Spring Hill campus ministry center named after retired professor

Published: Saturday, November 20, 2010, 6:00 AM

MOBILE, Ala. - Spring Hill College alumnus and board of trustee member Thomas Byrne has not forgotten one professor’s impact on his life.

On Friday, Byrne did something to ensure that other Spring Hill students won’t forget the Rev. Bobby Rimes, a former professor of theology at Spring Hill.

Byrne, through a monetary donation to the school, has directed that the campus ministry center be called the Rev. Bobby Rimes, S.J. Center for Campus Ministry.

“It hasn’t quite sunk in yet,” Rimes said after being surprised with the news Friday morning. “It’s a lovely tribute.”

Rimes enrolled as a Spring Hill undergraduate in 1939 and was ordained at Spring Hill’s St. Joseph Chapel in 1955.

Though retired, he remains active as a spiritual director and mentor at the Jesuit school, and resides in the Jesuit community at the college.

“Remembering how important he was to me and to countless students like me over the years, the opportunity to name the campus ministry center for him seemed a perfect fit,” Byrne said.

Instead of a formal naming ceremony on campus, Byrne surprised his former professor with the news.

“He was really humble and touched,” Byrne said.

“If you took a poll of Spring Hill alums, a vast majority would name Bobby Rimes best professor,” Byrne said.

Rimes said he is never too busy to help students.

“I don’t care what I’m doing, I’ll put things aside and talk to them,” said Rimes. ?

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Lottery officials named in lawsuit

Bridgette Frazier, a former staff attorney for the Arkansas Lottery Commission, sued the Commission, director Ernie Passailaigue and deputy director Ernestine Middleton in federal court today over her forced resignation Nov. 19, 2009.

Frazier, represented by rising state Rep. John Wallker, alleges that she was fired in violation of her First Amendment rights for expressing concerns about lottery personnel practices to the attorney general's office. She said she was denied due process in her forced termination. She accuses Passailaigue and Middleton of making defamatory remarks about her after her departure. The suit seeks reinstatement, back pay, $500,000 in compensatory damages and punitive damages.

The lawsuit describes a disorderly office, indiscreet conversations about employees and tangled lines of authority. The last year has featured a damning audit of the lottery, legislator unhappiness, wildly improper time-off awards to highly paid employees and other controversies. They tend to lend circumstantial support to Frazier's claims. When she left her $105,000-a-year job, lottery officials left the impression she'd departed for raising questions about merit pay raises. The lawsuit explains that query in much fuller detail. She said the Department of Finance had informed the Lottery Commission about the possibility of merit pay and the need for employee evaluations for Frazier and others. Frazier said she agreed with a supervisor's decision that merit pay wasn't necessary, but that rules required evaluations.

Here's the complaint. Note that Walker describes Passailaigue and Middleton as South Carolina residents, though together they are knocking down between $500,000 and $600,000 a year as top employees of a state agency. Not for this lawsuit alone do you have to wonder how long they'll remain Arkansas residents, nominal or otherwise.

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