
An active part of the Troy community, Locklar is member and past president of the Troy Country Club, a longtime member and past president of the Troy University Alumni Association, a former member of the Troy Rotary Club and a lifelong member of Henderson Methodist Church. Locklar served as a member of the selection committee that brought Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr. to TROY as chancellor. He was also a member of the five-person committee that paved the way for all sports to be moved from Division II to Division I-AA and eventually to Division I, and is a longtime donor to the University.
Locklar and his wife, Glenda, have three children.
Dr. Mixson earned her bachelor’s degree in English education from TROY in 1959. She began her education career at Dothan High School, where she taught English for seven years. From there, she went to work at Enterprise State Community College as an English instructor and English Department chair for 15 years. She also later served as an instructor and English Department chair at Wallace Community College-Dothan before being named academic dean in 1983. She also served as interim president of both Wallace Community College-Dothan and Alabama Aviation and Technical College-Ozark.
The Skipperville native has served as secretary and member of the executive and development committees of the Alabama Humanities Foundation Board of Directors.
Dr. Mixson currently serves as a member of TROY’s Planned Giving Advisory Board and the Trojan Shield Society. She also is an avid supporter of the University’s All-Steinway Initiative and is an endowed scholarship donor.
Dr. Yves Sucaet is a 2005 TROY graduate with a master’s degree in environmental analysis and management, who came to TROY as an international student. After graduation from TROY, he went on to earn a PhD in bioinformatics from Iowa State University where he was co-founder of the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Laboratory. The graduate student-driven organization seeks out web labs with bioinformatics needs to allow students to gain applied bioinformatics and consultancy experience in addition to pursuing academic goals.
Dr. Sucaet is a co-founder and current chief technology officer of Pathomation, a leading innovator of software solutions within the area of digital pathology, providing software solutions with emphasis on communication and interoperability solutions for the end users.
Dr. Sucaet previously served as section head data management and bioinformatics at HistoGeneX, a multinational pharmaceutical and biotech drug development laboratory in Antwerp, Belgium.
Dr. Sucaet met his wife, Tamera, a Eufaula native, while at TROY and today, the couple has two children and make their home outside of Antwerp, Belgium.
