Gary Lavergne | |
Birth Name: | Gary Mitchell Lavergne |
Birth Date: | 28 October 1955 |
Birth Place: | Church Point, Louisiana, U.S. |
Occupation: | Author |
Education: | University of Louisiana at Lafayette (BA) McNeese State University |
Genre: | Non-fiction |
Gary Mitchell Lavergne (born October 28, 1955)[1] is an American non-fiction author. Among his subjects are killers Charles J. Whitman and Kenneth Allen McDuff.
Lavergne was born in Church Point, Louisiana. 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. He was a social studies teacher, held administrative positions for both the SAT and the ACT college entrance exam companies, and in between jobs performed stand-up comedy. He worked for the College Board traveling to universities helping administrators understand the SAT. Lavergne retired as director of admissions research for the University of Texas in 2019. Among Lavergne's books is 1997's A Sniper in the Tower about the 1966 shooting rampage of Charles Whitman,[2] which according to a 2007 Associated Press article is "considered the definitive account of the massacre"[3] and to Frank Rich in a 1997 The New York Times piece is "the authoritative account of the Whitman case".[2]