As a part of the inaugural celebration in honor of Dr. Horace Judson, a new mace was presented to him on Friday morning. The last mace was presented to Dr. Joseph Johnson, Grambling State University President from 1977-1991.
The mace is an instrument used to begin special programs like convocation, inauguration, and commencement ceremonies. As a ceremonial instrument, the mace is carried by the university marshal to command the audience’s attention at the start of a program.
President Horace A. Judson says the new mace is special because it is “Distinctively Grambling.” The mace features a picture of the campus on one side and Founder Charles P. Adams on the other. According to President Judson, receiving the mace is “a great honor that (the university) was deemed worthy of a new mace.”
The mace was designed by Larry Holston of the art department and fashioned by retired architect Larry Morgan of Morgan, Hill, Sutton, and Mitchell Architect Firm of Shreveport. Unlike the old mace and others before it used in ceremonies, this mace is “very symbolic because it depicts the university’s history,” says Ellen Smiley, President of Faculty Senate. Also on the committee for the mace were Dr. Robert Dixon, Hazel Jones and Ralph Wilson.