Ray Paul Authement grew up in Boudreaux Canal, a small fishing community in South Louisiana. His parents, Elias Lawrence Authement and the former Elphia Marie Duplantis, never advanced beyond a seventh grade education, but valued education and encouraged their son to excel.

Ray Authement entered Southwestern Louisiana Institute (today the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) in 1947 with a small scholarship. He majored in physics and began teaching as a lab instructor when he was a senior. After earning his master’s and doctoral degrees in mathematics from Louisiana State University, he taught at LSU and McNeese State University before returning to SLI as an associate professor of mathematics in 1957. Two years later, he was named a professor. He continued to teach until 1966, when he was promoted to academic vice president. By then, SLI had become the University of Southwestern Louisiana. In 1970, he was promoted to vice president, the position he held until President Clyde L. Rougeau took a year’s leave of absence before retiring in 1974.

Authement became president of USL in 1973. He served for 34 years, earning the distinction of being the longest-serving president of a public university in the United States. During his tenure, the university implemented academic admission standards, became a Doctoral II institution, competed in NCAA Division I athletics, increased its endowment from $500,000 to $150 million, and constructed more than 30 buildings. Throughout his career, Authement had an affinity for students who were the first in their families to attend a university. Authement retired as president in 2008.