Birth date: Apr 5, 1943 Death date: May 4, 2020
Albert LaVergne passed away on Monday, May 4, 2020 at the age of 77. A Private Graveside Service will be held on Saturday, May 9, 2020 at Ceaser Cemetery in Duralde with Deacon Gary Gaudin officiating. Albert is survived by two br Read Obituary
Every few years Al and I would talk. He'd send me info on upcoming art shows and recognitions. We talked about work challenges and more.
Al was my last roommate at UC Berkeley for the fall quarter of 1971. I was just graduating with my BA, he much older than me. We had a great time, holding BBQ bakeoffs and other things I won't mention here.
We stayed in touch even as I ended up n Fairbanks Alaska. My older son at 7 years old and I visited him and Cherry in Baton Rouge. I've got some wonderful photos from that trip.
It was time to ring Al up again and kept getting disconnects and the website was down, so I inquired at the WMU Art Dept, who just gave me the sad news.
I was never able to get Al up to the University of Alaska Fairbanks to demonstrate his innovative welding technique, but most of all I'll treasure the times we did have together in both distant and recent past.
I'm so saddened to learn of Mr Lavergne's moving on... I had the honor of being one of his students at Southern University A&M College in Baton Rouge, La... I'll always cherish the moment he told me, had it been only on him as a Judge in a particular Student Show I participated in, my "submitted piece (Reflections) would have one done well"! Thank you Sir for uplifting me as an artist, even till this day!
“Our Fearless Leader”. That was Al’s nickname when I was part of his BFA Sculptor students graduating in 2004. He was a strong wise man with endless teachings. By far the best Professor I had in college. I am so sad to hear of his death. You’ll be missed Professor Al!
Tom Howard
Al was my sculpture teacher. He really taught me aesthetics and the purpose behind everything that goes in a piece. Rest in piece, Al.l
I knew Mr Lavergne from my position at the Kalamazoo institute of arts. He was always so friendly and took time to stop and say hello. Condolences on behalf of everyone at the KIA.
Our condolences to the family. We just found out about Al’s passing on Dec 7th. Al was a faithful parishioner at St. Mary Church in Paw Paw, MI. He came regularly to 8 AM mass and sat in the pew right behind us.We attended several of his sculpture showings around Kalamazoo and even the one in Grand Rapids. We attended his retirement party at Western. We enjoyed his masterpiece “the committee “ which was prominently displayed at Western University. We had the honor of seeing his studio when it was small and when he greatly enlarged it. We always enjoyed looking at his sculptured cow as we passed by his house. You could see it from 30th Street. We went to a restaurant together in Climax called Bowman’s barbecue and meat market. They played honky-tonk music and we ate Boudain. After that when Karen and I would go to Climax to play euchre we would stop at Bowman’s and pick up Boudain. We would freeze it and then bring it to Al at church. He loved it “some of the best he had up North.” We enjoyed hearing about his trips to Africa on the Fulbright scholarships. He really bonded with the people. We thought he was just staying home because of the COVID -19 and had no idea he had passed away. We have notified the parish office and will have a Mass said for him. We will miss him. You can count on our prayers.
