Former Michigan State University President Gordon Guyer will serve as one of the grand marshals for this year's MSU Homecoming Parade on Oct. 16.

Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy will serve as one of the grand marshals for this year's MSU Homecoming Parade on Oct. 16.

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Former Michigan State University President Gordon Guyer and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy will serve as grand marshals for this year’s MSU Homecoming Parade on Oct. 16.

Guyer arrived at Michigan State in 1947 as a fisheries and wildlife major. He switched to entomology and received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees before becoming a faculty member in 1953. He was a professor and chairperson for the Department of Entomology and the director of MSU Extension from 1973-1985.

He became MSU’s 18th president on Sept. 1, 1992. He served as a consultant to several groups including the Michigan departments of Health, Conservation and Agriculture, the Agriculture and Ways and Means Committees in the Michigan Legislature and the Michigan Governor’s office.

In addition, he held high-level positions with the Michigan Department of Agriculture, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station.

Guyer received a National Science Foundation grant to participate in the International Congress of Entomology in London in 1964. He received MSU’s Distinguished Faculty Award in 1965. He led one of the first American scientific groups allowed to visit China in the mid-1970s.

Darcy, who received her master’s degree in resource development and environmental policy in 1987, was recently confirmed as the assistant secretary of the army for civil works. Nominated by President Obama, Darcy will oversee the Army Corps of Engineers.

Darcy spent 16 years in the U.S. Senate where she was a senior adviser to the Environment and Public Works and Finance committees.
As a senior adviser, she helped oversee the drafting of the $23 billion Water Resources Development Act in 2007. The act included the authorization of $7 billion in costal restoration and new levee projects for Louisiana.

Prior to her time in the Senate, she was executive director of the Michigan Great Lakes and Water Resources Planning Commission, assistant to the director of personnel for gubernatorial appointments for former Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard and a legislative and policy analyst for the U.S. House Banking Subcommittee on Economic Stabilization.

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