By JIM BUTLER
Four graduates with accomplishments in different fields are the second group to be recognized as Distinguished Alumni of Holy Savior Menard High, Providence Central High and Menard Memorial High.
Their selection was announced by the Alumni Association which will honor the quartet at the school’s October 10 Homecoming football game.
Selected from more than 8,000 graduates of the schools are Gayle Crotty Aertker, Class of 1973; the late Allen Eskew, Class of 1966; the late Terry Mathews, Class of 1983; and Timothy Petrus, Class of 1972.
The program recognizes outstanding service and accomplishment, on both professional and civic fronts, civilian and military.
“Gay” Aertker was a trailblazer of sorts during a 48-year career in corporate real estate development and retail growth strategy.
She joined Tudor Development after NSU graduation (finance major), eventually working in corporate retail real estate for several national companies.
Her civic involvement continues in retirement as a CASA board member in the Tennessee county in which she resides.
Eskew’s New Orleans architecture firm helped shaped that city’s and the state’s cultural landscape and was a key contributor in the Crescent City’s Riverfront redevelopment.
Eskew, who died in 2013, was a recipient of the LSU College of Art & Design Distinguished Alumnus award.
Mathews may be the selection most readily recognized by the general public. He was a Major League Baseball pitcher for 13 years.
Before that he was among the best to ever play the game at the school known statewide for baseball players it produced.
And was a record-setting player at then-Northeast Louisiana University, where he is a member of its Hall of Fame.
After retiring Mathews served as volunteer baseball coach at the school and was the Sheriff’s Office Resource Officer at the school at his 2012 death.
Petrus studied electrical engineering at Louisiana Tech (2016 Tech Alumnus of the Year) and found his professional niche in oil and gas in Texas.
In 1988 he joined a newly formed company that became publicly traded as XTO. He became executive vice president of the firm sold to ExxonMobil in 2010 for $41 billion.
He and three others subsequently formed Morning Star Partners, a privately held oil and gas venture from which he retired in 2021.
Petrus remains active in a host of civic and community organizations.