Bonnie Bourg, the last living charter member of Nicholls State University, died Friday, Apr. 17, leaving behind a legacy that helped make this University what it is today.

In 1948, the year Nicholls opened, Bourg was hired as a health and physical education instructor, but her involvement with the University spanned far beyond that in the 42 years she was here. She was involved in the making of the first yearbook, the first student handbook and helped to write the first fight song. She helped to open the first student union and was the first Student Government Association advisor. She established the first Greek organization, Phi Mu, on campus. Bourg was also State Vice President of Delta Kappa Gamma, a professional honor society for women educators. She was the production manager of the first plays, founded the first chorus, wrote the Nicholls Alma Mater and founded the first journalism club society that led to the creation of the Nicholls Worth. As a woman, she broke barriers, becoming the Dean of Women and the institution’s first woman’s administrator in 1963.

“She was dedicated to Nicholls,” said Al Delahaye, retired professor emeritus of journalism who joined Bourg on the Nicholls staff in 1957. “She helped create Nicholls from day one, and she was aware of the good that it did for students and for the area.”

Delahaye uses the words “innovator,” “intelligent” and “amazing” to describe Bourg, who is mentioned over 60 times in his two Nicholls history books for her numerous contributions to the University. She also gained popularity with her versatility and playfulness on campus.

In a 2008 edition of The Colonel featuring both Delahaye and Bourg, they reminisce about her song “Ode to the Commode” that she wrote in 1955 after students blasted a toilet off the wall with a torpedo, and how in the ‘62 yearbook, she is known as “Two-gun Bonnie” for Western Week at Nicholls when she donned a cowboy hat, fringed shirts and competed in a cow-milking contest.

“She was a leader that had a sense of humor, a social dignity and profound good judgment,” said Delahaye.

“You couldn’t help but be impressed with her presence on campus,” said David Boudreaux, retired Vice President for institutional advancement who joined the Nicholls English faculty in 1967. “One of the things that kind of tickled me is when I came, there were so few buildings. In Elkins, where she started, she used to teach archery up in the attic of the building when it rained. That just showed the creative powers of her mind. She could make the best of any situation.”

Boudreaux recalls her playing guitar and singing folk songs for peace at the school assembly on Vietnam. He refers to her as the “renaissance woman who could do it all.”

“I remember her as someone who was really devoted to the University and the students, without any personal agenda, just for the good of the University and the good of the students,” said Boudreaux.
“She was just a good, all-around nice person,” said Eugene Dial, “and she didn’t hesitate to help people or take the lead to get things done when they needed to be done.”

Dial said Bourg was the person that recruited him to Nicholls from Florida State in 1986, where he is currently the Associate Professor of Education and Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Services.

He recalls her helping establish the department of student development when she noticed students with effort but in need to of extra academic assistance, and how she helped to break the glass ceiling for women’s positions in the workplace.

“But Bonnie would be the first one to tell you to focus on Nicholls in the future,” said Dial, “not what she’s done in the past because she did all those things in the past because she wanted Nicholls to be the best it could be.”

“I think she is a great example of what someone as an individual can accomplish in initiating new and different things to improve life, not for just the University but the general community. She’s the perfect example of how just one individual, if committed, can have the passion to make the difference in a lot of people’s lives,” said Dial.