{{short description|American non-fiction author (born 1955)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}} {{infobox writer | name = Gary Lavergne | birth_name = Gary Mitchell Lavergne | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1955|10|28}} | birth_place = Church Point, Louisiana, U.S. | occupation = Author | education = University of Louisiana at Lafayette (BA)<br>McNeese State University | genre = Non-fiction | website = {{Official URL}} | spouse = {{marriage|Laura Clayton|1976}} | children = 4 }} '''Gary Mitchell Lavergne''' (born October 28, 1955) is an American non-fiction author. Among his subjects are killers Charles J. Whitman and Kenneth Allen McDuff.
== Career == Lavergne was born on October 28, 1955<ref name="Gary M. Lavergne">{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Family of Gary Mitchell Lavergne and Laura Gwen Clayton |url=http://www.garylavergne.com/us.htm |access-date=2015-06-10 |work=Gary M. Lavergne}}</ref> Church Point, Louisiana, son of Nolan and Bobbie Lavergne. He attended Church Point High School and graduated in 1973. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in social studies education and a master's in education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In 1988, he earned an education specialist degree in educational administration and supervision from McNeese State University.<ref name="Dail970318">{{Cite news |date=1997-03-18 |title=Church Pt. native writes book on Texas Tower sniper |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-world-church-pt-native-writes-boo/162238263/ |access-date=2025-01-04 |newspaper=Daily World |location=Opelousas |page=5 |language=en-US |via=Newspapers.com |volume=57 |issue=78}}</ref> He was a social studies teacher, held administrative positions for both the SAT and the ACT.<ref name="Dail970318" /> He worked for the College Board traveling to universities helping administrators understand the SAT.<ref name="Dail970318" />
Lavergne retired as director of admissions research for the University of Texas in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019 |title=UT Austin Retirement |url=http://www.garylavergne.com/Retirement.htm |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=Gary M. Lavergne |language=en-US}}</ref> Among Lavergne's books is 1997's ''A Sniper in the Tower'' about the 1966 shooting rampage of Charles Whitman,<ref name="NYT">{{Cite news |title=Journal; The Long Shadow of the Texas Sniper |first=Frank |last=Rich |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02EEDF103FF936A1575AC0A96F958260 |work=The New York Times |date=1999-09-25}}</ref> which according to a 2007 Associated Press article is "considered the definitive account of the massacre"<ref>{{Cite news |author= |author-link=Associated Press |date=2007-04-25 |title=Campus killings tarnished Kent State, Texas |work=Reading Eagle |agency=Associated Press |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2yAyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bKIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3870,4913047&dq=gary-lavergne+sniper-in-the-tower&hl=en |accessdate=2010-02-19}}</ref> and to Frank Rich in a 1997 ''The New York Times'' piece is "the authoritative account of the Whitman case".<ref name="NYT" /> He decided to write the book after watching a TV special on mass murder, realizing that there had never been a book published about the shooting.<ref name="Dail970318" />
He is married to Laura Clayton, with whom he has four children.<ref name="Chur990901">{{Cite news |date=1999-09-01 |title=Gary Lavergne to be on national television |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-church-point-news-gary-lavergne-to-b/162816907/ |access-date=2025-01-11 |newspaper=The Church Point News |page=5 |language=en-US |via=Newspapers.com |issue=27}}</ref>
==Published works== *''Before Brown'' (2010), about the struggle for civil rights in higher education, centered on the ''Sweatt v. Painter'' case at the University of Texas at Austin. *''Worse than Death'' (2003), discusses the 1984 Dallas nightclub shooting, perpetrated by Abdelkrim Belachheb. Published by UNT Press.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Walker |first1=Jason |last2=Lavergne |first2=Gary M. |date=2005 |title=Review of Worse than Death: The Dallas Nightclub Murders and the Texas Multiple Murder Law |journal=The Southwestern Historical Quarterly |language=en |volume=108 |issue=3 |pages=421–422 |issn=0038-478X |jstor=30242259}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Friedman |first1=Barry D. |last2=Lavergne |first2=Gary M. |date=2004 |title=Review of Worse Than Death: The Dallas Nightclub Murders and the Texas Multiple Murder Law |journal=International Social Science Review |language=en-US |volume=79 |issue=1/2 |pages=73–74 |issn=0278-2308 |jstor=41887175}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baker |first=T. Lindsay |date=2006 |title=Worse Than Death: The Dallas Nightclub Murders and the Texas Multiple Murder Law |journal=Legacies |language=en-US |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=62–63 |issn=1071-0426}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ellis |first=Mark |date=2005 |title=Worse Than Death: The Dallas Nightclub Murders and the Texas Multiple Murder Law |journal=Journal of the West |language=en-US |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=108–109 |issn=0022-5169}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=McDonald |first=Archie P. |date=September 2004 |title=Worse Than Death ( Book) |journal=East Texas Historical Journal |language=en-US |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=89–90 |issn=0424-1444}}</ref> *''Bad Boy from Rosebud'' (1999), about serial killer Kenneth McDuff. Published by UNT Press. *''A Sniper in the Tower'' (1997), about Charles Whitman, who shot people from the University of Texas at Austin's tower in 1966. Published by UNT Press.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://chronicle.com/free/2007/04/2007041810n.htm Chronicle of Higher Education Commentary on Virginia Tech Tragedy.] *{{Official website}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lavergne, Gary}} Category:Living people Category:1955 births Category:20th-century American novelists Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American male novelists Category:American non-fiction crime writers Category:University of Louisiana at Lafayette alumni Category:Cajun people Category:Novelists from Louisiana Category:People from Church Point, Louisiana Category:20th-century American male writers Category:21st-century American male writers Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:American male non-fiction writers