FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                          April 14, 2004

THREE TO BE HONORED AT NORTHWESTERN’S SPRING REUNION BANQUET

            Three Northwestern Oklahoma State University alumni will be recognized as Outstanding Graduates at the Alumni Association’s annual Spring Reunion Banquet on Saturday, April 24.

            Those to be honored are Robert Reeg, Class of 1978, Wildwood, Mo., business/professional; Bill Pitts, Class of 1957, Lawton, humanitarian; and Lynn Scott, Class of 2001, Dallas, Texas, achievement within the first five years of graduation.

            The trio will be recognized at the banquet at 6:30 p.m. in the Student Center Ballroom. Tickets to the banquet are $15 and may be purchased by calling (580) 327-8593.

        Reeg is the senior vice-president of Systems Development at MasterCard International. Since 1995, he has been responsible for all software development activities for the private share company, including management responsibility for more than 800 resources located in St. Louis, Mo.; Purchase, N.Y.; Sydney, Australia; Chennai, India; and Brussels, Belgium.

            His accomplishments include recently completing a $160 million re-engineering effort for MasterCard’s core processing systems. Last year, the new global software and computer network processed more than 25 billion payment transactions and moved more than $1 trillion dollars for MasterCard financial institutions.

            Reeg is a member of the board of directors for MPACT Technology Services, a multi-million

dollar India-based software development joint venture. He also is on the customer advisory board for Unitech Systems, Inc., and represents MasterCard at the St. Louis Regional CIO Forum.

            In addition, Reeg volunteers locally as a member of the executive committee for Junior Achievement’s board of directors, the St. Alban Roe Catholic Church school board and Washington University’s Professional Degree Programs academic advisory board.

            He has appeared on CSPAN and in various business publications. He recently was named by Computerworld magazine as one of the premier 100 information technology leaders for 2004. 

            Reeg is married to the former Cynthia Gagnon, also a graduate of Northwestern. A former librarian, she earned a master’s of library science degree from the University of Oklahoma and pursues a career as a writer. They have two sons: Matt is a first year law student at Tulane University and Dan is a senior business major at the University of Missouri.

            Pitts taught biology, zoology, history, English and speech for six years at the junior and senior high school level in Kansas and Oklahoma. In 1964, he became the first full-time curator of the then Northwestern State College Museum of Natural History, a post he held for 10 years. He had previously worked at the museum part-time for 25 cents an hour as an undergraduate. During his tenure as curator, the museum was moved from Carter Hall to its present location on the second floor of Jesse Dunn.

In 1974, he became director of the Santa Fe Trail Center in Larned, Kan. After 10 years there, Pitts served as director of the State Museum of History of the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City. He retired from the state system in 1997 and then served as registrar at the Museum of the Great Plains in Lawton. He retired in 2001.

During his 42 years in the museum field, Pitts served three terms as president of the Oklahoma Museums Association and one term as president of the Kansas Museums Association.

He also was president of the Santa Fe Trail Association from 1991-95. Throughout the years, he has served on numerous councils, committees and advisory boards.

He currently is a grant evaluator for the Institute of Museum Services, a member of the advisory board for the Santa Fe Trail Center and a member of the American Association of Museums accreditation and museums assessment committees.

Pitts’ professional memberships include the American Association of Museums, Mountain-Plains Museums Association, Oklahoma Conservation Congress, Oklahoma Museums Association, Santa Fe Trail Association, Oklahoma Veterans Memorial Committee and Oklahoma Wildlife Federation. He also is an active member of Toastmasters International and is a professional public speaker.

His mother Mazie Pitts and brother Don live in Ponca City, brothers Jim and Phil live in Oklahoma City and sister Lois and brother-in-law Kenneth Otwell live in Kansas City, Mo. Jim and Don Pitts also are graduates of Northwestern.

    Scott used bone-jarring hits and smart special teams play during the 2001 pre-season football games to earn a job as a rookie free agent safety with the Dallas Cowboys. He has been featured on special teams, as well as in certain defensive packages. He also has filled in for injured players.

 With the Cowboys, he has performed volunteer work at the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, Oak Cliff Boys and Girls Clubs and the Salvation Army Christmas Distribution Center.

At Northwestern, Scott was a three-time NAIA all-American. As a senior, he was the Central States Football League Defensive Player of the Year and a finalist for NAIA Player of the Year. That year he had 72 tackles, nine passes broken up and four interceptions. He also returned 26 punts for a school-record 595 yards and four touchdowns. His 1,337 career punt return yards are a Northwestern record. He also was an academic all-American for three years.

            Scott’s parents Mike and Linda Scott live in Turpin. His father is a counselor at Sunflower Elementary in Liberal, Kan., and his mother is a reading specialist at Turpin Elementary. His brother Wes is a senior at Northwestern and sister Micah is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and now lives in Corinth, Texas.

-NW-

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